Title: Kelly’s Heroes/Where Eagles Dare (1968-1970)
BD-50 Dual-Layer Disc/Two Disc Set
Video: 1080p/VC-1
Audio: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, & Italian
Run time: 293 minutes
Studio: Warner Home Entertainment
Rating: PG
Region Coding: Region Free
Equipment used for review: Sharp LC-46SB57UN 46″ 120Hz 1080p LCD (24fps), Onkyo TX-SR606 7.1 Receiver, Onkyo SKS-HT540 7.1, & LG BH200 Super Blu
Cast/Crew Info:
Clint Eastwood as Pvt. Kelly
Telly Savalas as MSgt. Big Joe
Don Rickles as SSgt. Crapgame
Carroll O’Connor as Maj. Gen. Colt
Donald Sutherland as Sgt. Oddball
Gavin MacLeod as Moriarty
Richard Burton as Maj. Jonathan Smith, MC
Clint Eastwood as Lt. Morris Schaffer
Mary Ure as Mary Elison
Patrick Wymark as Col. Wyatt Turner, DSO MC
Michael Hordern as Adm. Rolland
Directed by Brian G. Hutton
My take: (the breakdown)
Both Kelly’s Heroes and Where Eagles Dare are undoubtedly two of the best World War II era films made during the 60s or 70s and are now they have finally made their way to high def in one package. When a platoon of American soldiers stumbles onto the fact that 16 million dollars worth of gold bars have been stored by the Germans at a French town known as Clermont they decide to mount a mission to snatch the gold. The town is 30 miles behind enemy lines and they will have to face death around every turn to get to it. These soldiers are just normal men, but under Kelly’s command they’ll have to become heroes if they want the gold.
When British and American intelligence discover that a General Carnaby has been shot down in the Bavarian Alps they are almost certain he is being held for interrogation at a near impregnable castle only 10 miles from the crash site. Under control of MI6 a team of seven commandos is organized to rescue the general before he reveals the detail of a second front. With Major Smith and Lieutenant Schaffer leading the team’s way they have a slim chance to penetrate the castle, rescue the general, and escape with their lives.
Both of these films really shine on Blu-ray, but I will say that Kelly’s Heroes has a slightly cleaner print. Both have well saturated colors from start to finish without any wavering ir bleeding causing any problems. Flesh tones appear to be accurate as well with each transfer, which was sigh of relief. Grain is heavy in both films, but it never becomes noisy or inconsistent. Besides being slightly dirtier, Where Eagles Dare also has several effects shots that do not hold up well in 1080p. Both films also have a few instances of unresolved blacks, but on the whole they are more than adequately handled. Considering the age of these titles I was extremely impressed by their debut on Blu-ray.
Both films sport a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track that was better than expected. Dialogue is well prioritized and rarely gets lost in the mix during the action oriented sequences. Surrounds are used for mainly the films’ wonderful musical scores, but don’t really see much use in the form of discrete effects. Despite these mixes being predominately front heavy I still felt each track was handled extremely well. The LFE does manage to come alive in the form of explosions and gunfire, but it is rather weak and I imagine this is simply due to the age of the source.
Kelly’s Heroes comes with the film’s theatrical trailer and that’s all. Where Eagles Dare comes with a decent making of feature and its respective trailer.
Kelly’s Heroes
Movie: 8/10
VQ: 8/10
AQ: 7/10
Supplements: .5/10
Final word: A Must Own
Where Eagles Dare
Movie: 8/10
VQ: 7.5/10
AQ: 7/10
Supplements: 1/10
Final word: A Must Own
The screen captures below have a resolution of 1024 x 576 (originally 1920 x 1080) to help with load times. Thanks goes to Photobucket for their excellent image hosting and to the readers of this review.
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