I received this on Monday but I was not able to watch it until a few hours ago.
I actually enjoyed the movie a lot more this time around than the first time I saw it, about three years ago on Netflix. What draws me the most about the movie is the interaction between Debra Winger's and Theresa Russell's characters, but the standout for me is Winger's character. I know some people thought the ending was bad, or at least not on par with the rest of the movie. For me the movie is primarily a drama/psychological thriller, and perhaps because of this I felt the ending reinforces the tone of the film. The other thing is that I thought the ending also fits perfectly with the two main character's interactions and personalities. Neither of them act compulsively. Yes, we do see Theresa's character lose control twice in the film (and Winger's once), but she never does anything that would put her in a disadvantage in those two occasions. Which leads to the conclusion that if either or both of them had gotten physical (or active aggressive) during the climax, it would have gone against the characters and what makes them unique. Lastly, I read the article from the link posted here (above), by jetthead. I can definitely see why some people would have preferred this ending, but I think if Alex had given in to Catherine (the black widow) it would have undermined her character; after all, even if she was at least somewhat attracted to her, she would not have allowed it to cloud her mind. We can see this earlier in the film with her boss and co-worker. Her boss tries to flirt with her a few times, and all those times she turns him down gently, even though it is obvious that he cares for her and she likes that. Anyway, that was my little review/comment for the film. I give it a 4/5.
I was really hoping the image quality would at least be decent, and it is that and more. I watched it blown up on my projector (100in) and I did notice that it has a few specks and other small artifacts (mild-print damage, I never saw any digital artifacts), but that is about all for the negatives. For the most part detail is very well rendered. There are a few soft shots, but they are due to the camera focus at the time in which it was filmed, not the transfer. Contrast is pretty decent throughout. Colors really pop when they should (especially in the second part of the film which takes place in Hawaii), and black levels are very good as well. There is nice layer of film grain that the encode handles quite nicely. It does not hold up to recent productions (like say, from a recent Disney production), but given the age of the film the quality of the transfer is fairly impressive. Other than the mild print damage the image looks great. 4.5/5
The audio is a bit of a mixed bag, but not bad. It is not as defined or precise as I'd hoped, but again, there's not much to complain. Dialogue is clear and the score comes through well enough. Other than that there is not much more to say. There are not any action scenes or loud moments (except for a couple of times when the music is loud), so the range is fairly limited. It is a good, albeit very calm, track, but nothing memorable. 3.5/5
Overall I'm quite pleased that I bought it. I am not sure if I enjoyed it more this time around because I'm older, but I thought the story is different in a good way, which is only reinforced by great performances and very interesting characters. I would't recommend it to the average viewer/buyer, but if you like the movie it is worth the price.
I've included some pics of the case and insert:
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BLACK WIDOW (1987) - Oct 13th - Twilight Time
Linear Mode
