The reasons to drop a few bills on Warner's forthcoming (4th May) Blu-ray book edition of Doctor Zhivago are the video and audio upgrades, which are absolutely stellar. Color depth is noticeably richer than DVD, especially in Julie Christie's striking blue eyes. Contrast and detail are also greatly benefitted by the huge jump in picture resolution found in the 8K scan Warner did of the original negative for this new edition. This has joined The African Queen as one of the most impressive catalog color transfers of the year.
I watch Zhivago at least once a year, if not twice. The same goes for David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia. My fondness for re-watching is why I miss the Isolated Score track that was dropped in the evolution from DVD to Blu. Aside from that, the extras from WB's 2001-vintage DVD Special Edition have been retained on a second disc (a standard-def DVD) identical to disc 2 from the previous set.
The extras DVD in the front cover of the "book".
Some may cry foul that "disc 2" isn't a Blu-ray disc, but I'm glad the release is absent the additional cost of remastering extras for HD (some of which wouldn't have looked any better regardless). In addition to that, they've put together a new two-"act" retrospective talking heads piece that includes Nicholas Meyer and Martin Campbell among others. I'd watch the held-over extras more than once, but this is a one-viewing thing for me.
The beginning of the 50-page built-into-the-case booklet.
David Lean
The feature disc, which includes the movie, commentary, and the 2-part, 40-minute Anniversary featurette.
Amazon is selling the Blu-ray for $28.99, which will probably drop in price the week of release (next week), so fear not in pre-ordering since Amazon's price guarantee will be in effect. There's a DVD version of this 45th Anniversary Edition for around $22, but anyone who's been reading this for a while knows how I feel about DVDs when equivalent Blu-rays are out. WB is also making Zhivago available On Demand from Amazon and for Download from iTunes (links taken from the official site).
