Arrow Academy's Woody Allen: Seven Films - 1986-1991 Blu-rays

Review by Gary Tooze

Production:

Disc:

Video (both):

Audio:

• Theatrical Trailer (1:28)

• Isolated Score

• Liner notes by Julie Kirgo

• Theatrical Trailer (2:26)

Bitrate:

 

Description: Writer-director Woody Allen’s tenderly nostalgic, joyously funny Radio Days (1987) is a vignette-packed memory piece about growing up in Brooklyn in the 1940s, obsessed with the music, entertainment, and news of the wide world brought into every household via the magic of radio. A young Allen surrogate (played by a teeny red-headed Seth Green) lives with his parents (the wonderful Julie Kavner and Michael Tucker) and extended family in the wind-swept Rockaway neighborhood, their daily routines spiced by the glamour, excitement, thrills, and even occasional doses of grim reality coming to them over the airwaves. Also starring Mia Farrow, Dianne Wiest, and Josh Mostel.

***

Woody Allen grew up during the golden age of American radio, and this tapestry of heartwarming and hilarious vignettes is one of his most richly nostalgic films, its reconstruction of the late 1930s and early 1940s earning an Oscar nomination for its art direction.

Gripped by wild radio stories about bloody wars and beautiful celebrities, ten-year-old Joe Needleman (Seth Green) longs for adventure and dreams of spotting his first enemy spy, German submarine, or even his sexy substitute teacher as he s always imagined her. Meanwhile, his various family members have their own radio favourites, fantasies fuelled by hard-working actors with lives, careers and concerns of their own, especially about whether the medium has a long-term future.

In his rave review, Roger Ebert described Radio Days as so ambitious and so audacious that it almost defies description. It s a kaleidoscope of dozens of characters, settings and scenes, and it s inexhaustible, spinning out one delight after another. It s also crammed with countless actors familiar from earlier Woody Allen films, piling nostalgia upon nostalgia in one of the loveliest films he ever made.

 

 

The Film:

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

Twilight Time bring Woody Allen's Radio Days to Blu-ray. It looks perfect - the fantastic art direction shows rich colors, depth and an overall crisp image.  Standard for them - this is dual-layered with a max'ed out bitrate. There are pleasing textures in the darker scenes. The visuals are bright and clean looking like a brand-new film. The Blu-ray is impressive with no major flaws - it gave me a solid 1080P presentation.

NOTE: The issues regarding chapter 7 (Thanks David!) - as in seen in very early pressings - has been totally repaired.

Predictably the same 1080P image quality - barely a pixel out of place. The max'ed out bitrate Arrow looks equally as impressive. I see, virtually, no differences at all.

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

1) Twilight Time - Region FREE - Blu-ray TOP 2) Arrow - Region 'B' - Blu-ray BOTTOM

1) Twilight Time - Region FREE - Blu-ray TOP 2) Arrow - Region 'B' - Blu-ray BOTTOM

1) Twilight Time - Region FREE - Blu-ray TOP 2) Arrow - Region 'B' - Blu-ray BOTTOM

1) Twilight Time - Region FREE - Blu-ray TOP 2) Arrow - Region 'B' - Blu-ray BOTTOM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Twilight Time us a DTS-HD Master mono track at 1096 kbps. Woody includes his usual pastiche of period music from Cole Porter, Xavier Cugat, Harry Warren, Sammy Fain, Johnny Green, Sammy Kaye etc. and performed by the likes of Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Guy Lombardo, Frank Sinatra, Mia Farrow and Diane Keaton. It is flat but buoyant and sounds wonderful via the lossless. There are optional English subtitles (sample above) and my Oppo has identified it as being a region FREE.

Arrow use a linear PCM - more robust than the DTS-HD Master of the twilight Time, but I don't feel capable of distinguishing between the two (I tried). The Arrows doesn't have the isolated score option, but does include optional English (SDH) subtitles and their Blu-ray disc is region 'B'-locked.   

Extras :

Only a theatrical trailer, and, of course, as on most Twilight Time releases - you can access the isolated film score track. There are some liner notes by Julie Kirgo.

Only a trailer - although I presume the Seven Films package will, again, include a booklet.

Twilight Time - Region FREE - Blu-ray

 

 

Arrow - Region 'B' - Blu-ray

 

 

BOTTOM LINE:
Another way above-average film by Woody. Radio Days blends the director's amusing style of reminiscences, period recreation and a touch of sentimentality to create another masterpiece.  Brilliant and totally re-watchable. The, essentially, bare-bones Blu-ray is a must-own and another from this company that may eventually go out-of-print fetching exorbitant prices. We can strongly endorse!

 

Radio Days has beautiful art direction - great pastels - and the film is filled with nostalgic joys. The Arrow is yet another bona-fide reason to indulge in the Seven Films package.   

Gary Tooze

July 31st, 2014

January 26th, 2017

Arrow Academy's Woody Allen: Seven Films - 1986-1991 Blu-rays