Shampoo is a tour-de-force of a movie more with the acting from Warren Beatty, Goldie Hawn, Julie Christie and Lee Grant, who took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, than the screenplay, written by Robert Towne and Beatty (Oscar nominated).
Shampoo
— The Criterion Collection —
(1975)
Genre(s): Drama, Comedy
Criterion | R – 110 min. – $39.95 | October 16, 2018
Date Published: 10/31/2018 | Author: The Movieman
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The Criterion Collection provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
PLOT SYNOPSIS |
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Against the backdrop of Nixon’s election to office, Beverly Hills hairdresser and notorious rake George Roundy (WARREN BEATTY) runs into trouble when his lascivious habits begin to clash with his more responsible business ambitions. Things get even more complex when Roundy asks his wealthy mistress, Felicia Karpf (LEE GRANT), for a business loan, unaware that his best friend and ex-girlfriend, Jackie (JULIE CHRISTIE), is sleeping with Karpf’s husband, Lester (JACK WARDEN). |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 2.25/5 |
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This release comes housed in Criterion’s usual clear case and inside is a fold-out booklet with an essay. Features-wise, this is very thin with only an excerpt (12:41) from a 1998 episode of The South Bank Show with Warren Beatty and an Interview (30:12) with critics Mark Harris and Frank Rich. Apparently Warren Beatty and Goldie Hawn’s busy schedules precluded them from participating in any new interviews… |
VIDEO – 5.0/5 |
| Shampoo debuts on Blu-ray through The Criterion Collection presented with a 1.85 widescreen aspect ratio and given a new 1080p high-definition transfer culled from a 4K digital restoration. Not much of a surprise, but Criterion almost always releases high-quality video and this is no exception with bright colors and incredible detail along with keeping the natural film noise. There were no instances of dust marks or aliasing, so the clean-up job was very well done. |
AUDIO – 4.5/5 |
| The disc comes with the option of either an LPCM Mono track or DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, the former being the default option. On that, this movie does sound first-rate showcasing clear dialogue levels and some respectable depth for a mono track. I did test out the DTS-HD MA option and it too sounded nice, though it’s just the audio dispersed across the five channels. |
OVERALL – 3.75/5 |
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Overall, Shampoo is a tour-de-force of a movie more with the acting from Warren Beatty, Goldie Hawn, Julie Christie and Lee Grant, who took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, than the screenplay, written by Robert Towne and Beatty (Oscar nominated), which did have some strong moments, however. This Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection has exceptional video/audio transfers but the bonus features were bland. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.