Spring Break
To DVD or Not to DVD?
Fernando F. Croce
Senior Staff Writer
I have always been suspicious of trendy new technology. Call it healthy pragmatism or simple jellyfish out-of-touchness, the fact is that by the time I have finally come around to recognizing whatever is "in," all I hear is, "Oh, that old thing?"
So it goes with DVD.
Digital Versatile Discs have for the past few years been muscling their way into the home video market, bulldozing into the medium like a steamroller in a china shop. What started as a fashionable curio has become the nearly-preferred form, increasing and expanding exponentially with each new year.
Music videos and entire seasons of old TV shows now are squeezed into discs, and studios and filmmakers often design their projects according to how they will be distributed in DVD. Last year DVD transactions for the first time surpassed video's -- tapes right now seem about as up-to-date as an encyclopedia-sized 8-track.
It would seem logical for a movie-geek like myself to flip for this new advancement in the movie field, particularly one so attuned to preserving and protecting the vulnerable qualities of film. Not to mention additional goodies such as deleted scenes and commentaries by filmmakers. What's not to like?
In fact, I was not the least bit enthusiastic about embracing this so-called new wave. I was perfectly happy with my hard-earned mountain of videotapes, and was not about to just switch over to some flashy new thing just because people were telling me that this was the "technology of the future." As far as I was concerned, DVD stood for Damn Vacuous Dregs.
Flash-forward to the present, and my DVD collection has enough piles to securely wall in a war criminal. Why the switch? Had I been swept away by the hype? Had I seen the light? Or had I just gotten tired of people rolling their eyes whenever I mentioned "video"?
As in many other occasions, the moment came in the middle of a great film: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1947 classic “Black Narcissus.”I had already seen it before, and had been entranced by its audacious portrayal of the dislocating effect of sensuality on a group of nuns up in the Himalayas. Yet, yet… I had found the visuals drably lacking. I had read and heard so much about the film’s physical beauty that, when I saw the wan, faded colors in the video copy, my heart sank.
Some time later, I got hold of the DVD copy of the movie through a friend, and decided to give it a shot. If I was going to badmouth the latest trend, I might as well get a good look at it first, at least for the sake of accuracy.
Not to put too fine a point to it, but I was blown away. From beginning to end, it was like I had never seen "Black Narcissus" before -- every color was as sharp as a blade, every scene designed with the utmost visual limpidness. This movie is breathtaking! How could I have missed it on my first viewing?
Further DVD viewings of "Mean Streets" and "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon," among others, confirmed the format's appeal to me: the preservation of film as it was originally intended, virtually dripping wet from the editing lab. As a result, I started being increasingly less tolerant of the tinkering that goes on with movies once they leave the theaters.
Take the widescreen, for example. Movies, shot in the rectangular format that allows for sprawling horizontal compositions, have parts of it mercilessly chopped off to fit the square confinement of the TV screen. Consequently, a movie not shown on widescreen is but a fraction of the original product -- "pan and scan" has become a dirty word to me.
As happy as I am that DVDs are retaining the original quality of films, I am somewhat less impressed with the bells and whistles they keep attaching to their products, often just as an excuse to jack up the prices.
You know, deleted scenes sometimes get deleted for a good reason. As for director's commentary... Well, I am a firm believer that one should trust the work of art instead of the artist, and no amount of filmmaker babble about what a bitch a certain scene was to pull off is going to change my mind.
I also have to wonder how much artistic integrity goes into the studio decision to release yet another "special collector's edition" of a movie that was fine in the first edition two years ago. For that matter, how come the DVD of "La Femme Infidèle" gets such a muddy transfer, while "National Lampoon's Van Wilder" is adorned with a deluxe two-disc treatment?
By all accounts, DVD is here to stay. Consider me a cautious convert -- not to be a rude guest at the dinner table, but when it comes to movies I will just have the main dish and skip the sugary confections, thank you.
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