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Miracle
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Buena Vista Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (14th July 2009). |
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The Film
 Every time I begin to review a sports film, I start to sound like a broken record... after all I'm a sucker for a good sports film, the more motivational, the better. The more of an underdog, the better. And bonus points if it's based on a true story. Clichés abound and filled to the brim with overwhelmingly emotional music that makes you cheer are staples of the genre, cocky players that need additional motivation and coaching to see them through the challenges, etc. They usually end in a sugary climax that almost always sees our hero or heroes win in the face of adversity, even when they loose they still win (see "Rocky" (1976) as a good example of this). "Miracle" is another in a long line of cookie-cutter sports films that also sports the added schmaltziness of the "Disney" banner, and despite it's obvious short comings it's an entertaining film that's good to knock off 135 minutes with. "Miracle" tells the story of the U.S. Olympic Hockey Team's victory over the Soviet Union in the 1980 Winter Games. It's told from the perspective of the coach, Herb Brooks (Kurt Russell, complete with ridiculous hair cut) as he assembles the team and attempts to train them for the task ahead. The grueling training process is hard and the coach's take-no-prisoner's attitude starts to get to the players. But the final goal eventually comes into full sight as the team face their toughest challenges during the Winter Games. As mentioned before there isn't anything new the filmmakers brought to this film or its genre that we haven't already seen in a hundred other films, and tends to play on the audience's emotions a little too often, something Disney have become the masters of. And aside from the main star of this film (and by that I mean Kurt Russell) the rest of the team are largely forgettable (one exception is assistant coach Craig Patrick played by Noah Emmerich who's provides a counterpoint to Brooks' hard-assed coach) and are made up of the usual archetypes; the weak willed one, the bull-headed one... etc. you get the idea. The problem with these types of films is that there's no escaping these types of 'interchangeable' characters. Russell is the true heart and soul of this film, he brings it all and delivers a truly excellent performances that pays respect to the real man, a life that was extraordinary; taking his team to the gold medal at the games with true grit, perseverance and hard work. Russell conveys all these things in this take on Brooks and thus leaves audiences with a memorable and lasting portrait of the man behind the team. I was impressed that the film managed to capture the era well, the late 70's is in full effect here and the story itself was a rather uplifting event back then. The late 70's was a turbulent time in America, with the tail end of the oil crisis hurting the economy, the situation in Iran heating up, the fight for the Presidents office, and the cold war was colder than ever, etc. Amid all this the country needed a story to grab hold on that would lift the spirits of the people and this was just the story. It was an age old battle that went beyond politics, the Americans versus their long time enemy the Russians. It wasn't just about the cold war anymore it was about going the distance, looking your adversary in the eyes and playing it out until the very end. And that's just what they did... and had everyone on their feet cheering. Capturing the era wasn't the only thing the filmmakers did well, they also managed to capture the realism of being on the ice with camera rigs that place you amid the action. It's very much the same technique that filmmakers used to place viewers in the ring of a boxing match, only this time the ice is virtually hitting us in the face in these scenes. If anything it's highly immersive. "Miracle" is riddled with cliché, but manages to look past that and deliver a fairly good film with an engaging lead actor and an inspirational story.
Video
Presented in the film's original theatrical ratio of 2.40:1 in high-definition 1080p 24/fps and has been mastered in AVC MPEG-4 compression. Te result is a tremendously bright and natural looking image which reproduces the film's colors accurately. The image is clear and sharp, displaying excellent depth and texture, right down to the specks of ice shavings on the tips of the player's skates. Black levels are fairly bold and grain is light, the image is clean from dirt and specks which is expected considering the film is only a few years old. It's a decent upgrade from the standard definition DVD release.
Audio
Five audio tracks are included in English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround mixed at 48kHz/24-bit along with standard Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks in French, Portuguese, Spanish and Thai options. For the purposes of this review I chose to view the film with its DTS-HD audio, the soundtrack is incredibly immersive right out the gate, with the ambient sounds working well to delve viewers into the locations these characters populate. Dialogue is clear and distortion free, but it's the hockey scenes that truly shine, from the skates hitting the ice to the crowds cheering on the team during the game. The music is a little overwhelming at times, which is my only gripe with this track. Overall it's a solid effort. Optional subtitles are included in Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), English, English HoH, French, Indonesian, Korean, Malay, Portuguese, Spanish and Thai.
Extras
Buena Vista has released this film with a decent collection of extras that include an audio commentary, a series of outtakes, a documentary, four featurettes and a collection of bonus trailers. Below is a closer look at these supplements. First up is the feature-length audio commentary by the film's director Gavin O'Conner, director of photography Dan Stoloff and editor John Gilroy. The track is fairly average commentary that plainly covers the basics of the production from the story to casting and shooting, they spend a lot of time talking through the various challenges of making these types of films and these are the best parts of this track. I was particularly interested in what Stoloff had to say about his approach to shooting the film, using the various rigs that places cameras on the ice among other things. "The Making of Miracle" is the first featurette and runs for 17 minutes 52 seconds, this is your typical fluff piece EPK clip that seems to pat everyone's back about such a great job they've all done on the film. It covers the basics but doesn't really go into too much detail about the production process, it really just glosses over it and that's not really enough. "From Hockey to Hollywood: The Actor's Journey" is the next featurette which runs for 27 minutes 31 seconds, in this clip we get a closer look at the casting process. The filmmakers wanted to cast mainly unknown young actors in the role of the players on the team, it's a fairly standard approach in order to keep costs down but also so that no one cast member outshines another. The clip also takes a look at Russell's casting and performance. it's an interesting clip that's a fair bit better than the previous fluff piece on the disc. "The Sound of Miracle" is the third featurette which runs for 10 minutes 24 seconds, takes a closer look at the sound design of the film in creating an authentic sounding film and how the filmmaker's achieved this. For those interested in the more technical aspects of a film this is a really good clip to check out. "ESPN Roundtable with Linda Cohn" is a documentary that runs for 41 minutes 8 seconds and is mainly an open discussion featuring star Kurt Russell along with actual players from that team including Mike Eruzione, Jim Craig and Buzz Schneider. This is a fairly interesting roundtable discussion about hockey and the film, it's at times a promotional piece but works well to inform those that aren't in the know or want to learn more about their story. "First Impressions: Herb Brooks with Kurt Russell and the Filmmakers" is the last of the featurettes and runs for 21 minutes 13 seconds. This clip takes a closer look at the real man behind the team and this story, it's sad that Brooks died during the filming if this movie and never got to see the finished product. There's a series of outtakes that runs for 4 minutes 51 seconds and features the usual stuff here. Not worth repeated viewings. There are a collection of bonus trailers for: - "Disney" spot which runs for 51 seconds. - "G-Force" which runs for 2 minutes 41 seconds. - "Morning Light" which runs for 2 minutes 29 seconds. - "Disney Blu-ray" spot which runs for 1 minute 12 seconds. - "Disney Movie Rewards" spot which runs for 20 seconds. - "Race to Witch Mountain" which runs for 1 minutes 32. - "Earth" 2 minutes 9 seconds. - "Disney XD" spot which runs for 31 seconds. Rounding out the disc specs is the D-Box motion code enabled for those with the appropriate set-up.
Overall
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