The African Queen Blu-ray delivers stunning video and solid audio in this excellent Blu-ray release
Charlie Allnut is the slovenly, gin-swilling captain of a tramp steamer called the African Queen, which ships supplies to small East African villages during World War I. Rose Sayer is the maiden-lady sister of a prim British missionary, Rev. Samuel Sayer. When Germans invade and Sayer dies, Allnut offers to take Rose back to civilization.
From Hollywood's Golden Era comes The African Queen, an indelible icon of moviemaking
yore that's still fresh, refreshing, and thoroughly enjoyable even almost sixty years after its
theatrical
release. Starring two of Tinseltown's biggest names -- of their era and beyond -- in Humphrey
Bogart (Casablanca) and
Katharine Hepburn (Guess Who's Coming to Dinner), The African Queen yielded
each of them an Oscar nomination; Hepburn failed to capture what would have then been her
second and, ultimately, fifth, but Bogart walked away with his one and only statue amongst two
additional nominations. The African Queen may be remembered for its fantastic
performances, but the film is much more than its leads, playing as a remarkably simple yet
expertly-constructed masterpiece of fundamental cinema that sees a broad swath of elements
amidst a
basic
story and an exotic setting. The combination of elements -- not to mention that The African
Queen is simply a vastly entertaining picture even through the prism of all else that it gets
right
-- has earned it a top-20 spot on the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 movies, besting
such legends as 2001: A Space
Odyssey, The Godfather Part
II, and Forrest Gump.
Bogie & 'Burn.
German East Africa, 1914. Missionary Rose Sayer (Hepburn) and her brother Samuel (Robert
Morley) learn of the outbreak of war on the European continent from grimy and hungry riverboat
skipper Charlie Allnut (Bogart). It's not long until the war reaches Rose and Samuel's village; it's
burned to the
ground and a beaten and defeated Charlie soon perishes from his wounds, the elements, and the
tragic developments that have interrupted their effort to spread the Word of God to Africa's
population. Charlie returns with his rickety steam-powered vessel, the African Queen,
and rescues Rose from the solitude of the abandoned and destroyed village. Fearful that the
Germans may be interested in obtaining the supplies on his ship -- including crates of
explosives and a couple of gaseous cylinders -- Canadian Charlie is content to sit out the war on
the
backwaters of Africa, particularly considering that the German vessel Louisa and her
six-pound gun is lurking about several miles downriver. British national Rose, however, devises a
plan to turn Charlie's supplies into makeshift torpedoes and sink the German vessel -- using the
Queen as a delivery device -- and convinces Charlie of the necessity and foolproof nature
of her plan. Proving
herself a capable sailor, Rose leads the charge to take the fight to the Germans the only way she
can. It's only a question of whether she can survive her time with the hard-drinking skipper of
the African Queen along the way.
Yes, The African Queen offers a bit of everything: a sprinkling of daring adventure, a
helping of romance, a pinch of drama, a pint of action, several fifths of gin, and a river's worth of
fantastic moviemaking. Indeed, this is complete moviemaking and at its very best to boot, the
film
a prime example of a near faultless picture that doesn't overemphasize any single element and by
extension actually supports and enhances all of them thanks to a perfect balancing act courtesy
of Director John Huston's (The Maltese Falcon)
fantastically understated but highly effective helmsmanship. The film is dominated by its capable
story
and sense of adventure and romance; the script is the definition of understated simplicity but it
nevertheless excels thanks to every element coming perfectly into place. Still, it's ultimately the
quality
of the leads that injects into The African Queen a sense of completion that turns what is
otherwise a fairly ordinary and straightforward story into an exceptional moviegoing experience.
Huston still captures the beauty, glory, grandeur, and danger of the African setting superbly, and
the fog of war surrounding the adventure makes it all the more deadly, daring, and tense. Bogart
and Hepburn nevertheless remain the stars of the show, and it's how exceptionally well they
blend into the movie -- its setting, themes, dialogue, emotions, and honesty -- that comes to
define
The African Queen by film's end.
The African Queen's pair of leads are so magnificent and the story written in such a way
that it might even
pass as a Buddy movie, but the budding romance and the characters' oftentimes outwardly
tumultuous but inwardly respectful relationship that grows into something more than a mutual
friendship adds an interesting angle to the picture and helps place
the film in something of a unique genre that's comprised of all the major elements but dominated
by none. Primarily assembled around its setting and
two actors, Bogart and Hepburn carry the film remarkably well, both lacking the glamour they
were known for and in turn appearing haggard, scruffy, tired, worn, excessively hot, and
generally
unkempt but nevertheless turning in two of the more exceptional performances of their careers.
The fact that the picture was filmed primarily on location in the elements of Africa and not in the
safety and comfort of a soundstage (save for select scenes) only adds to the mystique
of the movie and the
quality of the experience, and the realism the location shoot adds to the picture also proudly rests
as one of the many elements of near equal value that make The African Queen a
splendid and timeless film.
The African Queen traverses onto the Blu-ray high definition landscape and yields a
1080p, 1.37:1-framed transfer that doesn't sparkle like a new release but
nevertheless looks as beautiful and pristine as one could hope of a classic movie approaching its
60th birthday. Please also note that this transfer preserves the film's original theatrical aspect
ratio, placing vertical black bars on either side of the image when replayed on a standard 1.78:1
high definition display. The opening title credits stand out as beautifully sharp, and the transfer
only
continues to impress from there. The African Queen retains a thick layer of
natural film grain that adds to the image's distinctive and classic texturing and only helps in
brining out the best of what else the transfer has to offer. Fine detail is wonderfully preserved
throughout; whether the caked-on grime and scruffy facial hair that covers Charlie's face for the
majority of the picture, beads of sweat on faces, the rough texturing of the Queen's
wooden hull and various metal parts, the fine lines of clothing, or the breathtaking backgrounds
of the African setting, The African Queen never yearns for additional detailing. Colors,
too, are splendidly reproduced; the bright adornments worn by Africans attending Rose's mission
church as seen at the beginning of the film, the green foliage that's visible throughout, or the
darker
shades that make up the Queen are all delivered with the utmost care and make for a
standout feature on this already highly-impressive image. Darker scenes are also handsomely
captured with no devouring of detail or excessively bright blacks, and the wide-range of flesh
tones seen in the film all take on natural-looking shades with no obtrusive push towards red or
orange. There are no major distracting print anomalies -- scratches, dirt, debris, and the like -- to
take away from the quality of the image, either. Only minor bouts of softness in several scenes
pull the viewer out of the movie, but considering the astounding quality of the film in general, it's
easy to assume that such scenes are inherent to the source, as are the several obviously fake
backgrounds that stick out thanks to the increased resolution of the Blu-ray disc. Nevertheless,
what's important here is that Paramount's Blu-ray wonderfully preserves what the film very well
may have looked like in its original state decades ago, and fans can rest assured that this is the
best the film has ever looked for consumer home viewing. The African Queen represents
what Blu-ray is all about; the format is proving nothing less than a miraculous technology for
presenting
properly-restored classic films for home viewing, and this presentation ranks among the very
finest transfers of a classic film currently available on Blu-ray.
The African Queen floats onto Blu-ray with a minimalist but true-to-the-source Dolby
Digital
mono soundtrack; only the center channel speaker will be engaged in 5.1 home set-ups. This
presentation is decidedly but understandably limited; various atmospherics throughout the film
will
never engulf the listener, nor will any sound effects enjoy the heft and clarity associated with
multichannel presentations of newly-minted content. That's not a bad thing at all, however;
alongside the glorious video restoration, the original mono soundtrack only adds to the quality of
the
presentation in recreating the movie for home viewing in a manner that's as close as possible to
its original theatrical
exhibition. Still, it's worth noting that, while perfectly clear, audible, and comprehensible, various
jungle sound effects generally play as miniscule and add but a cursory environmental feel to the
track. Gunshots are equally puny but sonically effective at a very base level. The track in general
has a cramped feel to it, but again, this presentation is perfectly fine in the context of the aged
but
original elements. Audio purists will enjoy this track a great deal, and those accustomed to or
preferring
more rambunctious audio presentations can take solace in the fact that this is The African
Queen as it was meant to be heard both in 1951 and 2010. Update: Upon closer inspection,
very slight information may be heard emanating from the front side and surround speakers
during playback. However, the sound is so faint that hearing it clearly required a full disconnect
of the center channel speaker and an increase in volume to near maximum on the equipment
used in evaluating this disc. The additional sound in no way either enhances nor hinders the
presentation in any way and, again with this equipment and in the same environment, proves
inconsequential and inaudible during playback at reference level where the center channel
speaker completely dominates the presentation.
The African Queen's Blu-ray debut offers but a solitary extra; fortunately, it's a great
one.
Embracing Chaos: Making 'The African Queen' (1080p, 59:23) is an exceptional piece
that
looks at the quality and legacy of The African Queen. A wide array of notable individuals
-- Directors Nicholas Meyer, Martin Scorsese, and Norman Lloyd; Film Historians Rudy Behlmer
and
Richard Schickel; John Forester, son of The African Queen Novelist C.S. Forester;
Humphrey
Bogart Biographer Eric Lax; Sam Spiegel Biographer Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni; and various
The
African Queen crew members -- take viewers through a verbal and visual history of the
picture,
including a look at the novel on which the film is based; the early stages of the project; actors
originally pegged to star; the history of the film industry at the time of the production; the
assemblage of the cast and crew that would ultimately produce, craft, and star the film; tales
from the shoot; the
themes of the film; its construction;
and
plenty more. This piece is nearly as engaging as the film itself, delivered in a wonderful high
definition picture quality and comprised of newly-minted and vintage footage alongside clips from
the film, and it proves a worthwhile endeavor not only for fans of the film but for fans of cinema
in
general and those interested in the making of one of Hollywood's best pictures and one that is
certainly of a fascinating and unique historical background.
There may be other classic films out there that enjoy greater recognition, but few are as truly
endearing as The African Queen. With two performances for the ages, a grandiose and
exotic
setting, a wonderful sense of adventure, a charming and believable romance, and an altogether
completely
immersive and seamless experience, The African Queen is deserving of its accolades and
more -- including its proud ranking as the 17th best movie of all-time according the American
Film
Institute. The only film for which the legendary Humphrey Bogart won an Oscar, The African
Queen makes for a prime example of what seamless acting and first-class cinematic
storytelling
are all about, the film still a triumph some 60 years after its release and still a ride down a river of
movie magic that's as harrowing but inviting today as ever before. Paramount's wonderful Blu-
ray
release only makes The African Queen experience all the better. Sporting a world-class
high definition video
restoration, a by-the-book but true-to-the-source soundtrack, and a singular but nevertheless
exceptional supplement in the form of an engrossing documentary, The African Queen
makes for a must-own Blu-ray disc. Highly recommended.
Best Buy has an interesting BD-related deal of the day going on now. Today only, you can buy the Blu-ray of the classic John Huston adventure movie The African Queen for only $15.00 (62% off MSRP). This offer is available for in-store pickup and online, and expires ...
An exclusive eight-minute video was posted today at MovieWeb offering a fascinating look at the many challenges faced for the restoration of John Huston's The African Queen, which will finally come out on Blu-ray next Tuesday. Paramount's ambition with this restoration ...
Paranount Home Entertainment has announced that it will release 'The African Queen' on Blu-ray on March 23. Meticulously restored using state-of-the-art 4K digital technology, 'The African Queen' will now be available for a new generation to appreciate and for ...
An early announcement to retailers indicates that 'The African Queen', the classic movie starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn and directed by John Huston, will be released on Blu-ray on February 23, 2010. No release details are available, but judging ...
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