Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Adela Quested (Judy Davis) travels from England to India under the supervision of Mrs. Moore (Peggy Ashcroft) to visit Moore's son Ronny (Nigel Havers) in the 1920s. Sequestered in the English enclaves, Moore and Quested want to see the "real" India. Opportunity presents itself when a local doctor, Aziz H. Ahmed (Victor Banerjee), offers to take the ladies on an excursion to the Marabar Caves. When Adela returns injured from the expedition, the relationship between the Indians and the Brits reaches a turning point.

A Passage to India was the last movie directed by legendary filmmaker David Lean, whose other works include Lawrence of Arabia, The Bridge on the River Kwai, and Doctor Zhivago. Lean brilliantly adapted the screenplay from E.M. Forester's novel and was able to capture the racial tension prevalent during the colonial occupation. The film was nominated for 11 Academy Awards in 1984 (including Best Picture, Director, Actress, Costume Design, Art Direction, Editing, Sound, and Adapted Screenplay) and won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress (Peggy Ashcroft) and for Maurice Jarre's original score.

The 1080p presentation is mesmerizing. A Passage to India utilizes a very strong color palette that comes to life on Blu-ray. Reds leap off the screen, and the rich and colorful Indian clothing highlights the detail in crowd scenes. Black levels are close to inky with superb contrast and depth, and grain is preserved in the AVC encode, although there are a couple of nighttime scenes that are a tad noisy.

The audio is presented with both English and French Dolby TrueHD 5.1-channel soundtracks. The mix is generally clean and natural, although the ambient crowd noise occasionally overpowers the dialog. The Oscar-winning score opens up the soundstage, specifically across the rear channels, but the dynamics are a bit strained and lack punch.

The bonus materials include featurettes about E.M. Forester, David Lean, and the making of the film. Also provided is a commentary with producer Richard Goodwin that has some excellent background material on the production, ranging from casting to how Lean shot the film. I am not generally a fan of commentaries, but I found this one to be quite engaging.

Exclusive to Blu-ray is a featurette entitled "Beyond The Passage: Picture-In-Graphics Track," a trivia feature that shrinks the movie into a window and utilizes the rest of the screen for the trivia. I found this feature interesting because of the intricate details about the film that were revealed.

This film runs almost three hours, but at no time did I find myself checking the clock, which says a lot. Adapting a novel to the screen is a difficult task, especially with the subject matter presented here, but Lean did an excellent job for his final film. The video presentation is outstanding, and I hope this is the first of many classic David Lean films to find their way onto Blu-ray.

Release Date: April 15, 2008

Film: 9 out of 10
Picture: 9 out of 10
Sound: 7 out of 10

Review System

Source
Sony PlayStation 3

Display
JVC DLA-RS1 projector
Stewart FireHawk screen (76.5" wide, 16:9)

Electronics
Yamaha RX-Z11 AVR
Belkin PF60 power conditioner

Speakers
M&K S-150s (L, C, R)
M&K SS-150s (LS, RS, SBL, SBR)
SVS PC-Ultra subwoofer

Cables
Monoprice HDMI cables (source to pre/pro)
Best Deal analog-audio cables
PureLink HDC Fiber Optic HDMI Cable System (15 meters) from pre/pro to projector