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Salvador - Special Edition [Blu-ray]
(Oliver Stone, 1986)
Review by Gary Tooze / Colin Zavitz
Production: Theatrical: Hemdale Film Video: Koch Media / Masters of Cinema Spine # 195
Disc: Region: 'B' (both) (as verified by the Momitsu region FREE Blu-ray player)Runtime: 2:02:35.916 / 2:02:44.440 Disc Size: 24,527,472,886 bytes / 46,355,498,096 bytes Feature Size: 19,258,318,848 bytes / 40,369,800,576 bytes Video Bitrate: 16.01 Mbps / 34.89 Mbps Chapters: 20 / 8 Case: Standard Blu-ray case / Transparent Blu-ray Case Release date: January 29th, 2010 / September 17th, 2018
Video: Aspect ratio: 1.85:1 Resolution: 1080p / 23.976 fps Video codec: VC-1 / MPEG-4 AVC Video
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio English 2140 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 2140 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 16-bit) DTS-HD Master Audio German 954 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 954 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 16-bit) Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps / DN -4dB Commentary: Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps / DN -4dB
LPCM Audio English 2304 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2304 kbps /
24-bit Dolby Digital Audio English 320 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 320 kbps Commentary by Oliver Stone: Dolby Digital Audio English 320 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 320 kbps
Subtitles: German, none / English (SDH), none
Extras: • Commentary by Oliver Stone • Into the Valley of Death (1:02:53 in 576i) • Deleted Scenes (27:46 in 576i)• German (1:59 in 576i) and English (1:54 in 576i) trailers
•
Feature length audio commentary
with director Oliver Stone
Bitrate:
Description: Salvador recounts the conflict between the peasant revolution and the US-backed death squads in El Salvador in the early 1980s as seen through the eyes of American journalist Richard Boyle. Telling unpalatable truths condensed into intense fiction, Oliver Stone's film is typically confrontational, the real Boyle writing the source material for Stone's savage screenplay. The journalist is brought to life by James Woods in a brilliant hyper-kinetic performance: his powerful commitment to the truth balances his self-destructive, drink, drugs and danger-fuelled personality. Providing excellent support is James Belushi as partner in debauchery Dr Rock, while Stone delivers the most spectacular $4 million movie imaginable by conning the El Salvadorian military into lending tanks, planes and helicopters for a film which brands many of their leaders as war criminals. Genuinely radical cinema, Salvador blisters with moral fury, setting it beside The Killing Fields (1984) as a modern classic.
The Film: James Woods gives his 'fullest, most humane, most emotional performance' (New York Magazine) to date in this 'gritty, harrowing and bold thriller' (Gannett Newspapers). It's 1980. Young men, women and children are being brutally killed in a bloody civil war in El Salvador. It's a horrific setting...but a perfect one for Richard Boyle, a sleazy war photojournalist whose career needs a jumpstart. Armed with his camera, Boyle joins the front lines in an attempt to capture atrocious-but-valuable images of pain and horror. But with each picture he takes, he catches a tragic side of humanity that ignites his long-buried compassion. And he unexpectedly discovers something that will change him forever: his soul. Excerpt from TV Guide located HEREBut Mr. Stone has more on his mind than action. Taking his cinematic as well as political lead from the work of Constantin Costa-Gavras, he offers an interpretation of history, laying blame on conservative forces in the United States for abetting the horrors in El Salvador. It's an arguable position, but viewers who have learned from the advertisements that the movie is ''based on a true story'' will be hard put to tell whether the events on screen are actually known to have occurred in quite the way they are pictured or to have occurred at all, or whether they are the products of surmise, embellished and arranged for the sake of heightening the drama and hammering in the political point. Excerpt from NY Times located HEREImage : NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc. Salvador doesn't shine predominantly brightly on Blu-ray from Koch Lorber out of Germany but does export some of the attributes of the format. The single-layered 1.85:1 transfer with a modest bitrate shows depth and superior-to-SD detail. The film has a very rough-and-ready verité style with some grassroots scenes of realism, poverty and crowds. Daylight scenes are reasonably impressive but there is some noise still present in the darker sequences. This Blu-ray isn't reaching the heights of 1080P with its mediocre contrast - but a lot of this less-stellar image is the film production intent. There is no gloss nor manipulation that I can determine. It would probably benefit from dual-layering for this two-hour film but this Koch Blu-ray gave me a solid presentation.
The image here is much better than the previous Blu-ray. The 1080p 1.85:1 image is housed on a dual-layered Blu-ray with a maxed out bitrate. The Masters of Cinema Blu-ray image is much better in motion due to the significant uptick in the bitrate. Colors are also much better here, with warmer, and more lifelike skin tones. Detail is more prominent with slightly more grain. Contrast levels are stronger too, with a nice range of blacks. Overall this is a really good transfer, and a great one in contrast to the Koch Media Blu-ray.
CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION
Audio :The disc provides a DTS-HD Master 5.1 surround track at 2140 kbps in English and a less robust German stereo DUB - also lossless. There are effects that challenge the track - which exports some power in the bass while original music by Georges Delerue comes through fairly clean and supportive. Some of the more-important Spanish language dialogue is translated to English - and there are English titles for certain locations or characters but German subtitles are optional. My Oppo has identified it as being a region 'B'-locked.
Masters of Cinema give us a few audio choices here, there is the 24-bit 5.1 DTS-HD Master track and also an original 24-bit linear PCM 2.0 mono track. These both sound excellent, but unless you have a surround sound system, the mono track is quite satisfying. The gunfire and crowd noises definitely do sound good in the 5.1 mix though, with good separation. The score by Georges Delerue (The High Commissioner, Silkwood, Mister Johnson, Jules et Jim, The Woman Next Door, The Last Metro, Day For Night) sounds rich and impacting. MoC add optional English (SDH) subtitles and there are subtitles for the Spanish language sequences *(see above.) It is also a Region 'B'-locked Blu-ray.
Extras : The Oliver Stone commentary is here as heard on MGM's Special Edition DVD from a decade prior. Bonus is that there is an excellent Charles Kiselyak directed documentary entitled Into the Valley of Death running over an hour in PAL. It includes Oliver Stone, Belushi, Woods and the real Richard Boyle giving candid take on Salvador and the political situation behind the events. It is very worthwhile. There are also 1/2 hour's worth of deleted scenes - also in PAL and two trailers (English and German).
The Masters of Cinema Blu-ray has a nice set of extras. Some of the extras previously available on the Koch Blu-ray are carried over here (The Stone commentary, deleted scenes, and "Into the Valley of Death", trailer), with some new ones added in. There is a new 42-minute BFI interview with director Oliver Stone. There is also the option of watching the film wita rarely heard, 1-hour and 4 minute audio interview with Oliver Stone from 1986. Also new here is a collector’s booklet featuring a new essay by critic and journalist Barry Forshaw with extracts from the films original pressbook and archival imagery.
Koch Media - Region 'B' - Blu-ray
Masters of Cinema - Region 'B' - Blu-ray
BOTTOM LINE:
Fans of Oliver Stone's "Salvador" will be pleased with The Masters of Cinema Region-B Blu-ray from Eureka! This is a significant upgrade over the previously released Koch Media HD release. The new and old extras are also quite nice to have. Recommended. Gary Tooze December 28th, 2011 September 8th, 2018
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