Product: Funny Girl [VHS] (1968)
Rating: 5.0
DON'T RAIN ON THIS PARADE - A FANTASTIC DVD!
Barbra Streisand is a young Fanny Brice - inexperienced, desperate to make good on her contract with Florenz Ziegfeld and desperately in love with the first of her two husbands, Nick Arnstein (Omar Shariff). After playing the role on Broadway and making it her own, Bab's took home the Best Actress Oscar of the year for her eclectic, electric and thoroughly engaging performance. Co-stars Walter Pidgeon. Director, William Wyler - best known for his efforts in "Ben-Hur" or "Mrs. Miniver" has oft' been criticized for his heavy-handed direction on this film. True - the pace of the musical doesn't rival say, "The Sound of Music" or "West Side Story" but the material is so good, and Wyler brings his own inimitable staging to the show, that I can't really fault the old master for a slightly stoic presentation which, if anything, does not detract from the overall enjoyment of this classic movie musical.Columbia Tristar has done an outstanding job in remastering this movie for DVD. Colors are rich, vibrant and bold. Shadow delineation is incredible and contrast levels are as they should be. Edge enhancement is practically non-existant while shimmering and aliasing simply don't appear on this disc at any time. This is a fantastic example of just how good an older movie can look on DVD if the proper amount of time and effort is taken to do the job properly. The soundtrack is remastered in 5.1 and positively explodes across all the channels, particularly during the musical sequences. Just listening to Bab's do "Don't Rain On My Parade" or "My Man" will give one goose bumps. Bar none, an incredibly solid remastering effort of a vintage soundtrack. No extras but with quality like this it's hard to squawk. A very fine effort and a definite must have!