Ernest Hemingway’s choice for the lead in the film version of his “The Old Man and the Sea” was the right one: Spencer Tracy’s performance brought him the sixth of his nine Academy Award® nominations, and the film won the National Board of Review’s 1958 Best Picture and Best Actor awards. Alone in a small skiff, an aging Cuban fisherman catches a huge marlin – and must defy the sea, marauding sharks, and his own flagging strength to bring his great catch home. Beautifully filmed in part on sun-drenched Cuban locales by master director John Sturges, and graced by Dimitri Tiomkin’s Oscar® winning score, “The Old Man and the Sea” is a colorful cinematic ode to the indomitability of the human spirit.

For thoughts on The Old Man and The Sea, please check out our discussion on The Video Attic:

[youtube https://youtu.be/Nj7nOR-2yJ8?t=2006]

Video Quality

Warner Archive presents The Old Man and The Sea with a beautiful new 1080p master transfer in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio sourced from a 4K restoration of the Original Camera Negative. Warner Archive always makes every title look its best when they delve into their vaults, and this one is no exception. This is a film with a lot that should hold it back from looking as stunning as it does, mainly the mixture of on-location footage, shots from a studio tank and even some stock footage that has been inserted. It might appear to be a daunting task to make this one seem homogenous, but the team at Warner Archive are up to the task.

The natural film grain is retained throughout with only a little bit of variance between the different sources. We will take small swings in grain rather than aggressive digital tinkering. The film is practically blemish free with no noticeable instances of outright damage or dirt detected here. The level of minute detail and clarity is stunning. The film features some splendid colors within the environments that pop off the screen with a great vibrancy. Black levels are incredibly deep with a pleasing stability throughout, and highlights are just as robust and controlled. Compression artifacts, banding and other such issues do not pop up as an issue in this transfer. Warner Archive has done some amazing technical wizardry here.

Audio Quality

The Blu-Ray comes with a DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio track that is likewise very pleasing. The consistent narration is the star here, and it comes through quite clearly along with other brief exchanges of dialogue. These elements are balanced well with the background noises and are represented favorably. The Oscar-winning score from Dimitri Tiomkin is brought to vivid life with excellent fidelity outside a small trace of strain in the upper registers. Otherwise, there is no discernible age related wear and tear to the track such as hissing or popping. The more kinetic moments are handled with ease and give the track a bit of punch, such as the confrontations with the large fish. Warner Archive has provided a disc that sounds fantastic in all respects. There are optional English (SDH) subtitles included for the feature film.

Special Features

Behind The Scenes Documentary Hemingway: The Legend and The Sea: A three-minute selection of footage is provided here from a documentary that was never made in which the subjects discuss fishing with Ernest Hemingway complete with some footage of the incredible sea life.

Trailer: The nearly two-minute trailer is provided here.

Final Thoughts

The Old Man and The Sea is a technical marvel in many respects, but the narrative itself is a bit dull unless you are a major fan of the source material. Spencer Tracy does his best to add some life to these deep-sea ruminations, but gripping moments are in short supply. We admire John Sturges as a director, but this is not one of his best films. Warner Archive has released a Blu-Ray featuring a top-notch A/V presentation but not much in the way of special features. Although it might not be for us, fans of the film are in for a fantastic presentation.

The Old Man and The Sea 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.