Jarhead (HD-DVD)
Picture: B
Sound: B Extras: B Film: B
As the buzz about Brokeback Mountain recedes, Jake
Gyllenhaal might finally get more recognition for his performance as real-life
Marine Anthony Swafford in Jarhead (2005) from Swafford’s impressive
book. The sometimes absurdist film has
him joining the Corp and at the strangest possible time, during the first
George Bush’s Middle East military entanglements. I think the film holds up looking at it yet again and you can
read about my thoughts on the film itself and the extras (repeated on this
HD-DVD) from the deluxe standard DVD set in my previous review at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/3450/Jarhead+-+Collector's+Edition
Note that some of the extras are even here in 720p HD
picture quality. For the 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High
Definition image, Roger Deakins (A.S.C., B.S.C.) does purposely desaturated and
degrade the image, but not mindlessly like so many bad genre films of the last
10 years or so. This time, unlike the
limits of standard DVD, the better Video White here really does justice to his
work, with off-whites and even semi-cream colors looking much more like the
original film prints. No, the nature of
the image does not loan itself to the demonstration quality of a Cinderella
Man or Training Day, but you would still never see this kind of
reproduction on video outside of HD and it is impressive in its own right.
The standard
DVD’s standard Dolby Digital 5.1 mix was not quite as good as the theatrical
sound mix, with some even complaining that the dialogue was more distorted than
usual. The Dolby Digital Plus is an
improvement, but the dialogue limits (outside or the realism of what it sounds
like to be out on the field) is a bit more apparent here, but this mix is
better than that standard DVD and that is more than enough to make this HD-DVD
version the most definitive outside of a 16mm or 35mm film print. That is also enough to make it one of the
better early HD-DVD releases.
- Nicholas Sheffo
