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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Waterlogged (1962)

Waterlogged (1962)

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Released 16-Nov-2001

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Surfing None
Rating Rated G
Year Of Production 1962
Running Time 82:44
RSDL / Flipper No/No Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 2,4 Directed By Bruce Brown
Studio
Distributor

Warner Vision
Starring Del Cannon
Phil Edwards
Jose Angel
Case Soft Brackley-Transp
RPI $39.95 Music Bud Shank


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame Full Frame English Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio None
16x9 Enhancement No
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles French
German
Spanish
Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    Waterlogged was first released in 1962 and was the fifth film by veteran surf movie maker Bruce Brown.

    Bruce Brown had spent the previous five years making surf films and had released a new movie each summer. By the summer of 1962, Bruce was part way through making his legendary movie The Endless Summer and did not have a completed film to release that year. To solve this immediate problem, Bruce assembled Waterlogged from highlights from his four previous films Slippery When Wet, Surf Crazy, Barefoot Adventure and Surfing Hollow Days. This film contains some of the most impressive clips from the previous films and includes clips from various beaches in California, Hawaii, Mexico and Australia, showing off many of the best surfers of the time.

    If you have not seen any of Bruce Brown's early movies, Waterlogged will provide an excellent introduction to his work. If you already have each of his earlier movies, you may find Waterlogged to be quite redundant as very little new footage is included in this movie.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    The full frame transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

    As this film was shot on 16mm film the transfer is, as expected, never particularly sharp. Shadow detail is rather poor but this does not pose any real problems as nearly all scenes are shot outside in direct sunlight. There was no low level noise detectable in the transfer.

    The colours displayed are slightly muted as you would expect from a film of this type and age.

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

    Aliasing poses no problem and there were no occurrences detected during the feature.

    Constant film artefacts are present throughout. Some of the more extreme examples of these film artefacts may be seen at 8:57, 11:17 and 11:37. These artefacts are also seen on each of the other Bruce Brown releases and are a result of poor archiving of the original source material. Whilst the artefacts are frequent, they are readily able to be ignored by the viewer and prove to be only moderately distracting. Obvious grain is visible throughout the transfer as you would expect from a film of this age utilising 16mm source footage.

    A number of tape splicing artefacts may be seen during the transfer, with obvious examples at 12:40, 16:56 and 18:75. These are only slightly distracting.

    A single analogue tape error may be seen at 0:16 but as this only occurs for a single frame it might easily be missed. An obvious NTSC to PAL conversion artefact may also be seen at 20:42.

    A set of white French, German and Spanish subtitles are provided on this disc but I cannot comment on the accuracy of these titles.

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

Audio

    A single English Dolby Digital 1.0 192 kbps soundtrack is provided on the disc.

    The dialogue is always clear and easy to understand, except during the short intermission segment with Bruce Brown when the dialogue becomes slightly muffled.

    Nearly all of the transfer is presented as a voice over and consequently no problems with audio sync were detected. There are no audio dropouts during the transfer.

    The soundtrack is a combination of the four original film soundtracks from Bud Shank and other unknown composers and consequently is quite varied. It features numerous jazz and guitar numbers but works well with the on screen action.

    The surround and subwoofer channels were not utilised during the transfer.

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

Extras

    No extras are provided on this disc.

Menu

    The non-animated menu is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    Both versions of this film appear to be identical and I therefore would have no preference for either version.

Summary

    Waterlogged provides an excellent introduction to Bruce Brown's early work and if you intend to only purchase one disc from the series, this would be the obvious choice. Viewers who already own the other releases in this series will find this disc redundant.

    The video is acceptably reproduced considering the age and quality of the source materials involved.

    The mono soundtrack faithfully reproduces the original audio track.

    This disc contains no extras.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Anthony Kable (read my bio)
Tuesday, November 27, 2001
Review Equipment
DVDToshiba 1200, using S-Video output
DisplaySony KP-E41SN11. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationFront left/right: ME75b; Center: DA50ES; rear left/right: DA50ES; subwoofer: NAD 2600 (Bridged)
SpeakersFront left/right: VAF DC-X; Center: VAF DC-6; rear left/right: VAF DC-7; subwoofer: Custom NHT-1259

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