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I came close to buying the Blu-ray a few days ago, but the customer reviews at Amazon convinced me that my DVD is sufficient -- they rip apart the picture quality and say that the only special feature is a coming attraction preview. So why bother?
Andras, at Amazon, writes:
Hair is my all-time favorite film. Maybe I am very critical of this release, but since it's my favorite, I should have the right to criticize.
Pros:
Better than DVD picture quality.
No cuts.
Better than DVD sound quality.
Hungarian, Turkish, and other sound options.
Cons:
The picture quality is not up to par with other films that received the well-deserved restoration treatment.
The sound is flat, no bass, no highs. What's the excuse for this? This is a musical after-all!
Extras. What extras? There is no commentary, no documentaries, just a preview.
If you don't have Hair on DVD, I recommend buying the Blu-ray. If you have Hair on DVD, I recommend thinking twice before buying it on Blu-ray. Hopefully this title will be re-released with the quality and features it deserves.
I think this was the review (and especially his "The sound is flat, no bass, no highs") that convinced me to be happy with my DVD, which I've never felt was bad. But if the Blu-ray had had amazing audio, I would have already bought it!
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Posted: |
Jan 6, 2014 - 11:29 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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I really wasn’t aware that a Blu-ray had been issued. Since the DVD had non-anamorphic video, I never bothered to upgrade from my laserdisc. Here are some other opinions on the Blu-ray’s video and audio quality.
DVDREVIEW.com
http://www.dvdreview.com/reviews/pages/3192.shtml
"Hair" has a very period look, conjuring up vivid images of the flower power and anti-war movements of the 60s. The transfer on this Blu-Ray Disc looks slightly aged and worn with a bit of grain in numerous scenes. Overall however, the film has been skillfully transferred for this release with very strong colors and prevailing hues, a sharp image that holds plenty of detail and never looks washed out, and faithful color reproduction.
The level of detail is good, though perhaps not quite as impressive as it could have been. MGM has clearly missed the opportunity here to clean up and properly re-transfer the film for the Blu-Ray medium and as a result this disc feels a bit like a souped-up DVD. Not entirely disappointing, but also not exactly impressive.
MGM Home Video has previously re-mixed the exuberant soundtrack for "Hair" into a 5.1 surround track that was found on the DVD version. Here the same mix is presented in a DTS5.1 HD Master Audio track. Being a musical, clearly the audio is of importance in a release like this and I am glad to say that the audio fares much better than the video presentation, actually.
The dynamic range is very impressive and the songs sound fresher than ever. There is no noise evident in the sound elements and the track also has a surprisingly good bass extension. The music carries the film and as such a good audio transfer is essential for this movie. Fortunately MGM did a fabulous job and within minutes into the film, your living room or home theater will be engulfed in a wave of breathing rhythm, voices and melodies. This audio transfer truly makes the best of the fantastic music that builds the basement of the film.??"Hair" is a landmark achievement and it is great to be able to finally see it in high definition. It is a bit of a sloppy job, and the lack of extras beyond the obligatory trailer, is testimony to that once again. Nonetheless, fans of the movie and the music will definitely want to go out and grab a copy of this fantastic film.
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DVDtalk.com
http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/49192/hair/
Video:
MGM presents Hair in an AVC encoded 1.85.1 widescreen 1080p high definition presentation that generally looks okay and frequently looks pretty good. The first few minutes, where Claude gets on the bus to New York, are pretty dirty and show a fair bit of print damage, a trend that loosens up as the film goes on but which never quite disappears completely, so expect specks and small scratches throughout the film. Detail isn't as strong as other catalogue titles have been, though it does improve over what standard definition can provide in some fairly obvious ways, texture too. It looks like there's been some slight noise reduction applied here and there and the film has a fair bit of minor dirt and debris noticeable throughout playback. Black levels and color reproduction are pretty strong and overall the picture isn't horrible, but it obviously hasn't been given much of a restoration for this release and you can't help but think as you watch it that more could have been done. Hair's DVD release had a pretty lousy non-anamorphic transfer, and this definitely trumps that, however.
Sound:
The only lossless audio option is an English language DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix that spreads the music out through the surround channels but which stays primarily up in the front for most of the movie's running time. It sounds fairly faithful to how the movie has always sounded, which is a good thing, and the countless musical numbers that make up most of the movie sound very good here. Range is a bit limited, which probably stems back to whatever elements were available, but overall there's nothing to complain about in terms of audio quality here. Optional French and Spanish tracks are provided in Dolby Digital Mono while English SDH closed captioning is also provided as are subtitles in a bunch of different languages.
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High-Def Digest
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/5028/hair_1979.html
The Video: Sizing Up the Picture
The film is presented in a 1080p/AVC transfer in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The video is a bit uneven, showing some age, but does look quite good in certain sequences. A light layer of grain is visible throughout.
The opening scene set in Oklahoma is the most problematic and is riddled with print damage, showing off some excessive dirt, scratches, vertical lines, and specks. Thankfully, the film mostly cleans up after this point, yet still periodically features various speckles on screen. Detail can be very strong, especially in the first half, but the latter parts (with the exception of the impressive final crowd scene) present a somewhat softer image. There are instances of dimensionality present, particularly in some of the earlier music performances, but the majority of the transfer has a flat look. Colors are a little muted in some scenes, especially considering the movie's apparent vibrant palette. Black levels and contrast are good, though there is some crush in shadow detail.
While the source could definitely benefit from restoration, the video is still acceptable if not terribly impressive. There are a few standout sequences early on, but for the most part, it's pretty average.
The Audio: Rating the Sound
'Hair' is provided in an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, along with several Dolby Digital mono and stereo tracks including Spanish, French, and Italian. Several subtitle options are presented including English SDH, Spanish, French, German and Italian.
Remixed from the film's original stereo elements, the surround track is good, but not exceptional. Dialogue and vocals are nice and clean but do have a slightly thin quality. Separation is strong across the front speakers, giving the musical elements some welcomed distinction. Surround use is subdued yet still noticeably present with several music cues, providing a decent level of immersion. Balance is good but the track as a whole seems to be mixed a bit low. Dynamics are a little flat and bass is present yet never terribly deep.
The music itself is fantastic but the audio lacks the full, encompassing qualities of modern mixes. Still, the track gets the job done just fine. Though not great, this is probably the best 'Hair' has sounded in quite some time.
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Blu-ray.com
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Hair-Blu-ray/22660/#Review
Hair Blu-ray, Video Quality 4.0 of 5
Don't be concerned when the film starts. The opening sequence in Oklahoma isn't representative of the 1080p AVC-encoded transfer. It's the title sequence, and it looks awful. The optical printing process that was standard procedure for superimposing titles over a film image until about ten years ago often "locked in" dirt and print damage, but Hair is an extreme example. It's almost as if someone went out of their way to find the grainiest, scratchiest dupe in the library for the title shots.
The image improves dramatically once the titles end. Grain, though still present, is much better controlled, and print damage, though still an occasional distraction, is a much less frequent occurrence and far less severe when it occurs. The film had multiple cinematographers, of which the lead was Forman's fellow Czech and frequent collaborator, Miroslav Ondrícek, who oversaw the difficult task of lighting large groups of dancers and stunt people in challenging outdoor locations such as Central Park. The Blu-ray lets you appreciate the extent of the crew's success. The details of Ann Roth's elaborate costume designs are on full display, showcased against the park's autumn leaves and winding paths. Black levels are sufficiently well-delineated that the dance routine for "Colored Spade", which is performed by African-Americans in a tunnel at night, plays out like the ironic dance of shadows that choreographer Twyla Tharp obviously intended.
If there were motion or compression artifacts of any kind, they escaped my attention. Colors appear to be accurate without oversaturation. Hair uses a variety of palettes, including the earth tones of Central Park in autumn, the blues and whites of the city in winter, the pastel dresses and black tuxedos of the engagement party and, of course, the dull army green at Claude's base.
One of the film's recurrent visual strategies is to "discover" a character in a large landscape filled with people, and the film did its crowd scenes the old-fashioned way, before CGI allowed crowds to be added in post-production. Scenes of this nature never had the right impact on home video, because there wasn't enough resolution to show a huge crowd in sufficient detail. But there is now.
Hair Blu-ray, Audio Quality 4.0 of 5
According to IMDb, Hair received a 70mm release, in which case there would have been a 6-track mix. This may account for the quality of the 5.1 track, presented here in DTS lossless. Unlike many remixes from matrixed surround, this track feels genuinely immersive, with a sense of the singing crowd dispersed around the entire surround field. Given how heavily the film depends on its score, and how much of the music is supported by a large chorus, this effective use of a large soundscape in a film from 1979 is a welcome surprise.
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DVDverdict.com
http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/hairbluray.php
As for the film's 1080p/1.85:1 transfer: During the opening scene of Hair (in which Claude's father drops Claude off at the train station), I groaned aloud in disappointment. It's an awful-looking scene, loaded with scratches, flecks, dirt, grime, awful detail, tons of grain—I honestly thought I was in for the worst hi-def transfer I had ever seen. Fortunately, things improve dramatically once Claude reaches New York, and remain fairly solid for the remainder of the film. Detail is excellent, flesh tones are warm and natural, there's a pleasing (and quite light) measure of natural grain left intact and black levels are impressively deep. Audio is also quite sturdy, with most of the musical numbers coming through with vigor and clarity. While there's an obvious disconnect between the dubbed vocals and what we're seeing onscreen at times, at least it sounds strong. Dialogue scenes are mostly clean and clear. The only supplement on the disc is a trailer.
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Read the blu-ray.com review carefully and then if you don't understand it, forget about Blu-ray and transfers and never upgrade.
As the review correctly states, the opening of the film is all opticals - dupes - and all that dirt and stuff is printed in and has been in every print of the film anywhere ever. What do you suppose they should do about it? Because the answer is, they can't do anything - it's the way it is, it's the way it's always been, and the way it's always going to be whether the film receives an 8K restoration or a no K restoration. I'm not sure why in this day and age this stuff isn't understood.
And why, do you suppose, does the film suddenly look excellent right after the main title opticals end? Let's all put on our thinking caps 
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Because the answer is, they can't do anything - it's the way it is, it's the way it's always been, and the way it's always going to be whether the film receives an 8K restoration or a no K restoration. I'm not sure why in this day and age this stuff isn't understood.
Actually, they could. If the original separate film elements still exist, they could remake the entire sequence, or they could digitally clean it up frame by frame -- by hand. There's only one reason they don't and one reason only -- money. Who's going to pay for it? Because it's very expensive and they know they won't make it back just selling DVDs and Blu-rays.
And that, Virginia, is why it's too bad there's no Santa Clause when it comes to film restoration.
You are making all kinds of presumptions here, because the optical sequences are cut into the camera negative and whether the original film elements exist pre-optical is unknown and frankly doubtful in a lot of cases.
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Posted: |
Jan 8, 2014 - 9:51 AM
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By: |
RoryR
(Member)
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You are making all kinds of presumptions here, because the optical sequences are cut into the camera negative and whether the original film elements exist pre-optical is unknown and frankly doubtful in a lot of cases.
No, I'm not presuming anything. I doubt very much that the pre-optical elements in this case still exist. I'm just saying that if they did, they could do that, or they could really go crazy in the digital realm and clean up everything. But I doubt anything like that would happen with a movie like HAIR.
If you what a vivid example of what is possible in film restoration, just get a copy of the first DVD of Fox's THE ROBE, look at it, turn wrong side out, then go get the Blu-ray of THE ROBE. Then, look up how much Fox spent on that restoration, and you'll get an idea of why we're generally lucky with whatever we can get out of the home video companies that looks and sounds half way decent.
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