- Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
- Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
- Resolution: 1080p/24
- Audio Codec: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Czech Dolby Digital 2.0, French DTS 5.1, Hungarian Dolby Digital 2.0, Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish (Castilian) DTS 5.1, Spanish (Latin American) Dolby Digital 5.1
- Subtitles: English SDH, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish (Castilian), Spanish (Latin American), Swedish, Thai
- Region: A (Region-Locked)
- Rating: R
- Discs: 1
- Studio: 20th Century Fox
- Blu-ray Release Date: May 24, 2011
- List Price: $29.99
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BestBuy.com:
Purchase Tigerland on Blu-ray at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:4/5]
The Film
[Rating:4.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:3/5]
Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures
(Screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG thus are meant as a general representation of the content and do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)
–
The Film
[Rating:4.5/5]
The Vietnam War is one of the most contentious wars in U.S. history, a war the country lost disastrously, that was protested furiously, and cost many, many lives. It is not difficult to fathom, then. Why there would be so many films in the post-Vietnam era dedicated to the war and its veterans. The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, and Platoon are just a few a the films dealing with the harrowing war.
Tigerland, Joel Schumacher’s 2000 film, catapulted Colin Farrell into superstardom and dealt with the Vietnam War in 1971. Set in Louisiana’s Ft. Polk, known as “Tigerland”, the last stop for thousands of soldiers before being shipped out to Vietnam, it follows a platoon’s intensive training before being shipped out. Focusing on Roland Bozz (Farrell), a troublemaking Private who also has an ability for helping soldiers find loopholes in order to get discharges, his friend Paxton (Matthew Davis), an enlisted man with 2-years of college under his belt, and the psychopath Wilson (Shea Whigham), Tigerland is a gritty and realistic look back at the waning years of this drawn out war.
Schumacher uses not only the uneasy relationship between the soldiers and their commanding officers to set the mood, but also uses the cinematography of the Super 16mm film, desaturated colors, grainy imagery, shaky cameras, and the skills of a marvelously cast ensemble to explore the gloom and incontrovertible feeling in 1971 that failure in Vietnam was imminent.
Video Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Tigerland was shot on Super 16mm film, so it can’t and won’t ever look amazing on any format. This 1.85:1 framed 1080p AVC transfer does look film-like, but it also shows some spotty source damage here and there, a bit of film judder, and has a muted color palette that won’t “pop.” Still, it looks just about as gritty and authentic to the period as the filmmaker intended.
Audio Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
The English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack has some clipping in the dialogue and uses the surround channels rather unevenly. They remain almost silent most of the time, then come alive with very audible atmospherics and some discrete sound effects during certain active scenes.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:3/5]
The supplements here allow you to get a bit of history on the real Tigerland with interviews of Vietnam veterans and the filmmakers plus go behind the scenes a bit on this film’s production, getting a view of Colin Farrell’s casting sessions. The Joel Schumacher audio commentary is also another must to get to once watching the film through on its own has lost its appeal somewhat.
The supplements provided with this release are:
- Commentary by Director Joel Schumacher
- The Real Tigerland (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 0:21.44)
- Joel Schumacher: Journey to Tigerland (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 0:10.07)
- Ross Klavan: Ode to Tigerland (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 0:10.55)
- Featurette (1.33:1; 480i/60; 0:04.16)
- Casting Session with Colin Farrell (1.33:1; 480i/60)
- Theatrical Trailer (1.33:1; 480i/60)
- TV Spot: One Man
- TV Spot: Compelling Review
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:4/5]
A stunning look back at an emotionally taxing era and one of the military’s most notorious training camps, Tigerland is a latter day classic of the war genre that should be on everyone’s A-list.
Additional Screen Captures
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[amazon-product]B004RQDMAS[/amazon-product]
BestBuy.com:
Purchase Tigerland on Blu-ray at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:4/5]
The Film
[Rating:4.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:3/5]
