HOME Blu-ray delivers stunningly beautiful video and superb audio in this excellent Blu-ray release
Experience the wonderment of our world in Yann Arthus-Bertrand's documentary about
our
home, the Earth.
Award-winning aerial photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand and narrator Glenn
Close
take you on
a spectacular voyage around the world in 'HOME', a unique film that will enthrall,
captivate
and inspire you with such breathtaking imagery, you'll want to enjoy it time and time
again.
For more about HOME and the HOME Blu-ray release, see the HOME Blu-ray Review
A few years ago, I woke up to the dawning realization that my carbon footprint was at least a size
14, maybe even bigger. I was basically wearing pollution snowshoes, traipsing willy-nilly around
God's green-for-now earth without a single thought of the Yeti-sized imprints I might be making.
So, my goodly wife and I—not to pat ourselves on the back or anything—made a conscious effort to
do the little things: cut back on waste, bring our own bags to the grocery store, recycle anything
recyclable, you know, the things even remotely liberal people are supposed to do in a consumer
culture newly consumed with going green. And we were surprised by how good it felt, how
easy it was, how much pride we took in refilling our svelte aluminum water bottles. But
then I watched Home, and had the wind swiftly taken out of my organic cotton sails.
Nearly every frame is this well composed.
Why? Because after watching Home, a lovingly crafted look at planet Earth and a dagger-
pointed indictment of what we humans have done to it, I was left feeling a kind of collective guilt
on the behalf on mankind, as if it were me personally who had invented agriculture, discovered
oil, and trashed our environment. Home gave me the same sense of awe and discovery
that I got from the BBC's Planet Earth and The Blue Planet series, but then
followed up the jaw-dropping splendor with an ecological uppercut that sent me reeling. Is it
enough to drive a hybrid car? Am I helping the water supply by turning off the faucet while I
brush my teeth? Can I save the world one post-consumer, recycled roll of toilet paper at a time?
It's easy for us common folk to become overwhelmed by the thought of environmental
degradation, and it's even easier to say screw it, and toss a wadded McDonald's bag out
the window of an SUV. So while the message of Home—every little bit helps, and let's all
join together to do our part—is clear and undeniably important, the film may leave some viewers
feeling small and ineffectual.
Filmed in over fifty countries, Home is the brainchild of French photographer and
conservationist Yann Arthus-Bertrand. In the early 1990's Bertrand formed a stock photo agency
that specializes in aerial photography, and in Home he puts his ample knowledge of the
field to spectacular use, framing some of the world's most awe-inspiring vistas with an eye that's
keen for composition. Filmed from above, the Earth's landscapes take on the lines and rhythms of
abstract painting. Rivers flow and intersect, stampeding herds raise clouds of dust, and man-
made structures etch the ground with unlikely patterns. The first quarter of the film is devoted to
unspoiled territory, as narrator Glenn Close describes the early formation of the Earth and the
interconnectedness of all living things. The tone is hushed, reverential, magical even. But then
something happens. We see a squatty hut, some domesticated animals, a primitive human
presence. We see an oil fire burning above the jungle. Suddenly, the score trades shimmering
strings for the pounding, percussive beats of industry. Humans have shifted the
balance.
The remainder of the film is devoted to the myriad ways in which we plunder and mar our
environment, from deforestation and over-fishing, to pesticides, water use, and energy
consumption. Virgin landscapes give way to industrial wastelands, ravaged mountainsides, and
the squalor of shantytowns. The reality of our eat-it-up, spit-it-out wastefulness isn't pretty. Like
An Inconvenient Truth and The 11th Hour before it, Home has been
called a wake-up call, and the filmmakers are desperately hoping that we resist the urge to sleep
in. Glen Close repeatedly challenges us to change, saying "it's too late to be a pessimist," but it's
hard to feel optimistic when, like disobedient puppies, we've just had our noses rubbed in our own
filth. For all the time it spends on problems, Home is surprisingly light on answers, and
this is why I came away from the film feeling discouraged. Home is undoubtedly
beautiful, timely, and important, but I would have preferred to trudge less through the
environmental missteps of our present, and focus more on the potential solutions we can enact
to change the future of our planet. It's sad that the filmmakers feel they need to prove
we're harming our environment, but it's sadder still that there are people, to this day, who refuse
to acknowledge the soon-to-be irreversible damage we've caused in the past 100 years. It all
goes back to perspective and willingness. We may each be small—the grand scope of
Home shows
us that—but en masse humankind is anything but ineffectual. If we would just apply the same
dedication and know-how to saving the Earth as we have to milking it dry, the prospects for the
next 100 years would look a whole lot less bleak.
"Minerals and metals are even older than the earth. They are stardust. They provide the
earth's colors. Red from iron, black from carbon, blue from copper, yellow from
sulfur."
Colorful doesn't even begin to describe Home's AVC-encoded, 1080p transfer. Every color
of the rainbow—literally, check out the screenshot above—is represented with lush, saturated,
eye-popping realism. Watch elephants as they wade through a verdant marsh. See the starry sky
blues off the coast of Dubai, or the pale sheen of ice-covered rivers from above, branching like
Earth's arteries. Black levels too are strong, from the dense smoke above Iceland's volcanoes, to
the inky deeps of the forest as an oil fire burns fiercely overhead. None of this would matter if the
image itself was dull, but Home cut through my home theater screen with perfectly
balanced contrast and sharp, almost three-dimensional clarity. Nearly every shot has a carefully
composed, painterly quality, and though Home was filmed using an HD Cineflex camera,
the image has a rich filmic look that belies its video origins. Only the darkest scenes show any
signs of digital noise, and the transfer is completely free from any macroblocking or banding
issues, even in the most subtle color gradients and peaked highlights. This is reference-quality
material throughout, and Home truly is a joy to behold.
"Our earth relies on a balance in which every being has a role to play and exists only through
the existence of another being, a subtle, fragile harmony that is easily
shattered."
As Home opens, a deep LFE-heavy rumble builds as the sun rises on a view of Earth from
space, and the DTS-HD MA 5.1 track announces its intention to be every bit as impressive as the
imagery on display. And for the most part, the track fulfills its promise. The first thing to be
aware of, audio-wise, is that ambient noise plays very little part in Home's incredibly wide
scope. As it was shot from a helicopter, the film is mostly composed of vast, pulled-back vistas
that give the appearance of a silent planet, and the mix reflects this with audible but faint
environmental noises. There's rarely a quiet moment, however, as Home's powerful and
dynamic score accents the imagery with pounding tribal drums, sweeping strings, and even some
guttural atonal singing. The soundtrack fills the audio field with chest-pounding musical cues, and
if I have one complaint it's that the bass is sometimes too prevalent. In other instances,
however, the added LFE depth gives a majestic quality to the many waterfalls and volcanoes on
display. Of course, the quality of the narration by Glenn Close is of key importance, and
thankfully, her distinct elocution sounds crisp, round, and only occasionally overpowered by the
soundtrack.
Sadly, Home ships without a single supplement. I'm sure it was quite a journey for director
Yann Arthus-Bertand to film in so many countries, and a behind-the-scenes feature about location
scouting and shot composition could have been fascinating. I would've also liked to see some
background into the fact generating and verifying process. For a film so full of statistics,
Home never really mentions the sources of its frequently terrifying data.
Home is beautiful and sobering, an ode to our planet and a portent of what could befall it if
we don't reverse our ways. You might not pop this one in as often as Planet Earth—the
amazing imagery is tinged by the sadness of its message—but for documentary lovers or HD fans
who just want another dose of eye candy, Home is worthy purchase. Highly recommended.
Kino Video has announced Home for release on Blu-ray on July 27. This Swiss-produced drama, starring Isabelle Huppert, tells the story of a family cut off from the world by the construction of a new road. Not to be mistaken with the documentary HOME.
June 5, World Environment Day, is the date when the documentary 'HOME' is
released simultaneously in movie theaters, on TV, Blu-ray, DVD and online. Shot
in HD in 54 countries and 120 locations over 217 days, the all-aerial filming style
highlights the Earth's ...
In an early announcement to retailers, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment has announced that they will bring the Yann Arthus-Bertrand documentary 'Home' to Blu-ray on June 5th, day-and-date with the DVD release. No technical specs have been announced at this time, ...
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