Home, Blu-ray (2009)
Director: Yann Arthus-Bertrand
Narrator: Glenn Close
Studio: PPR/Fox [Release date: June 5, 09]
Video: Enhanced for 16:9 color 1080p HD
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, DD 5.1, French DD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French
Length: 118 minutes
Rating: *****
A stunning visual presentation of our earth and its problems, in the style of Planet Earth of a few years ago. The often jaw-dropping images are also similar to Geoffrey Reggio’s cinematography in Koyaanisqatsi and his others, but instead of just images and music there is some narration from actress Close – however with sections not narrated to let the amazing images soak into one’s consciousness. There are no time-lapse shots; most of the footage is aerial – the speciality of the French filmmaker. Some of the shots at the beginning of Home, tied in with the original formation of earth, look like paintings rather than reality, but are actual shots from the air.
The cinematography was accomplished in 120 different locations in 54 countries, and makes us first appreciate the wonders of earth and its unsurpassed beauty. When it progresses to life on earth it features exceptional shots of herds of various animals shot from the air. Here and thruout this film one truly can appreciate the high resolution of the Blu-ray transfer; I can’t believe Home would have half of its impact via a standard-resolution DVD. One shot, for example, is of a very lengthy camel train from a long distance. I don’t believe you would even be able to see the very thin moving line on DVD in the long shot, even on an immense screen.
Then the images and narration begin to hit home the point of how we have disrupted the balance that is so essential to life on earth. There are shocking images of devastation and of the one in four peoples on earth who today still live a Stone Age sort of life – struggling daily to find food and water to survive. The statistics are often scary and instill a sense of pain about what we have done to the earth, including the fact that its total population has almost tripled just since 1950. There are sections devoted to global warming of course, as well as the rapidly dwindling fresh water supply. But Home doesn’t focus on the hopelessness of the situation; towards the end it details the resources we still have and what we can and must do to save them and improve things.
The music changes to fit the images, and is mostly of a New Age slant, often with vocal improvisations that reminded me of Enya. It fits the images perfectly, and is mixed in such a way that Close’s narration is never lost in it. This is a masterful film which makes some of the same points as Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth but from a different and more artistic angle. A most humanitarian filmic journey.
– John Sunier
