A Knight's Tale 4K Ultra HD SteelBook

(If you are not a Queen fan, surely you watch football...so here we go...) Heath Ledger plays a poor man, a poor man named William, and William wants to be a big man some day. He wants blood on his face...to please His Grace...jousting in disguise all over the place. The tagline's He Will, He Will Rock You! "A Knight's Tale" is set in 1270, which is way before there was rock and roll! It's got a quick pace...with sub-25 Hz bass...but it's up to you whether it's done in good taste. The tagline's He Will, He Will Rock You! (Suzanne Hodges)

Both the theatrical version (02:12:08) and the extended version (02:23:40) are available. Special features include commentary with Director Brian Helgeland and Paul Bettany, a gag reel (HD 02:13), deleted and extended scenes from tape dailies (HD 09:00), six deleted scenes (HD 21:40), the featurette "Quill & Quarterhorse: 2nd Unit Photography" (HD 08:22), 11 behind-the-scenes featurettes (HD 32:45), HBO Making-Of (HD 15:02), Robbie Willias & Queen: "We Are The Champions" music video (HD 04:08), trailers and a Movies Anywhere digital copy.

The 2.39:1 2160p HEVC/H.265 Ultra HD HDR10 picture, reviewed on a VIZIO Quantum X P85QX-JI UHD/HDR display, was photographed on Kodak 35 mm film in Super 35 using the Moviecam Compacts and Moviecam SL camera systems and sourced from a 4K master Digital Intermediate format. Film grain is very smooth, filmic and unobtrusive. Picture quality is excellent. The setting is for the most part within competitive knight arenas that are awash in earthy colors such as dirt, wood structures, and armor with an emphasis on brown and metal hues. Colors are perfectly saturated to bring out the fabric nuances, backgrounds, and food, and really pop from the screen. For example, this is depicted especially with the orange-red of Wat's (Alan Tudy) hair against the impressive greens of the forest. The imagery is sharp and clear throughout with very good depth of field. Flesh tones appear perfectly natural as well as the tones on the horses. HDR contrast is excellent. Lighting effects appear naturally illuminated. Black levels are naturally deep and rich. Shadows are well delineated. Resolution is superb with facial features finely detailed such as skin pores, beads and hair, Costume fabrics and armor are nicely defined. Production settings and objects reveal excellent pristine textures. This is a great looking picture with natural lighting and color fidelity. (Gary Reber)

The repurposed Dolby Atms/Dolby TrueHD 7.1-channel soundtrack is dynamic sounding with the sound of powerful horse galloping and a strong,forward orchestral and pop music score. The soundstage is amply dimensional. Each of the channels are used well for both music and sound effects. Atmospherics are realistic as well as Foley sound effects. Sound effects are powerful, such as an intense thunderous rain storm, with deep bass enhancement during the tournament action. Bass response is solid and .1 LFE output is weighty and deep. Directionality is excellent, pans are smooth and wide, and crowds scream and cheer from every loudspeaker. The orchestral score and music is spread wide and deep within the soundstage and aggressively extends to the surrounds. Surround energy is aggressively enveloping. Dialogue consists of ADR production and generally well integrated.

The Immersive Sound element is comprised of strong crowd reactions and some dialogue, atmospherics throughout, strong transient sound effects that hit hard such as the lance battles and the intense thunder and rain storm, and the music, which result in an effective enhancement of the height layer and sound field experience.

This is a lively holosonic® spherical surroundsoundtrack that delivers good fidelity along with strong dynamics that energize the entire sound field and height layer. (Gary Reber)