Source France | Publisher : 20th Century Fox | Release date : 02 September 2022
Video format
2160p24 – Ratio 2.40
HDR10 / BT.2020 – HEVC encoding
Master intermediate 4K
Soundtrack
English DTS-HD MA 5.1
French SDR 5.1
Subtitles
English
French
Rated 5 out of 5
Artistic : 10 | Video : 9.5 | Audio : 9.5
It is brought to the attention of our dear readers that, in addition to the specified and used viewing equipment, the rendering may differ from one installation to another, whether or not it is calibrated, as well as personal preferences and expectations may influence notation. In addition, the images (extracted from a free-of-rights image bank and the site caps-a-holic) serve as an illustration and cannot be considered representative of the edition tested.
Test equipment and condition (Config. HP: 5.1.4)
Video broadcaster : Sony Bravia XR-65A95L (Professional HDR)
Sources : Oppo UDP-203 Audiocom Reference | Zappiti Reference
Pregnant : Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar (DTS Neural:X), SVS SB-4000
WORK - Face-to-face legend
Neil McCauley is an experienced robber. In the course of his theft, he makes sure that he does not commit an odd act. In a well planned operation, one of his accomplices shoots two guards. This double murder is of greatest interest to Lieutenant Hanna, a seasoned pro who lives only for his profession. After meeting, everyone swears to put the other in check.
Monument of the American polar made by a Michael Mann (then at the top of his art) which offered the genre its point of non-return, this timeless artistically unattackable masterpiece (both in the background with its brilliant scenario inspired by a criminal affair of the 1960s and in the form with its staging to the sobriety millimetre) sees opposition between two giants of transcended cinema (Al Pacino and Robert De Niro) who, isolated from their congeners by obsessions prohibiting them from self-fulfilment, are only loneliness for companionship. And while at night, cops and bandits are gray, the melancholic duality (two reverses of the same coin) which will eventually evaporate in a black melt heavy of meaning, resents any victory by a fatalism echoing the evils of American society. Deeply disillusioned and embroiled by a tearing human poetry, this rabid urban western that also makes the powder talk (the shootings are still unmatched today) will have marked the history of cinema. Moreover, its influence becomes ever more important over time (The Dark Knight and The Town to quote only two)...
« If you want to make old bones in this business, be free as air. Anything that's ever taken a place in your life, you must be able to get rid of it in 30 seconds shows in hand as soon as you spot a single cop around. »
IMAGE - On the tops of a black city
In a black L.A. dressed in 35 mm wide lens, the UHD HDR10 transfer whose master 4K had been supervised by the director himself in 2017 (the Directors Definitive Edition already released on Blu-ray support) before it swallows the dynamic range « High » of this release, choose as never the elegant photograph of Dante Spinotti... And so much so if the adjustments made (the new calibration of 2017 and the decrease in brightness of 2022) will not know everyone's taste. Note that as part of my test, comparisons were made with the 2009 HD disk (encoded in VC-1)... Before the recent changes therefore.
The contribution of definition hits from the first seconds (the details in the background, the increased finesse of textures), the silver patina retains all its beautiful density, the image has been cleaned with precision and the compressive traces are of ancient history (despite an average bitrate of only 40.6 Mb/s). As for framing, barely tightened, it corrects the geometry of the frame by a slight horizontal stretching.
Otherwise darker with an average luminance of 49 cd/m2 and peaks hardly exceeding 130 nit (gyrophars and night lighting), the image now spreads a deaf distress that is much better at the point. U.S. dream nights with greying skies and black ink show exemplary work on shadows (carefully adjusted) and diurnal sequences, with very limited brilliance, are deliberately absolved to harmonize with ambient morosity. In fact, the footprint of the US movie of the 70s is more present than ever.
Then there are the colours, less cold (hot whites as desired) and the blue shades more assertive when present (especially during the iconic plan inspired by the painting Pacific Colville), which in addition to excluding previous magenta drifts, enjoy a healthier carnation and deeper hues (the green body of the ram truck, the yellow hold of a waitress, the red paint of the concrete blocks during the ultimate hide-and-seek part).
I'm what I'm after.
With remarkable spatialization and a challenging dynamic range (the realism of the shots, the air traffic), the VO proposed in DTS-HD MA 5.1 delivers with a lot of careful a falsely quiet mixing that a striking violence occasionally shakes (cf. the shooting following the robbery).
Urban (road traffic) and/or atmospheric atmospheres are constantly magnified in the acoustic space, the clarity of dialogues is never sacrificed even when chaos resonates, the clean score ofElliot Goldenthal (as well as the Moby, U2 and Lisa Gerrard auditory intrigues) are meticulously ventilated and the descent down the spectrum (the detonation of the explosive charge during the robbery of the armored van, the impact of the machine guns, the aircraft reactor) is most intriguing.
Below in terms of magnitude (less impacting shots and shyer bass) and immersion (a less animated rear scene due to audible compression), the VF DTS 5.1 mid-debit cannot compete with its English conœur.
Despite the absence of a Dolby Atmos soundtrack, enabling a virtualization DSP allows you to enjoy a certain verticality during helicopter passages (the movement of blades) and at the end at the airport. Don't hesitate!
CONCLUSION - Stop me if you can
A great existential film that will live forever in the unconscious of the spectators who have witnessed it, the Swiss film watchmaking made by the perfectionist « Super-Mann » unveils in 4K Ultra HD all gears (A/V services supervised by his master goldsmith in person) that help keep his legendary perfection intact!
[...] is palpable, frequent twists and well developed characters (scorched). A French-style Heat worthy of this name, visually elegant and screenwriting [...]