{"id":6637,"date":"2009-09-28T23:59:57","date_gmt":"2009-09-28T22:59:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/?p=6637"},"modified":"2009-09-29T01:01:12","modified_gmt":"2009-09-29T00:01:12","slug":"uk-dvd-blu-ray-releases-monday-28th-september-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/2009\/09\/28\/uk-dvd-blu-ray-releases-monday-28th-september-2009\/","title":{"rendered":"UK DVD & Blu-ray Releases: Monday 28th September 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DVD<\/p>\n

DVD & BLU-RAY PICKS<\/strong><\/p>\n

The New World – Extended Cut<\/a><\/strong> (EIV): New Line and UK distributors Entertainment have finally got around to releasing the extended cut of Terrence Malick<\/a>‘s wonderful 2005 version of the Pocahontas<\/a> story on DVD and Blu-ray.<\/p>\n

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The story is set during the founding of the Jamestown, Virginia<\/a> settlement in the early 1600s, inspired by the historical figures Captain John Smith<\/a> (Colin Farrell<\/a>) and Pocahontas<\/a> (Q’Orianka Kilcher<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The cast also includes Christopher Plummer<\/a>, Christian Bale<\/a>, whilst other notable contributions come from cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki<\/a>, production designer Jack Fisk<\/a>, and editor Richard Chew<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Whilst some critical reaction to the film was mixed<\/a>, it is a stunning technical achievement with a hypnotic quality that lingers longer after the final credits.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the sprawling narrative put off some of the pickier critics who seemed determined to shoot Malick down<\/a> from his lofty perch as American cinema’s mercurial poet-in-residence<\/a>, but if you go with it, this is a film of many riches.<\/p>\n

The performances from Farrell, Plummer and Bale are nicely restrained, whilst Kilcher is terrific, bringing an impressive depth of feeling to her role.<\/p>\n

James Horner’s score, alongside some judicious use of Wagner, is probably the greatest he’s ever written with a thrilling use of strings and melody.<\/p>\n

When the film premiered in late 2005 in New York and Los Angeles with a running time of somewhere around 2 hour 30 minutes, Malick decided to cut it down by about 15 minutes for the wider release.<\/p>\n

I remember going to a BAFTA screening in November 2005 and I caught the longer cut and when I saw the initial DVD release in 2006, it seemed a little cut down, although it isn’t the kind of film where the cuts were immediately apparent.<\/p>\n

The ‘Extended Cut’ on the Blu-ray is the same the DVD released at October 14, 2008 which is almost 22 minutes longer than the original extended cut.<\/p>\n

This is the kind of film that could have been made to highlight the Blu-ray format because the stunning cinematography )all shot on Steadicam using natural light) is a key element in the film’s power.<\/p>\n

The new Blu-ray is a 1080P transfer the sharpens everything up in terms of colour and resolution.<\/p>\n

DVD Beaver has posted some screen captures<\/a> comparing the DVD and Blu-ray versions and they also note that grain is not as prevalent as expected and note that the audio is a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track at 1437 kbps.<\/p>\n

The extras on the Blu-ray Disc include:<\/p>\n