The Sweet Hereafter is a 1997 film directed by Atom Egoyan, adapted from a book by Russell Banks. It tells the tragic story of a school bus crash and its impact on a small town. The film drifts backwards and forwards in time, moving forward with an emotional rhythm that is emphasized by Mychael Danna’s haunting score. Ian Holm and Sarah Polley give knockout performances alongside a the troop of Eyogan regulars that includes Bruce Greenwood.

The Sweet Herafter was an early DVD ‘must-have’ released on the New Line Platinum collection, and it was through this that I personally discovered both Egoyan and Banks. Egoyan does some of his best work adapting the book for the screen, he introduces a Pied Piper motif which ties together several of the male (father) characters, and the idea of narrative being used as part of deception.

Alliance Canada have released a Blu-ray edition of the film, and not seeing any reviews online, I decided to take a look.

Unfortunately there is bad news.

The New Line DVD edition was a very good anamorphic transfer, film to tape was done on a Spirit Datacine at Fotokem in Burbank,California. The transfer was fantastic by 1997 standards, and still stands up as fair even today. The Blu-ray is sharp enough, but has been hit pretty hard with the Orange and Teal stick. Virtually every scene has been re-tinted. This isn’t subtle in many cases.

Basically if you have a choice between buying the Sweet Herafter on the Alliance Canada Blu-ray or the 15 year old New Line Platinum DVD: Get the DVD.

Blu-ray rating: Poor: 1 out of 5

Sweet Hereafter, Blu-ray on the left, Platinum edition DVD on the right. Strong use of orange and teal evident in the Blu-ray.

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