Don Shanahan
Leave it to Warner Bros. Pictures to not let a season go by without another couple of classics getting the sparkly 4K-UHD disc treatment. With this year’s Oscars right around the corner, two Academy Award-winning films, 1959’s religious epic Ben-Hur and 1976’s biographical political thriller All the President’s Men, will be available for the first time for purchase Digitally in 4K Ultra HD and on 4K UHD Blu-ray Disc on February 17. Film Obsessive was able to receive review copies of both discs for this combined “Off the Shelf” disc review.
THE FILMS
Ben-Hur
As cinema history shows, this 1959 Ben-Hur was a remake of the 1925 silent film and adapted from Lew Wallace’s 1880 novel “Ben-Hur: A Tale of Christ.” Directed by William Wyler, the film tells the tale of a member of the Jewish nobility living in Jerusalem, Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston). He lives a religious life and peacefully opposes the tyrannical occupation of Judea by Rome. When a boyhood friend, Messala (Stephen Boyd), returns to the region as a Roman official, he and Judah become estranged due to Messala’s fanatical loyalty to Rome and ruthless indifference to the fate of Judea. Casting friendship aside, Messala fabricates a charge of treason against Ben-Hur, his sister and mother, all of whom are arrested by Roman soldiers, setting up more clashes (and famous chariots) to come.
Ben-Hur went on to win 11 Oscars from 12 nominations at the 32nd Academy Awards, led by Best Picture, Best Director for Wyler, Best Actor for Heston, Best Supporting for Hugh Griffith, and Best Musical Score for Miklós Rózsa. In 1995, it was listed by the Vatican on their short list of important films on religion. At the turn of the century, Ben-Hur was well-represented in the American Institute’s “100 Years…” series of lists, including the #2 spot in the Epics list and the #72 overall film.
All the President’s Men
Made with high public interest on the heels of its actual history, All the President’s Men captured entertainment and cultural attention in 1976. The film is based on the 1974 non-fiction book of the same name by Washington Post journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. Prior Academy Award winners Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman star in this biting and suspenseful true story of the famed reporters, whose investigation of a seemingly minor hotel room break-in uncovers the greatest political scandal in United States history and leads to the downfall of President Richard Nixon.
All the President’s Men was directed by Alan J. Pakula and written by William Goldman. The headliners of Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman were joined by a choice ensemble comprised of Academy Award nominees Jack Warden and Hal Holbrook and Oscar winners Martin Balsam and Jason Robards. The film was nominated for eight Oscars at the 49th Academy Awards in a killer year against fellow greats Rocky, Network, and Taxi Driver. Pakula’s movie would win four: Best Supporting Actor for Jason Robards, Best Adapted Screenplay for Goldman, Best Art Direction, and Best Sound. On many experts’ lists, All the President’s Men stands as the finest journalism film ever made.
THE DISCS
Ben-Hur
Let’s begin with a word this physical media review column doesn’t normally use when talking about Warner Bros. classics getting the 4K-UHD upgrade: new. More often than not, for whatever half-hearted indifference comes out of marketing departments in Burbank, California, so many iconic WB films will arrive on these updated disc formats with noticeably fewer special features than their previous incarnations on Blu-ray and DVD collectors’ editions. Both Ben-Hur and All the President’s Men boast a pair of new featurettes for this release. However, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment still found a way to over-trim the rose bushes, where key items did not make it to this high-definition graduation. Welcome to damned-if-do, damned-if-you-don’t, Warner Bros.
In the case of Ben-Hur, the gold standard is the Ultimate Collector’s Edition Blu-ray release from 2011. That beefy boxed set boasted a 6K restoration of the picture and a heap of cute collectibles and small nuggets like newsreels, Academy Awards footage, and trailers. On the discs themselves, the two top special features that didn’t make the leap are “Ben-Hur: The Epic That Changed Cinema,” a nearly hour-long documentary on the film’s long-standing impact featuring George Lucas, and, the best treat, the full original silent film adaptation of Ben-Hur from 1925. You hate to see something like that lost to time.
What did make it remains strong, led by dedicated full-length tracks for a commentary by film historian T. Gene Hatcher with Charlton Heston and a score-only track showcasing Mikos Rózsa’s Award-Winning Score. Retaining some good heft are the 58-minute “Ben-Hur: The Making of an Epic” and the 78-minute “Charlton Heston & Ben-Hur: A Personal Journey” piece that brought forward Heston’s surviving family for deep reminiscence to what would be seen as his finest work. Backing those up are the “Ben-Hur: A Journey Through Pictures” slideshow and a collection of screen tests from a who’s who of performers angling for the lead roles in the late 1950s, including a young Leslie Nielsen.
The two new additions are “Ben-Hur: Anatomy of an Epic” and “The Cinematography of Scale.” Once again, it’s nice to see something new, but these are terribly short, running six and eight minutes respectively. They do boast new voices like film critic Pete Hammond and up-and-coming and Oscar-nominated Sinners director of photography Autumn Durald Arkapaw speaking on the classic, but the lightness and lack of depth show through.
The automatic saving grace when it comes to Ben-Hur sure isn’t the generic new box art, but the massive picture and sound. Warner Bros. has always done a top-notch job restoring and maintaining the biggest Oscar winner in the studio’s history. The step-up to 4K-UHD made what was one of the most perfect-looking films and previous Blu-ray transfers even better. These discs filled 166 gigabytes to flex a new 8K scan of the film from its pristine 65mm negative. The fine details widen every eye, and the Dolby Atmos sound channel joins the more theatrically true 5.1 master audio track.
All the President’s Men
As for All the President’s Men, the comparison begins with the DigiBook Blu-ray edition from 2011. Unlike Ben-Hur, that set wasn’t overflowing with pomp and circumstance and carried a greater need for visual and audio updates. This 4K-UHD brings forth an excellent new transfer and boost for that Oscar-winning sound. The 2160p Dolby Vision resolution cleaned and sharpened many details that needed improvement, creating a solid technical win for the disc release. Have that high-speed HDMI category 2 cable ready to get the full feed.
Still, the studio is committing a cardinal sin by not retaining Robert Redford’s insightful commentary track on this new 4K-UHD disc. This isn’t the first time Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has shaved a new or old commentary from a disc release, and they are starting to feel like both an endangered species and forgotten pieces of oral history that didn’t deserve to fade away. The other big pieces missing are two comprehensive feature-length documentaries. “Behind the Story” chronicled the real-life Watergate story with great depth and brought in the actual Woodward and Bernstein. Also forgotten is 2013’s modern retrospective production diary “All the President’s Men Revisited.”
Without those three thick cuts, we’re left with a bit of a diet menu of special features. Nothing left, old or new, is over 28 minutes, topped by “Telling the Truth About Lies.” Other All the President’s Men special features that are returning for 4K-UHD are “Woodward and Bernstein: Lighting the Fire,” “Out of the Shadows: The Man Who Was Deep Throat,” and a Jason Robards appearance on the Dinah! show.
The new featurettes are a pair of sub-8-minute interview pieces titled “All the President’s Men: The Film and its Influence” and “Woodward and Bernstein: A Journalism Masterclass.” Featuring journalists Dana Bash and Jake Tapper as fresh subjects celebrating the legacy and impact of All the President’s Men, they sound fancy, but are small and not much more than topical. Yet again, their inclusions count as “new” where normally “new” doesn’t happen. Even so, don’t sell or toss out your old All the President’s Men DVD or Blu-ray. That Redford commentary is too special.
