The long-awaited Bluray of Michael Mann‘s Heat (Warner Home Video, 11.10) lacks that Bluray schwing. Here I am sounding like a plebian again, but dammit, you buy a Bluray version of a film you already own on DVD because you want enhancement — something with finer detail, more color gradation, sharper focus — a more robust pop-through quality. That’s what you pay for, right?
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Diane Venora, Al Pacino in Michael Mann’s Heat.
The Heat Bluray offers a slight sense of enhancement, okay, but there’s nothing all that “extra” about it. The instant I popped it in last night I said to myself, “Oh…this again.” That’s because it looks almost exactly the same on my 42-inch plasma as the Heat Special Edition DVD looked on my 36″ Sony analog back in West Hollywood.
If I didn’t understand and respect what Mann has approved here — he wants a theatrical look and/or doesn’t believe in tweaking what a film looked like to begin with — and if I was in a pissy-type mood, I’d call this Bluray a bit of a burn.
As DVD Beaver’s Gary Tooze puts in his just-up review, “The Heat Blu-ray presentation “is significantly ahead of the DVD counterparts but doesn’t exhibit the demonstrative depth and detail that many have come to expect from this new format.”
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The Heat Bluray is a very handsome and honest presentation of how the movie looked on the big screen under the finest of circumstances. There’s obviously nothing “wrong” with that — shot on film, looks like film, etc. I guess I’m just a Blanche Dubois type where Blurays are concerned — “I don’t want realism, I want magic!”
You know what does look significantly enhanced and more visually exciting than its previous DVD version? The Planes, Trains & Automobiles “Those Aren’t Pillows!” special edition DVD that came out on 10.20. I know the previous DVD very well and this, played on my 42-inch plasma, looks very nice. And it’s not even a Bluray.
So in a Pepsi-challenge battle with the Heat Bluray, PTA wins. I’m sorry, but it’s more pleasing to the eye.
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