When Harry Met Sally (1989)

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General		Extras
Category	Romantic Comedy	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1989
Running Time	98
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Sided	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Rob Reiner
Studio Distributor	Polygram	Starring	Billy Crystal Meg Ryan Carrie Fisher Bruno Kirby
Case	Brackley-Trans-No Lip
RPI	$34.95	Music	Marc Shaiman

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Full Frame	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (448Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Spanish Dutch	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    The years pass, and periodically, Harry and Sally bump into each other. They both meet other people, but things don't work out for either of them, and eventually Harry and Sally become good friends. So, will they get together by the end of the movie, since we, the audience, already know that they are perfect for each other? You'll just have to watch it and see.

    I really enjoyed this film, even though it is basically a formulaic romantic comedy. Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan carry their roles superbly and make this movie what it is. Billy is surprisingly serious and believable, and Meg plays a slightly less dippy character than she has in recent years. This movie relies on subtleties and good acting - some of the facial expressions from both Billy and Meg are priceless, and their timing is impeccable. The script is well-written and very cynical in its viewpoint, and it is nicely paced, never slowing down. It even throws in a few nice subplots involving Harry's and Sally's best friends - Jess (Bruno Kirby) and Marie (Carrie Fisher). And, by the way, I liked the coffee table.

Video

    The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced. There is also a Full Frame version of the movie on the other side of the disc.

    The transfer was not quite as sharp as current generation transfers, but nonetheless was quite clear. A very few scenes looked slightly washed out, but I suspect that this is how the film was shot. Shadow detail was good, though once again, just a slight step down from current generation transfers.

    The colours were reasonably rendered in this transfer, though somewhat muted at times, and slightly oversaturated at other times, but overall, there were no major problems to complain about. The second half of the movie seemed to improve in this area compared with the first half, almost as if more than one type of film stock was used to shoot the movie.

    No MPEG artefacts were seen. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of some slight telecine wobble, especially early on in the transfer, and some very minor aliasing here and there. The worst part of this transfer was the greater than expected level of film artefacts. Whilst this was not overly distracting, even considering the film's age I felt that there were too many of these artefacts to be seen, and it would have been good to have these removed.

Audio

    A few crackles and pops mar this soundtrack slightly. There is nothing major to be concerned about, but the worst pops are at 74:46, 75:31, and 88:18.

    Dialogue was clear most of the time, though occasionally a line of dialogue was a little hard to make out. This is a slight problem in this movie, which is very much a dialogue-driven movie, but not enough to be a significant bother.

    The music is a combination of old standards, and a number of tracks from Harry Connick, Jr. The music is frequently present, underscoring the action, and is very pleasing to listen to. I noted that Nora Ephron wrote this script, and I am sure that she had something to do with the choice of music - she is also responsible for such Romantic Comedy classics as Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail, both of which have similar musical scores.

     The surround channel was used frequently for music and for occasional ambience. Overall, the experience was reasonably enveloping, but some more ambience would have made this track even better.

    The .1 channel was not specifically used, however my surround sound processor sent a reasonable amount of signal to the subwoofer, mainly music.

Menu

    This DVD has been superceded by When Harry Met Sally: Special Edition.

    The video quality is of high quality, given the age of the source material, and has no significant problems.

    The audio quality is of reasonable quality, but not up to current standards. I certainly had little to complain about.

    The extras are non-existent.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall