Bigger Than Life (Criterion Collection) (Blu-ray Review)

Video

Presented in its ori9ginal aspect ratio of 2.55:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Nicholas Ray's Bigger Than Life arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.

The following text appears in the booklet provided with the Blu-ray disc:

"For this new high-definition digital transfer, the original 35mm camera negative was scanned at 4K resolution on an Oxberry 6400 Liquid Gate scanner and color graded and restored at 2K resolution. Thousands of insta...

Audio

There is only one audio track on this Blu-ray disc: English LPCM 1.0. For the record, Criterion have provided optional English subtitles for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

I don't have any major reservations with the English LPCM 1.0 track. The dialog is clear, clean and easy to follow. I did not detect any balance issues with David Raksin's music score either. I did notice, however, a number of improvements in terms of stability when I compared...

Supplements

Profile of Nicholas Ray - a half-hour 1977 TV interview with Nicholas Ray, hosted by critic Cliff Jahr, provides a revealing look at the director's thematic interests, his love of actors, and his unique perspective on cinema. I strongly encourage you to find the time to see the interview as there are some fascinating comments by Ray addressing his work with James Dean on Rebel Without a Cause, as well as some surprising revelations about his relationship with Warner Brothers...

Final Words

Arguably director Nicholas Ray's best film, Bigger Than Life arrives on Blu-ray with a striking transfer that should meet the quality expectations of even the most demanding amongst film aficionados. The supplemental features included on the disc are also very strong. I particularly enjoyed Cliff Jahr's conversation with director Ray and Jonathan Lethem's intelligent analysis. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. ......

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Bigger Than Life (Criterion Collection) (Blu-ray Review)