American Graffiti appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. This became a messy disappointment.
I felt fine with the occasional softness and mushiness that resulted from the original photography. Unfortunately, the transfer tried too hard to semi-modernize the image, and that became an issue.
The presentation used digital noise reduction to reduce grain, and that took detail with it. The film already came with softness issues inherent to it, so the added loss of resolution from the DNR didn’t help.
All of this left Graffiti as an up and down presentation. At times, definition looked quite good, but many shots were unnatural and soft, with a smoothed-out look that seemed plastic.
No issues with jaggies or shimmering occurred, and I saw no obvious edge haloes. The transfer eliminated virtually all print flaws.
Colors got a boost that made them brighter and perkier than made sense for this story. While superficially attractive, the hues tended to seem overly vivid given the nature of the source. HDR added to this and made the colors too vibrant.
Blacks seemed reasonably dense, while shadows offered generally positive delineation, though the noise reduction eliminated detail in these as well. Some awkward day-for-night material didn’t work well either. HDR gave whites and contrast extra pep – again, probably too much pep.
If you want a version of the film that looks “modern”, then you’ll feel happy with the 4K. If you want a disc that accurately reproduces the original photography, you’ll encounter severe disappointment.
The DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of American Graffiti was also something of a mess, though I suspect the original audio was mostly to blame. The quality of the material came across the worst, with only one exception: speech. Despite a few edgy, tinny lines, most of the dialogue was pretty warm and crisp.
Otherwise, audio was problematic, largely due to a heavy layer of reverb. That factor rendered both music and effects as rather metallic and artificial.
Little ever sounded natural, as the songs and effects were distant and without any heft. To some degree, I understood the echo for the omnipresent radio broadcasts, as the movie wanted those to sound like they came from passing cars.
However, everything else worked the same way. It got so bad that when a train passed, I thought it was supposed to come from the radio!
In terms of soundfield, Graffiti showed a broad mix, but that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Occasionally I noticed some fairly well-localized material – like cars that went from one spot to another – but much of the information seemed poorly placed.
The elements came from an unspecified, general space in the spectrum and didn’t demonstrate accurate locations. Speech also could bleed from the center to the sides.
The surrounds contributed bland reinforcement much of the time, though they occasionally offered some effective unique information. This wasn’t a terrible mix, but I didn’t think it held up well over the last 50 years.
How did the 4K UHD compare to 2011 Blu-ray? Though the 4K came with a 5.1 mix versus the BD’s 2.0, I thought the two seemed very similar, with the same pros and cons.
Due to all the noise reduction, visuals failed to demonstrate an upgrade. If anything, the higher resolution of 4K meant that the issues with processing seemed even more obvious here. This disappointing 4K didn’t deliver an upgrade over the similarly flawed Blu-ray.
The 4K essentially duplicates the BD’s extras, and we launch with a 1990s documentary called The Making of American Graffiti. This one-hour, 18-minute, 11-second program offers circa 1998 interviews with director George Lucas, producer Francis Ford Coppola, co-writers Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, sound montage and re-recording supervisor Walter Murch, casting director Fred Roos, visual consultant Haskell Wexler, and actors Paul Le Mat, Harrison Ford, Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss, Cindy Williams, Charles Martin Smith, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips, Kathleen Ann Quinlan, and Suzanne Somers.
“Making” starts with the flick’s origins and development, aspects of the script and autobiographical elements, the use of music, casting, shooting the movie and aspects of the characters, locations and camerawork, performances and Lucas’s attitude on the set, post-production, and the film’s reception.
“Making” provides a pretty full glimpse of the flick’s creation in this excellent program. I’m delighted to see so many of the film’s principals – especially all the actors – and we learn a ton about the movie. This becomes a truly enjoyable and insightful piece.
Presented as a video commentary on the Blu-ray, we get an audio commentary from George Lucas. In this running, screen-specific piece, he discusses the opening credits, autobiographical elements and themes, story/characters, influences and historical components, music, cast and performances, sets and locations, photography, audio and editing, and a few other production elements.
Despite a little inevitable repetition from the documentary, Lucas provides a solid commentary here. We get a nice overview of the relevant topics as well as good insights into the era and Lucas’s mindset as he made the film. Expect a lively, engaging chat.
In addition to the film’s trailer, we get some Screen Tests. These cover four options: Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss and Paul Le Mat (12:08), Ron Howard and Cindy Williams (2:18), Mackenzie Phillips and Paul Le Mat (6:47) and Charles Martin Smith (1:42).
The first try-out also includes an actor as Terry; not only does the disc fail to credit him, but also it masks his face. All of these are a bit clunky in terms of dialogue and performance, but they’re cool to see.
The package also includes a Blu-ray copy of the film. As mentioned, it offers U-Control, which means two differences from the 4K.
Like I noted, this gives a video commentary from Lucas. It offers the same notes as the audio-only version but it also allows us to watch Lucas as he shifts in his chair. The visual component adds nothing.
“U-Control” also offers “The Music of American Graffiti”. It provides simple credits, so when a song plays, we get some notes about it. This is a decent but fairly inconsequential addition.
Though I think American Graffiti sags at times, it still offers an entertaining piece of work. The film provides a warm and nostalgic look at teen life but never becomes sappy or condescending. The Blu-ray boasts a small but very strong collection of supplements, but picture seems overly processed, and the audio appears lackluster, though the latter suffers mostly from the deficits of the source material. While this becomes the best Graffiti on the market, the fact it comes with flaws makes it a disappointment.
To rate this film visit the prior review of AMERICAN GRAFFITI