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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.
Indecent Proposal (1993)

Indecent Proposal (1993)

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Released 4-Sep-2002

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Drama Main Menu Audio & Animation
Audio Commentary-Adrian Lyne (Director)
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 1993
Running Time 112:10
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (55:25) Cast & Crew
Start Up Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By Adrian Lyne
Studio
Distributor

Paramount Home Entertainment
Starring Robert Redford
Demi Moore
Woody Harrelson
Oliver Platt
Seymour Cassel
Case Amaray-Transparent
RPI $39.95 Music John Barry


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.85:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English
French
Portuguese
Hebrew
Greek
Croatian
Italian
Spanish
Slovenian
English Audio Commentary
French Audio Commentary
Italian Audio Commentary
Spanish Audio Commentary
Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

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

Plot Synopsis

    It's the old $64 question - if you were desperate for money and a billionaire took a shine to the missus - would you rent her out for the night for a million, yes that's 1,000,000, dollars? The real life response to Adrian Lyne's Indecent Proposal  from a fair number of ladies was - "Why a million dollars ? - I'd sleep with Robert Redford for nothing!" Having caused a fair amount of notoriety when it was released, Indecent Proposal really stands as a vehicle for Demi Moore to reassure the world (and herself of course) that following the birth of her 2nd child she still possessed the body beautiful. The cycle was repeated again following the birth of her third child with the 1996 release of Striptease - Go Demi!

    Nearly 10 years on in the post '9/11' world, it all seems a little bit trite, but to give the film its due, it does address serious questions of morality, gambling and the destructive effects of infidelity on a relationship, even if done for the noblest of intentions. Demi Moore, as usual, gives an intense and yes, credible, performance as Diana Murphy, wife of David, played by Woody Harrison, who adopts the role of moody jilted husband. Robert Redford gives a suave performance as billionaire John Gage searching for something money can't buy and the supporting cast includes a chubby (!) Billy Bob Thornton and suitably mercenary lawyer Oliver Platt. Musical interludes are provided by Sheena Easton and Herbie Hancock and Billy Connolly guests as MC for a charity auction. The night-time shots of Las Vegas are suitably impressive and the scenes of Gage playing baccarat were filmed in a real life 'high-rollers' room.

    All three lead actors give a credible performance and there's no doubting Lyne's eye for a well-filmed love drama (see also Flashdance and Fatal Attraction), but all-in-all the credibility gap widens as the film progresses and you're left with a growing sense of disbelief as the film progresses to its unclimactic finale. It's not an unpleasant film to watch though, with plenty of eye candy, whether you're interested in Demi's silicone-enhanced curves or the various buildings featured from Woody's architectural perspective.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    The film scrubs up quite well in the video transfer - it should be good considering the anamorphic transfer, decent bit-rate and dual layer disc. Although impressive on the small domestic TV, enlargened images do show up some transfer shortcomings.

    The transfer is in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is reasonably sharp although there are many instances of soft-focus, no doubt used for effect in the frequent emotional inter-personal scenes and also to hide any skin blemishes on Ms Fabulous Body. Much of the action takes place indoors and shadow detail is good. There were occasional instances of low level noise - for example the drapes at 46:32.

    The colours were well rendered over a wide range of ambient lighting conditions ranging from the foggy sea-mist at the start of the film to the brightly lit neon displays of Las Vegas.

    There was mild aliasing throughout the film most noticeable in an early scene of roof tiles. There was slight telecine wobble most visible in the end-credits. Film artefacts were minimal and barely noticeable apart from on some 8mm home movie inserts.

    A truly cosmopolitan presentation, subtitles were available in 9 languages and even the director's commentary was available in 4 different languages. The English versions were pretty accurate to the spoken word with only an occasional colloquialism or dropped word.

    This disc is an RSDL disc, with the layer change placed invisibly between Chapters 7 and 8, at 55:25.

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

Audio

    The sound quality of this film was good, but is about as exciting as wet tissue paper, so don't go trying to show off your surround system with this one.

    There were two English tracks; the default soundtrack in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround and the director Adrian Lyne's commentary in Dolby Surround. The foreign language soundtracks in French, Italian and Spanish were also presented in Dolby Surround.

    Fortunately with a heavily dialogue-dependent film, there were no problems with speech clarity nor audio synch.

    The film was expertly scored by John Barry (better known for his soundtracks to the Bond movies) and set the mood for the feature. There was also a quick snatch of Roy Orbison's 'A Love So Beautiful'

    The surrounds were used to the absolute minimum. There was a very gentle low level ambience for most of the movie and a token swirl around for the roulette wheel scenes at the casino.

    The subwoofer slept for pretty well the whole movie but grumbled once or twice when woken by a thunderstorm.

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

Extras

Menu

    The menu is presented in 16x9 enhanced 1.78:1 format backed by an excerpt from the film score.

Director's Commentary - Adrian Lyne (Director)

    I found the director's commentary, made 10 years on from the release of the film, to be of interest and filled in some of the background info on locations and the scenes.

R4 vs R1

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

    I don't have an R1 copy but judging by R1 reviews, our video transfer would seem to be very respectable in comparison but may have lost a little edge detail.

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on:

    Overall, the two versions appear to be evenly matched.

Summary

    Indecent Proposal is a moderately interesting film and sure to spark debate still on the issues involved.

    The video quality is good, although it loses some of its lustre on projection systems or large TV screens.

    The audio quality is uninspiring though satisfactory for a film of this nature.

    There is one extra in the form of a director's commentary and this is of interest.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© John Lancaster (read my bio)
Thursday, November 07, 2002
Review Equipment
DVDEAD 8000 Pro, using RGB output
DisplayNEC MP3. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Ultimate DVD Platinum.
Audio DecoderNaim AV2. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationTheta Digital Intrepid
SpeakersML Aeon front. B&W LRC6 Centre. ML Script rear. REL Strata III SW.

Other Reviews NONE