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Eyewitness [Blu-ray]
(Peter Yates, 1981)
Review by Gary Tooze
Production: Theatrical: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation Video: Signal One Entertainment
Disc: Region: 'B' (as verified by the Oppo Blu-ray player) Runtime: 1:39:33.926 Disc Size: 44,001,158,612 bytes Feature Size: 30,137,667,840 bytes Video Bitrate: 34.78 Mbps Chapters: 10 Case: Standard Blu-ray case Release date: August 29th, 2016
Video: Aspect ratio: 1.85:1 Resolution: 1080P / 23.976 fpsVideo codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
Audio: LPCM Audio English 2304 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2304 kbps / 24-bit Commentaries:
Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps
Subtitles: English (HoH), None
Extras:
• Feature-length audio commentary with director/producer Peter
Yates (2005) Bitrate:
Description: Manhattan janitor Daryll Deever is fixated on hard-charging TV commentator, Tony Sokolow; he tapes her commentary daily to watch after work. When a wealthy Vietnamese man, with many shady connections, is murdered in the office building where Daryll works, Tony shows up to cover the story and Daryll introduce himself. She thinks he may know something, so she pursues him; he pretends he might to keep her interested. This romantic cat and mouse game goes on under the watchful eyes of the killers, who think that Daryll and Tony do know something. The killers start their own game of cat and mouse.
The Film: Fresh off the success of Breaking Away (1979), writer Steve Tesich and director Peter Yates re-team on a thriller starring a young William Hurt as a janitor infatuated with television reporter Sigourney Weaver. When she arrives at his building to interview the tenants about a murder that's occurred on the premises, the janitor, having discovered the body, implies that he knows more than he's saying in order to keep the newswoman interested. Although he reveals nothing more, she does become interested in him, and when her nefarious aristocratic boyfriend (Christopher Plummer) learns from the unwitting woman that there's someone with knowledge of the murder, he's more concerned about what Hurt might know than about her relationship with him. Meanwhile, his paranoid, loose cannon of a friend James Woods has managed to get himself incriminated, although he had no involvement in the case. Hurt and Weaver continue to investigate the murder together, and as they become more closely entwined, both of their lives are put in jeopardy. Excerpt from MRQE located HEREIt's easy to say that this is much less than the sum of its parts - part fairytale love story, in which a poor boy loves and wins rich TV reporter, part soufflé of New York paranoia, which involves a murder (with a Vietnamese background) in the building where the poor boy works as a janitor. However, it is rare to find an American film these days that manipulates its plot to accommodate the relationships (and there are lots of them - friends, families, dogs), and whose characters are at least interesting. Steve Tesich's script sometimes smacks of screenwriting classes, but Yates (who worked with Tesich on Breaking Away) easily accommodates these lapses with his unfussy, medium-fast direction. Indeed, he guides his cast around the furniture better than most. The result is an enjoyable entertainment whose box-office failure was thoroughly undeserved. Excerpt from TimeOut located HERE
Image : NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc. Eyewitness gets another competent transfer to Blu-ray from Signal One in the UK. It is dual-layered with a max'ed bitrate for the 1.5 hour feature, and looks about as good as it can. Early/mid-80s 35mm stock has its limitations on how tight it can appear but this is solid - richer colors than SD (reds), grain textures and impressive contrast in the original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Over all the visuals are consistent and pleasing. No complaints at all.
CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION
Audio :Audio comes in a robust linear PCM 2.0 channel track at 2304 kbps (24-bit). Like the video this seems the zenith transfer - flawless and crisp. The film has fairly modest sound effect requirements but the score by Stanley Silverman adds some intensifying drama and sounds rich in the uncompressed. There are optional English (SDH) subtitles offered and my Oppo has identified it as being a region 'B'.
Extras : Signal One stack the extras starting with the 2005 feature-length audio commentary with director/producer Peter Yates as found on the Anchor Bay US DVD. It adds some interesting information about the production. We also get some extensive audio from the director with a 1982 interview with Derek Malcolm running for over 1.5 hours with the film and a 1 1/4 hour conversation with Yates and Quentin Faulk from 1996: filmed discussion at the National Film Theatre. There are 20-minutes of video "Viewing Notes" - a new interview with award-winning composer Stanley Silverman about Eyewitness and other highlights in his career. Signal One include The Janitor: which was the title of the original UK rental VHS presentation (1080P but 5.9 Mbps bitrate/ 5,093,657,664 bytes - 1:43:03) - captures compared above - and also an original theatrical trailer and TV spot.
BOTTOM LINE: Gary Tooze August 27th, 2016
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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 5000 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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