Plot: What’s it about?
“Sinatra” is a TV mini-series that shows the accomplishments and hardships of Frank Sinatra (Philip Casnoff) throughout his life, starting with his early upbringings in Hobokon, NJ and ending with his return from retirement. Admittedly, this film doesn’t hold too much back with regard to Sinatra’s relationships, from the early days with his first wife, Nancy (Gina Gershon), all the way through to Ava Gardner (Marcia Gay Harden) and Mia Farrow. You get a taste of Frank’s life on the road with his rise to fame, women, drinking and to a degree his involvement with the mob. The movie is predictably light on the latter aspect since it was originally produced for television, but it is still interesting more often than not, and if you don’t know anything about Ol’ Blue Eyes you should probably give this well-made biopic a try. Production value here is relatively top-notch, especially for your typical mini-series fare.
As much of a Frank Sinatra fan as I am, I was a bit apprehensive about watching a four hour movie depicting his life, but I must say that I was pleasantly surprised. The whole cast is really great here, and at certain moments it was difficult to remember that I wasn’t watching Sinatra himself perform onscreen. Not only does Casoff have the looks and acting chops to portray the role, he also has the gestures down quite well. The only complaint that I really have about this film is that it seems so focused on his personal relationships and unfaithfulness to his wives for such a large portion of the running time (I assume this is because Sinatra’s real-life daughter had a hand in making the mini-series), that it winds up painting itself into a corner in the end and shoving everything else rather awkwardly into the last hour. The production also doesn’t mention that much about his film career expect for a few clapper boards scattered here and there to show what stage of his life we are seeing.
Still, these caveats aren’t enough to detract from an otherwise well-made mini-series. The production fares best when focusing on Sinatra’s performances and Casnoff’s interpretation of them, and there are more than enough of these sequences to keep the average viewer interested for much of the duration. Arguably, this film may work a bit better for those who aren’t as intimately familiar with Sinatra’s offstage life, as much of this material may come off as too by-the-numbers for the more hardcore fans out there. For those more casual fans of his work, though, there’s plenty to recommend here, and fans of the man, the music, the movie star (or simply of well-done, epic-style biopics) could do a lot worse than to give “Sinatra” a try. Just make sure you’ve got an afternoon to kill before you give this one a spin.
Video: How does it look?
The video presentation of “Sinatra” on this DVD can only bee seen as a tremendous disappointment. This is, hands down, one of the ugliest home video transfers I’ve seen in years. The first thing that jumped out at me was the tremendous amount of dirt and artifacts that prevail throughout virtually the entire production. Obviously, no clean-up whatsoever has been done for this release, and it’s a letdown to say the very least. Edge enhancement also rears its ugly head, proving noticeable even in shots of medium levels of contrast. Compression isn’t exactly a top tier effort, either, with a nearly constant presence of color blocking and mosquito noise throughout the nearly four-hour film. About the only thing this transfer has going for it is relatively solid black levels and skin tones that appear accurate, but it’s small consolation for the rest of the presentation. There’s no doubt that Warner really dropped the ball on the visual aspect of this disc.
Audio: How does it sound?
What we’ve got here is a Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track, and that’s it in a nutshell. This is a TV production with limited range, so don’t expect anything to really stand out, even during the film’s musical numbers. It’s not a particularly weak mix for what it is exactly, it’s just not a very strong one, either, especially considering the wonderful material the film had to work with here. On the plus side, dialogue is generally clear and intelligible and there’s nothing in particular that stands out as a negative about this track, just don’t go in expecting anything more than a standard TV mini-series soundtrack and you won’t leave let down. On the other hand, the rather limited audio track presented here when coupled with the less than stellar video portion of the disc just might prove to be a deal-breaker.
Supplements: What are the extras?
If the sub par presentation of the film itself weren’t enough to dissuade anyone from buying this DVD, then consider that despite the “Collector’s Edition” banner which graces the top of this release, there are no extras whatsoever to be found on either disc. This release is recommended as a rental for everyone but hardcore fans of the film. And even then only for those who would be happy to have the film on disc regardless of how mediocre it looks and sounds.
