Product: Mean Streets (1973)
Rating: 2.0
Great film, bad blu
Mean Streets is my favourite film. I've seen it over 30 times in all kinds of various incarnations - VHS, DVD, repertory cinema. It's a movie of urban cacophony - car horns, sirens, vintage rock and opera compete with gritty photography of `70s New York to create a thrilling and chaotic way of life. The best quality that I've ever seen of it was when I saw a specially restored print for its 30th anniversary several years ago. Wow - every frame was a mesmerising testimony as to what cinema is capable of. A truly sensual and moving experience, for sure.Does the Mean Streets that appears on this blu ray transfer capture the magic of this great movie? No, not in the slightest. It is a VERY poor transfer, in my opinion. The grit and the sensuality of this great film has been severely compromised. The crimson-drenched barroom scenes look pale and anemic, the gritty street scenes look dull and ordinary. The colors lack the boldness and vigour that I've seen so many times in the cinema, even in the poorest of prints. I'm no expert on video transfer but it seems to me that an excessive amount of DNR has been used. The faces lack detail, the film grain non-evident. It just doesn't look like film at all and in fact it baffles me why anyone would want to invent a technology like blu ray and then waste it with a subpar transfer like this. It looks more like bad DVD to me. Watching this as a long-time admirer gave me no pleasure at all. Newcomers will be baffled as to why this has been heralded as a legendary film if they use this version as the standard.I would advise against buying this and to exercise caution with future blu ray purchases. Just because the technology is capable of great things doesn't necessarily mean it will reach those lofty heights. So don't go out and put the old DVDs on internet auction sites just yet. Better still, don't ignore your local repertory cinema either - currently the only way to see this movie with its power intact.