Released the following summer, one year after Batman, Warren Beatty’s extravagant production of Dick Tracy was expected to be the next big comic book (technically in this case, comic strip) blockbuster smash hit movie of the year. It might have succeeded at that, if not for one, kind of obvious problem. While every kid in the target audience inherently knew Batman, very few of them had heard of Dick Tracy, a character who’d been out of the spotlight for nearly fifty years at that point. The film still pulled in a fair amount of money, but didn’t hit those Batman-sized numbers the studio brass at Disney (by way of the Touchstone label) wanted from it.
In this week’s Film at 11 podcast, I put the movie in front of my son Thomas, to see how it plays for a modern 11-year-old another few decades down the road removed from its original release. The kid truly had no clue what to expect, and I think was left a little puzzled by it.
For my own part, I was a bit older, solidly in the middle of my teenage years, in the summer of 1990. I had at least a vague concept of the Dick Tracy character, even if I wasn’t particularly invested (or even interested) in him. Nevertheless, I came away loving the look and style and flair of the movie, which hit many of the same notes Batman had – literally, in the case of the exceedingly similar Danny Elfman score. Everything about it was big and bombastic and over-the-top, and a lot of fun. Rewatching again now for the first time in ages, this movie hits all my buttons and I still think it’s a blast.
| Title: | Dick Tracy |
| Year of Release: | 1990 |
| Director: | Warren Beatty |
| Watched On: | Blu-ray |
| Also Available On: | Various VOD rental and purchase platforms |
Before someone gets snarky about it, yes, that’s just a regular tan raincoat I’m wearing in the video. I don’t own a bright yellow, double-breasted trench coat. Nor do I own a fedora of any color, or even a wristwatch. I know it’s not perfect, but I committed to the bit anyway. You’ll just have to accept that.
The Blu-ray
Disney released Dick Tracy onto the Blu-ray format back in 2012. I paid extra to import a copy from the UK for its nice SteelBook case. At the time of this writing, no 4K remaster is available or has been announced. Should one eventually happen, I’d buy it. The Blu-ray is acceptable, but shows its age. Frankly, I don’t think Disney put much effort into it even at the time.
Seeing the phrase “Cinematography by Vittorio Storaro” in a film’s opening credits may illicit mixed feelings from many home theater fans. The man was one of the greatest motion picture DPs of all time, with titles like Last Tango in Paris, Apocalypse Now, and The Last Emperor to his credit. Unfortunately, he really lost his way in the home video era and inflicted terrible revisionist decisions onto his old work, especially when he started demanding that all movies be cropped to a common 2.00:1 aspect ratio regardless of how he originally shot or composed them. For both better and worse, this Blu-ray edition does not seem to have been supervised or approved by Storaro.
Dick Tracy has a complicated enough history regarding its aspect ratio even without Storaro’s interference. The movie was originally composed for and was projected in theaters at 1.85:1. However, the later Laserdisc home video edition was transferred in a full-frame 4:3 ratio, allegedly at the instruction of director Warren Beatty, who claimed he wanted the frame to be the same shape as a comic strip panel. While I don’t personally agree with that decision (the open-matte image had way too much headroom above the actors), I can at least understand the merits of the argument. It seems evident to me that overmasking the picture in the other direction down to 2.00:1 would be an even bigger mistake.
To its credit, the Blu-ray preserves the original 1.85:1 composition. The picture also has pretty nice colors that show off the film’s very bold, yet intentionally limited palette of primary colors to evoke a comic strip aesthetic. (Say what you will about some of his other ideas, Storaro is a master of color.)
In other regards, disappointingly, the Blu-ray picture is a little soft. The movie has a ton of optical composites and dissolves that don’t help much in that regard, but I suspect that a new 4K scan of the negative could probably help a lot. Grain also looks pretty noisy, like it hasn’t been compressed well. Overall, the disc is watchable enough, but I think it leaves room for improvement.
I saw Dick Tracy in the theater and have a vivid memory of the roaring tommy gun fire and huge explosions booming through the cinema. Perhaps that memory is exaggerated, but the movie was nominated for a Best Sound Oscar and my recollection is that the Laserdisc also had impressive dynamic range in its PCM stereo-surround soundtrack.
The Blu-ray was remixed to 5.1 (encoded in DTS-HD Master Audio format). Sound quality is crisp and clear, and has some fun directional effects. A bit during the opening credits where a mobster chucks a cat to the back of the room and its screeching pans to the right surround speaker is hilarious. All the gunfire and explosions are plenty loud but, frustratingly, bass action is only moderate. I expected the track to hit a lot harder than it does.
Sadly, if the movie ever does does come to 4K, the soundtrack will probably be remixed again into Dolby Atmos and have its bass compressed even further, as is the trend in modern sound mixing.
Disney couldn’t be bothered to provide any supplements for Dick Tracy. The Blu-ray has absolutely nothing, not even old promo interviews or a trailer.
Related
- Dustin Hoffman
- James Caan
- Danny Elfman (music)
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