Dirty Harry (Film Collections) [5-disc Ultimate Collector's Edition]

Ok, my copy of "Dirty Harry (Brooo-ray)" was at my doorstep yesterday. No, I didn't buy the entire film collections, though I may pick up "Magnum Force" later.

I have to say the picture quality on "Dirty Harry" was one of the worst I've seen on Blu-ray. Of course, it was better than I remember back in it's old VHS days and the colors were much more vibrant, but the overall picture didn't seem that much better than SD DVD. I felt the picture was too far out of focus in many areas, it seemed gritty at times (also mentioned in John's review) and certain details seemed washed out.

Nevertheless, I was pleased to revisit one of my all-time favorite Eastwood films. But as far as a worthy Blu-ray release goes, I felt I could have just bought the DVD version and cranked the color on my plasma.

I'm not surprised about the picture quality that you mentioned Tim. It's Warner Bros., who are notorious for slacking off when it comes to picture quality. Check out "Lost Boys: The Tribe" if you want to see a horrible one. On second thought, don't bother.

In WB's defense, some of the movies we think of today as classics were not necessarily big-budget pictures of the day. Don Siegel shot "Dirty Harry" almost entirely on location, which often results in a degree of grain. The HD picture retains the grain and some of the grit (it is not a fully restored print as was "The Godfather"). If you could go back and see the movie on a big screen at the time of its release, I'll bet it didn't look much different from this.

John

Don't forget Siegal's cinematographer - BRUCE SURTEES (the son of legendary cinematographer Robert Surtees, who photographed Ben-Hur and Mutiny on the Bounty, among many others). Bruce's photography has always been on the very dark and grainy side. He's competent, but for some reason his light levels do not produce the same clarity that Gordon Willis (The Godfather cinematographer) has done. Willis's work (especially in darker scenes) is amazing, but Surtees seems to lose the minimum 'exposure' needed to avoid increases in noise and more grain, and a result his films suffer for it. Surtees also doesn't use 'deep-focus' techniques, and you will see blurry objects in the background more often than not.

Note: Surtees has also photographed some of Eastwood's directed films.

-JOE- (Love Hendrix!)