Disclosure Day is Steven Spielberg at his most Spielbergian. Opening in the most unexpected way to its closing reveal feels like the director returning to his more genre-inclined storytelling of the 1970s. From the Aliens cover-up of Close Encounters to the surveillance state of Minority Report to the cross-country chase of Sugarland Express, the director has pulled from throughout his career to make his newest film.
Anyone who thinks that Spielberg would have made anything less than a hopeful film really has no grasp of the director’s work. Even his most cynical films like War of the Worlds and Minority Report ultimately side with humanity’s inherent good. He has always been a populist filmmaker wanting to leave an audience with a sense of hope. Even in his darkest films, there is that ray of light that shines through.
Disclosure Day and its world on the precipice of nuclear Armageddon is the kind of darkest later-era Spielberg setting that interests the director. Even his historical films of recent memory deal with darkest timelines from The Post (Nixon and Watergate), Bridge of Spies (Cold War in 1960), Lincoln (Civil War) … even the biographical The Fabelmans, depicting the darkest points of his life dealing with Antisemitism and his parents’ divorce. Those films never revel in the cynical, but rather in how we work towards solutions and give people hope. Disclosure Day is no different, just giving us a different flavor to dissect what interests Spielberg.
A chase movie, a paranoid thriller, a sci-fi alien film. Spielberg’s cinematic mixtape moves so quickly and forcefully that one has no time to really think about whether something does or does not work. Editor Sarah Broshar (fully taking over for Michael Khan) gives the film an urgent pace that feels modelled after North by Northwest. Though Broshar finds moments to allow the film to catch its breath, giving the space for the film to have character moments within the exposition dumps. The editor manages to smooth over the bumpier patches (those exposition dumps) in the screenplay by David Koepp.
Disclosure Day is a buttery popcorn event film that has a bit more on its mind than your average blockbuster.
The Transfer
Steven Spielberg’s films on home video have always been special events on home video. This 4K UHD release of Disclosure Day is no exception. The film, which for the most part was shot on 35mm with the Panavision Panaflex Millennium XL2 on true anamorphic lenses (Spielberg and longtime collaborator Janus Kaminski chose for some sequences to shoot with the Sony VENICE 2 digital camera), looks spectacular on the format. The Dolby Vision / HDR10 encoding gives the image a subtly cinematic quality, with the detailed color reproduction and contrast levels being perfect. Like Universal’s work on Spielberg’s The Fabelmans, Disclosure Day is as flawless a release as they’ve done.
The Extras
They include the following;
Encountering the Unknown: Inside Disclosure Day
Spielberg and Williams: A Legendary Collaboration
Note: The special features appear on both the 4K UHD and Blu-ray discs. They can be played together or individually.
Encountering the Unknown: Inside Disclosure Day (54:03) – this excellent making-of documentary, produced and directed by Spielberg’s longtime special features producer Laurent Bouzereau, is a fascinating and surprisingly in-depth look at the making of Disclosure Day. Beyond the script’s inception and development and the construction of the giant set pieces, the documentary does dive into the personal, like the effect that the passing of longtime 2nd unit director and producer Adam Somner had on the production and much more. Bouzereau was given unrestricted access during the production and charts the production with b-roll footage, pre-vis and concept art, visual effects deconstruction, and interviews with the entire cast and crew, including Spielberg, stars Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, and Coleman Domingo.
Spielberg and Williams: A Legendary Collaboration (4:09) – a very beautiful discussion of the 52 years and 30 films of collaboration between the two masters. A combination of both interviews and behind-the-scenes look at Williams (who is 94 years old at the time of writing this) composing the score for Disclosure Day.
The Final Thought
Disclosure Day gets a wonderful 4K UHD disc from Universal Home Entertainment. Recommended!!!
Director Steven Spielberg returns with Disclosure Day, the alien sci-fi thriller, is new to 4K UHD from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.
The Film
Disclosure Day is Steven Spielberg at his most Spielbergian. Opening in the most unexpected way to its closing reveal feels like the director returning to his more genre-inclined storytelling of the 1970s. From the Aliens cover-up of Close Encounters to the surveillance state of Minority Report to the cross-country chase of Sugarland Express, the director has pulled from throughout his career to make his newest film.
Anyone who thinks that Spielberg would have made anything less than a hopeful film really has no grasp of the director’s work. Even his most cynical films like War of the Worlds and Minority Report ultimately side with humanity’s inherent good. He has always been a populist filmmaker wanting to leave an audience with a sense of hope. Even in his darkest films, there is that ray of light that shines through.
Disclosure Day and its world on the precipice of nuclear Armageddon is the kind of darkest later-era Spielberg setting that interests the director. Even his historical films of recent memory deal with darkest timelines from The Post (Nixon and Watergate), Bridge of Spies (Cold War in 1960), Lincoln (Civil War) … even the biographical The Fabelmans, depicting the darkest points of his life dealing with Antisemitism and his parents’ divorce. Those films never revel in the cynical, but rather in how we work towards solutions and give people hope. Disclosure Day is no different, just giving us a different flavor to dissect what interests Spielberg.
A chase movie, a paranoid thriller, a sci-fi alien film. Spielberg’s cinematic mixtape moves so quickly and forcefully that one has no time to really think about whether something does or does not work. Editor Sarah Broshar (fully taking over for Michael Khan) gives the film an urgent pace that feels modelled after North by Northwest. Though Broshar finds moments to allow the film to catch its breath, giving the space for the film to have character moments within the exposition dumps. The editor manages to smooth over the bumpier patches (those exposition dumps) in the screenplay by David Koepp.
Disclosure Day is a buttery popcorn event film that has a bit more on its mind than your average blockbuster.
The Transfer
Steven Spielberg’s films on home video have always been special events on home video. This 4K UHD release of Disclosure Day is no exception. The film, which for the most part was shot on 35mm with the Panavision Panaflex Millennium XL2 on true anamorphic lenses (Spielberg and longtime collaborator Janus Kaminski chose for some sequences to shoot with the Sony VENICE 2 digital camera), looks spectacular on the format. The Dolby Vision / HDR10 encoding gives the image a subtly cinematic quality, with the detailed color reproduction and contrast levels being perfect. Like Universal’s work on Spielberg’s The Fabelmans, Disclosure Day is as flawless a release as they’ve done.
The Extras
They include the following;
Note: The special features appear on both the 4K UHD and Blu-ray discs. They can be played together or individually.
Encountering the Unknown: Inside Disclosure Day (54:03) – this excellent making-of documentary, produced and directed by Spielberg’s longtime special features producer Laurent Bouzereau, is a fascinating and surprisingly in-depth look at the making of Disclosure Day. Beyond the script’s inception and development and the construction of the giant set pieces, the documentary does dive into the personal, like the effect that the passing of longtime 2nd unit director and producer Adam Somner had on the production and much more. Bouzereau was given unrestricted access during the production and charts the production with b-roll footage, pre-vis and concept art, visual effects deconstruction, and interviews with the entire cast and crew, including Spielberg, stars Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, and Coleman Domingo.
Spielberg and Williams: A Legendary Collaboration (4:09) – a very beautiful discussion of the 52 years and 30 films of collaboration between the two masters. A combination of both interviews and behind-the-scenes look at Williams (who is 94 years old at the time of writing this) composing the score for Disclosure Day.
The Final Thought
Disclosure Day gets a wonderful 4K UHD disc from Universal Home Entertainment. Recommended!!!
Universal Pictures Home Entertainment’s 4K UHD Edition of Disclosure Day is out now.
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