4k-UHD/Movie Review: It's a Wonderful Life

 

It's a Wonderful Life is, of course, the beloved holiday movie from 1947 directed by Frank Capra and starring Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed, and Lionel Barrymore. It gets played on television around Christmas every year, but this is a totally restored 4k upgrade of the film. The restoration was necessitated due to the fact that the original 35 mm film negatives were deteriorating and were not going to survive much longer. So, in the process of converting the film to digital, it was upgraded to 4k.

I am sure most people who are considering purchasing this already know the story and have probably seen the movie many times over the years. It tells the story of the life of George Bailey (played by Stewart) as he grows up and resents his life over time, to the point where he is considering committing suicide until his guardian angel intervenes and shows him what would happen to the people in his life had he never been born. The movie is definitely a classic, even with some of the cheesiness and hokeyness that movies of that age are known for. That said, the acting and writing were very high-quality, and Stewart did a great job in navigating the character of George to becoming more of a jackass as his life went on. While the story does require you to believe that Stewart (who was in his late 30s when the movie was made) was just out of high school at the beginning of the movie and may have worked with a younger actor playing that part, Stewart made it work.

The 4k set is a two-disc set containing a UHD disc and a regular Blu-Ray disc. The UHD disc has the restored 4k black and white version of the film, and the regular Blu-Ray disc includes the colorized version in 1080p. Of course, some would see watching it in color as akin to blasphemy, but it is there for those who want it. The 4k restoration is wonderful, and the movie looks and sounds the best it has on physical media in UHD. There are about 45 min of extras, including a featurette on the restoration of the movie, secrets from the vault segment that gives insights into how the movie was made, and then a short 8-minute home-movie reel of the wrap party. Note that prior physical media releases of the film included a making-of featurette and the trailer, which are not included in this release. Ultimately, this is a reference-quality UHD release. If you do not yet own the movie on physical media, it is worth picking up. If you do own a prior release and really love the movie, it is worth double-dipping to get the 4k set as it is a significant upgrade to the A/V quality of the movie. 

Blu Ray/Movie Review: Gone With the Wind 70th Anniversary Edition

 

Gone With the Wind is a movie that causes a lot of division, especially with the rise of the infantile division we have had in the country for years. The truth is, it can both be a classic movie and have a problematic theme. But, it also has to be looked at through the lens of history. It is a movie that could be made the way it was in 1939 with the understanding that it would probably never be made the same way today. And that is not to say it shouldn't be made the same way today. It was set during the Civil War and told from the perspective of people in the south. Obviously, most people today would not agree with the perspective of the rich, slave-owning, southerners of that time, but it does not mean that how they were portrayed in the movie is not how they were. Also, the movie was a dramatic period piece, not a documentary. So, it was never going to show the evils of slavery in all their gory details. And, I do think to say that the movie glorified slavery does a couple of things. First, it ignores the fact that there were in fact slaves that had roles such as "Mammy", and it also diminishes Hattie McDonald's achievement in playing that role. The fact that she was a black woman living under the Jim Crow laws and facing the racism that she did and still won an academy award is frankly amazing. And. let's face it, even states that did not have Jim Crow laws were not (and are still not) devoid of racists by any means, so the fact that a black woman in the late 1930s/early 1940s would even be nominated for an academy award, much less win it, was quite something. All that said, no, the movie is never going to be banned, and anyone who thinks so is kidding themselves, if you want to find it, you will always be able to do so, and if you are such a weenie that a disclaimer at the beginning of a streaming version really triggers you, it has been released on DVD and Blu-Ray multiple times. The people who think the movie is somehow going to be banned, the people triggered by a disclaimer, and the people that think critical race theory is being taught anywhere but in some law schools is probably a circle on a Venn Diagram.

As for the movie itself, as I said above, it is a drama set in the south during (and after) the Civil War. It stars Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara, who is basically a rich brat, who at the beginning of the movie is trying to steal her cousin's boyfriend. Clarke Gable plays Rhett Butler, who was an attendee at a party thrown at the O'Hara estate who did not buy into the fact that the war was going to be a quick and easy thing, and also, ultimately ended up gaining Scarlett's affection, by basically standing up to her and not taking any of her crap, and marrying her. The movie is partly a romance drama, but mostly about the ravages of war, telling how Scarlett had to grow up and transform from the bratty Southern Belle who was handed everything on a silver platter, to having to deal with the realities of war. The first part of the movie (up to the intermission) deals with the war and ends with Atlanta burning. The second part deals with the aftermath of the war, and the characters trying to put their lives back together.

For those who get the movie on Blu-Ray, it looks and sounds great in the HD format. The HD transfer was very well done, and while it still has the Film-noir era look to it, the video transfer does look great. What kind of extras you get depends on the version of the movie you pick up. There is a multi-disc collectors edition that has about 19 hours' worth of bonus content. The version I have is the single-disc 70th Anniversary edition, and the only extra on it is a commentary track by Historian Rudy Behlmer.

Overall, the movie is a timeless classic. It has many great quotable lines, and it tells a good story, although definitely from the perspective of the losing side in the Civil War. Chances are if the movie was made today, more of the evils of slavery would be shown to give it more context and show exactly why the Civil War was being fought. And yes, the civil war was about slavery, pure and simple. If you read the articles of secession from any of the states that formed the Confederacy, that is plain as day, and to say otherwise is denying all reality. I do not think the movie glorified slavery as much as it glorified the south overall. But, again, taking the movie for what it is and considering the time it was made, it can both be a classic movie and a topic of debate at the same time. And, I think a healthy debate about what was good and what may have been problematic about the movies would not necessarily be a bad thing.