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Winter's Bone [Blu-ray]
(Debra Granik, 2010)
Review by Gary Tooze
Production: Theatrical: Roadside Attractions Video: LionsGate
Disc: Region: 'A'-locked (as verified by the Momitsu region FREE Blu-ray player) Runtime: 1:40:12.923 Disc Size: 24,521,152,310 bytes Feature Size: 15,979,968,576 bytes Video Bitrate: 17.99 Mbps Chapters: 12 Case: Standard Blu-ray case Release date: October 26th, 2010
Video: Aspect ratio: 1.78:1 Resolution: 1080p / 23.976 fps Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio English 1697 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1697 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 16-bit) Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps / DN -4dB
Subtitles: English (SDH), English, Spanish, none
Extras:
• Audio commentary by director Debra Granik + DoP Michael
McDonough
• 4 Deleted scenes
Bitrate:
Description: 17 year-old Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) embarks on a mission to find her father after he uses their family house as a way of securing his bail and disappears without a trace. Faced with the possibility of losing her home and being turned out into the Ozark woods, Ree challenges her outlaw kin s code of silence and risks her life to save her family. She hacks through the lies, evasions and threats offered by her relatives and begins to piece together the truth. Winner of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize and Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, WINTER'S BONE is directed by Debra Granik (DOWN TO THE BONE) and adapted for the screen by Granik and Anne Rosellini. Based on the best-selling novel by Daniel Woodrel.
The Film: “Winter’s Bone,” warmly embraced at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, belongs, at least at first glance, to one of that festival’s familiar genres: the regional-realist morality tale. These days, American independent cinema abounds in earnest stories of hard-bitten people living in impoverished corners of the country, their moral and emotional struggles accompanied by acoustic guitars and evocative landscape shots and generally uninflected by humor.
The faces in “Winter’s Bone” are certainly mirthless — not only
Ree’s, but also those of the relatives she turns to for advice and
protection when her predicament becomes desperate. The topography of
chilly hollows and ragged forests is filmed in a way that emphasizes its
bleakness. There are banjos and fiddles, as well as guitars, and some
beautiful old mountain ballads are performed on camera. Some of the cast
members are nonprofessional actors, and nearly all are wary, watchful
and taciturn, speaking their few words in faultless regional accents.
Winter's Bone was shot with the, digital, Red One Camera. It looks like it may have been transferred direct from digital to Blu-ray (theatrically it was bumped to 35mm). The image quality can show some impressive moments of clarity. The film is reasonably dark and hence doesn't have instances of the contrast flaring that can happen with digital sources. It's a modest single-layered transfer and probably only represents about double the quality of DVD. It's okay though - no gloss and some depth. Despite the meager rendering this the Blu-ray seems un-manipulated and consistent and gave me a solid presentation for this excellent film.
CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION
Audio :It's a lossless DTS-HD Master 5.1 at 1697 kbps for this mostly dialogue-driven film. There isn't an abundance of effect noises or separations but the audio transfer seems to support the film competently. There is some music (Dickon Hunchliffe) and it sounds authentic (read 'live'). There are optional subtitles and m y Momitsu has identified it as being a region 'A'-locked.
Extras :There is a good audio commentary by director Debra Granik + DoP Michael McDonough who both praise the local participants who contributed in the filmmaking process and expanded on details of the production, characters and plot. McDonough has an accent (Aussie?) but he wasn't hard to understand. It is worth listening to. There is a brief alternate opening, 4 deleted scenes and a lengthy (45-minute) “Making-of” featurette which seems filled with behind-the-scenes footage. There are also some text music credits, a theatrical trailer and Dickon Hunchliffe's music video.
BOTTOM LINE:
Gary Tooze October 23rd, 2010
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About the Reviewer: Hello, fellow Beavers! I have been interested in film since I viewed a Chaplin festival on PBS when I was around 9 years old. I credit DVD with expanding my horizons to fill an almost ravenous desire to seek out new film experiences. I currently own approximately 9500 DVDs and have reviewed over 3500 myself. I appreciate my discussion Listserv for furthering my film education and inspiring me to continue running DVDBeaver. Plus a healthy thanks to those who donate and use our Amazon links.
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