Always an extremely enjoyable film - I'm one who sees past the obviousness and few tech-baseball errors and I allow myself to fall head first into the larger-than-life story. A lot of interest in sports is patiently waiting to see the amazing, the unforgettable, the god-like play that defies the laws of gravity and physics - those events that will be talked about by armchair quarterbacks for years to come. Well, The Natural has them...  in spades.

The new image has removed the brightness boosting that was present in the original release. It is darker and skin tones look much improved (for the most part). It may have had some minor black boosting but regardless overall the image is superior with less artifacts. The theatrical cut shows less information in the frame and there is a slim black border circumventing the image limiting the horizontals resolution - where the DC is tight to the edges. Audio too has bumped from 4.0 to 5.1 and it sounds just that much more dynamic. Subtitles are still yellow but brighter and better defined.

Extras are endless on the new edition but the old Cal Ripken documentary appears absent. I haven't got through all the supplements yet but they have all been excellent and highly informative so far. The film is fairly long - perhaps the reasoning behind no commentary - that could have shared much of the same information, but these new featurettes dig very deep. This new edition is obviously the one to own, but it is interesting to note that the Blu-Ray of the Director's Cut is actually cheaper than the standard.  

The film itself, as described by director Levinson in the opening introduction, has about 20 extra minutes - mostly in the opening scenes which define our protagonist a bit darker than in the theatrical cut. Levinson tells us that this 'new' version is closer to the intended film he hoped to make but lack of time forced to create the eventual theatrical. It also loses some of the theatrical scenes making it only about 6 minutes longer overall. Hence, it is a different film to some degree and Levinson states that some may enjoy more - other not so. For me the jury is still out but I've seen the theatrical so many times I'm kind of stuck on that but it made watching the new version that much more enjoyable. 

Gary W. Tooze