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Fire in the Night: The Piper Alpha Disaster
R2 - United Kingdom - Soda Pictures Review written by and copyright: Samuel Scott (28th June 2013). |
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The Film
 ***This is a technical review only. For reviews on the movie from various critics, we recommend visiting HERE.*** Fire in the Night tells the incredible story of the Piper Alpha disaster: 167 men were killed when a North Sea oil rig became an inferno at sea. For the first time a documentary presents the astonishing testimonies from the survivors who found themselves in the midst of an inferno, and through dramatic reconstruction, how they escaped the burning rig. Newly released recordings reveal how the coastguards and emergency services reacted to the disaster. Chronicling the events from the first explosion to the final rescue, Fire in the Night makes for heartstopping viewing.
Video
Soda Pictures give documentary "Fire in the Night: The Piper Alpha Disaster" its worldwide home media debut on dvd in the original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 which has been anamorphically enhanced. A mix of new and archive footage, the picture quality varies throughout, but never disappoints. As one would expect for any documentary using a large amount of archive footage, some of the transfer is of poor quality, but there is no way that documentarian Anthony Wonke, or Soda Pictures for that matter, could do anything about it. This footage however, is intense and absolutely vital to the feature, with the VHS quality actually reinforcing the news like feel of the nature of the biggest oil rig disaster to ever happen (in terms of deaths). The newly shot interview footage with survivors and rescue workers looks to be of reference quality, with extremely strong facial details and colours looking natural, particularly skintones. Various reconstructions have been filmed for the documentary, and they also look great. The disc is PAL and the feature runs 93:14.
Audio
There are two audio tracks available here: - English Dolby Digital 5.1 - English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo I selected the 5.1 track with the usual reserved opinion that 90% documentaries don't really have a requirement to make use of surround sound. Well, this track blew me away. The surrounds and LFE are only used for the score, but the power of the bass varies depending on what is being talked about or being reconstructed. The moment we get to when the disaster happens, the surrounds gather momentum and add a very tense atmosphere, without taking any emphasis on what was actually happening on screen. Dialogue is clear throughout and there were no audio dropouts, scratches or background hiss. No subtitles have been included, which people not use to the various British dialects may find hard to bear.
Extras
When it comes to extras, it's always about quality rather than quantity. In this instance, we have been provided with both in some well selected and historically important extras. We start the extras with "Grampian News Bulletins: 7/7/88 and 8/7/88" news footage which runs a total of 48:57. This is a collection of all the news footage that was aired on Scottish channel Grampian in the aftermath of the disaster. It features many interviews with survivors and experts of offshore survival, as well as footage of the disaster. There are also statements from various establishments that were involved in the rescue operation and the government both read by reporters and at press conferences. "Rescue: Piper Alpha" is a relevant episode of television show "Rescue" which lasts 25:38. This features plenty of footage from the various rescue teams and includes footage that is both frightening and exceptional in order to hopefully closer understand how well rescue operations teams coped in the event. This show aired in the late 1980s in the aftermath of the disaster, and makes for gripping viewing. "North Tonight Special: Piper Alpha" is another television special, this time from "North Tonight", running 39:49. Originally screened on July 8th 1988, this is essentially an elongated news special and features some footage we have already seen in the documentary. Again, this is an exceptional programme that captures the events more in-depth than a standard news broadcast. We finish the extras with a selection of start-up trailers: - "Armadillo" (1:03) - "Two Years at Sea" (1:04)
Overall
This is a truly gripping documentary, but it could've been improved a little by focusing more on what actually went wrong on the rig to cause the accident. The disc itself is of high quality with the perfect set of extras that really compliments the main feature.
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