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Jaws (1975) 4K Dolby Vision review, UK UHD disc. HDR metadata: DCI-P3 colour primaries. Mastering display levels: 4000/0.005 max/min nits. Maximum Content Light Level: 1000 nits. Maximum Frame Average Light Level: 259 nits. And viewed with glorious mono audio!
Yeah I'm just gonna launch right into it: this is NOT the same 4K restoration as the 2012 version. Nope. The geometry and framing is different, the artefacts of the old restoration have been replaced with new ones, and although they share some blips and marks of dirt they each have dirt in different places that wasn't picked up by the respective restoration teams. Could they have re-used the raw untouched scan from 2012? Sure I guess, but this is not that same 2012 4K master just dumped onto disc, not even close.
I'm not someone who thought of the 2012 Blu as being an overly-processed mess, it certainly had a bit of frozen grain but nothing really stood out to me that much...until I played it again like a week ago, and time has not been kind to it as the frozen grain is readily apparent. The last time I watched the Blu was several years ago, when I had a smaller (55") TV and was sitting further back from it, but at 7ft from a 65" the frozen grain on the Blu isn't done any favours. So I'm very pleased to report that that shite from the Blu has been done away with for the UHD, replaced by FAR more organic and natural-looking film grain.
The shot with Brody and the kid walking along the beach before they find Chrissy (or what's left of her) maybe looks a little laggy around them as they move, and some other shots have a slightly sharper 'electronic' patina, but otherwise it's quite delicious. The grain is just livelier in the UHD, there's more of it compared to the smoother look of the Blu. The grain can and does spike in the opticals, darker scenes etc, as is to be expected. There was one shot that did always bug me on the 2012 though, it's when Brody says "you're gonna need a bigger boat" and he looks like a waxwork on the Blu, thankfully he looks much better now with the grain restored to his face!
Detail-wise the UHD isn't some eye-popping show stopper, mid-70s 35mm anamorphic being what it is, and the degrain-sharpening-regrain of the 2012 restoration may well have punched up certain information that's present in the original photography but it's been handled with a gentler touch on UHD, as the denser grain is dithering that information a little. And yet there's still oodles of high-frequency information - though perhaps not outright "sharpness" - to enjoy in the UHD that's just not there on the 2012 Blu, particularly on wider shots and the clothing like that wacky jacket that the Mayor wears, all too often those finely grouped stripes just merge into each other on the 2012 but are more finely delineated here. It comes across as more intrinsically filmic, though mileages will of course vary and some may yet prefer the digital exaggeration of the 2012 disc.
Colour-wise I'm reminded of what I said about the Blues Brothers, that although it's been freshened up there's nothing here that offends on an emotional level, that screams "this ain't mah Jaws any more!". The 2012 restoration had a straw-coloured look to the colour balance, not piss-yellow as such but certainly a gentle nudge into that part of the spectrum, whereas the UHD neutralises that slight tint and in comparison it comes across as looking slightly cooler, though it's not got some pervasive blue hue. Not in the daylight scenes, anyway. Skin tones have a little more pep but still retain that bronzed kinda look, and for the primaries then reds benefit the most, the blood looks incredibly vibrant. I'd be very surprised if that first shot of the caught tiger shark ("a whaaaaaat?") didn't take advantage of the P3 gamut at the very least, the blood has this stunningly rich ruby-red tone.
One thing that does stand out re: colour is that they've retimed the view out of the Orca's cabin windows (again) when Quint is doing his USS Indianapolis speech. See how in the 2012 restoration featurette they make a point of showing that they levelled them out from shot to shot? Well for the 2020 iteration the windows have been regraded to a darker blue than the light grey they were before, and they've also regraded the night exteriors to match, there's now a pronounced blue-ish tint of the wide shots of the Orca in that scene. It's not offensive by any means but something that niggled me was more to do with the execution of it, that the compositing or the power windows used to isolate the windows can make the edges of Quint's and Hooper's hair look a bit funky, almost posterised. Sloppy. Not a deal-breaker, but sloppy.
For HDR then I'm also reminded of the Blues Brothers' UHD as this grade isn't designed to turn your TV into a mobile tanning salon, i.e. it's not jacked up to shit for the sake of it but it still takes advantage of what HDR can offer. The brightest speculars have more depth and impact, like the sun reflecting off the water at various points in the film, and the average brightness of the daylight beach scenes is fairly impressive, it looks zingier there than the 2012 Blu played in 120-nit SDR but crucially isn't too dazzling with it. Skies don't resolve masses of extra information because there really isn't that much there, the typical hazy skies of shooting in an actual seaside town put paid to that. Black levels are excellent, they plumb the depths when needed to but don't suck all the life out of the shadows, if anything this now has more shadow detail visible than the 2012.