Movies for the Holidays at Home

It’s December already. Thanksgiving is over and the Advent season has begun, with barely three weeks until Christmas now. Huge discounts on Thanksgiving weekend led to numerous sales of HDTVs and BluRay players, so many families may be looking for high-definition movies appropriate for the season. They’re in luck.

A year ago Warner Brothers released a four-disc “Essential Holiday Collection” BluRay set with the beloved “A Christmas Story” (1983), along with such popular favorites as “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” (1989) and the more recent “Elf” (2003) and “The Polar Express” (2004). Over the past few months, three of the all-time classic Christmas films have made their BluRay debuts: “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946), “A Miracle on 34th Street” (1947), and “A Christmas Carol” (1951). Not on BluRay but recently released to DVD is an interesting new documentary for the season, “The Star of Bethlehem.”

The 1951 version of “A Christmas Carol,” starring Alastair Sim as Scrooge (“Scrooge” was the film’s original title when it was released in England), belongs on the shelf of every home video library. The new BluRay edition from VCI entertainment also includes a regular DVD of the film in the package, making it perfect for people not quite ready to switch to HD or for those who might want to use the standard DVD for their kids or in their car DVD players.

This British production of Dickens’ classic novel is one of the best of the numerous versions produced over the decades. It is very well-mounted, beautifully photographed, and wonderfully acted by a distinguished cast of character actors, including Michael Hordern and a very young Patrick MacNee. It’s one of the few versions that is able to go beyond the standard and predictable dramatization of the familiar story to achieve moments that remain truly moving after multiple viewings.

VCI’s BluRay transfer is visually magnificent, restored from the original 35mm film negative and a finegrain print, reproducing the rich contrast of inky blacks, bright whites, and all the grayscale in between. The picture has a crisp clarity of every detail and the original film grain visible in its 1080p, 24fps presentation. There is a remixed 5.1 “stereo” audio track that is full of annoying echo effects, but at least there’s the option of the original mono soundtrack, which sounds reasonably good and is far preferable.

There’s also a quite interesting audio commentary recorded in 2005 with actor George Cole, who played the young Scrooge in the flashbacks. There are high-definition copies of the original British and American trailers included, along with a brief promo for other VCI releases. The only other bonus item is an optional popup trivia track that provides background tidbits superimposed over the bottom right of the picture.

The enclosed DVD includes one additional audio track with description of the action for the visually impaired, as well as an extra copy of the complete film cropped to the 16x9 format for widescreen TVs (for people who’d rather miss part of the image because they don’t like “pillarboxing” for 4x3 movies and don’t understand the zoom functions on their widescreen TV sets).

All in all, it’s a great BluRay release of a great film, with only a few minor digital glitches in the encoding (unless it was my player) that make the picture occasionally appear to skip frames, and a couple of times do very brief but odd-sounding things to the soundtrack.

“A CHRISTMAS CAROL” on BluRay
Movie: A+ Video: A- Audio: B Extras: C+

“The Star of Bethlehem,” distributed by MPower Productions and Sound Enterprises, Inc., is fairly simple as documentaries go, but presents information that is especially interesting for the Christmas season and is quite thought-provoking.

Only 65 minutes long, it is basically a recording of a lecture presentation in front of a small audience by producer and speaker Rick Larson, although there are extensive video illustrations, a few re-enacted flashbacks, and some accompanying background music. A lawyer by profession rather than a trained scientist, Larson relates how he became interested in researching possible scientific explanations for the Biblical “Star of Bethlehem” that is one of the icons of the Christmas tradition.

Larson goes through the statements made in various Biblical texts, and then using modern astronomy computer software that can precisely calculate star positions, he demonstrates how the night sky would have appeared in different places at different times. By setting it to display the sky visible from Babylon and Jerusalem around 3 B.C. and 2 B.C., it becomes obvious that major planetary conjunctions occurred against the background of constellations that had great cultural symbolism at the time, and all within the period recorded in the ancient documents.

He gives a pretty persuasive argument for the historical existence of the legendary star, with details that many may interpret as either fascinating coincidence or preordained divine providence. In only an hour, Larson devotes most of his time relating the planetary movements to the scriptural passages, including a few but not many other outside references to bolster the historical context he presents.

Although the program was shot in HD, it is available only on standard DVD at present, with a nice video transfer and fine audio. There are almost no supplementary features, however, only a pretty interesting two-minute extra sequence where he applies the same astronomical calculations to the time of Christ’s crucifixion, and a two-minute promo for the music soundtrack. There are also trailers for two other MPower films: the award-winning docudrama based on the harrowing true story of an Iranian woman’s death, “The Stoning of Soraya M,” and the award-winning documentary about genocide perpetrators and survivors in Rwanda, “As We Forgive.”

“THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM” on DVD
Movie: B+ Video: A Audio: A Extras: D-

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