Culloden / The War Game

[rapta]

...came so close to selling the dvd, glad I didn't.

Why glad?

[MichaelB]

I suspect it's to do with the 1080i50 presentation, which many people here won't be able to play.

[Lowry_Sam]

I know screen grabs aren't necessarily accurate, but from the dvdbeaver comparison, the dvd has deeper blacks & is sharper (lines in faces & fabric detail are more pronounced) than the blu-ray. Besides slightly more information on the left side, I don't get the sense that the blu-ray will look better on my (46") screen to warrant shelling out for it.

[MichaelB]

I suspect there will be substantial differences in motion, given that the DVD is from an elderly analogue telecine and the BD is a brand new scan from 16mm materials.

[manicsounds]

Rewind dvdcompare review says...

The vintage featurettes on the Blu-ray show clips of “The War Game” from the previous BFI DVD release from 2002, and the improvements show. The film elements going through a cleanup are very evident, the framing shows more information, and there are better black and white levels. To be fair, the 2002 DVDs looked good, but the Blu-ray presentation is much better.

I wondered why BFI didn't port over the short films included on the DVD editions, but it seems they are on the "Privilege" Blu-ray instead (which I don't have).

[MichaelB]

They are indeed, and you answered your own question.

[Jonathan S]

I don't know if the following is included in the new booklet, but here's the text of a photocopied BBC statement, dated July 1981, which was sent to me (I still possess the original) in reply to my enquiry around that time about why the The War Game had still (at that point) not been televised. I had seen it at a CND-supported screening by Warwick University's Film Society (I recall a voluntary CND collection as we left).

The BBC and 'THE WAR GAME'

"The War Game" was made as long ago as 1965, when the original decision not to show it was taken. That decision was the result of a good deal of thought and discussion and was based on the judgement that the film was too horrifying to be broadcast. The BBC felt that it could well be frightening to people of a nervous disposition, perhaps living alone and coming across it unexpectedly, in the way people inevitably do with television programmes. The matter has, of course, been reconsidered since then, but the BBC believes that this could still happen, even if it took the precaution of careful "signposting" beforehand, as some people have suggested.

There is now a second reason for not showing the film, namely that it has dated not merely as a piece of film-making, but also in the information it supplies. For example, mass evacuation of the cities and compulsory billeting, which provide some of the most striking sequences in the film, are no longer part of the Government's Civil Defence plans. It would, therefore, give a misleading impression and perhaps cause even more alarm than the already alarming nature of the subject justifies.

In keeping to its original decision the BBC has, of course, borne in mind the fact that it has made "The War Game" available to film societies and similar organisations, so that anyone anxious to see it can almost certainly do so. The BBC is, of course, fully aware of its duty to inform the public about the dangers of nuclear war and the Civil Defence measures taken to meet them. For example, there have in recent months been an edition of "Panorama" called "If the Bomb Drops", two major Radio 4 programmes on the same subject, "Target UK", and an edition of "Newsweek" on BBC-2 about European nuclear weapons and attitudes to them, "The Politics of the Bomb". We shall certainly continue to broadcast programmes about nuclear warfare and related issues at an appropriate time in the future.

July, 1981

Only four years later, in July 1985, the above reasons had apparently become invalid, as The War Game was finally broadcast on BBC2 with an introduction by Ludovic Kennedy. The Radio Times noted: "Until this week's special series of programmes After the Bomb - the BBC felt unable to transmit this disturbing film in isolation."

[tenia]

I watched The War Game this evening and it was a tremendous watch. No, wait, it was even more impressive than this. The best word probably would be "traumatic".
Only a few movies have had such an instant impact, feeling almost unbearable at times, leaving me the mouth agape (last one was A Woman under the Influence, I had to stop the movie halfway through, just after the doctor's visit and Rowlands beaking down because I was feeling physically oppressed).

The restoration is beautiful. I actually watched the "Controversy" featurette before watching the movie, and was afraid a bit, because the commentary is overlaid on abstracts from the movie, abstracts not being in a very good shape. Not knowing the featurette was made in 2002, I thought the abstracts were from the new restoration, but it turns out they don't, so it gave me a feeling of how the movie was looking before (not stable, overblown, scratched and with tons of dirt).

The featurette itself is very good, though it would have been nicer if Murphy would have spoken a bit faster. At his pace, it drags a bit, though it's very well constructed, allowing to understand the history of the making of the movie itself (which is fascinating too).

Finally, something rare enough to be mentioned : some of the extras have English SDH subs ! (at least The Controversy and Culloden on Location).

[manicsounds]

With BFI English subtitles on extras are a commonpoint. Although they stopped English subtitling of the commentary tracks on their Blu-ray releases.

[tenia]

Hum, my bad, then. I didn't remember they had SDH subs on extras so often.

[manicsounds]

Cineoutsider review

[Big Ben]

I suspect it's to do with the 1080i50 presentation, which many people here won't be able to play.

I can confirm that the Blu-Ray Disc DOES in fact play on my modified player on my PC. 1080i50 will work on a 60hz monitor and computer Blu-Ray player. The only thing you have to worry about is the region restriction.