In light of recent announcements, Columbia/Tristar is in the midst of the most ambitious remastering effort since Turner bought the MGM library. The most recent laser release is the film version of The Who's now classic rock opera, 'Tommy'. Directed by Ken Russell and starring a luscious looking Ann-Margret, Oliver Reed and Roger Daltry. The equally interesting supporting cast includes the likes of Eric Clapton, Jack Nicholson, Tina Turner, Elton John and a number of rock stars of the day including the rest of The Who. I have considered Ken Russell to be an aquired taste (one that I haven't usually aquired), but his visual style perfectly compliments this material (which is probably why The Who asked him to make the picture).
The video transfer for this disc is, quite simply, stunning. When one considers that this was made from 20 year old elements, it borders on unbelievable. Before the film even started, I knew this was something special. The FBI warning on the red background, normally very noisy, appeared unusually clean. This did indeed prove to be the case in the rest of the program. The image on this disc exhibits a clarity and smoothness unsurpassed by even the best of THX. The opening shot is Tommy's father in silhouette against a huge setting sun with an orange sky. Not a trace of chroma noise. The sun sets and the sky fades to a light gray and now, even backlit, details in the character's face come out. There are also a number of scenes that use red lighting, almost impossible for video to render clearly, that look as good or better than any I have seen before. The film was shot flat and the framing on this transfer is matted to about 1.85:1. Compositions look consistantly well balanced.
The last line of the review in Maltin's book is "Loss of multi-channel sound on TV may diminish effectiveness". Well, maybe if you live on planet VHS. Here in the land of the 'silver circle' no such problem exists. The jacket indicates this is a 'restored stereo soundtrack'. While certainly not a 'Terminator 2' or a 'Tombstone', the Dolby mix provides good depth and spaciousness to the music with clear and well centered vocals.
'Tommy' runs 108 minutes and contains 27 chapters making it easy to find a favorite song. List price is $34.95 and well worth it.
Columbia has announced a number of remastered discs to be released in the next several months. If the quality of the transfer on 'Tommy' is any indication of what can be expected for future reissues, there should be some very interesting discs coming our way.
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