The Official Story (Historia oficial, La) (1985)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	1985
Running Time	109:16
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Luis Puenzo
Studio Distributor	Umbrella Entertainment	Starring	Héctor Alterio Norma Aleandro Chunchuna Villafañe Hugo Arana Guillermo Battaglia Chela Ruíz Patricio Contreras María Luisa Robledo Aníbal Morixe Jorge Petraglia Analia Castro Daniel Lago Augusto Larreta
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	Atilio Stampone María Elena Walsh

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	Argentinian Dolby Digital 2.0 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    When the military government seized power in 1976, it hearlded the beginnings of a dark period in Argentina's history. With the media heavily controlled and censored, many who opposed the regime simply vanished and were subsequently executed without any form of trial. The young children of the "disappeared" were often given up for adoption to supporters of the military regime.

    The Official Story is the story of a content, middle class family in the aftermath of this military rule. Alicia (Norma Aleandro) is a naive history school teacher who believes the history found in her books. Many of her students are not so eager to believe the official line and protest constantly in her class, much to Alicia's annoyance.

  Alicia's husband, Roberto (Héctor Alterio), moves in obscure circles. Much of his business life is a mystery to Alicia, but he did support and still defends the military government.

    The family is completed with their five year old adopted daughter, Gaby (Analia Castro). Alicia and Roberto are devoted to Gaby who, being the couple's only child, doesn't miss out on much.

    With the return of freedom to the media brings open reports of evil and dark acts perpetrated by the previous government. Also, street demonstrations from the mothers of Plaza de Mayo highlight the plight of missing loved ones and, indeed, their offspring.

    An old friend of Alicia's, Ana (Chunchuna Villafañe ), returns home after many years in exile. During a late night chat, Ana tells Alicia of the horrors she endured at the hands of police. She was tortured and imprisoned because they suspected her husband of being subversive. Alicia is also shattered by Ana's revelations that young children were taken from activists and given to childless couples who supported the regime.

    Alicia realises that she had very little to do with the adoption process of her own daughter and begins to question Roberto about this. He is extremely evasive on the matter, which only serves to highten her search to find the truth about Gaby's natural parentage.

    Without her husband's knowledge, Alicia consults hospital records and government archives in her quest to find the truth, regardless of the consequences. Such actions, although brave, can hardly prepare her for such tragic evidence.

Video

    The video transfer is reasonably good, and is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 with 16x9 enhancement. The film's original aspect ratio is 1.85:1.

    The main menu is themed around the film, but is static and very basic. It features looped music from the film and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer exhibited a reasonable level of sharpness and was consistent in clarity. Blacks appeared clean, but lacked decent strength and depth. Shadows held good detail, but tended to be slightly murky on occasions.

    The use of colour in The Official Story is very isolated and controled. The very subtle and muted colours enhance the tone of the film, while still appearing quite natural.

    There were no MPEG artefacts present. In the opening minutes of the film, some very slight light and dark flucuation occurs. It is very minor and would probably go undetected by many people, especially if viewed on a 4x3 display. Thankfully, it does stop after the opening credits have finished. There were a few subtle telecine wobbles throughout the film, but overall the film-to-video artefacts are well controlled. Film artefacts were very minor and caused no real distraction while viewing.

    The only subtitles available on the DVD are English. They are yellow in colour and are quite easy to read, although sometimes the dialogue is so heavy, the subtitles disappear all too quickly from the screen.

    This is a single sided, single layer disc, so there is no layer change to negotiate.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio transfer is very good, although very modest.

    The only audio track on this DVD is Spanish, Dolby Digital 2.0 (448Kb/s). The cover slick on this release states that the language is Argentinian. Every piece of information I could find relating to The Official Story claims that the original language is, in fact, Spanish.

    Although I have no understanding of the language, the dialogue certainly sounded clear throughout the film. Likewise, audio sync appeared to be spot on.

    The original music score by Atilio Stampone and Maria Elena Walsh enhanced the mood of the film very well. Various pieces of classical music are also incorporated into the score.

    The surrounds were not used.

    The subwoofer was used very conservatively and was negligable.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    This DVD release contains no extras.

    There was an all-region US version of The Official Story released in November 2004. That edition is almost indentical to this Australian all-region version. However, the US disc does feature a Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track and, of course, a NTSC transfer. Both releases are totally void of any extras.

    The Official Story is a confronting, but moving story of evil atrocities peretrated by the military government of Argentina in the seventies. The performances by the entire cast are superb, especially the harrowing work of Norma Aleandro in the lead role. She is simply unforgetable.

    The Official Story has won many awards, including the Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film in 1986.

    The video and audio transfers are resonably good.

    The absence of any extras is a huge disappointment.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall