NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

NOTE: We have added 24 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Scorpion Releasing use a DTS-HD Master dual-mono track (24-bit) in the original English language. There are crowd and sporadic violence effects with the score credited to Mike Leander (who worked with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, everyone from the era) with Handel's "The Messiah" played at one crucial point. Of course Paul Jones was the lead singer of the 1960s band Manfred Mann but rather than sing - his songs are poetic spoken soliloquies. This quality, like the video, doesn't vary much from the BFI edition. Scorpion Releasing offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-ray.

There is an excellent commentary by Daniel Kremer recorded in November 2021. He talks about the director's 'documentary style' cinema, how "Privilege" was ideologically ahead of its time, Watkins speaking against the 'mono-form', 'corporatized' Pop, the famous John Lennon quote about Jesus and much more. He's a big Watkins fan and reveals a lot about the director, this and film others of his other works. I found it very educational. There is also a teaser and trailer for the film.

The BFI Blu-ray appears to be out-of-print but I'd lean to this Scorpion Releasing edition anyway with the valuable Kremer commentary. It is 63% OFF at the writing of this comparison - and we absolutely recommend!   

***

Update: BFI BD: May 2010 Well, we can easily declare the new Blu-ray edition of "Privilege" from the BFI to be the overall best edition available although instances of edge-enhancement become more noticeable (see last capture) in the higher resolution. Fortunately, it's not blanked across the entire transfer and is less enough in intensity, for long stretches, as not to be fatally impinging upon the presentation.

The audio makes a switch from Dolby Digital 2.0 to LPCM 2.0, using the platform's superior audio abilities to further bump up to the film's amazing soundtrack. The extras and the menus are the same from the SD, but there is something going on with the image that bears mentioning. As you can see from the captures below, all three editions have slightly different framing. Although all three editions use roughly a 1.85:1 ratio, there can be some significant difference between the three. Generally the most information comes with the Blu-ray, but the scene in the fifth capture drops from 1.85:1 to 1.80:1 on the Blu-ray. Yet this scene remains intact in its original aspect ratio for the other two releases. I'm not sure why this is the case, but I suspect that it has something to do with the delay that kept this from being released last January. We were told then that there were problems with some of the film elements that needed more work, but the booklet states that the transfer comes from the original print. I'll update if I hear anything more on the issue. Despite this and the infrequent, but egregious, edge-enhancement this is still significantly ahead of both DVD counterparts.

 - Brian Montgomery and Gary Tooze

Addition: BFI Standard Definition '10: Let me begin by echoing Gary's comment that you should see this film! While, unlike Gary, I haven't seen enough of Watkins's films to comment on its place in his oeuvre, I can tell you that watching this film made for a very powerful experience. Now, I should note that this flipside release differs from the other two that came out on the same day in that 1) it's region 2 locked, and 2) the Blu-ray edition of the film has been delayed, but should be released later this year. Those mulling over which edition to purchase should keep in mind that if their track record is any indication, then the Blu-ray edition should look and sound absolutely gorgeous. However, the same can be said of this gem. Gone are the interlacing difficulties of the New Yorker/Project X release (see the ring in capture 2 and the upper left part of the hair in 7 for example). Other than that, the two standard definition prints seem to look remarkably alike. While I can't comment on the quality of the extras found in the previous release, the ones here are quite good. The short films by Watkins are both excellent and the lush illustrated booklet (clocking in at 28 pages this time) is a veritable treasure trove for those that wanted to learn more about the release. Given the BFI's progressive transfer, I've got to give them the edge here, and cannot wait for this to come out in high definition! Bravo BFI, another wonderful job done!

 - Brian Montgomery

Gary W. Tooze