The Blu-ray that Warner Home Video sent along was packed with the first and second film, starring Dudley Moore as the spoiled rich kid (?) named Arthur and Liza Minnelli as his poor love interest Linda. With that said, let’s get started with the Blu-ray breakdown.
Arthur
The original film revolves around a young, drunkard rich kid named Arthur, who has been blessed with an endless amount of money. Regretfully, he has been cursed with an arranged marriage to a girl he doesn’t love named Susan. Despite his protests for marriage, Arthur’s father convinces him that he needs to marry Susan through the threat of taking away all his money. Just when Arthur thinks things couldn’t get any worse, he bumps into a wonderful girl named Linda, who he instantly falls in love with. The problem is that if he pursues Linda he will lose his kingdom. If he marries Susan he will lose the love of his life.
What is a man to do?
They don’t make movies like this anymore. A simple story about forbidden love surrounding a rich guy and a poor girl; it’s simply classic. What makes Arthur charming is that Dudley Moore and Liza Minnelli have some fantastic chemistry onscreen together. Moore’s beautiful, no-care-in-the-world attitude mixed with off-the-wall humor drives his flawed character into someone extremely likable. For example, the first time you see him on the screen he is talking to a pair of hookers on the corner. He is spouting off joke after joke and the hookers are just staring at him. At that moment you realize that this rich guy in the Rolls Royce doesn’t take life seriously and he’s lonely. Moore smooths all of that out with jokes, which simply completes who his character is.
On the other side of the coin, you first get introduced to Liza Minnelli’s Linda when she is shoplifting a tie. Eventually she is caught, but her tough demeanor and quick wit turn an ugly situation into a comedic moment that wasn’t expected. In that brief moment you see Linda as a survivor, a tough girl and someone who takes care of the people she loves (she was getting the tie for her father).
When you see Arthur and Linda come together for the first time you can completely buy into their love story, which bodes well for a romantic comedy. Credit Moore and Minnelli’s ability to bring their characters perfectly to life. Also credit this onscreen chemistry to director/writer Steve Gordon’s ability to write all the elements needed for his characters to work together. Too often writers forget that creating characters that have to fit perfectly together is essential for the viewer. It’s like putting together two perfectly shaped LEGO pieces, if they don’t fit you won’t buy that they go together.
Characters aside, the story in Arthur is still predictable, even for 1981. You know what Arthur is going to do by the end of the film and you pretty much can guess what he chooses. The only thing that makes this different from other films like it is the ‘is he going to keep his riches?’ question. You’re not sure, even towards the end, if it’s going to last. Regardless, the film’s story is still a fun ride, though it is pretty predictable.
So is it good as a whole? Well, I think it’s quite fun. Is it the best romantic comedy I’ve ever seen? Not quite, but it’s real value lies in the lead characters. Moore and Minnelli are just fun to watch.
As for the Blu-ray portion of this film, it actually looks quite good despite the age (30 years old). Due to the softly shot nature of the film (lots of soft shots and very soft lighting) the graininess of the film certainly had plenty of chances to rear its head. Thankfully, the film looks extremely clean and certainly does justice to what most consider one of the best roles that Moore embodied. One scene in particular stands out to me when it comes to defining how great the HD looks. When Arthur walks into a flower shop wanting to purchase Linda, whom he just met, a bunch of flowers you can see the fine details of the plants and Arthur’s purple sweater stands out quite beautifully. The entire film pretty much follows suit in this enriched HD environment. Regretfully the audio is in 2.0, but I’m not sure that the film would have majorly benefited from a mastered 5.1 DTS-HD setup.
The special features are kind of an afterthought on this re-release.
Arthur 2: On the Rocks
With the success of the first film a sequel was inevitable. I firmly believe that sequels should only be pushed out if the story calls for it. I’m not certain the story called for it after the first film ended.
The second film starts off with Arthur and Linda living a happy life. Rich still (sorry to spoil it) and not a care in the world, Arthur and Linda are living a good life. Things start to get a bit rocky when Linda finds out she can’t have a child, so the couple looks into adoption. While looking into it, Arthur makes the mistake of signing a merger agreement with his father and the family company ends up getting trapped by ex-lover Susan’s father, Burt Johnson. Johnson tells Arthur that he can have all his family’s riches back if he divorces his wife and marries Susan. Again, much like the first film Arthur must decide what is best for him and his family (both of them).
The second film seemed like they were pushing too hard with the story. While the charm of Moore and Minnelli still shines through pretty well in this second film, the storyline really doesn’t do any justice in comparison to the first film. It’s tough to buy that Arthur would give up his wife for money when he was so willing to give it up in the first movie. What’s even more unbelievable is that Linda might back away from the situation instead of sticking with her man. If the second film does anything it shows how absolutely shaky their marriage might be when it comes to money matters.
In a sense the second film actually hurts the first film, which is odd. I’ve never watched a sequel that made me want to go back and re-check the believability of the original.
Going along these same lines I have to say that the Blu-ray HD quality drops off a bit as well. The sequel has graininess and artifacts in darker, not-so-well lit scenes. I’m not sure if it was WHV’s transfer of the film, but it is a step down in quality when you’re talking about HD. That’s really too bad considering that it should at least be on par with the first film.