My first Blu-ray movie was The Dark Knight, a movie filmed with high-def in mind. It was, needless to say, visually spectacular, especially the scenes filmed in IMAX.
Many classic films are now slowly being transferred over to the Blu-ray platform. One of the first classics I tried on Blu-ray was the Godfather series. While the movies had been painstakingly restored for their digital transfers, I have to admit, I am disappointed by their grainy, almost standard-def picture (the movies are still great, though).
I wrote off the quality as the result of the classic film format and thought I should probably focus on modern movies for my high-def experience. And then I watched Patton.
I am utterly astounded by how sharp and vivid the Blu-ray version of the WWII classic is. There are now two movies I would recommend to introduce yourself to Blu-ray with: Kung Fu Panda and Patton.
And as I was watching Patton (a great movie, by the way. 8 Academy Awards, including Best Picture), I realized that the movie had never been viewed better than it is today, not even when it was originally shown on the big screen.
If the sharp HD-quality of the picture wasn’t impressive enough, the colors also seemed to pop off the screen. Take, for example, the famous opening scene when General Patton, played by George C. Scott, stands before an American flag and addresses the troops. There are brief close-ups of his hands as he salutes, and you get to see all the incredible detail of a jeweled golden ring he’s wearing as well as the various medals and decorations on his uniform.
Patton is filled with epic shots of battlefields, lavish interiors, desert warfare, and crisp military uniforms, and it all seems as it were originally intended for the high-def experience. It’s a reason to get excited for more classics to come the Blu-ray platform and be seen like never before on the big screen you’ve got at home.
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