I made no effort to see J. Edgar in theaters. It’s a historical and political film and it stars Leonardo DiCaprio attempting an accent. Regardless I found it in my work pile and gave it a spin. Not quite what I was expecting it to be and not exactly a stellar Blu-Ray release, but it squeaked by with a passing grade. So is it worth purchasing for your own home collection?

PICTURE QUALITY:
First off I have no idea what Eastwood was thinking with this picture. When it’s dark, be it due to night scenes or enclosed gloomy locations, it’s incredibly dark. I think half of us will see this as ambiance for these particular scenes and the other half will simply think that the film suffers from poor lighting. The darkness tends to swallow up detail and make a moot point out of color grades but you have to decide for yourself weather or not this works for you as a device for the film. Outside of these scenes detail is fantastic when considering things like facial features, clothing, inanimate background objects. Color is spot on when scenes are flushed with light or during close ups. It really is a great looking picture that manages to envelope you in the period in which Eastwood’s J. Edgar is set, faltered only by Eastwood's excessive use of shade and gloom.

Audio is amazing. I turned my surround sound up to about 25 ticks and sat back enjoying the subtle sounds of the films atmospheric opening scene and then BOOM! The house nearly rocked off its foundation when an explosion occurred on screen. I’ve been disappointed by shotty soundtracks for Blu-Rays and I guess it’s just habit to push passed what is my standard for proper sounding surround sound soundtracks (20 ticks), so when the explosion occurred the LFE output rumbled my entire living room and probably caused a few squirrels napping in the tree in my front yard to go into cardiac arrest, the atmospheric sound of rubble flying every which way across my living room, the haunting cries of a little girl somewhere in my soundscape really blew my mind. Even at 20 ticks dialogue was crystal clear, ambient sounds were coherent and immersive. It’s simply one of the better uses of sound on a BD I’ve heard in awhile.

BONUS FEATURES:
~The Most Powerful Man In The World
~DVD
~Ultraviolet Digital Copy