Big Picture Big Sound

I've been itching to start reviewing some 1080p Blu-Ray Disc titles since acquiring my first title ("Hitch") back in June of 2006. But alas, the promises of hardware manufacturers to send us players for review were slow to materialize (meanwhile we've already seen and reviewed two generations of Toshiba HD-DVD players).

But now the wait is over, as we have recently acquired a Sony Playstation 3, which is not only an advanced gaming system, but is also a fairly respectable high definition Blu-ray Disc movie player. So, format wars aside, it's time to start checking out the goods, with the Blu-ray version of "Behind Enemy Lines."

The Film

If you can get past Owen Wilson in a dramatic role, rather than his usual charming but slightly offbeat comedic characters ("Wedding Crashers," "The Royal Tenenbaums," "Meet the Parents"), then you may actually enjoy this film. At first, it just didn't work for me, but eventually I came around. The gravity of the subject matter can do that.

This is a tale of a hotshot smart-ass Navy jet fighter navigator Chris Burnett (Wilson), seemingly doomed to fly pointless (and uneventful) flyovers in Bosnia toward the tail end of that country's civil war. One wrong turn propels him deep "behind enemy lines" and the rest of the film illustrates his attempts to get out alive, with or without the help of his fellow soldiers. Gene Hackman turns in a believable performance as the Admiral of Burnett's aircraft carrier, whose best intentions of rescue are thwarted by NATO commanders who are trying to keep the "big picture" in mind (a military action in disputed territory could sabotage ongoing peace efforts).

Will Burnett make it out alive, with crucial evidence damning the Bosnian leaders and military? You'll just have to watch it to find out, but the story is compelling and the action (if not always plausible) is exciting. For an alternate take, see film maven Joe Lozito's review.

The Picture

Early criticism of Blu-Ray Disc titles has stemmed mostly from the artifacts inherent in MPEG2 encoding, and the storage limitations of single-layer Blu-Ray discs (25 GB). With only 3 times the storage of a dual-layer standard DVD, it's difficult to cram in a high quality 1920x1080 (1080p) video transfer, as well as uncompressed multi-channel PCM sound (or next generation Dolby or DTS soundtrack) without running out of disc space, or using lossy video compression. And extras? Forget about it. Many of the early Blu-Ray and HD-DVD titles include the same or fewer extras when compared to their standard DVD counterparts.

"Behind Enemy Lines" is a single-layer disc, but it avoids most of the MPEG nasties by using the more efficient AVC video codec (with 18 MBPS encoding). The resulting picture is almost too good for the film in this case. In an early scene in the Admiral's office, this clean HD transfer reveals a less than stellar make-up job on Mr. Wilson. The base (or "primer" as I like to call it) is literally caked on, giving his skin tone an artificial hue and an odd texture. But that can't be blamed on the transfer. The transfer only reveals flaws in the film-making itself. The bleak, gritty scenes of war and its aftermath are offered here in rich detail and the slightly muted colors only accentuate the film's somber tone.

The film is presented in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 so you'll get black bars at the top and bottom of your HDTV screen, unless you have one of those fancy anamorphic front projectors with Cinemascope aspect screen.

The Sound

Unlike many early Blu-ray Discs, this disc does not include a 5.1-channel uncompressed PCM soundtrack. It does however, feature the new DTS-HD Master Audio lossless surround sound format. DTS-HD Master Audio is capable of reproducing the same detail as a multi-channel PCM track, but with lower bandwidth and storage requirements.

In case your current receiver does not directly support the DTS-HD Master Audio bitstream (none do, at this point), fear not, as the DTS "core" datastream embedded in the DTS-HD soundtrack is compatible with virtually any DTS receiver or processor. You can also have your player convert the DTS-HD track to multi-channel PCM, or use your player's multi-channel analog outputs in order to exploit the full quality of DTS-HD. These options provide compatibility with current receivers and processors which can decode this signal over HDMI, or via an S/PDIF digital or analog connection. The core DTS track is encoded at a high 1500 KBPS.

Technical mumbo-jumbo aside, the DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack sounded excellent, conveying soft spoken dialog as well as gut-wrenching explosions with equal aplomb. Dynamic range was also top-notch, but of course this left me leaping for my remote in an effort not to annoy the neighbors (or family members) as whispered dialog was followed by mortar and grenade explosions and gunfire.

The Extras

The extras included on the disc (two different commentary tracks, plus a high definition trailer) are fairly limited, but I'll take fewer extras if it means more data is dedicated to video and audio quality. After all, isn't this the whole point?

Final Thoughts

"Behind Enemy Lines" probably isn't on too many "top 10" lists but I've certainly seen worse films, miltary-themed and otherwise. Overall it was a fairly entertaining film, brought home with excellent audio and visual detail on Blu-Ray Disc.

Technical/Release Details

• Director: John Moore
• Story by Jim Thomas and John Thomas
• Screenplay by David Veloz and Zak Penn
• Actors: Owen Wilson, Gene Hackman, Gabriel Macht, Charles Malik Whitfield, David Keith, Joachim de Almeida
• Blu-Ray Disc release date: November 14, 2006
• MSRP: $39.98
• US Theatrical Release Date: November 30, 2001
• Feature film running time: 106 minutes
• Feature film video transfer: 1080p 16:9 HD transfer
• Aspect Ratio: Widescreen, 2.35:1
• Sound format: 5.1-channel DTS-HD Master Audio (English), Dolby Digital 5.1 (Spanish, French)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• MPAA Rating: PG-13
• Studio: Twentieth Century Fox
• Extras:
  • Commentary by director John Moore and editor Martin Smith
  • Commentary by Producers John Davis and Wyck Godfrey
  • Theatrical Trailer