Bull Durham (1988) |
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Bull Durham (1988) |
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| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Comedy | Theatrical Trailer-2:41 | |
| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 1988 | ||
| Running Time | 103:18 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | No/No | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Language Select Then Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 2,4 | Directed By | Ron Shelton |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Twentieth Century Fox |
Starring |
Susan Sarandon Kevin Costner Tim Robbins Trey Wilson Robert Wuhl William O'Leary David Neidorf Jenny Robertson |
| Case | ? | ||
| RPI | $31.95 | Music | Michael Convertino |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | Auto Pan & Scan Encoded |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Spanish 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 for the Hearing Impaired German for the Hearing Impaired French Spanish Dutch |
Smoking | Yes |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
Bull Durham is about baseball, in about the same way that A League of Their Own is about baseball. That is to say, baseball forms the frame for a story about people.
The Durham Bulls are a minor league baseball team, playing in the Carolina league. The minor league players are still professionals, paid to play, but they lack the glamour (and pay packets!) of the major league players. The dream of young minor league players is to go to "The Show" — the major leagues. Things are different in The Show: you hit white balls for batting practice...
I can't tell exactly when this film is set. A lot of the settings feel older (some of the cars, and a lot of the furnishings, for example), but they use a radar gun to measure the speed of a pitch, and there's an Iron Maiden T-shirt in one scene. There's a 1987 calendar on the wall — that could be right.
This film starts with the professional debut of Ebby Calvin Laloosh (Tim Robbins — a fine performance as the impetuous young pitcher). He's fast, but out of control. In his first game he sets a number of new league records: he walks 18 (that's bad), but also strikes out 18 (that's impressive). And he hits the mascot twice (another new league record). The manager of the team, Joe Riggins (Trey Wilson) decides that Laloosh needs someone to baby-sit him — the job is given to Crash Davis (Kevin Costner), a catcher who has been in the minor leagues for 12 years.
The other central character, who appoints herself to baby-sit Laloosh for his first professional season, is Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon). Annie has developed the habit of picking up one player a season, and making it the best season he's ever had. Annie is a firm believer in the church of baseball. She worships at the ball park with a sidekick called Millie (Jenny Robertson). She recommends some very strange things, such as telling Laloosh to breathe through his eyelids.
This film shows some interesting insights into baseball, particularly the superstitions. The insight into the relationship between the pitcher and his catcher is particularly interesting. Crash has to sabotage Laloosh a couple of times to teach him how to behave — that's rather funny. There's a lot of spitting in baseball.
An interesting bit of trivia: this is the film where Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon fell in love.
This is an entertaining comedy about young men and growing up, and about the influence one or two older people can have on a talented youngster.
This DVD transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. It is 16x9 enhanced. The original aspect ratio is 1.85:1, so this is close enough.
The image is fairly sharp. Shadow detail is reduced, but mostly OK (check out the scene starting at 74:34 for an example of where the shadow detail is awful) because much of this film takes place in good lighting. Film grain is light, but persistent, or maybe it's a bit of over-compression. There is no low-level noise.
Colour is nicely rendered, but the production design has called for fairly dull colours for everything except the baseball games. There are no colour-related artefacts.
There are relatively few film artefacts, and those we see are tiny, such as the small black mark at 51:55, and the tiny white mark at 74:26. This is impressive stuff for a film made in 1988.
Aliasing is not a big problem, but it's common. There is very little moire, and no MPEG artefacts. The video does look a bit over-compressed, but this hasn't introduced extra artefacts.
The subtitles available include English for the Hearing Impaired. These subtitles are well-timed, easy to read, and almost word-for-word (with an occasional abbreviation).
The disc is single-sided and single-layered. There is no layer change, but it really shows in the video quality. I'd really have preferred they utilize an extra layer so that we could get a better quality result.
| Sharpness |   |
| Shadow Detail | |
| Colour | |
| Grain/Pixelization |  |
| Film-To-Video Artefacts | |
| Film Artefacts | |
| Overall | |
The soundtrack is provided in four languages. I only listened to the English, due to my sad ignorance of other languages. It's Dolby Digital 5.1, but I'm not sure why — a 2.0 soundtrack would have sufficed.
The dialogue is clear and comprehensible, but there's quite a bit of coarse language (probably authentic). There are no problems with audio sync.
Michael Convertino's score is not particularly original, but it gets the job done. There are a number of songs in the soundtrack, and they fit nicely.
The surrounds are not heavily used, merely offering a bit of ambient sound and a bit of score. The subwoofer comes in and out, but never really gets much of anything. This could just as easily have been a 2.0 surround-encoded soundtrack.
| Dialogue | |
| Audio Sync | |
| Clicks/Pops/Dropouts | |
| Surround Channel Use | |
| Subwoofer | |
| Overall | |
The menu is static and silent.
This is our only extra — a good thing it's a long one...
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
I like this movie, so when it was released (by Image) in Region 1 (early 2001) I ordered it. This version had plenty of extras, and it has that famous "Digitally Mastered THX" band across the bottom of the cover. So I wouldn't have expected it to be replaced in any hurry. Hey, I was wrong — fortunately, our readers let us know (mostly quite politely!) when we miss something, and I got a couple of e-mails... Turns out the version I have has been discontinued, and a limited release Special Edition was released by MGM in early 2002. It must have been popular, because it's being re-released in April 2003. Humorously, right now you can't buy this film in Region 1, unless you get old stock, or a second-hand version. In case you are looking at a second-hand version, I'll tell you what my copy is like (besides, I went to all the trouble of comparing the two!).
The discontinued Image Region 1 version has more extras than the Region 4, and has a slightly better transfer in most respects, but shadow detail is still poor. It's a single-sided single-layer disc, just like the Region 4.
The Region 4 disc is missing, compared to this version:
The Image Region 1 disc is missing:
There's an odd thing about this R1 disc: the subtitles on/off switch is in the Special Features menu.
The R1 soundtrack is 2.0 surround-encoded, unlike the 5.1 soundtrack on the R4, but I really don't think there's much difference in the quality of the sound.
The director's commentary is really interesting, because he wrote the film as well. He has the experience to write about minor league baseball — he played minor league baseball for a number of years. This is an insightful commentary, and I think this is a big hole in the Region 4 disc. If this disc were the only one available in Region 1, then I'd feel compelled to recommend it on this basis.
OK, now let's move on to the limited edition Region 1 disc (which is not available at the moment). It has still more extras than the Image disc. It's not in a snapper case. It's a double-sided disc, with the wide-screen version on one side and a full-screen version on the other (to be honest, I don't like that sort of disc — they're harder to handle cleanly). By the way, both Region 1 versions are claimed to be 1.85:1, but they are really 1.78:1 — all the same there, too.
According to reviews, the limited edition version has a decent transfer, perhaps somewhat better than the others — I don't have a copy to compare, so I can't tell you.
The limited edition MGM disc has, in the way of extras:
The English soundtrack is 5.1 (like the R4, unlike the Image R1). OK, so it misses the filmographies — I suspect that's not going to break too many hearts.
The disc that's being released in April 2003 is reported by some sources to be a re-release, and to be exactly the same as the limited edition version. I truly hope so, because the Amazon listing doesn't include the director's commentary, and does include a music video (that is on the earlier version only as an Easter egg). If it turns out that Amazon is right, and the director's commentary is omitted, then I have to recommend looking for a second-hand copy (nope, mine ain't for sale!). If the director's commentary is included, then buy the new version with confidence. If you only want the movie, then the Region 4 will give you just that, but because of the quality of the writer/director's commentary, I have to recommend getting a Region 1 version.
Bull Durham is an early movie in the careers of Tim Robbins and Kevin Costner, and is lots of fun.
The video quality is not wonderful, but it tells the story.
The audio quality is good, and perfectly adequate to the task.
The extra is no compensation for missing out on the commentary.
| Video | |
| Audio | |
| Extras |  |
| Plot | |
| Overall | |
| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Pioneer DV-S733A, using Component output |
| Display | Sony VPH-G70 CRT Projector, QuadScan Elite scaler (Tripler), ScreenTechnics 110. Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
| Amplification | Denon AVC-A1SE |
| Speakers | Front Left, Centre, Right: Krix Euphonix; Rears: Krix KDX-M; Subwoofer: Krix Seismix 5 |