Bright Lights, Big City (MGM) (1988)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1988
Running Time	103:10
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (57:05)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	James Bridges
Studio Distributor	MGM	Starring	Michael J. Fox Kiefer Sutherland Phoebe Cates Swoosie Kurtz Frances Sternhagen Tracy Pollan John Houseman Charlie Schlatter David Warrilow Dianne Wiest Alec Mapa William Hickey Gina Belafonte
Case	?
RPI	$19.95	Music	Donald Fagen Prince

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Auto Pan & Scan Encoded	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French 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	English for the Hearing Impaired German for the Hearing Impaired French Italian Spanish Dutch Swedish Finnish Norwegian Danish Greek Hungarian	Smoking	Yes, and drug use, and bad language, and...
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    At the height of his career, Michael J. Fox did something very daring – he pushed a commercial studio into making a very art house film.

    Based on the controversial bestselling novel by Jay McInerney (who also adapted his book for the screen), Bright Lights, Big City tells the tale of Jamie Conway (Michael J. Fox), a struggling writer who goes to New York to make his fortune and winds up working as a research editor for the prestigious Gotham Magazine during a bad case of writer’s block. His famous model wife has left him without explanation, his best friend is a coke snorting womaniser, and his small town family past is something he is trying desperately to avoid dealing with. Haunted by the tabloid stories of a baby encased in its comatose mother and memories of his own mother suffering from cancer, Jamie drifts aimlessly, caught up in the New York night life, addicted to cocaine, persistently self-medicating with whatever drugs he can get his hands on, and spiralling ever downward into a cycle of addiction, alienation and self-destruction.

    Ultimately, Bright Lights, Big City is a very moving tale, and one that I have revisited many times over the years. It is not quite as good as the novel, but very rarely is that the case. The novel catches essences of human experience that, try as they might, the director and actors cannot quite replicate for the screen. But they put in a valiant effort, and I will be so bold as to state that this is truly an undiscovered classic, overlooked in its day by a studio that didn’t know how to market its product, and yet deeply reflective of its times in a way that many other 80s movies just fail to encapsulate. Indeed, the older it gets (and I get) the truer and better this film seems.

    Much of the overall effect of this film has to do with Michael J. Fox’s depiction of a haunted young man coming apart at the seams and yet totally oblivious to his own path of self-destruction. This is not to detract from the capable talents of Kiefer Sutherland, who puts in a brilliant performance as the sleazy coked-up Tad Allagash, and adds whole new dimensions to the film. But it is the novelty of seeing Michael J. Fox not play Michael J. Fox – that cool teen epitomised by his popular films of the mid to late 1980s, such as Back To The Future, Teen Wolf and The Secret Of My Success – which makes this performance so worthy of scrutiny. It is unfortunate that this young star’s health deteriorated to the point that he can no longer exhibit his talents on screen as it would have been interesting to see what would have happened had his career been allowed to take a dramatic rather than comedic turn. Sure, we had many a fine year of Spin City, but Michael J. Fox was always born to be a big screen star.

    This will not be to everybody’s tastes, and it is not quite a perfect film. But it is unusual and affecting, and for that reason it stands out from the crowd of multiplex fillers and overly artistic alternative cinema that loses itself in its own attempts to be avant garde. A fine work of cinema driven by an outstanding performance, this film awaits rediscovery on DVD – do yourself a favour and check it out.

Video

    Presented in the original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, 16x9 enhanced, auto Pan & Scan encoded, I have never seen this film looking so good.

    Colours are rich and vibrant, skin tones well balanced, and shadow detail is quite good. There is an overall mild graininess that is attributable to the age of the movie and the film stock used, but otherwise this is a sharp and clear image, and one of the better reproductions of an 80s film that I have seen.

    There are no MPEG artefacts and no noticeable film-to-video transfer artefacts, which is surprising given the penchant for tweed jackets that several of the cast members wear.

    There was some dirt on the print, but overall this was very minimal. The worst film artefacts were some strange white lines that ran down the screen during the opening credits.

    The worst thing about this transfer is that the title sequences in between the days have been changed. While you can hear the typing, no words appear on the screen, and instead we get a subtitle which is not half as effective.

    Subtitles are available in a plethora of languages. They appear as white with a grey border, are easy to read, and follow the dialogue pretty closely.

    The dual layer pause comes at 57:05. It is during a scene change, and is moderately noticeable, but not too jarring. At least it doesn’t cut into anybody’s lines.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    Audio is available in 2.0 Dolby Stereo in English, German, French, Italian and Spanish.

    The English track is surprisingly good, exhibiting excellent clarity and fidelity. There was a surprising amount of left-right directional action, and at times it seemed as if the front speakers were throwing sound up from behind. Very nicely mixed.

    Dialogue was spot on, with only the mildest of audio sync issues. Unless you’re looking for these faults, though, you won’t notice them.

    There is a collection of quality 80s club music here, which is slightly obscure but still pretty good. The score itself by Donald Fagen is well mixed and effective and never overused.

    There was no use of the rears and the subwoofer remained dormant, which is a bit of a shame. However, given that much of this film is dialogue driven, it was far more important that the dialogue be clearly and faithfully reproduced.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menus

    All menus are 16x9 enhanced and silent.

Theatrical Trailer (1:24)

    The trailer is presented in 1.85:1, 16x9 enhanced. The trailer is not bad for its day, although the studio I think were a little baffled by their own product.

    The R1 version is available in Pan & Scan only, which greatly upset many fans. Do yourself a favour and pick it up in R4 – the subtitling glitch in the transitional scenes aside, our transfer is excellent.

    Bright Lights, Big City gets better with age. It also has a fantastic out-of-character performance by a young actor cut off in his prime by a debilitating disease. If you’ve never seen it, and you lived through the 80s, I suggest you get hold of a copy.

    The video is very good, although I was a little disappointed about the change to the interconnecting sequences – I liked the typing with the delayed punctuation - it was just another quirky thing that added to the film.

    The 2.0 Dolby Stereo track is excellent, although a 5.1 Dolby digital remix would have been nice.

    The theatrical trailer reminds me of advertising in the 80s and makes me laugh. Maybe it will do the same for you? I think this was a wasted opportunity, though, to get Michael J. Fox into the studio and talk about why he did this film when he did it, and also to hear Kiefer Sutherland’s take on this movie. Oh well, spilt milk...

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall