I’m sure that within the past few months or so, you’ve heard of the something about the "Hi-Def War" between Toshiba’s HD-DVD format and Sony’s Blu-Ray.  Six months ago, there wasn’t a clear winner in the "war" between the two brands, but after the 2007 holiday season it seems that Blu-Ray has jumped ahead of its arch rival.  Whether it was the large number of studios jumping on board with Blu-Ray, or the vast number of PS3’s sold in recent months, HD-DVD may soon be down for the count.   In my own world, I could care less about who came out ahead, my main concern is how my favorite films would look and sound in these new formats, and how much they would be better than standard DVD.  After my recent purchase of a Playstation 3, I was dying to find out just how good one of my favorite films would look in 1080p.  I figured what better place to see the differences between standard DVD and these new formats than by checking out one of the best horror films of all time on Blu-Ray, Dawn of the Dead!  

Let me start out by saying that Dawn of the Dead is in my top 5 in favorite movies of all time.  As far as horror films go, its often considered to be one of the best ever, and I strongly believe that it deserves that title.  It’s directed by George A. Romero who is by far my favorite director.  It seems that nearly all of his movies were ahead of their time, and they often hit close to home as the majority of his films are shot in and around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  Dawn was shot in 1978, and it certainly was far ahead of its time. 

I should also mention that I was planning to make this post into a discussion of the comparisons between upconverted standard DVDs (which are normal DVDs that are "upscaled" to 1080p, making them look better, but not being "true HD") and Blu-Ray discs, but I felt that it would be unfair to judge such a wide comparison between formats from using only one title.  So rather than compare the formats themselves, I’m going to sprinkle this review with comparisons between the standard DVD version of Dawn and the Blu-Ray version.

The Plot:

The film picks up a short time after Romero’s first film, the legendary Night of the Living Dead left off.  The dead are rising up and looking for human flesh, and it appears that humanity is near the end of times.  The film opens with a frantic scene at a television station, where tensions are flaring as two television hosts are trying to explain the undead phenomenon while the station is displaying obsolete "safe houses" at the bottom of the screen.  A woman that works at the station named Fran meets up with boyfriend Stephen (aka Flyboy) who happens to be a helicopter pilot.  They soon cross paths with two SWAT team members, Roger and Peter, and the four of them decide to flee the city to seek refuge away from the undead invasion.  They stumble upon a shopping mall and decide that it would be the perfect location to setup a hideout.  After securing the shopping mall, the group has everything that could possibly ask for, but at what cost?  What will happen to them once a group of looters wants a slice of the pie?

The DVD:

•  Image
  • This film looks amazing on Blu-Ray.  The backgrounds stand out as exceptionally clear and the colors are vibrant.  However, here’s my dilemma: it simply doesn’t look that much better than the Dawn of the Dead Ultimate Edition converted to 1080p.  I know that its not "true" HD when it comes to the standard discs, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t close.  Anyway, the Blu-Ray disc is presented in widescreen 1.85:1.  In regards to the standard DVD vs. Blu-Ray, I’ll give the Blu-Ray an 8 out of 10

• Sound
  • Supposedly presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS (it says DTS on the disc itself).  However, I can’t get my Yamaha receiver to pick up the signal on my PS3 which is a shame.  Not to mention that there is no sign of DTS playback at all despite what it says on the disc.  It also has PCM 5.1 which my receiver also fails to pickup.  I’ll have to look into this one further as I may need to tweak some settings.  I’d take the Ultimate Edition’s DTS track any day because I can actually get it to work…..   Not Rated

• Extras
  • The extras on the disc are ported over from previous Dawn releases.  Whats sucks is that some of the sequences can only be played in 480p whether you like it or not.  However, they did include something called "Fast Film Facts"  which shows various facts on the film in type of VH1 "Pop-Up Video" format.    6 out of 10

The Bottom Line:

Dawn of the Dead is a film that plays almost like a comic book.  The action is over the top as is the music, and combined with the extremely dark humor (zombie pie fights anyone?) and candy colored blood, one might say that this movie is quite fun for it being the end of the world.  Not to mention that Romero makes some strong statements on consumerism in the film, subtly comparing zombies to 1978 mall-goers.    He also has a group of people with every possible thing they could want (as they have access to an entire mall), but they’re still unhappy.  In several scenes, Flyboy is even struck with greed with all of the possessions that he has.  Keep in mind that this movie was made before the 80’s obsession with shopping malls, yuppies, and hardcore American greed, so Romero’s plot was a slight hint of things to come.  

So how does this compare to the standard DVD overall?  I’d say that the Blu-Ray edition didn’t fare all that well in the extras department, as almost everything on it has been released already with the option of viewing it in a higher resolution than 480p.  On the audio side, there were some technical difficulties (I think?) on my end so I can’t properly judge it.  Last but certainly not least is the video department.  While the Blu-Ray version obviously looks better, it doesn’t look that much better.  I searched online to get a solid answer as to how superior this version is, but the result was always split down the middle.  The bottom line is this, the improvements in video on the Blu-Ray disc does not warrant an upgrade if you have the ability to upscale a standard DVD.

So as far as a rating goes, the film itself is an instant 10 out of 10 in every version is presented in.  This is the only film that I have ever bought three times (in various editions) and I find each of those purchases worth it in their own way.  However, this overall rating below is for the Blu-Ray package as compared to the standard DVD (and its various editions):

7 out of 10

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