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Home
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Ethan C. Stevenson (26th September 2009). |
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The Film
 “Listen to me. Please. You’re like me, a homo sapien; or wise human. Life, a miracle in the universe, began around 4 billions years ago, and we humans only 200,000 years ago. Yet, we have succeeded in disrupting the balance so essential to life. Listen to this extraordinary story, which is yours, and decide what you want to do with it.” So pleads Glenn Close in the opening narration of “Home,” setting the serious tone for the extraordinary nature documentary from acclaimed aerial photographer, reporter and environmentalist, Yann Arthus-Bertrand. Released simultaneously in 181 countries on June 5th, 2009 (world Earth Day) to cinemas, online via Youtube, on DVD and Blu-ray and even French Television, the film holds the record for largest single scale release of any film in the history of films (and likely will reign champion for a long, long time). Shot in over 50 countries during the span of nearly 2 years, Arthus-Bertrand and a small crew traveled the globe capturing some of the most captivating aerial photography of our home planet I’ve ever seen. Following the path lay down by Ron Fricke over 20 years ago with his trio of moving documentaries on the 3rd planet from the sun, “Koyaanisqatsi” (1982), “Chronos” (1985) and “Baraka” (1992), “Home” is a cautionary tale about what we have done to the Earth and what we can do to reverse the impending total collapse of our climatic eco-systems. Those who like the above films, “An Inconvenient Truth” (2006) and all those many other eco-documentaries, will love this film. I admit I find it rather satisfying and I think that everyone should see it at least once, regardless of his or her political affiliations, as the message it conveys over-steps party lines. Yes, a lot of what the film “preaches” is what most would consider a “liberal view,” but at its heart this is film designed to get its viewer to seriously change their lives, to stop being so wasteful. I do not believe that the environment is a partisan issue. I don’t think that just liberals should care for the environment and I do not think that this film is propaganda. Is it preachy? Sure, but the message it preaches isn’t an awful one. Is the message of using clean energy, recycling more and taking no less and no more from the earth than we need, really a bad message to be sending? I don’t think so. Who knows, maybe I’m just an idiot idealist, but I think films like this have a good message, need to be seen and can change the world. Call me a bleeding heart liberal or whatever else you can think of, but that’s the stupid thing that I believe. If you just can’t look past the “politics” (again, I don’t think that the environment is a political issue, but, whatever), the film is still stunningly beautiful. Every minute, of every frame, of footage is so perfectly, impeccably framed, full of gorgeous scenery that you can turn the sound off if it bothers you that much, and still be entertained, nay, awestruck by the abstract majesty of our little blue planet. As for the qualities of the documentary itself, it’s extremely powerful imagery mated with an ominous instrumental score by Armand Amar evokes a strong emotional response, largely one of shame and depression if I’m honest, but the film ultimately redeems itself in the end by showcasing the ways in which humanity is already making change. And Close’s almost poetic delivery of the script reads just absolutely perfect. Yes, it’s sort of manipulative, sometimes downright depressing with the seemingly endless barrage of uncomfortable facts (statistics) about how much we waste, and occasionally is a little dry, but “Home” is undoubtedly a well made, recommendable film that, although I don’t think it needs to be seen more than once, is definitely worth that lone viewing. Although the film is available for free on Youtube (and in HD no less), this “Creative Commons” release is an edited down 93-minute version of the film. The Blu-ray (and DVD) contains the original 'Theatrical' cut of the film, running 118 minutes, restoring over 20 minutes of footage cut for the Internet version. If you want to see the true version of “Home,” run out and rent the Blu-ray version. Also on the plus side, the disc based rental will have a clearer, more satisfying picture compared to the 720p Youtube HD stream.
Video
The 1080p 24/fps AVC MPEG-4 encoded transfer on “Home,” framed in widescreen at 1.78:1, is often quite breathtaking. As is usually the case with nature documentaries, the visuals are front, center and absolutely beautiful. Comprised of gyro-stabilized high definition video and ultra-high resolution photographs, 20th Century Fox should be quite proud of what they’ve accomplished here, providing one of the nicest looking nature discs I’ve ever seen. Even more impressive that they’ve been able to cram the 2-hour feature onto a single layered BD-25 disc without any noticeable macro blocking or other artifacts. The image has absolutely perfect contrast, one of the most dimensional pictures I’ve seen of late. Colors are positively gorgeous with bold, saturated greens, deep and clear blues of the oceans and rich oranges and reds of iron heavy mountainsides. Thankfully, the transfer is free of sickly debilitating artificial enhancement – no sharpening halos, no unnecessary digital noise reduction. A few softer looking spots are sprinkled throughout the transfer, keeping it from being totally perfect, but mostly this is an impressive feat for high definition home video.
Audio
Sonics come packaged in the standard-for-Fox codec of choice, encoded in English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit), with an average bitrate of 3.8 Mbps. Although on the more reserved side of things, as nature documentaries tend to be, the lossless soundtrack is more than satisfying. Close’s narration is bright, well represented in the front of the soundstage and receives the expected bump in clarity via high-definition. A low rumble accompanies waterfalls bringing life to the otherwise reserved LFE channel. Surround activity is fairly not existent, the film stays within the front stage for vocalization and ambient effects (why some of the various winds and other sounds of nature aren’t channels to the rears more often I don’t know) but the serene, eclectic score offers nice bleed and fills the backstage from time to time. All in all this is a very nice mix, if, truthfully, it’s not exactly something that packs a lot of punch. A Dolby Digital 5.1 mix in the films original French is also offered. Optional English subtitles are included.
Extras
Not a single thing. Not even any trailers. Which is a pity, because I would have liked to see a documentary on the making of the film; especially a piece on how they were able to capture some of this astounding footage and how the film all came together.
Overall
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