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The Man in the Glass Booth [Blu-ray]
(Arthur Hiller, 1975)
Review by Gary Tooze
Production: Theatrical: Cinévision Ltée Video: Kino Lorber
Disc: Region: 'A' (as verified by the Oppo Blu-ray player) Runtime: 1:56:56.509 Disc Size: 41,103,033,753 bytes Feature Size: 29,604,390,912 bytes Video Bitrate: 30.46 Mbps Chapters: 9 Case: Standard Blu-ray case Release date: June 6th, 2017
Video: Aspect ratio: 1.85:1 Resolution: 1080p / 23.976 fps Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
Audio: LPCM Audio English 1536 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1536 kbps / 16-bit
Subtitles: None
Extras:
• Interview with director Arthur Hiller (22:21)
Bitrate:
Description: A manic Jewish millionaire (Maximilian Schell), already teetering on the edge of sanity, becomes purely diabolical when he is abducted from his Manhattan penthouse by Israeli agents and put on trial for war crimes committed while serving as colonel in a Nazi concentration camp. Testifying within a sound-proof, bullet-proof glass case, he unleashes a torrent of vitriol upon his accusers, and exposes a secret that is as tragic as it is terrifying. Upon its release, the Los Angeles Times called the film, daring, outrageous, utterly provocative, endlessly ambiguous and strikingly effective. In this new 2K restoration from the original 35mm negative, the film proves itself to be just as powerful today as it was more than forty years ago.
The Film:
Movie trivia fanatics will recognize the 1975 feature "The
Man in the Glass Booth" as the only production
within the American Film Theatre canon to receive an
Academy Award nomination: Maximilian Schell as Best
Actor. But there is hardly anything trivial about the
film or the stunning performance at its center. Dwelling
on complicated themes of guilt, justice and retribution,
the film is a shattering experience and its long-overdue
DVD debut will help bring it to new audiences who must
come to appreciate what it has to offer. Excerpt from IMDb located HERE
Actor/writer Robert Shaw's powerhouse stage play The Man in the Glass Booth was transferred to the screen as part of the American Film Theatre series. Maximilian Schell plays Arthur Goldman, a Jewish businessmen living in Manhattan in 1965. A group of Israeli underground agents barge into Goldman's office and kidnap him. He is brought to Israel, placed in a bulletproof glass booth, and put on trial. His accusers charge that Goldman is not a Jew, but in fact a notorious Nazi war criminal, guilty of unspeakable crimes against humanity. Robert Shaw's name does not appear in the credits of The Man in the Glass Booth; he was so displeased with Edward Anhalt's screen adaptation that he had his name removed from the project. Excerpt from B+N located HERE
Image : NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc. The dual-layered Kino Lorber Blu-ray of The Man in the Glass Booth has an issue in 1080P. Around the middle of the film there are some noticeable compression artifacts (see last capture.) There are only apparent enough to identify - not ruin the presentation. There is also some very minor, frame-specific, damage. The visuals are not dynamic but that may be more to do with the film. There is some decent detail and depth exported. This Blu-ray gave me a watchable, if imperfect, viewing in regards to the picture quality.
CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION
Damage
Compression artifacts
Audio :Audio, which is almost exclusively dialogue, is transferred in a linear PCM 2.0 channel track (16-bit). There is no credited score but there is some music with Lawrence Pressman and Maximilian Schell singing Es war ein Edelweiss and you can hear Haydn's Deitschland Uber Alles. It is all clear if unremarkable in the uncompressed. There are no subtitles offered and my Oppo has identified it as being a region 'A'-locked.
Extras : Kino include a, revealing, 22-minute interview with director Arthur Hiller and a second running 26-minutes with Edie Landau - both from 2002 - discussing the production. There is also 6.5 minutes of Ely Landau: In Front of the Camera, a promotional film for the American Film Theatre plus a gallery of 12 trailers for the American Film Theatre.
BOTTOM LINE: Gary Tooze June 22nd, 2017
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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.
Although I never wanted to become one of those guys who
focused 'too much' on image and sound quality - I
find HD is swiftly pushing me in that direction. 60-Inch Class (59.58” Diagonal) 1080p Pioneer KURO Plasma Flat Panel HDTV PDP6020-FD
Oppo Digital BDP-83 Universal Region FREE Blu-ray/SACD
Player APC AV 1.5 kVA H Type Power Conditioner 120V Gary W. Tooze ALL OUR NEW FORMAT DVD REVIEWS
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