Is Gandhi worth a Blind Buy for $19.99?

[Mr.White]

I went to Target this morning and saw one copy of Gandhi 25th Ann. left on the rack for 19.99,I fugured this was a good deal since I had a 5.00 Target giftcard as well,making the total 15.99 including money for Uncle Sam! Did I make a good choice,it seemed like a great price considering it's a 2 disc set to boot!!! I've been wanting to see this film for years and almost bought the DVD couple of years ago,that was much more expensive at the time by the way,was this BD purchase worth the wait? Hows the PQ,sound and extras?

[Moefiz]

Originally Posted by Mr.White

I went to Target this morning and saw one copy of Gandhi 25th Ann. left on the rack for 19.99,I fugured this was a good deal since I had a 5.00 Target giftcard as well,making the total 15.99 including money for Uncle Sam! Did I make a good choice,it seemed like a great price considering it's a 2 disc set to boot!!! I've been wanting to see this film for years and almost bought the DVD couple of years ago,that was much more expensive at the time by the way,was this BD purchase worth the wait? Hows the PQ,sound and extras?

I saw this movie way back on VHS.Its an excellent movie from the acting to direction to the cinematography.Its worth it for 15.99.

[kpkelley]

IMO, it's an excellent film with a stellar performance from Sir Ben Kingsley.


Here is some info on the disc:

Runtime: 3:11:14.463
Disc Size: 44,786,103,147 bytes
Feature Size: 43,739,265,024 bytes
Average Bitrate: 30.50 Mbps

Video:
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Resolution: 1080p
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

Audio:
Dolby TrueHD Audio English 1237 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1237 kbps / 16-bit (AC3 Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 448 kbps)
Dolby TrueHD Audio French 1180 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1180 kbps / 16-bit (AC3 Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 448 kbps)
Dolby Digital Audio Portuguese 448 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 448 kbps
Dolby Digital Audio Spanish 448 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 448 kbps
Commentary: Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps / Dolby Surround

Subtitles:
English, Arabic, Dutch, French, Portuguese, Spanish, none

The Blu-ray image has impressive moments, but the muted palette softness seems an intentional factor of the original source. Because this doesn't appear as vibrant or pristinely sharp as a new film-to-hi-def does not make the presentation weak - it towers above its DVD counterpart in all areas. It is dual-layered with the 3 hour feature taking up over 43 Gig of space on the first, of two, Blu-ray discs. Daylight scenes dominate the film and the visuals can be staggering at times if not consistently reporting abilities beyond the original appearance. This Blu-ray has a nice realistic film-like feel and close-ups are highly impressive. Grain exists though not abundantly overtaking the smoothness and clarity of the image. Contrast works well with black levels and shadow detail alike and the ever setting sun creating a perfect balance within the frame. Nothing leads me to believe that this transfer is anything but an accurate high-definition presentation of a monumental epic.

A TrueHD track but representative of its age more than anything. Some of Ravi Shankar's music dominantly comes out of the rears and the mix doesn't seem to have decent balance. I wouldn't say it is poor but it doesn't envelop the room evenly as one may have hoped. There are large crowd sounds, gunfire, trains, horses and appropriately silence that never seem to separate (even from each other) with the crispness that more modern films project in this HD track. Dialogue is clear and consistent from the center channel and there are a host of subtitle options, on both Blu-ray, (and 3 foreign language DUBs on the 1st disc) possibly leading one to believe this may be region-free - but as we have no definitive proof yet - we'll say it is region 'A' only at this point.

[fredbalsodn]

Nice find.

[borninusa]

GReat movie!

No more needs to be said, beyond 'get it'.

[kevinokev]

I saw this for the first time when it Premiered on HDNet Movies and it looked pretty good. I can only imagine the BD encode.

[Octavio]

Q: Is Gandhi worth a Blind Buy for $19.99?

A: Absolutely!

Just have in mind that Gandhi is not an action film. It's a biopic.

[Blu-Man Lover]

Am so going to pick one up at 19.99 that's a bargain for a movie like this.

[Mark Malmstrøm]

i saw Gandhi the other day - when Gandhi is Fasten (spelling? - pronouncing?) at abot 1 hour and 53 minutes into the film and almost dying from it at one of the dialouge scenes there sounds like there is a audio -problem - is that on every disc or is it a result of the film or you know?