'Operation Crossbow' Blu-Ray Review - A Thrilling Wartime Espionage Tale
For thoughts on Operation Crossbow, please check out my thoughts on No Streaming Required:
Video Quality
Warner Archive presents Operation Crossbow with a sterling 1080p master transfer released in 2019 in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio sourced from a 2K scan of the Interpositive that looks like a dream. Viewers are unlikely to spot the difference between this and a scan from the Original Camera Negative, given the amazing effort from the label. The film exhibits no serious signs of wear and tear or debris. Even momentary softness during optical transitions that cannot be avoided is handled with care.
The colors of the environments are striking with memorable touches in the clothing and production design. Each hue is ideally saturated for first-rate accuracy. Black levels are deep with impeccable stability throughout, and highlights similarly hold firm. Detail and clarity are of the highest order with the sumptuous natural film grain intact and resolved consistently. There are no unwanted digital fumbles such as compression artifacts, banding, or any other such issues. Warner Archive showed off with this one.
Audio Quality
The Blu-Ray comes with a DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track that comes to life quite memorably. There is quite a bit of chatter at the base in German with English subtitles, and the overwhelmingly English dialogue sounds great, as well. Things kick into gear in your speakers as you fully engage with the thrilling finale. The score from Ron Goodwin is used perfectly to transport you into this spy thriller filled with simmering emotions. Even when it is particularly active, it does not step on any important exchanges or background noises. There is no obvious age-related wear and tear to the track such as drop-outs, hissing, or popping. Warner Archive has put forth good work with this audio presentation. Optional English (SDH) subtitles are included for the feature film.
Special Features
A Look Back At Crossbow:
A ten-minute archival featurette that takes a look at the real-life rocket program fictionalized in the feature film.
Theatrical Trailer (2:36)
Final Thoughts
Operation Crossbow is a thrilling espionage movie that brings a personal touch to a very important wartime story. The movie takes some measures to feel authentic with Germans actually speaking in German with subtitles, and the movie establishes some heavy consequences to these heroic efforts. The performances are quite good all around, even if some of the tertiary characters could have been a bit more fully developed. This is definitely worth a watch for fans of wartime dramas. Warner Archive has released Blu-Ray featuring a stellar A/V presentation and a couple of special features. Recommended
Operation Crossbow can be purchased directly through MovieZyng or various other online retailers.
Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.
Disclaimer: Warner Archive has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Quote of the Day: Hiroshima, Nagasaki And Images That Sear
'Maybe one day, the answer will come from your heart.' FUMIYO KONO, 56, who wrote a best-selling manga series about World War II, on how to process the devastation of her hometown, Hiroshima, Japan, which was bombed well before she was born.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Spending too much time on screens could hurt your teen's heart health
Spending an excessive amount of time on smartphones and other electronic devices could put children and young adults' heart health in jeopardy, potentially leaving them susceptible to dangerous health conditions that raise the risk of heart disease. The connection is especially strong in those who get less sleep, Danish researchers said Wednesday, suggesting that screen time could be 'stealing' sleep time. Getting more sleep helps to lower the risk of the conditions they flagged, which include high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and insulin resistance. 'In childhood, sleep duration not only moderated this relationship but also partially explained it: about 12 percent of the association between screen time and cardiometabolic risk was mediated through shorter sleep duration,' Dr. David Horner, a researcher at the University of Copenhagen, said in a statement. 'These findings suggest that insufficient sleep may not only magnify the impact of screen time but could be a key pathway linking screen habits to early metabolic changes.' Both sleep duration and timing were major factors, according to Horner and his team. A shorter amount of time spent asleep and getting to sleep later was linked to a significantly higher risk associated with the same amount of screen time as others who slept for more hours and went to sleep earlier, the researchers said. To reach these conclusions, they analyzed data from more than 1,000 kids and teenagers in Denmark. They used data from 10-year-olds taken in 2010 and data from 18-year-olds recorded in 2000. The data includes how much time they spent watching TV or movies, gaming, or using phones, tablets and computers. The researchers noted that parents reported their children's screen time in questionnaires. To assess the impacts of their screen use, Horner and his team developed a scoring system that would reflect overall risk, taking into account their waist size, blood pressure, age, and other biological factors. An 'average' risk was set at zero, and one was a point above the average. Calculating this score for the included participants, they found that each extra hour of screen time worsened that risk for both age groups. 'This means a child with three extra hours of screen time a day would have roughly a quarter to half a standard-deviation higher risk than their peers,' Horner explained. Screen time added up to as many as six hours a day, he noted. The research also included an analysis done using machine learning, which identified a signature in the participants' blood that appeared to be associated with screen time. 'We were able to detect a set of blood-metabolite changes, a 'screen-time fingerprint,' validating the potential biological impact of the screen time behavior,' said Horner. 'Using the same metabolomics data, we also assessed whether screen time was linked to predicted cardiovascular risk in adulthood, finding a positive trend in childhood and a significant association in adolescence. This suggests that screen-related metabolic changes may carry early signals of long-term heart health risk.' In the U.S., this problem may be widespread, with cardiometabolic risk seen 'at younger and younger ages,' according to a 2023 scientific statement from the American Heart Association. Only 29 percent of American youth between the ages of two and 29 years old had good cardiometabolic health based on data collected between 2013 and 2018, the statement said. On average, U.S. children between the ages of eight and 18 spend 7.5 hours each day on screens, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. To address these possibly global effects, the researchers hope to examine whether limiting screen use in the hours before sleep could help to reduce cardiometabolic risk. Until then, experts advise transitioning away from screens in stages. 'If cutting back on screen time feels difficult, start by moving screentime earlier and focusing on getting into bed earlier and for longer,' Dr. Amanda Perak, an assistant professor of pediatrics and preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said. Perak, the chair of the American Heart Association's Young Hearts Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Committee, was not involved in the research. The study was published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Oasis fan who fell to his death at the band's recent Wembley reunion show identified
After his passing shocked the band and fellow revellers, the Oasis fan who fell to his death at the band's recent Wembley reunion show has been identified.
