Based
upon the novel by Joseph Conrad, LORD JIM ($25) is a well-crafted
and well-acted film about a man seeking redemption for an act of cowardice
that arose out of his own human frailty. LORD JIM stars Peter
O'Toole as the title character- an eager, young British seaman in the
Merchant Marine, who has the misfortune of signing onboard as first
officer of the S.S. Patna, a corroding old steamer that is transporting
eight hundred Muslims on a pilgrimage. During a storm at sea, the crew
panics, and in a moment of weakness, Jim joins the rest of the beckoning
crew in the only two lifeboats, leaving the eight hundred passengers to
their fate.
In
an ironic twist, the lifeboats reach port only to discover the Patna and
its passengers waiting there- safe and sound. Branded a coward, and
stripped of his privileges, Jim wanders around the South Seas moving from
one meaningless job to another. Eventually, Jim finds the possibility for
redemption, when he offers to transport a supply of gunpowder upriver to a
village, where the locals are about to rebel against a warlord who is
driving them into virtual slavery. In addition to a perfectly brooding
Peter O'Toole, the fine cast of LORD JIM also features James Mason,
Eli Wallach, Curt Jurgens, Jack Hawkins, Paul Lukas, Daliah Lavi and Akim
Tamiroff.
Columbia
TriStar Home Entertainment has made LORD JIM available on DVD in a
2.20:1 widescreen presentation that has been enhanced for playback on 16:9
displays. This is a very nice looking transfer that produces a rather
sharp and well defined image. Colors are generally saturated at a
realistic level, although there are places in the film where the hues jump
out at the viewer more than others. There are no problems with chroma
noise or fuzziness to mar the stable color reproduction. Blacks appear
inky, whites are pretty crisp and the contrast is reasonably smooth. The
film elements are fairly clean for a 1965 release, with only a modest
amount of blemishes to remind one that LORD JIM is almost forty
years old. A noticeable grain structure creeps in from time to time, but
is never particularly bothersome. Digital compression artifacts are fairly
well contained, but there are some foggy sequences in the film, in which
they can be somewhat more noticeable.
For
this release, LORD JIM features a Dolby Digital 3.0 channel
soundtrack. All of the sound remains up front for the presentation, and
occasionally, there is some nice stereo imaging of the forward soundstage.
Fidelity is generally good for a mid-1960s production, with the music
producing a reasonably full-bodied sonic quality. Dialogue is crisply
rendered and is remains totally understandable. A French language track is
also encoded onto the DVD, as are English, French, Japanese and Spanish
subtitles. The basic interactive menus allow one access to the standard
scene selection and set up features, as well as theatrical trailers LAWRENCE
OF ARABIA, THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI and IN COLD BLOOD.
As
I stated above, LORD JIM is a well-crafted and well-acted film that
finds Peter O'Toole at the top of his game. Columbia’s DVD looks and
sounds just fine, making it something that O'Toole fans will want to check
out.
Based
upon the novel by Joseph Conrad, LORD JIM ($25) is a well-crafted
and well-acted film about a man seeking redemption for an act of cowardice
that arose out of his own human frailty. LORD JIM stars Peter
O'Toole as the title character- an eager, young British seaman in the
Merchant Marine, who has the misfortune of signing onboard as first
officer of the S.S. Patna, a corroding old steamer that is transporting
eight hundred Muslims on a pilgrimage. During a storm at sea, the crew
panics, and in a moment of weakness, Jim joins the rest of the beckoning
crew in the only two lifeboats, leaving the eight hundred passengers to
their fate.
In
an ironic twist, the lifeboats reach port only to discover the Patna and
its passengers waiting there- safe and sound. Branded a coward, and
stripped of his privileges, Jim wanders around the South Seas moving from
one meaningless job to another. Eventually, Jim finds the possibility for
redemption, when he offers to transport a supply of gunpowder upriver to a
village, where the locals are about to rebel against a warlord who is
driving them into virtual slavery. In addition to a perfectly brooding
Peter O'Toole, the fine cast of LORD JIM also features James Mason,
Eli Wallach, Curt Jurgens, Jack Hawkins, Paul Lukas, Daliah Lavi and Akim
Tamiroff.
Columbia
TriStar Home Entertainment has made LORD JIM available on DVD in a
2.20:1 widescreen presentation that has been enhanced for playback on 16:9
displays. This is a very nice looking transfer that produces a rather
sharp and well defined image. Colors are generally saturated at a
realistic level, although there are places in the film where the hues jump
out at the viewer more than others. There are no problems with chroma
noise or fuzziness to mar the stable color reproduction. Blacks appear
inky, whites are pretty crisp and the contrast is reasonably smooth. The
film elements are fairly clean for a 1965 release, with only a modest
amount of blemishes to remind one that LORD JIM is almost forty
years old. A noticeable grain structure creeps in from time to time, but
is never particularly bothersome. Digital compression artifacts are fairly
well contained, but there are some foggy sequences in the film, in which
they can be somewhat more noticeable.
For
this release, LORD JIM features a Dolby Digital 3.0 channel
soundtrack. All of the sound remains up front for the presentation, and
occasionally, there is some nice stereo imaging of the forward soundstage.
Fidelity is generally good for a mid-1960s production, with the music
producing a reasonably full-bodied sonic quality. Dialogue is crisply
rendered and is remains totally understandable. A French language track is
also encoded onto the DVD, as are English, French, Japanese and Spanish
subtitles. The basic interactive menus allow one access to the standard
scene selection and set up features, as well as theatrical trailers LAWRENCE
OF ARABIA, THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI and IN COLD BLOOD.
As
I stated above, LORD JIM is a well-crafted and well-acted film that
finds Peter O'Toole at the top of his game. Columbia’s DVD looks and
sounds just fine, making it something that O'Toole fans will want to check
out.
