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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
The Claim (2000)

The Claim (2000)

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Released 9-Apr-2002

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Western Main Menu Animation
Theatrical Trailer
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 2000
Running Time 115:53
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (56:24) Cast & Crew
Start Up Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding 2,4 Directed By Michael Winterbottom
Studio
Distributor

Twentieth Century Fox
Starring Wes Bentley
Milla Jovovich
Natassja Kinski
Peter Mullan
Sarah Polley
Case ?
RPI $36.95 Music Michael Nyman


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English for the Hearing Impaired
Italian
French
Dutch
Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    The Claim is based on Thomas Hardy's book The Mayor of Casterbridge and is set in 1860s California. It is the story of four people and the relationships between them: Daniel Dillon (Peter Mullan) is the wealthy gold prospector and virtual ruler of the township of Kingdom Come, Dalglish (Wes Bentley) the railroad engineer who has arrived to investigate the possibility of running the line through the town, Elena Burn (Nastassja Kinski) a dying woman who has come to seek out Dillon, and her daughter Hope (Sarah Polley).

    While the film is set in the spectacularly rugged and equally beautiful Sierra Nevada mountains in the midst of winter and looks absolutely sensational on the screen this is not enough to compensate for the fairly slow paced and very predictable story. The only thing going for the story is the mystery surrounding the relationship between Elena Burn, her daughter and Daniel Dillon but this mystery is half explained and half guessed before it has a chance to draw the viewer in. Similarly, the question of whether the railroad is coming to town is one that can be answered without too much contemplation. Consequently, you are left to sit through the last half of the story knowing the general outcome well in advance.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    Except for some moderate edge enhancement and a noticeable periodical jump that occurs in the image, this is a good transfer.

    This 16x9 enhanced transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 which is the original theatrical aspect ratio for this film.

    Except for intentional effects where the image was deliberately significantly out of focus, for example at 16:21 to 16:30 and 53:52 to 54:02, this was otherwise a very sharp transfer. Blacks were deep and solid without limiting the shadow detail. There was no low level noise.

    In keeping with the time period of the story and the winter season in which the story is set, the colour scheme could best be described as very muted and quite drab. The palette is limited mostly to whites, greys and browns with relatively few bright colours to be seen. There is no doubt that this colour scheme has been deliberately chosen to enhance the bleakness of the setting. Flesh tones are accurately rendered with respect to the lighting conditions. In the harsh outdoor light they are often pale, and indoors under lantern light they take on a warmer orange hue.

     These is some slight aliasing to be seen but thankfully it is very rare in this transfer. Beside the occasional small white or black mark there are several more significant film artefacts including a large white mark at 36:22, and a pair of reel change marks at 91:47 and 91:54. Occasionally some pixelization can be seen in the background. There was one additional fault in this transfer, which was a slight but noticeable jump in the image, which occurred a number of times during the film, including but not limited to these times: 13:39, 24:49, 24:52, 24:54 and 42:43.

    I sampled about 10 minutes of the English for the Hearing Impaired subtitles and found them to be very accurate, although not always word perfect. The subtitles are displayed as easily read white text at the bottom of the display and make use of the black bar.

    This disc is an RSDL disc, with the layer change placed in Chapter 9, at 56:24. Even though it takes place mid-scene it is well placed during a quiet moment when there is neither audio nor movement and consequently it causes only minimal distraction.

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

Audio

    This DVD has a very good soundtrack with only some occasional indistinct dialogue to let it down. But, thankfully, we are watching a DVD here so you can just rewind a bit, turn on the subtitles, and find out exactly what your ears missed.

    Two audio tracks are provided, these being English and Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks. I listened to the English option.

    The dialogue was generally clear and easily understood except for the occasional word or phase that tended to be drowned out in some of the noisy crowd scenes as well as the occasional hard to understand Irish accented dialogue from the Dillon character. There didn't seem to be any problems with audio sync.

    The musical score by Michael Nyman is quiet and contemplative, really capturing the mostly subdued mood of the film, and in particular the majesty of the landscape.

    The surrounds are used to provide ambience for the musical score and for sound effects. While often they are unobtrusive, they do come alive when needed.

    The subwoofer is powerfully used on a number of occasions, such as for the explosion at 25:30.

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

Extras

    The extras are limited to a theatrical trailer but at least the quality of this is better than what is often provided on our little round discs.

Menu

    The menu which is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced is a fairly bare bones effort. There is some very simple animation but no audio.

Theatrical Trailer

     The trailer, which runs for 2:09, is of similar quality to the feature and is also presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 with 16x9 enhancement and Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded audio. This is nice to see, compared to the poor quality trailers which are provided all too often.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    Except for the substitution of a Spanish soundtrack on the R1 for the Italian soundtrack on the R4 and some subtitle variations, these two discs appear to be identical. I'd choose the R4 for the superior PAL image.

Summary

    The Claim is graced with some beautiful scenery that is extremely well captured on film. However, since this is not a travelogue, the most important part of any film (for me at least) is a story that captures my attention and keeps it captured for the full running time. Unfortunately, this is where The Claim fell down.

    The video quality is good but not without some obvious flaws.

    The audio quality is very good except for some indistinct dialogue.

    The extras are limited to a trailer.
 

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Peter Cole (Surely you've got something better to do than read my bio)
Sunday, April 14, 2002
Review Equipment
DVDPioneer DV-515, using S-Video output
DisplaySony VPL-WV10HT LCD Projector on to 100" (254 cm) 16:9 ratio Screen. Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 720p.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationYamaha RXV-995
SpeakersFront L&R - B&W DM603, Centre - B&W LCR6, Rear L&R - B&W DM602, Sub - Yamaha YST-SW300

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