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Review added January 13, 2005.
Tombstone
:: DVD Review |
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Studio:
Roadshow Entertainment |
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>> Review
Equipment |
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Video:
2.35:1 (Enhanced for 16:9) |
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Length:
124
Minutes |
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Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 (448kbps) Eng |
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Subtitles: Eng |
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Dolby Digital 2.0 (224kbps) Eng |
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Disc Format:
RSDL DVD-9 |
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Video Format:
PAL |
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Disc Capacity Utilised:
X.XXGB |
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Layer Change:
71:44 |
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Region Coding:
4 |
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Average Bit-Rate (A+V):
X.XXMbps |
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:: The Film
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>> Skip to
Audio/Video Details
For some reason, Hollywood loves
to make films in pairs. Whether it's Armageddon and Deep
Impact, Volcano and Dante's Peak or Saving Private Ryan and
The Thin Red Line, the same subject often appears from
different studios within a year. And so it was with
Tombstone and Wyatt Earp in 1993/4. Both films recounted the
events leading up to and following the infamous gunfight at
the OK Corral, an event that has become a major part of
America's Wild West mythology.
The two films took decidedly
different approaches to the subject, however. Wyatt Earp
focused on the entire life of Earp, while Tombstone centred
on the events immediately surrounding the gunfight that
turned Wyatt, his brothers and John 'Doc' Holliday into
icons. Unfortunately, apart from the gunfight at the OK
Corral, Wyatt wasn't a particularly interesting character
which combined with a three hour running time made Kevin
Costner's Wyatt Earp a fairly bloated affair.
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Tombstone was more to the point, shorter,
more violent (producer Vajna was responsible for Judge Dredd
and Total Recall, while director George Cosmatos helmed
Cobra and Rambo 2) and heavily stylised in the tradition of
Sergio Leone. It also had a six month head-start which
didn't hurt. Having cleaned up the city of Dodge, retired
sheriff Wyatt Earp moves to the boom town of Tombstone to
seek his fortune. With him are his two brothers Morgan and
Virgil and their wives; his friend John 'Doc' Holliday also
moves to the town, hoping that the dry atmosphere will
alleviate the symptoms of his chronic Tuberculosis.
In Tombstone the three brothers become
successful businessmen with interests in a local saloon and
silver mines, but the town is controlled by a band of
outlaws known as the 'Cowboys' and tensions between the
leaders of the gang and the Earps begin to emerge. This
tension comes to a head with the legendary showdown between
the Cowboys and the Earps and the violent conflict that
followed. Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer give standout
performances, but the film's direction is more than a little
vague and suffers from an excess of style and a lack of
substance (My Darling Clementine it ain't). Despite this
directorial inertia, I still feel the fundamental story and
the lead performances make this a good, if flawed, modern
western.
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Video
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Roadshow Entertainment have been producing some very good
transfers of late. This anamorphically-enhanced 2.35:1
transfer is not one of them. The print used is in poor
condition, with large white spots and hairs frequently
visible. Sharpness seesaws alarmingly throughout, with an
image that could often best be described as 'hazy'. Fine
detail is present, but only on static images; any movement
produces motion artefacts that completely obliterate this
detail. Brighter daylight shots suffer from less motion
blur and softness, but artefacts are always present and
become unacceptable during darker interior scenes when the
entire image becomes a grainy, murky mess. I haven't seen
so many motion artefacts since Crimson Tide.
At first I thought this might be a
player-specific problem but after checking on two other
players found this wasn't the case. Look at the horses
crossing the screen at 16:46 for an example of this
artefacting at its worst: the horses are a complete blur,
and their riders will have you suffering from
double-vision. Not good. The transfer's contrast is also
high, washing out blacks which appear gray and destroying
shadow detail in the process. Further adding to this list
of woes is frequent edge enhancement and muted colours.
For some reason, there is also noticeable
'twitching' of the active image throughout the film: the
widescreen frame momentarily contracting vertically, as
seen at 86:21 and 110:45, something I've never seen
before. I really tried to find something good to say about
this transfer, but at its best it's average and at its
worst terrible. I can't recommend this transfer, which is
a shame.
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| :: Audio
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Thankfully, after the disappointment of the disc's video
transfer, the audio suffers from no major nasties. Although
it's a re-mixed Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack it's not overly
aggressive and very reminiscent of the LaserDisc's PCM Dolby
Surround soundtrack, which was no slouch in its own right. The
front soundstage isn't wide or enveloping by modern standards,
but directional cues across the front soundstage were
frequent, although the same couldn't said of the surround
channels. Bruce Broughton's score is heard primarily from the
front three channels and sounds a little harsh, but is
suitably expansive.
The surround channels are often
silent, with a few louder ambient effects such as thunder and
horses in the last third of the film but not much in the way
of ambient or atmospheric support; the soundtrack is often
heavily front-hemisphere oriented as a result. Likewise, the
LFE channel is often silent, but very active during the film's
frequent gunfights, supporting gunshots with some hefty bass.
Dialogue is clearly legible
throughout, but is obviously ADR-produced and suffers from
severe clipping at higher volumes (ie. whenever the actors
shout their lines). The soundtrack also suffers from some
audio compression and a little low-level hiss. Interestingly,
from a spatial perspective, the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack
sounds very similar to the Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack (which
Roadshow have generously encoded at 224kbps). The Dolby
Digital 5.1 soundtrack does offer significantly greater bass
output, however.
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