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With CinemaScope still in a nascent phase in Hollywood - at least for musicals - Brigadoon drew attention to itself not because of its innate filmic prowess, but because it was a musical trying to do things in a different way. Playing by the rules would result in a larger built-in audience (every suit in Hollywood would tell you that), but with Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse in tow, Vincente Minnelli and MGM threw caution to the wind and gave Brigadoon a shot for dark horse widescreen glory.

Unfortunately, the film doesn't hold up all that well. For a format as wide and gloriously panoramic as the 2.55:1 image here, the camera is all but nailed to the ground the entire time. Sure, you're not going to have the capability of a constantly-moving Scorsese camera with machinery that was probably bigger than most three-story buildings, but the newness of this CinemaScope breath definitely overshadows any kind of artistic nuance constructed within the picture.

Everyone here knows what they're doing, of course - Kelly, Minnelli, and musical icon Van Johnson are able to sing and dance with the best of them even if the material isn't up to snuff - yet even though Brigadoon as a stage musical was coming off a gigantically successful Broadway run when this film dropped, there's something inert about it here. Scenery is amped up, as is the glamour of costumes and set designs, but Minnelli isn't able to weave a very fine emotional web with his characters.

I mentioned this in my review of the new-to-DVD Band Wagon, as well, but for me there has always been something cold and detached about the way Vincente Minnelli directed a musical. I honestly get the same feeling watching Baz Luhrmann's stuff today. Of course there are achievements within these pictures - Moulin Rouge has, bar none, the best set design I've seen in years - but they're all flash and fancy without any kind of center or push to them.

Yet Brigadoon has its die-hard fans, and this DVD does much better justice to the picture than the previously released 4:3 pan- and-scan version (a pox on pan-and-scan! ). Whether or not it remains a viable film is questionable, but the glory of the film's visual provocation remains unique, at the very least.

The Video: How Does The Disc Look?

Presented in ultra-wide 2.55:1 anamorphic widescreen (CinemaScope didn't downsize to 2.35:1 until optical sound showed up on prints in 1954), Brigadoon looks better than it has in decades. Many found flaws with Ansco Color, the Technicolor rival that hued Brigadoon, but this DVD transfer takes the muddiness that notoriously came with that format and really liberates it. Line quality is strong, black levels are thorough and robust, and while there's a bit of strobing and grain during sequences of the film, overall, it looks surprisingly vivid.

The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

The Dolby Digital 5.1 track here is a little overdone - the film's frequently-utilized effects are placed extremely high in the mix here and it becomes a bit distracting at times - but the music in Brigadoon sounds fantastic. Dialogue sounds fine and atmospherics are given a nice spread in surrounds - it's maybe a tad too over-the-top, but it sure as Hell is better than mono!

Also included are a French monaural track, English, French, and Spanish subtitles, and English closed captions.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

We get three outtake musical numbers - "Come to Me, Bend to Me," "From This Day On," and "Sword Dance" - as well as an audio-only outtake of "There But For You Go I" (these run a total of 11 minutes and have a "play all" option). The only other extra here is the film's original theatrical trailer.

Exclusive DVD-ROM Features: What happens when you pop the disc into your PC?

There are no DVD-ROM features on this DVD.

Final Thoughts