A couple weeks ago, a local community event space put up a makeshift screen and hosted a viewing of Luc Besson’s 1997 sci-fi epic The Fifth Element in my neighborhood. Although admittedly not, on a technical level, the best cinematic experience I’ve had in my life, and certainly not up to my usual home theater standards, the movie is very fun to watch with an audience, and my kids had never seen it before. We all had a good time. Most importantly, it reminded me how much I love this wonderfully silly movie, and why I’ve owned so many copies of it on home video over the years.

Unlike some other films I’ve obsessed over, I can’t claim to own every edition of The Fifth Element on every home video format it’s ever been released on. Because the movie was originally produced and released during the videodisc era, I happily skipped over any VHS copies of it, especially those in pan & scan format. I had no interest in that. I also eventually sold or traded off early DVD versions when I later upgraded to better Special Editions. Nonetheless, I still have a bunch of copies of The Fifth Element on Laserdisc, DVD, Blu-ray, and (most recently) 4K Ultra HD in my collection.

Notes

• Click on photos to enlarge.
• Within each section, titles are arranged chronologically by order of release, from earliest to latest.
• These charts are best viewed on a computer monitor. At the very least, try turning your mobile device to landscape orientation.

Laserdisc	Blu-ray
DVD	4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

Laserdisc

	Video Format: Laserdisc (NTSC) Country of Release: United States Label: Columbia Tri-Star Home Video Year of Release: 1997 Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 letterbox Audio: PCM 2.0, Dolby Digital 5.1	Released late in the format’s life, the Laserdisc edition of The Fifth Element was often regarded as one of the best-looking video transfers available (by the standards of the time). Unfortunately, as a Columbia Tri-Star release, copies pressed at the notorious Sony DADC USA manufacturing plant were highly susceptible to failure from laser rot. Those pressed at the Pioneer USA facility were more likely to be stable. The only way to tell them apart was to look at mint markings on the discs themselves, which led to a great many copies being purchased and quickly returned to retailers. The Laserdisc also had a very energetic Dolby Digital AC-3 5.1 soundtrack for those with the appropriate hardware to decode it, but the disc offered no bonus features.
	Video Format: Laserdisc (NTSC) Country of Release: Japan Label: Victor Year of Release: 1998 Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 letterbox Audio: PCM 2.0, Dolby Digital 5.1	The Japanese Laserdisc release of the film was coveted by collectors for its unique cover art, superior gatefold jacket, and inclusion of a making-of featurette. The pressing was also far less likely to suffer laser rot. Unfortunately, while most Japanese Laserdiscs of English-language films with a 2.35:1 aspect ratio would restrict Japanese subtitles to the lower letterbox bar where they could be easily ignored (or masked off), the subtitles on this one sometimes intrude into the movie image.

DVD

In the United States, The Fifth Element first appeared on DVD in late 1997. It was reissued later with a Superbit remaster in 2001 and an Ultimate Edition (essentially the Superbit transfer, but with some bonus features added on) in 2005. I owned all of those discs when they came out, but no longer have them. The two DVD copies I’ve kept in my collection are both foreign editions from Europe.

	Remastered Deluxe Edition Video Format: DVD (PAL) Country of Release: Germany Label: BMG Video Year of Release: 2001 Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen Audio: DTS-ES 6.1, Dolby Digital 5.1	The German Remastered Deluxe Edition DVD was released one month prior to the American Superbit edition and beat it to the punch by offering the movie’s soundtrack in then-desirable DTS format – a benefit that was regrettably overridden by the effects of PAL speed-up. More importantly, the disc boasted a host of bonus features, including a making-of documentary and a few featurettes, some of which (not all) are English-friendly.
	2 Disc Special Edition Video Format: DVD (PAL) Country of Release: UK Label: Pathé Distribution Year of Release: 2004 Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen Audio: DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1	The UK Special Edition stores a traditional DVD keepcase within a hard slipcover box that splits in half horizontally for the top to lift off. Like the earlier German release, it has a PAL-compromised DTS soundtrack and several bonus features, in this case all (obviously) more appealing to an English-speaking audience – including an audio commentary track focused on the visual effects.

Blu-ray

	Video Format: Blu-ray Country of Release: United States Label: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Year of Release: 2006 Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Audio: PCM 5.1	The Fifth Element was a launch title for the Blu-ray format in June of 2006. One would think that such a visually wild movie would make a great demo for high-definition video. Unfortunately, the initial Sony Blu-ray featured a notoriously terrible transfer with a soft image plagued by artifacts and dirt covering the film source. The only supplement was a trivia subtitle track. Still regarded as one of the worst Blu-rays ever released, I’ve kept the disc mostly as a curiosity.
	Video Format: Blu-ray Country of Release: United States Label: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Year of Release: 2007 Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Audio: PCM 5.1, Dolby TrueHD 5.1	Credit were it’s due, Sony responded to the backlash against its first Blu-ray and remastered The Fifth Element one year later, in July 2007. The remastered disc has a much better transfer and is what the first release should have looked like, but is still rather noisy and may not hold up to modern standards. Confusing matters, the reissue features cover art almost identical to the first copy and has no new features aside from a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack somewhat redundant to the (also retained) PCM 5.1. I printed off custom art I found on the web in order to tell the two editions apart, but later wound up removing the disc from its keepcase and storing it inside the following SteelBook to conserve shelf space.
	Video Format: Blu-ray Country of Release: UK Label: Gaumont Year of Release: 2013 Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1	In 2013, another new remaster for The Fifth Element, allegedly approved by director Luc Besson, turned up in Europe. I purchased a copy in a SteelBook from Germany. The new transfer fixes some issues from the last two, but also gives the movie’s colors a weird yellow push and has boosted brightness that flattens the contrast.
	Mastered in 4K Edition Video Format: Blu-ray Country of Release: United States Label: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Year of Release: 2015 Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Audio: Dolby Atmos	Back in the United States, Sony put The Fifth Element through yet another remaster, its fourth in the high-def era. The new one comes from a 4K scan and was released initially in a Digibook with a very ugly cover layout as part of the studio’s short-lived Supreme Cinema Series. The same disc was also released with (slightly) better keepcase art for a “Mastered in 4K” edition, which is what I opted to buy. In addition to the remaster, the new disc includes a brand new Dolby Atmos remix for the soundtrack and a handful of featurettes in the supplement package.

4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

Video Format: 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Country of Release: United States Label: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Year of Release: 2017 Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Audio: Dolby Atmos

Timed for the movie’s 20th anniversary, Sony used the 4K scan from a couple years earlier as the basis for a 4K Ultra HD edition in 2017. This was released in both a standard keepcase with generic art and a SteelBook with really tacky “comic book” style art. Even as a SteelBook collector, the latter didn’t appeal to me at all. The 4K disc received enthusiastic reviews at the time. I probably need to take another look at it. On my last watch (shortly after it came out), I felt that the HDR grade was too harsh, causing the grain to look exaggerated and the dated 1997 CGI to stand out much worse than it ever had before.

Gallery of Other Video Editions

The following images were found in web searches. I don’t currently own any of these tapes or discs.

Related

• Luc Besson (director)
  • La Femme Nikita (1990)
• Bruce Willis
  • Armageddon (1998)
• Gary Oldman
  • Romeo Is Bleeding (1993)