Severin has put The War Game and Threads out on 4K UHD, and the disc spec on the Watkins film is the odd one. The War Game is a 48 minute 16mm black-and-white BBC telefilm from 1966, 1.33:1, and it arrives with Dolby Vision and HDR10 grades plus DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono spread across the two front channels.
My first reaction was that HDR on monochrome 16mm is a solution hunting for a problem. Having read the review I have shifted a little. The reviewer points at where it shows up: a police car in sunlight picking up sparkle it would not have on a standard grade, and grain resolving down to individual fibres in a coat. That is what a good HDR pass on black and white gives you, headroom for speculars rather than colour.
The restoration call is the part worth arguing over. Vertical scratches, dirt and splotches have been left in place. Given the BBC never aired the thing and prints only spread because they leaked, leaving the damage feels right to me, but I know people who will read it as a lazy scan and nothing more.
Extras are unusually deep. Commentary on the 4K disc, an Alex Cox introduction and new interviews on the Blu-ray, scouting footage for a remake that never happened, two early Watkins shorts, and inside the slipcase a licensed reprint of Watkins' own book with a replica evacuation pass and postcards. Street date is 11 August 2026, listed at 44.95 dollars.
For anyone who has watched a previous scan of either film, does the extra headroom on a monochrome transfer change anything, or is this a set you buy for the packaging and the paper?
My first reaction was that HDR on monochrome 16mm is a solution hunting for a problem. Having read the review I have shifted a little. The reviewer points at where it shows up: a police car in sunlight picking up sparkle it would not have on a standard grade, and grain resolving down to individual fibres in a coat. That is what a good HDR pass on black and white gives you, headroom for speculars rather than colour.
The restoration call is the part worth arguing over. Vertical scratches, dirt and splotches have been left in place. Given the BBC never aired the thing and prints only spread because they leaked, leaving the damage feels right to me, but I know people who will read it as a lazy scan and nothing more.
Extras are unusually deep. Commentary on the 4K disc, an Alex Cox introduction and new interviews on the Blu-ray, scouting footage for a remake that never happened, two early Watkins shorts, and inside the slipcase a licensed reprint of Watkins' own book with a replica evacuation pass and postcards. Street date is 11 August 2026, listed at 44.95 dollars.
For anyone who has watched a previous scan of either film, does the extra headroom on a monochrome transfer change anything, or is this a set you buy for the packaging and the paper?
