Birdsong Blu-ray delivers great video and solid audio in this fan-pleasing Blu-ray release
SEBASTIAN FAULKS'S epic love novel set against the First World War has been adapted for the screen for the first time. In two movie-length parts, the story tells of Stephen Wraysford (EDDIE REDMAYNE), a young Englishman who arrives in Amiens in Northern France to stay with the Azaire family and falls desperately in love with Isabelle Azaire (CLMENCE POSY). They begin an illicit and all-consuming affair, but the relationship falters. Years later, Stephen finds himself serving on the Western Front in the very area where he experienced his great love. As he battles amidst the blood and gore of the trenches he meets Jack Firebrace (JOSEPH MAWLE), a tunneller who unexpectedly helps him endure the ravages of war and enables him to make peace with his feelings for Isabelle.
"Birdsong" is a television production that prizes repetition. Unfortunately, its chief export is misery, making the viewing experience quite punishing for those not in the mood for endless bouts of suffering via physical and mental trials. There's a story of fleeting romance and wartime consciousness that's compelling, possibly profound, but its buried under a thick glaze of depression without insight, lost in a fog of sadness acceptable for a 90-minute-long movie, tolerable for two hours, but insufferable at nearly three hours of gloom. "Birdsong" is often beautiful and refreshingly blunt when detailing combat shock and sexual gratification, which adds to the overall disappointment of the effort. Attempting to choke the life out of the lead character, the story skips truly rewarding patches of character, finding more comfort in blood-soaked thousand-yard stares than in an alert representation of the fractured mind, capturing a lead character smacked around by the cruelties of love and war without a vice-like grip of focus that could seize this spread of woe and give it a crippling sense of meaning.
In 1910, Stephen Wraysford (Eddie Redmayne, "My Week with Marilyn") has come to France to assist Rene Azair (Laurent Lafitte) in his efforts to upgrade his textiles factory, a development causing tremendous strife with his employees. Living with Azair's family, Stephen grows infatuated with the lady of the house, Isabelle (Clemence Posey, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"), inching closer to her as the weeks pass, hoping to steal her away from Rene's abusive control, encouraging her sensitive nature. When their affair begins to take shape, Stephen faces the reality of his decisions, confronting a powerful love that's unable to shake Isabelle's commitment to her stepchildren. In 1916, Stephen finds himself on the front lines during WWI, assuming command of a team of tunnelers who burrow under enemy trenches and detonate explosives. With the horrors of war stealing his soul, Stephen locates comfort in the wisdom of Captain Grey (Matthew Goode, "Watchmen"), his commanding officer, and Jack Firebrace (Joseph Mawle), a perceptive subordinate who's also dealing with intense issues of personal loss. With his mind racing to memories of life with Isabelle, Stephen is mummified by his conflicted feelings, a problem exacerbated when the war returns to a familiar French countryside where his life took a drastic turn toward tragedy.
In her adaptation of the 1993 Sebastian Faulks novel, screenwriter Abi Morgan ("The Iron Lady") cleaves away a considerable amount of story from the source material, deleting a subplot that takes place in the 1970s, tracing the efforts of Stephen's granddaughter as she pieces together clues leading to a larger portrait of her grandfather's experience during WWI. It's a significant amputation, though understandable when considering the demands of this two-part BBC drama and its singular infatuation with Stephen's despair. The restructuring leaves "Birdsong" leaping back and forth between the turmoil of 1910 and the utter devastation of 1916, juggling two distinct periods of time and personality, sold through a bitter contrast of intimate sexuality and mass battlefield death. We observe the hardening of Stephen's compassion as he struggles with abandonment and casualty, putting his faith into a makeshift tarot system that eases his sense of responsibility. The character arc is a familiar, covering horrors of war ground found in numerous productions, employing era transitions to disrupt predictability, constantly shifting concentration to provide the viewer with a puzzle they wouldn't otherwise have. Explored in a linear fashion, and "Birdsong" would've been DOA, slogging through cliches. Whacked up into slivers of exposition and discovery, and the material achieves its intended discombobulation, though the tingly sensation of curiosity doesn't last for very long.
"Birdsong" is most successful as a story of infatuation, experiencing Stephen's rush of anticipation as he senses Isabelle's amorous feelings for him. At first, the electricity is charged through subtle glances and a provocative touching of feet, soon swept away into a full-out affair, frosted with surprisingly graphic sexual encounters that reveal Stephen's desire to consume his lover inside a symbolically red room (I'm not sure how much of the nudity and bedroom antics made it into the recent PBS presentation, but the Blu-ray is R-rated stuff). The heat between the couple is superb, instilling "Birdsong" with a sensual atmosphere that helps to loosen the tight British presentation. While Redmayne and Poesy have perfected the art of the protracted stare, physical contact enlivens the performances and opens up the screenplay's senses, handled with sun-kissed concentration by director Philip Martin. Once the action heads to war, "Birdsong" loses its accessibility, covering trauma and supporting characters that don't inspire much interest. Although the WWI sequences explore tension in cramped tunnels and take a grand detour with the story of Firebrace and his fortuitous interactions with Stephen, "Birdsong" goes surprisingly limp on the battlefield, belaboring dread and shock past their expiration date, repetitively hitting the same sensation of emotional drowning without a satisfying exploration of recovery and common sense. A few turns of fate finally bring the lead character to his knees late in the film, only there's no head-spinning sense of upheaval, finding Morgan's corner-cutting coming back to hurt the production in the final act, which offers a limited sense of closure in a tale that feels like it should be moving beyond the two time periods.
"Birdsong" carries a processed look that's tastefully offered on the AVC encoded image (1.78:1 aspect ratio) presentation. It's a crisp look at all of the dramatics and war zone troubles, providing an intense view of the characters as they march through misery. Detail is excellent, registering powerfully with make-up efforts, keeping bloodshed vivid. Facial textures are always expressive, while backgrounds are easily scanned for additional thespian activity and decorative achievements. Skintones are purposefully washed out to achieve the bloodless look of the miniseries but remain quite human in appearance, especially warm and pink during love scenes. Colors are often muted, favoring brownish and greenish hues, while countryside excursions carry a natural palette. Shadow detail is comfortable, never remarkable, sustaining needed details during tunneling sequences. Some minor ghosting and banding is detected.
The 5.1 DTS-HD MA sound mix doesn't make a generous use of the surrounds, lacking a dynamic sense of directional activity and circular intensity. While distances and echoes are maintained, little depth remains. The primary focus is on frontal dialogue exchanges, which sound fresh and deep, carrying targeted qualities of passion, while providing a full feel for accents without any distortion. Scoring is supportive without stepping on the performances, carried softly until needed, filling up the fronts when time arrives to create dramatic points. With bombs bursting everywhere, there's actually a decent low-end to the track, rumbling through with a satisfactory read on explosions, intensifying the violence.
"The Love Story" (7:19, HD) is a brazenly promotional featurette that sits down with members of the cast (including Redmayne and Posey) to discuss the story of "Birdsong," exploring motivations and thematic intent. It's something meant to entice people to watch the program, far from a true exploratory endeavor.
"The War Story" (8:14, HD) returns to the cast (and director Martin) to inspect the violent side of "Birdsong," again detailing character behaviors and plot points.
Behind the Scenes (10:05, HD) is a marvelous odyssey into the preparation and creation of the miniseries, highlighting thespian preparation and production challenges, which required a large-scale recreation of WWI trench-based combat. Interviews with cast and crew are passable, but the real value here is found in the BTS footage, which provides a clear understanding of technical achievements and filmmaking objectives.
Although it carries an expansive story with numerous supporting characters, "Birdsong" comes off overlong, obsessing over gruesome details and shattered men to a point where it numbs the entire effort. While cinematography and set design accomplishments are excellent, capturing two periods with true artistry, the program comes off as a highly decorated bore, glacially moving across the years after a promising opening. The severity of the emotional wounds on display is fascinating, but there's little reason to care about the welfare of the characters. A sad story explored with grace and balance can be a wonderful thing, bringing out a richly cathartic feeling from the viewer. "Birdsong" dwells in the darkness for what seems like forever, unable to conjure the feel for hope and psychological depth it's leisurely hunting for.
