The Cricket Box (Bradman/The Invincibles) (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Documentary	Gallery-Photo-Bradman Gallery-Photo-The Invincibles Notes-The Invincibles-Statistics
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	147:08
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Various
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Donald Bradman Alex Bedser
Case	C-Button-Version 2
RPI	$39.95	Music	Various

    The Cricket Box is a combination of 2 previously-released VHS tapes plus some additional material.

    Bradman: traces the life of Sir Donald Bradman from a boy in the outback town of Bowral to his eventual retirement after the 1948 Ashes tour of England. This documentary was originally made for inclusion in the Don Bradman Museum opened in his honour in 1990 and was narrated by Jack Egan. The archival footage used was from a variety of sources and includes both on-field and off-field material which is used to highlight the esteem that the Don was held in by both the fans of the game and even the authorities. Also included is some interesting observations by Bradman on the Bodyline series as well as snippets of interviews with other former players and various statistics on the amazing career of the great man.

    The Invincibles: this documentary is a tribute to the Australian Cricket team that went to England in 1948 to defend the ashes. This was the first ashes series since the 1938 series, and it is widely held that the Australian team, which included the likes of Sir Donald Bradman, Arthur Morris and Neil Harvey was the finest side to leave these shores. Their record stands unmatched to this day as no other team has ever left England unbeaten. The documentary covers both the details of the various matches played and also some of the off-field activities that occurred. There are interviews with former players, including Sir Alec Bedser about the depth of feeling towards the tourists, as well as the amazing popularity that cricket had immediately following the end of the Second World War. One of the more interesting aspects of this documentary is the players' attitudes towards England and the respect with which they held the people.

    This is definitely one for the collection for all those interested in cricket and its history.

Video

    Given that so much of the footage used was archival material from various newsreels of the day, you don't hope for much from this transfer. It was therefore a pleasure to find that, apart from a few very early shots which were over 80 years old, much of the vision was of a uniformly good quality with only relatively few problems.

    Both documentaries are shot in 1.33:1 Full Frame. They are, of course, not 16x9 enhanced.

    The sharpness of the black and white footage was never an issue. Some of the material exhibited occasional softness but nothing untoward. Shadow detail was only fair for the most part, but this was to be expected. Grain was omnipresent, as you would expect, but didn't become overly annoying. Low level noise was visible in some sections, but was not a major problem. 

    The colour material was of variable quality. The interviews with the various players were done on simple stages. There was some grain but it was only light. Shadow detail was mostly irrelevant since there was little background to be seen and low level noise was not an issue.

    For the most part, the black and white footage was of consistently good quality. There were no obvious problems with the grey scale that I could see. The colour footage from the interviews was a little bland and slightly over-saturated. Sir Donald had a mild case of sunburn in his interviews, but most of the others were of a reasonable quality. There was no evidence of colour bleed.

    Surprisingly enough, considering the age of the source material, there were few MPEG artefacts on offer, quite possibly showing the care with which the footage was selected (or possibly the care with which it has been stored). There was the odd, occasional pixelization but it was so minor as to be unobtrusive to most. There was the usual profusion of minor scratches, lines down the film stock and flecks of missing emulsion, but you'd be hard pressed to find anything without these minor blemishes from this vintage and to be frank they were far fewer in number than I had expected. Most other film or video artefacts were pleasantly non-existent and you will not find it a strain to watch both these documentaries on a quality system.

    This disc contains no subtitles.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    Documentaries are not noted for their exceptional sound quality since they neither need nor warrant a 5.1 implementation. This disc is presented with only an English Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track at 224 kilobits per second and this is what I listened to. Naturally, all your sound comes from the front speakers and since most of it is verbal with some incidental music it was not particularly memorable per se, but it was adequate for the material on offer.

    95% of the dialogue comes from off-screen and only the occasional footage from the various interviews, interspersed with the archival material offered any sort of chance to note synching problems. There were none to be noted and at all times the dialogue was clear and articulate.

    The music was fairly perfunctory, being basically used to fill in the gaps between the commentary and interviews. There was some interesting woodwind and drum work used at times, especially when displaying the animated headlines but mostly the music was unnoticed.

    There was no surround or LFE channel use by this soundtrack.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Gallery-Photo

Gallery-Photo

Match Statistics

    I was unable to find any release of this DVD in any other region besides Region 4.

    This will make an excellent Father's Day or Christmas present for dad (naturally). The Cricket Box is a well-presented disc with two good documentaries previously released only on VHS. The inherent superiority of picture quality does wonders for both of them and time will no longer diminish the enjoyment they bring. A very collectible item for all cricket lovers.

    The video is as good as it will ever get, most likely.

    The audio is fairly stock standard but passable.

    The extras are fairly irrelevant.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall