The Power of the Dog (2021)
Drama, Western • 2h 6m
Director: Jane Campion
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Thomasin McKenzie, Geneviève Lemon, Keith Carradine, Frances Conroy, Kenneth Radley, Sean Keenan, George Mason, Ramontay McConnell, David Denis, Cohen Holloway, Max Mata, Josh Owen, Alistair Sewell, Eddie Campbell, Alice Englert, Bryony Skillington, Jacque Drew, Yvette Parsons, Aislinn Furlong, Daniel Cleary, Richard Falkner, Tatum Warren-Ngata, Yvette Reid, Alice May Connolly, Stephen Lovatt, Stephen Bain, Ella Hope-Higginson, Piimio Mei, Edith Poor, Vadim Ledogorov, Julie Forsyth, Peter Carroll, Alison Bruce, Karl Willetts, David T. Lim, Adam Beach, Maeson Stone Skuggedal, Ian Harcourt
Criterion 4K Blu-ray
Best English-friendly release · updated 1 year ago
UHD tiers
if compared to Netflix's streaming
if compared to Criterion's own 2022 BD
Overview
A domineering but charismatic rancher wages a war of intimidation on his brother's new wife and her teen son, until long-hidden secrets come to light.
Director: Jane Campion
France Carlotta 4K Blu-ray slightly better than Criterion 4K Blu-ray
2014 StudioCanal Blu-ray 5.1, 2012 Lionsgate Blu-ray 2.0
Director: Jane Campion
Director: Jane Campion
Director: Jūzō Itami
Director: Carol Reed
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray or Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray/Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray (shared encode); slight improvement over the 2015 StudioCanal Blu-ray
StudioCanal/LG UHDs port the 1999 Criterion DVD, considered the best source
StudioCanal has a remastered Blu-ray, Lionsgate only a 4K Blu-ray
Director: Martin Scorsese
2024 Sony 4K Blu-ray Steelbook
2024 Sony 4K Blu-ray Steelbook fixes duplicate shot seen on the previous Columbia Classics release and has better encoding
Original mono mix: 1990 Criterion LaserDisc/1991 Columbia LaserDisc
The 4K Blu-ray mono is only minimally worse (see blah-ray).
5.1 remix: Sony 4K Blu-ray
Director: George Stevens
Criterion 4K Blu-ray is slightly better than French 4K Blu-ray see caps
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Director: David Lynch
Censored US version: Shout! Factory or Twilight Time Blu-ray
Uncensored version: old DVD
2026 Criterion 4K Blu-ray, confirmed to be uncut
Censored US version: Shout! Factory or Twilight Time Blu-ray
Uncensored version: old DVD
Director: Joachim Trier
MUBI 4K Blu-ray has zero extras
Director: David Lynch
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray > Criterion 4K Blu-ray.
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray is encoded by FiM and doesn’t have the low-pass filter the Criterion 4K Blu-ray has.
Criterion 4K Blu-ray is closer to the original DVDs than the 2015 Criterion release, not sure about whether the StudioCanal 4K is like the Criterion 4K/original DVD
Criterion 4K Blu-ray has FEL Dolby Vision, StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray has MEL
More Drama on Blu-ray
Director: Chris Columbus
Disney 4K Blu-ray has encoding issues with bitrates dipping into 40mbps, and Kaleidescape has better encoding than Disney see caps
Old Fox Blu-ray master is stretched and sharpened
Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray > Paramount US, same black crush as the US disc but encoded by FiM and very good new supplements
Paramount US 4K Blu-ray has FEL Dolby Vision
Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray has MEL Dolby Vision
Director: Rob Reiner
UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray > US Kino Lorber/Germany Capelight - caps and audio comparison on this page. Discussion is still ongoing about the 2.0 but as none of the three 4Ks seem to have the true original mix, I think it's fair to leave them all in the blue tier for now and only note that Kino Lorber has the worst PQ.
The initial release of the Capelight 4K mediabook had some playback issues with Dolby Vision on Panasonic devices due to an encoding error, the HDR10 apparently works fine, see Capelight’s official response here.
Director: Billy Wilder
Paramount 4K Blu-ray. See caps
HDR/grading: nice, but some blown out
Encoding: inconsistent, smeared motion
DNR: inconsistent, frozen
Old Paramount Blu-ray is arguably a solid alternative choice
Paramount 4K Blu-ray mono is different version of the Blu-ray mono from the same old 2000 DVD transfer.
The 5.1 remix on the 4K Blu-ray is an appalling remix done by going wild with artificially generated stems from Park Road Post who were given the surviving mono to separate. The experience is jarring and fidelity to original mix in terms of level balance, directionality and impact is nonexistent. Not only does this sound painfully weird, but the Paramount mixers then did whatever they wanted in terms of LFE, sound pans and effect changes.
The original mono mix was not restored and still needs it badly. The 4K master is filled with frozen grain examples coming and going plus some HDR issues in addition to the usual Paramount problems. It is simultaneously better and worse than the Blu-ray master.
Director: George Cukor
Director: James Whale
Universal Complete Legacy Collection 4K Blu-ray set on September 26 2026
1993 CIC Video LaserDisc
2014 Japan "Hayao Miyazaki Collection" Studio Ghibli Blu-ray
4K restoration shown in IMAX cinemas
2014 Japan "Hayao Miyazaki Collection" Studio Ghibli Blu-ray
Japanese audio: 2014 Japan "Hayao Miyazaki Collection" Studio Ghibli Blu-ray/US GKIDS Blu-ray
English dub (Disney): 1998 US Disney VHS has better sounding vocals despite altered music and sound effects, the US Disney LaserDisc has limited audio
Releases from 2010 onward have the original music and sound effects, but distorted vocals
English dub (Streamline): 1996 Japan LaserDisc, available in Ghibli Aa Ippai Collection boxset
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