That s not to say the DVD is soft looking. On the contrary, the DVD appears sharp as a tack, but the film s inherent look is intentionally softer than a present day drama might look. Colors are completely satisfying with rich greens and browns setting the overall tone within a subdued environment. Color transitions on this disk are quite good, especially when trying to discern different shades of the same hue such as tan on brown or brown on black. The detail is on the disk, but the full enjoyment of being able to see it will depend on what type of display device you re using.
Black levels are exceptionally good and edge enhancement is kept to a minimum.
This allows us to enjoy more of the film like quality of this presentation without being reminded that we are actually watching video and The Natural succeeds on all accounts with this release. Flesh tones will seem to change somewhat even though the tones are all within an acceptable region. Most of this is due to the variant lighting schemes as in the case when radiant sunlight is used whenever we see Roy on his farm compared to how a cloudy New York setting will look on his face. From a video perspective, The Natural is as pleasant to look at as the subject matter it portrays. Columbia has been exceptionally good at transferring their vault films to DVD and we get no less than a top-flight effort here.