Amsterdam blu-ray review: David O. Russell’s chaotic film is brought to Eagle by Eagle with an exceptional video that enhances its visual appeal. The audio is also excellent, but the extras are subdued.
It was certainly not the best film of David O. Russellbut despite the unfavorable criticisms and the narrative chaos that the director has packaged despite the super cast available, Amsterdam it remains an absolutely must-see product for its superfine historical reconstruction and for its undoubted visual charm. Sure, it’s a too confused work, overflowing in its ambition and evident excesses, but apart from the excellent proof of Christian Baleseeing Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Rami Malek, Robert De Niro and many other big names in one fell swoop is still an experience to live.
Now Amsterdam and the story of three friends who witness a murder in 1930 and, after being themselves suspects, looking for answers, end up discovering one of the most surprising and least known conspiracies in American history, has arrived on home video. Where the film can find its revenge, because the Eagle Pictures blu-ray that we have examined and is the subject of this review, knows how to enhance the most successful aspect of the film, or its visual magic.
A jaw-dropping video showcasing Lubezki’s photography and rich design
It is in fact a stunning video that of blu-ray of Amsterdam, which really touches the top of the format so as to sometimes wonder if you are not watching a 4K. The detail is exceptional on all the elements of the surface and the chromatic aspect is wonderful for how it manages to replicate the photography of the film without smudges and with rigorous fidelity, aimed at giving an almost dreamlike appearance to the images. David O. Russell and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki have in fact worked hard in this aspect, to give a sort of amber tone in certain scenes, with a buttery yellow mixed with brown shades to give a soft look to the images, even if in on a couple of occasions livelier shades are fired with pastel colours.
All this is reproduced in an admirable way, with an effectiveness that offers the desired look but without affecting the compactness of the picture and a detail that remains incisive in all circumstances, from crazy close-ups to bloody wounds, from costumes to settings, to all the elaborate production design full of fine visual touches. The efforts to recreate the streets of 1930s New York are also beautifully captured, but even small details like Bale’s glass eye are beautifully curated.
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Engaging Italian audio, but the original has something extra
On the audio front, Amsterdam it is offered with an Italian track in Dolby Digital Plus 7.1, certainly lively and of good quality, even if physiologically inferior to the DTS HD Master Audio 7.1 in English. Also when listening in Italian there is a wide involvement of the side channels and of the rear axle right from the first scenes, and if the dialogues are crystal clear and the soundtrack is warm and enveloping, the events of the First World War are the ones that call the most important sound effects are involved, perfect directionality: between rain showers and gunshots, there is also a robust dose of bass. In short, a very good mix, which however is exceeded in general impact and precision by the track lossless English, which in addition to more full-bodied and natural dialogues, in certain scenes has an edge in energy and generosity in the low frequencies.
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Extra subdued: only 15 minutes between behind the scenes and interviews
The extra department, on the other hand, is a bit disappointing. For a film that cost considerable production effort and about which many things could have been said, finding just one 15-and-a-half-minute featurette leaves a bad taste in the mouth. The contribution is called Welcome to Amsterdam and has a somewhat promotional cast but still offers interesting behind-the-scenes set footage and plenty of interviews with cast and crew about the concept, production, characters and making of the film. The focus is mainly on adding fictional characters to a real historical event that is not well known. Incredible as always the total immersion in the character of Christian Bale.
Conclusions
As we saw in this blu-ray review of Amsterdam, the Eagle product manages to enhance the best part of David O. Russell’s controversial film, presenting a sumptuous video and above all faithful to Emmanuel Lubezki’s photography. The audio is also of great quality, especially the English lossless, while in the extra department it could definitely be done more.
Because we like it
- A perfect video for detail, chroma and fidelity to the look of the film.
- The excellent Italian audio becomes crackling in the English track.
- The one extra is very interesting.
What’s wrong
- 15 minutes of special features are very few for such an oversized film.
