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

ADDITION: BFI Blu-ray (March 2020): BFI have transferred the historical-sex-scandal-drama, aptly titled, Scandal to Blu-ray advertised as 'newly restored from original materials'. It is in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio, on a dual-layered disc with a max'ed out bitrate. Most of the film is shot with a soft-lens appearance, reflecting back to its time period. The image is thick, beautifully textures and rich with film-like heaviness. The 1080P looks great with, naturally lit, outdoor shots gaining in detail and color richness.

NOTE: We have added 43 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, BFI use a inear PCM 2,0 channel track (24-bit) in the original English language. It has a score credited to Carl Davis, with impacting music from Puccini's La Boheme and Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore to a variety of 'era' music and more by Dusty Springfield, Nat 'King' Cole, Frank Sinatra ('Witchcraft' beautifully played during the opening credits), Chubby Checker re-recorded The Twist for this film, some John Coltrane background jazz and many others. It sounds wonderful in the uncompressed transfer. BFI offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'B' Blu-ray.

The BFI Blu-ray is stacked with supplements including 2 commentaries - the first with producer Stephen Woolley and writer Michael Thomas who can tell us about production detail minutia in the evolution of the film, the historical details of the story it was based, cast/crew and much more. The second commentary has director Michael Caton-Jones who gives his own interesting take on his work involved in bringing Scandal to fruition. From 2010, BFI include The Minister, the Model & the Russian Spy: Making Scandal with 25-minutes of members of the Scandal cast and crew discussing the film. Michael Caton-Jones Remembers Scandal is new and runs 26-minutes in which the director is interviews and recalls making the film. Stephen Woolley Remembers Scandal is news and spends 5-minutes with the producer on how he got the film made and the talent he worked with. Nothing Has Been Proved is the official music video performed by Dusty Springfield from 1989, running 5-minutes. We also get the 1956 documentary, Cabaret Girl on Murray's Cabaret Club, shot shortly before its owner hired Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies as dancers. The Riveter is a half-hour short from 1986 by Michael Caton-Jones, made while he was a student at the National Film and Television School. There is a trailer, stills gallery and DVD and the first-pressing purchasers get a fully illustrated booklet with new writing by Jane Giles, Augustin Macellari and Vic Pratt and full film credits. Nice to have the director and producer so accessible for the extras!

Scandal is interesting in that it dramatically discloses the more salacious details of the, relatively contemporarily, 'Profumo Scandal' of 1963. Even being as jaded by political corruption as we are today, this is still very interesting with some effective art direction to step back 50+ years. John Hurt's performance was superb, Joanne Whalley Kilmer's large dark eyes hypnotically speak to the undertone of sensuality, seduction and debauchery that surfaces behind closed doors.  It's a film I see much more in through the Blu-ray commentaries and extras. It's a very complete package by the BFI. Plenty of value here for the curious to indulge. 

Gary Tooze