The Bodyguard: Special Edition (1992)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Featurette-Memories Of The Bodyguard Music Video-I Will Always Love You Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1992
Running Time	123:56
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	Mick Jackson
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Kevin Costner Whitney Houston Gary Kemp Bill Cobbs Ralph Waite Tomas Arana Michele Lamar Richards Mike Starr Christopher Birt DeVaughn Nixon Gerry Bamman Joe Urla Tony Pierce
Case	?
RPI	$24.95	Music	David Foster Jud Friedman Allan Dennis Rich

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/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 Italian Bulgarian Romanian English for the Hearing Impaired Italian for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    If you remember the early nineties you will know that Whitney Houston was the queen of pop and that Kevin Costner was a box office king. More than a decade on, Costner is off the Hollywood A-list and Houston hasn't had a hit in years. The Bodyguard was filmed when they were both at the height of their powers. It was a massive hit and had an equally successful soundtrack.

    Frank Farmer (Costner) is an ex-secret service agent who is now in business for himself as a bodyguard for hire. Houston plays a pop diva (a real stretch), Rachel Marron, who is under threat from some unknown assassin. Farmer, against his better judgment, takes on Marron's case to protect her and her young son. Romantic issues complicate things. Tension builds with various attempts against Marron's life ultimately climaxing with a showdown at the Academy Awards.

    The screenplay for the film was written in the seventies with the original intent of Steve McQueen and Diana Ross playing the parts. Considering the screenplay was about twenty years old when the film was shot, the story seems pretty dated. The movie is still fun to watch, but it's not going to age gracefully.

    Still, this edition does offer a much better transfer than the original DVD release (I have the R1 pan and scan version and this is a huge improvement over that.) For fans, its worth picking up this Special Edition. If you haven't seen this film, watch it! It'll take you back to the early nineties.

Video

    The PAL transfer is 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The original R4 DVD release was actually superior to the R1 version. R1 had a pan and scan version on offer and R4 had a 1.78:1 widescreen version on offer. Not having seen the original R4 version it's difficult to say but I believe the SE edition has been cleaned up and is superior to the original.

    Compared to the R1 pan and scan I own this SE is fantastic.

    For the most part, colours look great. Skin tones are accurate. I don't recall any colour bleeding. Black levels hold up pretty well. There are some scenes where shadows are a bit murky but that could be because of the soft lens look used in filming.

    The film artefacts that plagued the previous release have largely been cleaned up. The transfer is by no means perfectly free of film artefacts, but they are not distracting and ugly like they used to be.

    Thankfully, edge enhancement was nowhere to be found.

    There was some minor telecine wobble, but it was brief and not distracting.

    The only issue is that there is still a considerable amount of grain. It's not an issue, but once again I think it reflects the way the film was shot.

    For a film over a decade old it is a good transfer.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio track is English Dolby Digital 5.1 at the lower bit rate of 384Kb/s.

    The dialogue came through clearly.

    Considering its been mixed from the original Dolby Stereo the track is well balanced. Surround speakers only really got a workout during music or action scenes.

    The subwoofer was not really used.

    Overall the audio track is very well done. Nothing spectacular, but it does the job well for the type of film it is.

    There is also an Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) option.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    Unfortunately studios use the term Special Edition a bit too freely these days. The extras on this disc are what I would expect on a relatively bare bones release, not a Special Edition.

Main Menu Introduction Audio & Animation

Featurette-Memories Of The Bodyguard (26:41)

    This is actually a pretty good retrospective. All the main contributors have been interviewed recently with the exception of the diva. Considering how enthusiastically Costner talks about the film it's interesting there is no commentary from him. I'm a fan of Lawrence Kasdan so it was great to see him contribute to this. Enjoyable to watch. It would have been great to have seen a recent interview with Houston though.

Music Video-I Will Always Love You

    The better the song the worse the trailer.

Theatrical Trailer

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

    Buy on price, as there is no difference between the releases.

    Sure it's dated a bit, however it is still a lot of fun.

    The video is a huge improvement over the previous edition.

    The audio is good too.

    The extras are a bit weak for a Special Edition. No commentary?

    If you are a fan, I recommend buying it. If you have the old edition you will be pleased with the transfer. Worth a look!

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall