The Third Man (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]
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Movie Reviews of The Third Man (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]
Movie Review: Is Blu-ray always better?
Summary: 3 Stars
Is Blu-Ray always better? Maybe not. I enjoyed the DVD version more. On the Blu-ray version I was constantly distracted by the tremendous amount of film grain in the picture. The movie was hard to watch because of that. The high definition became a drawback since every fault in the film became exagerated. The DVD version provided a better viewing experience.Movie Review: Blu-ray edition: Too much grain.
Summary: 2 Stars
This is a review of Criterion's blu-ray edition of this great British film, not of the film itself. This blu-ray release is significant because it is Criterion's first blu-ray of an old B&W classic, one of hundreds in the Criterion Collection catalog. The immediate question is whether blu-ray will make the same difference with old films as it does with films made in the more recent past.
Criterion's regular DVD release of The Third Man was in 1999, and included their usual high level of restoration. In it's day, that DVD was state of the art, and it brought the film back to life. Home video has progressed quite a bit in the past decade, especially with the advent of blu-ray's. There are now hundred's of Criterion DVD's that might be re-released if blu-ray truly makes a difference with old films. So does it?
The short answer is no, or at least, not yet. I watched the current blu-ray edition and then watched the 1999 DVD through my PS3, which upscales regular DVD to pseudo hi-def. I watched them on a big screen 1080p projection system, which brings out any flaws in regular DVDs and makes most blu-rays really shine. The blu-ray edition of this film had stronger detail, of course, and had nice rich tones, with many different levels of grays and black. There was much wider contrast in the blu-ray, without the mushy low-contrast often seen in old B&W films, especially those without studio lighting. But the bad news is grain. The grain is just terrible with low detail neutral gray tones, which basically means close-ups of faces. While those high-contrast night-time exterior shots look quite good, the graininess in the close-ups is distracting and effectively kills any illusion of being hi-def. The problem is not the transfer, but the film itself; apparently the film technology of 1949 just can't reach what blu-ray is designed for. The grain issue is not near as bad in the DVD, although the DVD does not have the wide tonal range of the blu-ray. The difference in clarity between DVD and blu-ray is not dramatic, but I preferred the DVD to avoid the grainy close-ups. That might not be a problem on smaller screen TV's, but with a bigger screen, the overall visual quality of the blu-ray is disappointing. I would say that there is no need to upgrade the DVDs of all of those old B&W films, at least until someone perfects a grain filter.
Movie Review: Only Region A?
Summary: 2 Stars
I have nothing bad to say about the film, or the way they treated it on blu-ray.
What I do have to complain about is the region coding. I know previous Criterion DVD's were also Region 1, but for DVD's it was easy to get a region-free player. With blu-ray, that's not possible (yet, but still).
As I live in the Netherlands, I'm pretty much screwed. Criterion should have made these wonderful discs region-free.
Movie Review: Poor transfer
Summary: 2 Stars
I was extremely disappointed by the blu-ray edition of The Third Man. The digital transfer is exceedingly poor and the image looks very grainy. The movie is as thrilling as always but the image leaves a lot to be desired.Movie Review: Blu-ray Too Grainy
Summary: 2 Stars
I rented the Blu-ray edition. While the contrast is noticeably improved over the DVD edition, I found the graininess in the close-up shots to be too distracting.