Capricorn One (Blu-ray) (1978)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1978
Running Time	123:05 (Case: 118)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Peter Hyams
Studio Distributor	Sir Lew Grade Beyond Home Entertainment	Starring	Elliott Gould James Brolin Brenda Vaccaro Sam Waterston O.J. Simpson Hal Holbrook Karen Black Telly Savalas David Huddleston David Doyle Lee Bryant Denise Nicholas Robert Walden
Case	Amaray Variant
RPI	$19.95	Music	Jerry Goldsmith

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes, Must buy Coke! lots of Coke!
		Action In or After Credits	No

    With three minutes to go until take-off, the three astronauts (James Brolin, OJ Simpson and Sam Waterston) about to pilot the first manned flight to Mars are secretly whisked away from the cockpit of the Capricorn One and taken to a secret military base. As the rocket takes off by remote control the three are blackmailed into participating in a mojor cover up. Tests had shown that the privately manufactured life support system on-board the rocket would fail. Rather than endure the public relations, and likely funding, blow that calling off the mission would have caused, NASA have elected to fake the voyage and landing on a sound stage. If the astronauts do not cooperate their families are likely to meet a grizzly end.

    Some months into the cover up, a junior engineer in the control room notices an anomaly with the signal allegedly coming from the spacecraft. Voice and video data appears to be coming from somewhere much closer than telemetry. Shortly after he mentions this to a reporter friend (Elliott Gould), he disappears without a trace. When that reporter tries to find out what has happened to him, several attempts are made on his life. Strangely enough, this only encourages him to dig deeper.

    Capricorn One is quite a mixed bag. The concept promises for a great film, but the plot is awfully constructed. Almost as though the screenwriters saw a challenge in turning such a rich premise into the least interesting film they could. The journalistic investigation aspect, in particular, struggles to find its feet and never comfortably integrates with the rest of the story. Plenty of fine acting is spoiled by two dimensional, shamefully under-written characters. Worst of all, the film utterly fails to characterise a "bad guy" and consequently is unable to reach any kind of satisfying conclusion. The finale is absolutely laughable.

    Rent this one before you think about buying.

Video

    The film is presented in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio in 1080p, contrary to what is stated on the packaging (thankfully!) which states the film to be presented 4:3.

    The transfer is very good, given the age of the material. The image is reasonably sharp and a little grainy, certainly grainier than the best archival transfers but acceptably so. The colour palette is deep and quite accurate of film stock from the era. There is a good level of shadow detail in the image, although some of the wider black areas lack finer detail. This is certainly a substantial bump up from DVD quality, but far from reference quality.

    There is no sign of any video compression artefacts or aliasing in the image. Minimal film artefacts are present in the image, none of which are particularly larger than a flecks of dust.

    English subtitles are available for the film. Based on the portion I sampled, they appear to be accurate and reasonably well timed.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    A single English ProLogic-encoded Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kbps) audio track is present

    Occasional background hiss is noticeable in the audio, particularly when there is a lot of background audio. The dialogue is clear and reasonably easy to understand.

    Jerry Goldsmith provides a bland orchestral score that fits the film well, but is not remotely memorable. The score is presented reasonably well in the mix, but some of its nuances are undoubtedly lost amongst the background hiss.

    The surrounds feature plenty of activity for a 2.0 track, particularly at big orchestral moments and during outdoor scenes when there is plenty of background environmental audio. The subwoofer gets a bit of rumble, but not a great deal from the bottom end.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    The disc opens with a nice HD animated menu, but features no real extras.

    Capricorn One has not been released on Blu-ray in Region A. This version is identical to the the UK release.

    Numerous editions exist on DVD, the pick of which is the US Region 1 edition that includes a relatively short featurette on the politics of the film, a commentary from the director and a trailer, none of which made it onto this Blu-ray edition.

    A decent idea for a science fiction political thriller, turned into a clumsy and overlong film.

    This Blu-ray features a good transfer, on both the audio and video fronts, but has nothing in the way of extra features.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall