The Omen
November 2008 Reviewed by: Rad Bennett Format: Blu-ray	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

After receiving so many Blu-ray releases of classic films that were done in by half-hearted production values, it was like a jolt of lightning to dig into this one. This is what a Blu-ray release ought to be: a final HD statement that provides real entertainment and education on the film for those willing to plumb the depths of its extra features.

First and foremost, the film has received a new video transfer. The print has been cleaned up, color timing has been adjusted, contrast has been examined and made ideal, and the soundtrack has been remastered for multichannel Dolby TrueHD. A cleaned-up master of the original mono track is also included. That’s an extra that the producers might have cut, but this is a thorough edition, so it would be unthinkable not to provide the original along with the remaster.

The cleaned-up picture varies in sharpness, but I am certain that had to do with the original filming. Some scenes, such as Damien’s birthday party, which occurs near the beginning of the film, are sharp as a tack, while others are softer. Dark scenes look better than they ever have with this film. The scene with the dog attack in the Italian cemetery, and the many dark indoor scenes, notably the one when Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck) finds the mark of the devil, 666, on his son, have lots of shadows, but these have detail. There’s nothing murky here. The new soundtrack spreads the music out across a good-sounding front stage with some ambience to the rear. Sound effects are sometimes shunted to the back (thunder in particular) and the front-center dialogue is perfectly clear. The original mono track is a little edgier on top, which may or may not be your preference, but you do have a choice.

I’m assuming that just about everyone knows the plot here, but let’s capsule it, just in case. Gregory Peck plays Robert Thorn, an American ambassador whose wife (Lee Remick) has a still-born baby while they are in Italy. Thorn is persuaded to substitute a boy whose mother, he is told, has perished in giving birth. That son turns out to be Damien, the Antichrist, and the movie is spent with Thorn’s gradual discovery of the truth, while experiencing some harrowing and horrible events along the way. It was and is a classy horror thriller for it used A-list actors and production values.

Back to the extras: You get not one, but three commentary tracks. One pairs director Richard Donner with editor Stuart Braid, and another connects Donner with Brian Hegeland, co-author of L.A. Confidential, which is also reviewed this month. Still a third commentary involves film historian Lem Dobbs, along with Nick Redmond and Jeff Bond, discussing the movie with particular emphasis on Jerry Goldsmith’s Academy Award-winning music score. This last commentary is exclusive to the Blu-ray Disc, as is a 15-minute discussion by director Donner and a music-only track so one can study the use of the music without the dialogue. There’s also a trivia pop-up track that can be engaged while watching the film, and, as a thoughtful touch, it’s available that way for those having 1.1-profile players, and in a lump section for those who do not. There are good and bad things about this feature. The pop-ups are small so they don’t detract from the film too much, but they are difficult to read.

Getting back to the regular extras, which are SD, there’s an interview with Jerry Goldsmith, a 102-minute documentary on the making of the movie, still-frame galleries, a trailer, and much more, including a discussion of the curse that seemed to follow the film’s production.

Even by Criterion Collection standards these are very generous and worthwhile extras. My editorial this month gripes about the cavalier treatment of some other recently released movies. As far as I am concerned, all Blu-ray movies should have new video transfers and HD audio of some sort. Otherwise, what is the point?

The Blu-ray The Omen is also available in a four-pack that has the two sequels and the recent remake with Liev Schreiber in the Gregory Peck role. If you must have completeness, that’s for you, but the first film towers over the others, which are really quite forgettable, and the manner in which the four discs are housed in a flimsy digipak seems haphazard and rushed. I’d get the original; the others are bound to come out separately, now that they have been remastered for the set. The first movie is a classic that influenced many filmmakers and is still immensely entertaining, if not as scary as it was back then.

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