Back in the day when most teen movies were made with a soft lens and wholesome content Peggy Sue Got Married dared to show some sexual bravado that spiked an audience taking in over $41 million at the box office. The trend was on and with a fine cast and direction the film even received nominations for Oscars. Now on Blu-ray for the first time the upgraded HD makes the presentation as good as when it was in theaters.
The back to the past story finds 43-year-old Peggy Sue (Kathleen Turner) in the throes of a divorce from her high school sweetheart Charlie (Nicolas Cage). The two have a teen daughter Beth (Helen Hunt) and son Doug (Don Stark) that are at odds with the situation. With their 25th High School reunion, the couple that was chosen king and queen at their prom is planning on attending the event.
Beth wants her mother to be the belle of the ball so she convinces her to wear a gown to show off her attractiveness she retained over the years. At the reunion Charlie gets passed by for being chosen king, but Peggy Sue gets the nod for queen as she’s a fitting choice. She gets to the stage to accept the honor and she collapses falling into a coma. Awakening from the fall at the hospital she finds that she has been transported back in time to her senior year.
The film goes on from there showing how Peggy Sue met Charlie, their relationship and her dilemma of knowing she’s in the past but her brain remains in present day. Director Francis Ford Coppola keeps the film campy yet intriguing as Peggy Sue bungles her way through one situation after another. He guides his cast to the past with sets and automobiles of the early 60’s keeping the language filled with expressions that would make his audience that were teens from that era right at home.
Both Turner and Cage put on a good show being teens and having fun with their roles. Cage puts on a naïve show around Peggy Sue even though as Charlie he’s a macho guy to his teen peers. He pushes the envelope with Peggy Sue’s parents endearing himself to them while trying to impress Peggy. Coppola does a flip with Turner because she knows the future and wants to avoid the mess she’s in by changing her past. The once coy young 60’s queen gets edgy with Charlie in the sex department embarrassing him in retribution for his modern day affair that brought the two to a pending divorce in the first place.
I like the movie very much and so did audiences and filmmakers as it is one of the few comedies to be nominated for three Oscars that include Best Actress in a Leading Role. Turner hit a chord in 1986 with Peggy Sue Got Married that offered a chance to bring more sexuality to PG-13 ratings using the raw humor to make films in this category more adult appealing. She went on to make some very good films including Romancing the Stone and Marley and Me, but this film gave her the honor that not many comedies afford.
The Blu-ray video quality is up to snuff although a little soft due to the camera work. The colors are bright and the costumes that fit the 1960’s era and are nicely presented in HD. The 1.85:1 aspect ratio fits the screen pretty well in the 16×9 format and I found very little distortion. The presentation comes across nicely for home viewing on a HD television.
The sound with the disc’s DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 gives the film excellent quality. Even with Kathlene Turner’s soft voice and Nicholas Cage’s high pitched delivery of his teenage Charlie, you can hear all the dialogue perfectly. If you do miss some of the funny comments, there’s always the rewind button on the remote. There are some special sound effects in the film as I’m sure even though Cage sings a couple of rock’n roll songs that sound actually very good, the engineers had to take out the breathiness from his voice for which he’s noted.
There are no Special Bonus features on the Blu-ray disc, but that’s not why you would want the video anyway.
Specifications and additional film information:
- Cast: Kathleen Turner, Nicolas Cage, Barry Miller, Catherine Hicks, Joan Allen, Kevin J. O’Connor
- Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola
- MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some harsh words and sexual conversations
- Genre: Comedy, Fantasy
- Running Time: 1 hr 43 min
- Video Release Date: July30, 2013
- Original Film Release Date: 1986
- Language: English
- Format: Blu-ray
- Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
- Video: Widescreen High Definition 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio
- Subtitles: English SDH only
- Number of Discs: 1 Disc
- Distributed by: RLJ Entertainment
Writer, critic, film editor John Delia, Sr. has been on all sides of the movie business from publications to film making. He has worked as a film critic with ACED Magazine for more than 20 years and other publications for a total of 40 years. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Florida. John is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association and Critics Association of Central Florida Send John a message at jdelia@acedmagazine.com
