The Castle

[Millibar]

Just picked this up on eBay for £22. Saw this a number of times over the years on late night tv. Speaking to an Aussie on holiday this week reminded me to pick it up. Only available on an Aussie label, my expectations of a decent transfer aren’t high due to the source material but so be it.

[SillyG]

Originally Posted by Millibar

Only available on an Aussie label, my expectations of a decent transfer aren’t high due to the source material but so be it.

I picked it up a few weeks ago (first time watching the film), and the PQ was a lot better than I had expected, probably helped by my expectations being so damn low, especially given the tacky looking cover art (which appears to have been culled from screengrabs, rather than publicity stills). Sure, the film itself could use a little extra TLC and a fresh scan, but it looks fine otherwise.

My main gripe, however, is that it appears to have been cropped to 16:9, and quite a lot of shots are too tight for comfort (people's chins in close-ups being a recurring casualty). I suspect that the OAR was a little narrower, likely closer to 4:3. IMDb states 1.85:1, but I doubt that's accurate.

[micpp]

Originally Posted by SillyG

My main gripe, however, is that it appears to have been cropped to 16:9, and quite a lot of shots are too tight for comfort (people's chins in close-ups being a recurring casualty). I suspect that the OAR was a little narrower, likely closer to 4:3. IMDb states 1.85:1, but I doubt that's accurate.

Apparently (based on these ancient dvd reviews I pulled out of archive.org) the film was shot in 1.66:1 on Super 16mm film but shown at 1.85:1 theatrically, so in theory they would have framed it with being cropped down a bit in mind but whether that was actually taken into account or not is anyone's guess. There's a few comparisons between the original 4:3 DVD, an American widescreen DVD, and the remastered one that Roadshow put out that supposedly matches what's on the bluray. I will link the reviews below.

https://web.archive.org/web/20230317...s.asp?ID=10249

https://web.archive.org/web/20230317...ws.asp?ID=8513

https://web.archive.org/web/20230317...ws.asp?ID=5323

[SillyG]

Originally Posted by micpp

Apparently (based on these ancient dvd reviews I pulled out of archive.org) the film was shot in 1.66:1 on Super 16mm film but shown at 1.85:1 theatrically, so in theory they would have framed it with being cropped down a bit in mind but whether that was actually taken into account or not is anyone's guess.

More or less as I suspected. The 1.78:1 framing of the Blu-ray is too wide as too much is being cropped from the top/bottom of the frame, so, 1.66:1 makes perfect sense (I particularly loathed how the TV segments with the news and The Price Is Right were handled, which should have been framed at 4:3, if possible). It's usually TV broadcasts that wind up with 16:9 cropped versions so that the screen is filled (reminiscent of "pan & scan" versions during the days of 4:3 broadcasts), but occasionally, studios will pass those versions on to the home video releases, whether out of laziness or studios being under the misapprehension that all audiences want their TVs filled, to the detriment of the film's intended composition.

1.85:1 framing would make the film look even worse than the Blu-ray, so, I suppose we should be grateful for small mercies. I wouldn't even say that I'm a stickler for OAR as some here are, but when it's a constant source of distraction, especially for a first-time viewer of a film, then it's a problem.