Raising Arizona (1987)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1987
Running Time	90:15
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Joel Coen
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Nicolas Cage Holly Hunter John Goodman
Case	Six-Sided Star Clamp
RPI	$36.95	Music	Carter Burwell

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	Czech Danish English for the Hearing Impaired Finnish Hebrew Hungarian Icelandic Norwegian Polish Portuguese Swedish	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes, Huggies constantly referred to
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Raising Arizona follows a series of events that unfold as a couple kidnap a baby and try to start a new family.

    H.I. (Nicolas Cage) is an unsuccessful convenience store robber who is a habitual repeat offender. He continually meets Ed (Holly Hunter), a police photographer, during his numerous arrests and over time they form a relationship. Vowing to give up his life of crime, the couple marry and plan to start a family. When Ed finds out she is unable to have a child the marriage is placed under considerable strain and their relationship starts to fall apart. When the pair hears about the birth of a set of quintuplets to a local couple they convince themselves that the children would be better off with them and they decide to kidnap one of the babies.

    This film is unmistakably written, directed and produced by the Coen brothers (Fargo, O Brother Where Art Thou?) and their distinctive storytelling style is seen throughout. If you are a fan of the Coen brothers work, you should definitely enjoy this film but if you have not enjoyed their other films I do not feel that this movie will change your opinion of their work.

Video

    The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is acceptably sharp throughout but does seem a little soft during some scenes. During the dark scenes the shadow detail revealed a considerable amount of information and never posed a problem for the viewer. No low level noise was detected during the transfer.

    The colours displayed in the transfer were quite natural but did appear slightly muted as often seen in older smaller budget films.

    No MPEG artefacts were detected at any stage during the transfer.

    A small number of minor aliasing artefacts were seen during the transfer. Some examples of these artefacts may be seen at 0:03, 20:37, 28:29, 61:33 and 72:54. Each of these artefacts occur for only a short period and are not distracting to the viewer.

    Various minor film artefacts may also be seen throughout the transfer. Some examples of these artefacts may be seen at 2:13, 3:04, 5:07, 8:44 and 12:01. As each of these artefacts are quite minor they are only slightly distracting. Some minor film grain is visible during the transfer.

    A slight telecine wobble may be seen during the closing credits but this is only very minimally distracting.

    Subtitles are provided in Czech, Danish, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish and English for the Hearing Impaired. I extensively sampled the English subtitles and found them to be consistently accurate.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The dialogue was clear and easy to understand at all times.

    No dropouts or problems with audio sync were detected during the transfer at any stage.

    The score by Carter Burwell is quite effective and suits the on-screen action while never drawing significant attention to itself.

    The surround channels were used throughout the transfer for effects and produced a convincing soundstage. Very little low frequency information was present in the soundtrack.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The non animated menus are presented at either 1.78:1 or 1.33:1 depending upon your player setup.

Theatrical Trailer (2:26)

    This trailer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• TV Spot

The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

• 16x9 transfer

    The 16x9 transfer on the local release clearly makes this the version of choice.

    Raising Arizona is an entertaining film that will be enjoyed by all fans of the Coen brothers' work.

    The video transfer is quite acceptable throughout and while never stunning it does not display any significant flaws.

    The Dolby Digital surround soundtrack is suitable for the material presented.

    The very minimal extras could have been enhanced with the inclusion of cast and crew biographies and filmographies.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall