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WSR Detailed DVD Review
Hard Day
Genre: Comedy

Reviewed In Issue 66 (Nov 2002) Of Widescreen Review®

Stars:
The Beatles (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr), Wilfred Brambell, Norman Rossington, Victor Spinetti, Deryck Guyler, John Junkin & Anna Quayle

WSR Review Scores
WSR Picture Rating: 3.5
DD Sound Rating: 4
DTS Sound Rating: NA
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Reference Systems
Critics' Composite Score: 4.5
Internet Links
http://www.miramax.com

Special Features
Disc One of this nicely packaged two-disc set includes the 36-minute Things They Said Today... with contemporary recollections by filmmakers about the making of the movie; and DVD-ROM enhancements. Additional supplements are found on Disc Two, include a 12-minute interview with director Richard Lester, a seven-minute interview with music supervisor Sir George Martin, a three-minute interview with studio executive David Picker, and a 10-minute interview with associate producer Denis O


 DVD General Information

(Studio/Distributor): Miramax Home Entertainment
(Catalog Number): 18301
(MPAA Rating): G
(Rating Reason):

(Retail Price): $29.99
(DVD Type): Two Disc Set: DVD-9 x2
(Widescreen Edition): Yes
(Full Screen Edition): No
(Anamorphic Widescreen): Yes
(Running Time In Minutes): 88
(Color Type): Black & White
(Chaptered/Scene Access): Yes
(Closed Captioned): Yes
(Regional Coding): 1
(Theatrical Year): 1964
(Theatrical Release): Yes
(Direct-To-Video Release): No
(DVD Release Date): 09/24/02
(THX® Digitally Mastered): No

 Credits Information

(Director): Richard Lester
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  DVD Picture Information

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  DVD Sound Information

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  WSR Narrative Review
Story Synopsis:


DVD Picture:
The anamorphically enhanced black-and-white 1.66:1 DVD picture is windowboxed and exhibits a generally lovely gray scale, with slightly weak blacks and bright whites. Images are slightly soft at times, but textures and definition can be nicely rendered. Contrast seems a bit low. There is minimal edge enhancement. The source element is revealing of some minor scratches and dirt. (Suzanne Hodges)

Soundtrack:
The Dolby

This Disc Contains The Following WSR-Rated Superb Qualities:
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  WSR DVD-ROM Review
DVD-ROM Enhancements Rating:
Awesome

DVD-ROM Review:
Once running the InterActual Player 2 software, you are brought to the DVD-ROM main menu, which is very well done, with great sound clips and a theme consistent with the film. From this menu, you are given links to View the Script, Play the Movie, go Online to the current Web Site, or view the Archived Web Site as it appeared during production of the DVD. The Script for Hard Day's Night is just magnificent. The layout here is just as most others available on the market today, but what really makes this release special is the inclusion of scanned images of an original script complete with handwritten remarks in the columns. The only real problems with watching the film with these notes are the delay time and the size of the text. Unless you have a very fast DVD-ROM player, there will be slight pauses in the video as each new page loads. It is not too distracting, but does happen quite often as each page only has a minimal amount of lines. For those of you who would like to watch the movie with a more legible script, a typed version that is much easier to read is also available. A truly awesome Web site can be found by clicking the link for the Archived Web Site link from the main menu. Once clicking the link, you are given an option to view Yesterday or Here Today. Clicking Yesterday will bring you back in time to 1964, the year the movie came out, and pretends that the Internet had just arrived in the world. From here you can find information about the four Beatles lives before they became the greatest rock band in history. Also, you can find write-ups of each of the scenes in the movie, descriptions of the seven Beatles songs created for the movie, past news headlines that struck the band members as funny, and brief biographies of eight other people that influenced the Beatles' fame. Going back and clicking Here Today, you can view the exact script available in the Script section of the DVD-ROM, you can see eight still images of behind the scenes footage during production of the film, and a few color stills from the film. Also, you can find the original menu and invitations for the special "Northern Premire" of the film as well as pages from the original "programme" and the Life magazine review of the movie. By going online to view the current Web page, you can find scrapbook images of the Beatles in action, audio clips of roundtable discussions between the cast and crew members, and a few Beatles Web links. The features available directly off the DVD are fantastic. All of you Beatles maniacs will just love the amount of information available to you. The script section is marvelous, and the Web page additions can not be beat. I definitely suggest you try this DVD out! (Danny Richelieu)