Indecent Proposal (1993) |
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General | Extras | ||
Category | Drama |
Main Menu Audio & Animation Audio Commentary-Adrian Lyne (Director) |
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Rating | |||
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) |
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Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | ||
16x9 Enhancement |
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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 |
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.
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.
Sharpness | |
Shadow Detail | |
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Film-To-Video Artefacts | |
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Overall |
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.
Dialogue | |
Audio Sync | |
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Surround Channel Use | |
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Overall |
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.
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.
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.
Video | |
Audio | |
Extras | |
Plot | |
Overall |
Review Equipment | |
DVD | EAD 8000 Pro, using RGB output |
Display | NEC MP3. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Ultimate DVD Platinum. |
Audio Decoder | Naim AV2. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
Amplification | Theta Digital Intrepid |
Speakers | ML Aeon front. B&W LRC6 Centre. ML Script rear. REL Strata III SW. |