The Movie
If Field of Dreams is the baseball movie for guys like me (and Big Picture Big Sound Editor Chris Boylan) who aren't the biggest baseball fans, then Bull Durham is one for the ladies. (How convenient that they both star Kevin Costner and were made just a year apart.) The story, about the lives and fortunes of a minor league team, is as much about the nuts and bolts of baseball as it is about the ways of love.
Before a talented but wild young pitcher (Tim Robbins) can progress to "the show" (the majors), he needs to be educated in the game's finer points. His teachers are a veteran catcher (Costner) and an eccentric baseball-obsessed sexpot (Susan Sarandon) who proves irresistible to these two very different men.
From here it is an exploration less of the fundamentals of the game and more about the underlying philosophies and inevitable superstitions, along with the revelation that the same traits that make a great lover make a great player, apparently. And for one of them, by the end there will be a lesson in the harsh realities of professional sports.
The Picture
The low bitrate of the video transfer -- perpetually hovering around the 20-megabit-per-second mark -- is surprising considering the reasonable running time of Bull Durham and the Blu-ray's lack of extras. Regardless, the compression takes a toll on the quality of the soft 1.85:1 image, with twitching and blotchy shadows and backgrounds which look unnatural. Not helping is the fact that this is an MPEG-2 master, not the more modern AVC or VC-1: If I wanted to go all Pete Rose, I'd bet that this was the same transfer used for the 2008 DVD reissue.
The Sound
I quickly came to the realization that this was to be a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track fraught with wasted opportunities, as when we are in a busy nightclub or a stadium full of cheering fans, but the emphasis is clearly on the front speakers, with no credible sense of presence in these environments. Maybe there's a little music or crowd noise in the rears, but this is far from a full, well-realized sound mix. Even the incidental little effects are dull.
The Extras
All of the real extras are on Disc Two, a copy of that 2008 "Collector's Edition" DVD. Want to listen to the commentary with Costner and Robbins while you're watching the Blu-ray, including the priceless, audible awkwardness between them during the star's love scene with Sarandon, the mother of Robbins' children? Well, we can't - we need to play the DVD for that. Also on the DVD are the commentary from writer/director Ron Shelton; "making of," retrospective and real-life minor league baseball featurettes; and additional, lesser frou-frou, all in standard definition, obviously.
Final Thoughts
Kudos to Shelton for demonstrating an incredibly deep understanding of the head game that comes with pro baseball, along with the sensitivity to present audiences with one of the most mature, least obnoxious romantic comedies of the 1980's. This Bull Durham isn't really ready for the majors (Blu-ray), but plays just fine in the minor leagues (DVD).
Product Details
Where to Buy:
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| Video | |
| Audio | |
| Movie | |
| Extras |
