Broadcast News (1987)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1987
Running Time	126:53
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (71:35)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	James L. Brooks
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	William Hurt Albert Brooks Holly Hunter Robert Prosky Lois Chiles Joan Cusack Peter Hackes Christian Clemenson Jack Nicholson
Case	?
RPI	$19.95	Music	Bill Conti

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	Dutch English for the Hearing Impaired French German Greek Italian Spanish Swedish French Titling German Titling Italian Titling Spanish Titling	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Broadcast News is a drama that follows one woman and her relationship with two men. There are some lovely comic moments, but this is definitely a drama, not a comedy.

    Jane Craig (Holly Hunter) is a news producer — a role that seems more like a film director than a film producer — she helps organise the gathering of footage, and supervises the cutting of that footage into a news item for inclusion in a news broadcast. She is working in the Washington bureau of a major network, although she does go on assignment (including a trip to the Nicaraguan border). She feels very strongly about the ethics of journalism — we see her emphasising to a camera crew: "we record news, we don't stage it". She's very good at her job, but every so often she unplugs the phone and bursts into tears (in privacy), for reasons that are never explained to us.

    Aaron Altman (Albert Brooks) is a news reporter — he's a top-notch journalist, and a master of language. He has been Jane's close friend for quite a while, and has never had the guts to tell her how he feels about her. He wants to be a news anchorman, but he's too good in the field. He's an excellent reporter, with a wide knowledge of news and past news.

    Tom Grunick (William Hurt) is the new news anchorman — he's a pretty face, but has no smarts. He was working on sports, and tumbled into the chance to work as anchor. He feels unsure of himself, that he doesn't know enough about "real journalism", and a bit guilty that he has been lucky — he describes himself as "no good at what I'm being successful at". We do learn that he isn't completely ignorant; he knows a lot about being an anchorman, and how to present news well — things that neither Jane nor Aaron really appreciate, or value.

    There are lots of other characters in this film, including Jack Nicholson as the network anchorman, Bill Rorish, but they are all secondary to these three. Tom's arrival pushes things into motion. Tom's interest in Jane forces Aaron to confront how he feels, and makes Jane think about how she feels, and... It's not surprising stuff, but it captures your attention and keeps it. You want to know if Jane will choose Tom or Aaron. Being set in the high-pressure world of broadcast news adds tension to what could seem a little mundane.

    This is a thoughtful and involving film, and worth the time.

Video

    This movie screened in cinemas in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1. This disc is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, but sadly is not 16x9 enhanced — that was a bad mistake, and probably contributes in a big way to the low resolution of the image.

    The image is soft. Sometimes it's only a bit soft, sometimes it's way too soft. I blame the lack of 16x9 enhancement more than the actual transfer. It's a shame, because the rest of the transfer is pretty good. Shadow detail is OK. Film grain (apart from the opening Fox logo) is not a problem. There's no low-level noise.

    Colour is fairly well rendered, and there are some vivid colours to be rendered. There are no colour-related artefacts.

    There are some small film artefacts, but they are all quite negligible.

    Due to the softness, we don't see anything significant in the way of aliasing, and no moiré. There are no obvious MPEG errors.

    There are subtitles in eight languages, including English. The English is English for the Hearing Impaired. I watched the English. The subtitles are abbreviated no more than usual; they are easy to read, and they are mostly well-timed to the dialogue — there are a couple of minor slips in the timing, but they are forgivable.

    The disc is single-sided and dual layered, RSDL formatted. The layer change is at 71:35. It's rather well-placed after a scene change on a scene that's static, at a natural pause in the sound. Nice stuff.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The soundtrack is provided in five languages, including English. I only listened to the English. It's Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded , but there's nothing much noticeable in the way of surround sound — I suspect they surround-encoded it to move the dialogue into the centre channel, which works well.

    The dialogue is clear and understandable. There are no obvious audio sync problems.

    The music is credited to Bill Conti, who has been responsible for a great many scores. This is not one of his best, but it's a workmanlike effort that doesn't draw special attention to itself.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There are no extras at all.

Menu

    The menu is static and silent. It's easy to use, perhaps because there's very little for it to offer.

    The Region 1 release was years ago (1999!). It offers similar specifications: 1.85:1, not 16x9 enhanced, Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded sound, and nothing much in the way of extras (they get a trailer that we don't). By description, their transfer may be sharper than ours, but their colours are a bit over-saturated, which is a problem we don't have.

    Looks to me like the obvious answer is to wait until they make a better disc, rather than buying either version. If you don't want to wait, I'd suggest getting the Region 4 disc, but only because it's the local product — they seem to be pretty much equivalent.

    A good movie given a bare-bones and lack-lustre presentation on DVD.

    The video quality is let down heavily by the lack of 16x9 enhancement.

    The audio quality is good enough.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall