Downfall (Oliver Hirschbiegel)

[Russell_L]

My copy of 'Downfall' arrived today from Amazon UK--amazingly fast, since I received the e-mail notification on Saturday (January 10) that they had shipped it. (Just 2 days from the UK to the west coast of the US!) I've only had a chance to spot-check the disc, but I can confirm that it's region-free and the PQ is superior to the US DVD (issued by Sony). The gain in clarity is amazing over the already pretty decent DVD. (There's also a fair amount of grain, which should please purists.) The English subtitles are indeed hard-coded (as they are for the US DVD). The AQ on both discs is only Dolby Digital. BUT, the director's commentary (in English) on the DVD is absent from the BD, which is REALLY disappointing. Otherwise, the BD appears to have the same supplements as the DVD plus a few others. I just might have to keep the DVD for the director's commentary.....

BTW, the DVD states the running time as 155 minutes while the BD says 149 minutes. I strongly suspect this is a misprint taken from the UK DVD accounting for the 4% PAL speedup (which wouldn't apply to the BD), since 155 = 149 x 1.04. The BD does play at 24 fps and I verified that it goes for 155 minutes (through the end credits).