DVD SNAPSHOT

Blu-ray Review

The Diary of Anne Frank: 50th Anniversary Edition

Official Synopsis:

With compelling performances from an all-star cast, including Shelley Winters, Ed Wynn, Richard Beymer and Lou Jacobi, this eight-time Oscar® Nominee is as gripping and heart-wrenching now as it was during its initial release. In honor of the film's 50th anniversary, this all-new Blu-ray offers an unprecedented look at the making of the making of the film with an audio commentary, exclusive featurettes, photo galleries and more!

Following the Nazi invasion of Amsterdam, 13-year-old Anne and her family go into hiding in the confines of an attic. Anne's remarkable account of their lives, their growing fear of discovery and even the blooming of her first love are intimately portrayed in this extraordinary portrait of humanity.

Our Take:

There is an old sentiment among moviegoers that the book is always better than the movie. Personally, I never subscribed to this for a variety of reasons, the least high-minded being that I rarely ever read “the book.” However, more so than that I do not believe in comparing a film to its literary source. Film and literature are two distinct artistic mediums, to say the movie fails to capture something you liked about novel is like complaining that a picture of an apple does not taste like an apple.

I felt the need to share that because The Diary of Anne Frank just may be one of the most read books of all-time, somewhere in between The Catcher in the Rye and Lord of the Flies in terms of books you probably read in school at some point during your life. Therefore, it was no surprise to me that George Stevens’ The Diary of Anne Frank felt wholly unnecessary. It is not that Stevens was not dutiful in capturing the spirit of the book or that he took liberties with the story; I mean, Anne Frank’s father, Otto Frank, was a consultant on the film after all.

It is simply that there are some stories, stories that are so raw and human like the story of Anne Frank that Hollywood simply cannot tell because they become less than what they are by the very fact that it is Hollywood telling the story. Stevens shot The Diary of Anne Frank like you would expect such a picture to be shot, only in black and white and with horrific scenes of Nazi brutality interspersed at times, the only times we are taken out of the attic. So, the film feels oddly wholesome and safe, when naturally it should be anything, but that. Seeing Millie Perkins, an astonishing Elizabeth Taylor-Audrey Hepburn hybrid look-a-like, as Anne Frank is too much. She is too gorgeous to be Anne Frank, too Hollywood. We all have that faded black and white image of the real Anne Frank in our minds; at least I do, from the back cover of whatever edition of The Diary of Anne Frank we read in school. Millie Perkins is not Anne Frank. She valiantly captured her spirit and acts wonderfully, but the harsh reality cannot be sugar coated.

As I digested the film, I began to describe it to someone over dinner and said, “The Diary of Anne Frank is exactly like Titanic.” A look of horror and bewilderment was staring back at me from across the table. I proceeded to explain, as I do now. The two films are remarkably similar. They are both roughly three hours long, the audience goes into the film knowing exactly how it will end (badly), they are actually structured similarly with an old survivor of the depicted event going back (the attic/the sea) connecting with a notable item (the diary/the necklace) and telling the story. And just like with Titanic, the film staves off sadness and reality for a solid two-thirds of the film’s running time. Distracting us with a love story, sprinkling in some sad moments, but ultimately holding back until the knockout punch of an ending. An ending we all knew was coming, but simply cannot help feeling miserable about as we watch it. That is the problem with George Stevens’ The Diary of Anne Frank. Titanic took a single event in history and centered a mostly fictional story on it. The Diary of Anne Frank used the same formula, but to tell a true story, a story that was simply too true for Hollywood and George Stevens to tell right, making The Diary of Anne Frank both an excellently entertaining and wholly unnecessary film.

Audio & Video:

20th Century Fox has released The Diary of Anne Frank: 50th Anniversary Edition on Blu-ray on a 50GB Dual Layer disc with a 1080p AVC MPEG-4 video encode and 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio lossless surround track, along with 4.0 Dolby Digital. The Diary of Anne Frank looks remarkable in high definition with deep blacks, steady color saturation, and the appropriate veneer of grain that is necessary for a film of this age. It never ceases to amaze me how the studios can continually mess up more recent catalog titles with DNR, but I am glad that for the most part, they accept grain as par for the course on these older titles.

The soundtrack is well balanced, but as one might imagine, a story about a family hiding from Nazis in an attic does not have a very robust soundtrack. The occasional gunfire or menacing doorbell will wake up anyone who may be nodding off, but while this is an excellent soundtrack concerning its accuracy, it is not going to shake anyone’s home theater.

20th Century Fox has gone above and beyond for 50th Anniversary celebration of The Diary of Anne Frank on Blu-ray by providing a host of new supplemental material, most of which features George Stevens Jr., the director’s son and 2nd Unit Director on the film as well as Associate Producer, and founder of the American Film Institute. I guess it helps having sons in high places when it comes time for your films to hit Blu-ray.

Special Features (Blu-ray Exclusive):

• Commentary with George Stevens Jr. and Millie Perkins
• The Making of The Diary of Anne Frank: A Son’s Memories
• The Diary of Anne Frank: Memories from Millie Perkins and Diane Baker
• Shelly Winters and The Diary of Anne Frank
• The Sound and Music of The Diary of Anne Frank
• The Diary of Anne Frank: Correspondence
• The Fox Movie Channel presents Fox Legacy with Tom Rothman
• George Stevens Press Conference

Special Features (Standard):

• The Diary of Anne Frank: Echoes from the Past
• Millie Perkins Screen Test
• George Stevens: A Filmmaker’s Journey excerpt
• Newsreels
• Still Galleries
• Trailer

Conclusion:

The Diary of Anne Frank: 50th Anniversary Edition is a top-notch Blu-ray presentation of an excellent, but flawed film. For fans of the film, this is a no-brainer purchase as the technical qualities of the disc are matched in their superiority over the DVD of the film by the wealth of new supplemental material available on this single Blu-ray disc release.

Overall Picture:

Movie: B-
Video: A+
Audio: A
Extra Features: A

- Matt Orlando
Staff Writer