The Deep is one of those films that is probably better know and more famous for the appearance of the lead actress in the film rather than a the quality of the film itself. Those of you like yours truly who were teenagers when the film arrived in theaters know exactly what I am talking about, namely the stunning visuals of Jacqueline Bisset underwater in that tight white top! The Deep has now made its high def debut on Blu-ray. How does it and more importantly, Jacqueline Bisset look? Pretty darn good!
Film
The Deep is based upon Peter Benchley’s novel of the same name. While the film is not quite as good as that other film based on his other well known and more famous novel of his, Jaws, The Deep is a good film in its own right, with a nice sense of suspense and some really stunning visuals.
The film stars Jacqueline Bisset and Nick Nolte as Gail Burke and David Sanders, a couple from New York who travel to Bermuda for a vacation and some scuba diving. While diving, they come across a shipwreck where they discover what they think may be a valuable coin as well as a mysterious glass vile. Curious about the coin, they visit the library in Hamilton, Bermuda, where they attempt to track down the origin of the coin to see if they had discovered a lost treasure. While at the library, they learn of the existence of a famous treasure hunter in Bermuda, Romer Treece (Robert Shaw), who they are able to track down and show the coin to and who is interested in learning more about where they found it.
After meeting with Treece, they are approached that night at dinner by a man who identifies himself as Cloche (Lou Gossett, Jr.) a dealer in rare glass and asks about the glass vile they found, looking to purchase it from them. It turns out that the rare glass dealer is not what he claimed but a drug dealer looking for a load of Morphine that went down with a U.S. Military vessel years. Not surprisingly, Treece, Gail and David race to recover the treasure side before Cloche moves to recover the drugs.
While I wouldn’t exactly call this a tense action thriller as it a bit slow paced compared to more modern films, I enjoyed the film as it does pull you into the action on an intellectual level if not on an emotional one. Recommended as a rental only for non fans of the film.
Video
On the whole, I was quite pleased with the look of The Deep on Blu-ray and can’t imagine the film looking any better than it does on this release. The film was made back in the 1970′s and has that 1970′s look, with heavy film grain and a general overall softness. If you are looking for a razor sharp looking image, this is not the film for you. However, if you are looking for an excellent encode which perfectly captures the look of the actual film, you will not doubt appreciate the effort that went into this encode. As noted previously, this film has a general softness to the image. However, black levels are deep and tight and the color palette very natural looking with excellent color rendition, capturing the blue/green color of the ocean perfectly. Surprisingly, I found the underwater footage to be a bit clearer, sharper and more detailed that the rest of the film, probably due to the use of different film stock.
This is probably the best looking undersea footage in a film of this vintage that I have seen in quite awhile. Due to the softness of the image, the film lacks the depth and three dimensionality of the very best looking encodes but is not flat by any means. Film grain was also well preserved and I was not able to detect any evidence at all of digital noise reduction. if you are fan of this film, I have no doubt that you will be thrilled with this Blu-ray release.
Audio
Given the age of the film, I was not expecting great audio. However, while the film falls a good bit short of what I would expect in a new action thriller, the audio was a good bit better than I had anticipated. The overall sound was rather smooth and open with just a hint of brightness. Dynamics are good although hardly sensational. Explosions in particular lack the heft of more modern films. I was quite surprised at how active the surrounds where throughout the film, even though the volume of the surrounds varied throughout the film. When employed well, they generated a nice sense of immersion, especially during the underwater sequences inside the shipwreck, where the sense of water and the sounds of twisting and bending metal sounded fairly convincing.
The dialogue track was also well recorded and well placed in the mix, although lacking the sense of immediacy of more modern films. The musical score was also well recorded and sounded very nice, with an overall smoothness and openness which was quite appealing. Overall, the sound here lacked the transparency and imaging of more modern films. However, given the age of the film and the original sound design, the audio here is more than acceptable and will no doubt please fans of the film.
Special Features
The extras here are rather threadbare. Included are several scenes included in the 3 hour edition of the film which were not included in the original theatrical release which is the version of the film included with this release. Frankly, after watching the scenes, it is easy to see why they were not included with the original release of the film. While the additional scenes are included here in high definition, the picture quality is not as impressive as the theatrical release presented here. The other extra is the CBS special hosted by Robert Shaw when the film debuted, providing a behind the scenes look at the film. The other extras are previews of other Blu-ray releases. The release is BD-Live enabled allowing you to access additional extras via the internet.
Final Thoughts
While lacking the clarity and detail of the best looking more modern films, The Deep has without question never looked or sounded better in the home environment that it does on this Blu-ray release. If you are a fan of this film, I can recommend this release without hesitation. For the rest of you, the film is definitely worth the look as a rental.
