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Jack Hawkins

Jack Hawkins

6 films on Best Blurays3 in 4K3 in HD

Jack Hawkins photo

John Edward Hawkins, CBE was an English actor who worked on stage and in film from the 1930s until the 1970s. One of the most popular British film stars of the 1950s, he was best known for his portrayal of military men in films like Angels One Five (1951), The Cruel Sea (1953), Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Ben Hur (1959) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962).

Biography from TMDB

3 in 4K

UHD Blu-ray or 4K streaming

Leading role · Director: David Lean

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly:

2022 Sony 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

2022 Sony 4K Blu-ray Steelbook

Video Notes:

/ (2019? Sony 4K Blu-ray with the mono)

Best Audio:

1985 RCA/Columbia Hi-Fi VHS

Supporting role · Director: William Wyler

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

1991 MGM LaserDisc

Audio Notes:

The 4K Blu-ray 5.0 is the original mix, but more muffled than LaserDisc and even the previous Blu-ray's gentle remix. The Atmos mix is revisionist.

Additional Info:

The 50th Anniversary box set has some exclusive extras.

1991 LaserDisc is Dolby Stereo matrix encoded from the original six track master and this was later upgraded to a 5.1 Dolby Digital version prepared for the first DVD. The 5.1 version may have had some slight tweaking in the process. This was reused for the DVD CE boxset and then the 5.1 on Blu-ray seems like a slight upgrade of the DVD track. (The first pressing from the UCE boxset had audio defects rampant on the Blu-ray. These were corrected for standalone pressings.) All 5.1s sound roughly the same as the LaserDisc 2.0 in terms of the mix, but the LaserDisc PCM mastering seems like the only one that is direct without any major processing.

Supporting role · Director: David Lean

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Sony 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Additional Info:

The 5.1 on Sony 4K Blu-ray is from the 1989 70mm mix. The original is 4-track. not on the disc.

3 in HD

Blu-ray or HD streaming

Leading role · Director: Howard Hawks

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Leading role · Director: Ken Annakin

Best English-Friendly & Video:

MGM Blu-ray

Leading role · Director: Cy Endfield

Best English-Friendly & Video:

US OOP Twilight Time Blu-ray

Sources: caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

US OOP Twilight Time Blu-ray > UK Paramount Blu-ray or US Inspired Blu-ray

The UK Blu-ray not only have some DNR applied, it's also squeezed and cropped: see comparison

The color contrast from Twilight Time is however possibly suffering the Quicktime Gamma Bug, but that's an easier issue to fix than DNR or cropped images.

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