Tootsie - 4K Blu-ray Review

Movie
As part of my first time reviewing the Columbia Classics 4K boxsets that Sony has been putting out, I’m going to start out my virgin run on the boxset with my virgin viewing of a 1980s classic that I’ve actually never seen. Yeah, I know. Me and 1980s films are like peanut butter and jelly, but for some reason I have NEVER seen Tootsie. I think I have the DVD stuck around my collection somewhere, but I just haven’t ever sat down and watched it of my own free volition to date. I remember saying to myself that I needed to grab the Criterion Blu-ray when it came out 10 years ago, but for some reason this movie seems to persistently want to evade me viewing it!

Michael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman) is a starving actor barely able to get by. His abrasive attitude has made him undesirable (and unhirable) by pretty much all of Broadway and Hollywood, to the point where he can’t even get work in commercials. After getting a dose of reality by his agent George Fields (Sydney Pollack), Michael gets desperate. He finds out about a female lead in a local soap opera thanks to his friend Sandy (Teri Garr, who literally passed away 2 weeks ago almost to the day as of this posting) and decides to do something radical. A little makeup, a wig, and a very careful alteration of his speech patterns and Michael Dorsey becomes Dorothy Michaels, a quick talking southern belle who magically lands the part thanks to her outspoken personality.

At first it’s just a job, but Michael starts to find his own “voice” as Dorothy. The different persona allows him to speak out against the grain and stand up for not only himself as a “woman”, but every woman around him is inspired by the same outspoken nature that made him a pariah as a man. Simultaneously Michael begins to find out something about himself, as he looks at his own past actions towards people from a completely different light. Not only that, but he soon develops feeling for his co-star Julie Nichols (Jessica Lange) and has to decide whether the work is worth the loss of the girl, or whether he needs to set the record straight and “come out” as the straight man he is.

As I said above, I’ve never seen Tootsie before. It’s always a movie I wanted to watch, but fate never allowed me to view it till now. And while I wouldn’t call it a stone cold classic, or the best of it’s genre (Mrs. Doubtfire will always take that title), but it was a genuinely fun and sweet film. Dustin Hoffman absolutely KILLS it as Dorothy. He magically can shift personas at the drop of a hat, and you really feel her/his emotions bubbling to the surface under all of that makeup and acting. However, there are a few minor points of contention that I have as a “modern day viewer”. Mostly that problematic issues are glossed over with the blink of an eye and never addressed again (such as Julie’s drinking, or the near assault by the dumb mail actor towards Dorothy) and it feels a little TOO Disney esque at times. Nothing wild, but enough to where I had to give the film a “good” rating vs. a great one.




Rating:

Rated PG by the MPAA




4K Video: Video:

To date the only Blu-ray release for Tootsie was the Criterion Collection release in 2014, and that was widely considered to be a 5/5 rated Blu-ray. Sadly I don’t have the Criterion disc to compared, but I’d be shocked if it was any better than Sony’s release. The Blu-ray included in the combo pack is a 5/5 stunner, and the 4K UHD disc just enhances on that. Right off the bat I noticed that the 4K UHD was a bit dimmer than the Blu-ray, but it also has a much richer colors due to the Dolby Vision application. It’s not that they just pop of the screen in bright and shiny ways, it’s that every color on screen is just so much deeper and more vibrantly REAL to the human eyes. Dresses, lipstick, even makeup seem to be just that much more textural and rich to the eyes, and appearing less washed out thanks to the slightly dimmer image that the 4K disc provides. Fine details are superb, contrasting with a stunningly warm and lovely grain layer that permeates the entire 35mm production without being overly obvious. This is a superb 5/5 rating for the 4K as well, and this is an absolute TREAT of a video presentation.





Audio:

I was a bit puzzled by Sony’s choice to give Tootsie an Atmos track. Not because I thought that it didn’t DESERVE one, but because Tootsie doesn’t have a massively engaging audio mix theatrically. The Blu-ray sports the original 2.0 DTS-HD MA Mono track, as well as an expanded 5.0 DTS-HD MA mix, and that sounds very natural to a 1980s dramedy (which are on the 4K disc as well as secondary tracks), so I wasn’t expecting a wild amount of upgrade from the Atmos mix unless they went overboard revisionist wise. Luckily it’s a very modest upgrade, but one that doesn’t remake the wheel so to speak. The track is still distinctly front heavy due to the nature of the original recording, but the surrounds are judiciously use to accentuate the musical score, as well as add in an LFE channel for once. Comparing the 5.0 track to the Atmos mix I do say I like the Atmos better. It is very similar to the 5.0 mix, but feels a bit richer with a solid punch in the bass department (which is used to boost the score up a bit, add a little oomph to the very few minor exciting scenes in the movie). Overall it’s a very balanced and lightly tuned track that doesn’t try to make something out of nothing, and for purists the original 2.0 Mono track is available .






Extras:

• Audio Commentary featuring Cerise Howard and Rohan Spong
• A Better Man: The Making of Tootsie
-- Good Friends
-- A Better Man
-- Keep it Real
• Deleted Scenes
• Dustin Hoffman Screen Test Footage
• Dustin Hoffman Interview
• Theatrical Trailer









Tootsie was a fun watch as a first time viewer. The film has garnered quite the cult audience over the years and I can see why. Dustin Hoffman literally steals every scene he’s in, and the supporting cast of comedic actors are fantastic at elevating the subtle humor to the foreground (Bill Murray and Geena Davis make minor appearances), and the near 2 hour film seems to fly by in record time. The 4K UHD disc from Sony is top notch, and I REALLY appreciate that Sony included the Blu-ray in each of the films in this collection instead of releasing them ONLY as single disc sets. Extras are a bit slim, but still solid, making this a solid thumbs up from yours truly.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, Teri Garr, Bill Murray, Dabney Coleman, Sydney Pollack
Directed by: Sydney Pollack
Written by: Don McGuire, Larry Gelbart, Murray Schisgal
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), English DTS-HD MA 5.1, English, French, German, Spanish, Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono
Subtitles: English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Korean, Norwegian, Swedish, Thai, Turkish
Studio: Sony Pictures
Rated: PG
Runtime: 116 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: October 22nd, 2024