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Battle Of Red Cliff (The)
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - Australia - Warner Home Video Review written by and copyright: Stevie McCleary (10th April 2010). |
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The Film
 John Woo always seems to take great pleasure in whatever he puts on the screen. A fan of lavish spectacle, you can tell his work from a mile away – even further in glorious HD. And "The Battle of Red Cliff" (2008) is a film that delights in showing you an expansive world, full of battles that seemingly do stretch for miles. And it does not rest on its laurels, for two minutes in we are already embroiled in the midst of a vicious conflict. It is merely a taste for what is to follow in this 148 minute shorter International version (the original version was released in two parts adding up to a four hour film) of a justified box office smash. In 209 AD during the days of the Three Kingdoms a force of fifty thousand men, led by the warlords of the southland kingdoms Wu and Xu, went into battle to defeat the corrupt Prime Minister Cao Cao (Zhang Fengyi) and the Emperor’s army of one million. The two warlords, Sun Quan (Chang Chen) and Liu Bei (Yong You), have obvious issues of mistrust from issues in their past. But different methods of warfare come together beautifully under the watchful eye of chief military strategist Zhuge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) as they fight to resist the annexing of their lands. For quite a few viewers, they’ll know who all the historical figures are, so they need little character build. I initially knew nothing of this time period but, to be fair; in this movie I didn’t want nor expect detailed character work. I expected something more akin to tales from Greek mythology, where the characters are loud and strong, their deeds rounding out your knowledge of their desires and beliefs. The safety of a John Woo film is that you get what you expect. In this case it even goes further than that because this isn’t a John Woo film – it’s a John Woo epic. And it’s an epic that earns its brand name. Now the issue with many an epic is that they do forego originality and humanity for emotion and scenery. "The Battle of Red Cliff" is no exception in regards to the moments between battles. Characters engage in stern discussions over their plans followed by sweeping shots of locations, weather, and longing looks. I’d be intrigued to see how the full four hour version runs and what it adds to the overall feel of the film. I get the impression this version, cutting out 132 minutes of the running time, mainly pared back on the character development – the beginning features an American narration that attempts to fill in a lot of what I assume we’ve missed or would be hard to pick up. The latter chunks of the film are just glorious. All issues with sections that were removed for this version are gone as you are swept up in the action. Woo does a fantastic job of keeping the inventive military plans clear to the audience for total enjoyment. The stunning graphics and set pieces compliment the direction beautifully as well. It’s like you’re watching the world’s most fascinating military handbook in motion. The sheer scale of the epic is the likes we haven’t seen in quite some time and especially not done well. Not like this, where you will stare at some of the action and smile, edging towards the remote control to go back and relive what just happened. If you’ve sat down to watch a film by John Woo, you didn’t do this looking for deep character work or insight into the human psyche. You wanted action, loads of it, coupled with spectacle and pageantry. Do you get that here? Of course you do. John Woo can’t be anything other than John Woo, and as such his weaknesses and strengths will always be displayed without restraint. With this film he gifts us an epic of mythological proportions. History buffs will probably find enough to irritate the senses, but action buffs will leave with their senses well sated. Far better than anything Hollywood can produce on its own. The masters of their craft strike again.
Video
Presented in the film's widescreen ratio of 2.35:1 high-definition 1080p 24/fps and mastered in AVC MPEG-4 compression. The image supplied on this Blu-ray disc is simply stunning. There's no other word for it, the image is sharp and beautifully detailed from the intricate details of the actor's faced to the textures of their costumes and the landscapes in which this film was shot. The film features an incredible depth that the 35mm print allows with it's depth of field and weight that the fine grain allows for. Colors are rich and bold, skin tones accurate and deep black levels that feature hardly any noise. The HD clarity is fantastic, a crisp picture that features no flaws. This is reference quality material.
Audio
A single Mandarin DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is included mixed at 48kHz/24-bit, the audio booms from front to back. Much like the gorgeous picture this is also a reference quality audio track that features clean and distortion free dialogue, a robust and aggressive mix of battle scenes and epic moments that'll have your neighbours complaining about the noise (crank this track up!). The mix immerses viewers right from the start and feels like a whirlwind traveling throughout the sound space, with a nicely balanced audio track that transition well between the dialogue and subtle ambient sounds to the rousing and boisterous action scenes, the bass kicks in heavily and the music takes the track to a whole new level. This is theater quality sound that movie lovers cherish. Optional subtitles are included in English only.
Extras
Warner Brothers and Icon have included a light set of extras that feature an interview and a featurette. Below is a closer look at these supplements. John Woo interview runs for 16 minutes 1 seconds. This is a simple one camera interview with Woo in an office as he talks all about what the film meant to him and what led to making his return to China. He also discusses the economic crisis and how this film can teach a good message to the young people of today relating to how to improve the world. "Behind-the-Scenes" featurette runs for 20 minutes 53 seconds, and runs through the entire production including dealing with the changes in cast right before filming and other troubles they faced. The raw footage of the battle scenes is amazing, as you’d expect. It feels quite disjointed but is a welcome change in tone from American puff pieces that a number of their ‘Making of’ featurette tend to be. It’s a true behind-the-scenes video here, rather than something made to pat each other on the back.
Overall
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