Tootsie (1982)

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General		Extras
Category	Romantic Comedy	Theatrical Trailer Trailer-Peggy Sue Got Married; Fools Rush In Filmographies-Cast & Crew
Rating
Year Of Production	1982
Running Time	111:44
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (70:22)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Sydney Pollack
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Dustin Hoffman Jessica Lange Teri Garr Bill Murray Dabney Coleman George Gaynes Geena Davis Doris Belack Charles Durning
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	Dave Grusin

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.0 (448Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French German Italian Spanish Dutch Arabic Bulgarian Czech Danish Finnish Greek Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Norwegian Polish Portuguese Swedish Turkish	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    I was reluctant to go see this film when it appeared in the cinema - it looked a bit silly, and I was dating a new girl, and I didn't want to look foolish (yeah, well, not more foolish than I could help, anyway). But we saw the trailer for it before something else (no, I don't remember what), and she rather liked the sound of it, so I gave in. I enjoyed it, possibly even more than she did, and I didn't look foolish. Some years later, when we were married, we got this out on video, and enjoyed it again.

    It's twenty years later, and this is still an enjoyable film. If anything, the plot is even more credible, and I can't tell you why. Maybe it's that I am much closer in age to Michael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman) - I can understand how he feels about having worked at his trade for 20 years, and being unappreciated and unwanted (not that I am in that situation, but I have been working for 20 years...).

    Michael Dorsey is the actor no one wants to hire, because he is too much trouble. He's a perfectionist. He refuses to take direction if it disagrees with his insight into the character he is playing (any suggestion that Dustin Hoffman was playing himself is slanderous, so I won't even hint at it). Michael wants to land some role, any role, so he can raise $8000 to produce a play written by his flatmate, Jeff (Bill Murray, in an understated role that really suits him), and starring Michael and Sandy (Teri Garr). Michael can't get anything, not even a commercial. He helps Sandy prepare for an audition for a soap, but she doesn't get the part. After a confrontation with his agent, George Fields (played by director Sydney Pollack), Michael decides to land a role on his own - he dresses as a woman, calls himself Dorothy Michaels, and auditions for the part Sandy didn't get. He gets the part. And that's where the real fun begins. Now he is a male actor, secretly playing the part of a female actor, playing a part on a hospital soap called Southwest General (hmm, I guess it's a general hospital...). Hey, at least he's raking in enough money to finance the play!

    What Michael doesn't count on is two things. First, he is actually successful as an actress (he even remarks that Dorothy is smarter than he is - he means better at handling directors). Second, he is falling for the leading lady on the soap.

    I was really delighted to find that this film is at least as funny now as it was 20 years ago. And the climactic scene (if you remember the movie, I think you'll remember the scene) is still excruciatingly funny.

    Recommended without hesitation - a very funny comedy with a light dusting of romance.

Video

    This DVD is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and is 16x9 enhanced. I believe that to be the original theatrical ratio - this is a Panavision film.

    The image is excellent - fairly sharp, with good shadow detail and no trace of low-level noise. There's only one scene that's dimly lit, and that scene looks quite good. There is some light film grain on occasion, but it is not at all distracting

    Colour has faded only a smidgeon from the original (this was only impressed on me when I saw the R1 transfer - it is a touch brighter). There are no colour-related artefacts.

    There are few film artefacts in this transfer, and they are barely visible. There is some aliasing, but it never really bothered me. There's one moment of moire (fairly minor). There's no shimmer.

    There are subtitles in lots of languages, including English. They are accurate, well-timed, and quite easy to read.

    The disc is single-sided, RSDL. The layer change is at 70:22, and it is one of the best ones you'll see - it is virtually invisible.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The soundtrack is provided in five languages, one of which is English, in Dolby Digital 5.0 - that's what I listened to.

    The dialogue is easy to understand. There are no audio sync problems.

    Dave Grusin's score suits the film well.

    It's a 5.0 soundtrack, but you'd never guess it. It is a completely frontal presentation - your front speakers will be the only ones in use.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The menu is static and silent, and quite simple.

Trailers

    We get three trailers, all of them for DVDs I've reviewed:

• Tootsie (1:20)
• Peggy Sue Got Married (2:07)
• Fools Rush In (2:28)

Filmographies

    These are single page filmographies:

• Sydney Pollack (director / George Fields)
• Dustin Hoffman (Michael Dorsey)
• Bill Murray (Jeff)
• Jessica Lange (Julie Nichols)

    The Region 1 disc was released a while back. It is one of those discs that seem to be fairly common in Region 1, and very uncommon here in Region 4 - a single-layer, double-sided, disc with a widescreen presentation on one side, and a full-screen presentation on the other. The R1 version has much the same extras (same menu, same filmographies, and three trailers, albeit for different films).

    With the R4 spreading the film over two layers, and the R1 cramming it into one layer, you'd expect the R4 to be superior, wouldn't you? Sorry to say, that's not the case. The R1 transfer is very slightly better - it has no aliasing, the R4 has some; it has slightly brighter colours. Even so, there is really nothing wrong with the R4 disc - you could be happy with either.

    Tootsie is a funny film, with a dash of romance, on a rather good DVD.

    The video quality is quite good.

    The audio quality is good, but one wonders why it is 5.1.

    The extras are fairly basic.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall