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On one level, True Blue is a distillation of the brutal physicality and unique focus demanded of participants in the annual University Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge. Based on legendary oarsman and Oxford coach Dan Topolksi's book about the 1987 race, it is also a tale of revenge; dominant Oxford had been defeated the year before and wanted the title back. More than that, though, it is a story of sporting obsession and the Machiavellian resources required to last the course in an event shrouded in ritual. When a clutch of lantern-jawed American international rowers muscle in on the Oxford team and threaten, quite literally, to rock the boat with their disregard for any of the tradition surrounding the race or Topolski's coaching methods, the fragile concept of team spirit is splintered.

Ferdinand Fairfax's film, full of fine performances, builds the tension through a series of confrontations and a constantly shifting balance of power over the year leading up to the race. The intuitive relationship between the besieged Topolski (the excellent Johan Leysen) and the President of the College Captains, Donald McDonald (the quietly impassioned Dominic West) is particularly well drawn. With more than a hint of Chariots of Fire, not least in the Vangelis-like soundtrack, this is a moving and beautifully observed film about sporting passion.

On the DVD: True Blue is presented in widescreen with a 16:9 anamorphic video aspect ratio that makes excellent use of the sweeping vistas of the Thames for the racing and training scenes which dominate the film. Stanislas Syrewicz's brooding score underpins the action at every stage and, thanks to the quality of the Dolby Surround soundtrack, helps to bring an appropriately epic, theatrical feel to your home viewing. --Piers Ford

A quintessential 1980s pop artifact, Madonna's third album was a huge musical leap forward and ranks with Like a Prayer and Ray of Light in the top echelon of her works. Only the title track (a bit too obviously a 60s girl-group homage) and the fine-but-nothing-special "Jimmy Jimmy" slightly lower the quality bar. Most of the songs share a jittery dance-pop sound, edgy, distracted, and nerve- jangling but simultaneously invigorating and exhilarating and almost dangerously giddy--a perfect soundtrack for the mid-1980s. Highlights include the hedonist's credo of "Where's the Party", the subtle and pretty Latin pastiche "La Isla Bonita", and, towering above all, three stunning mega-hits. "Papa Don't Preach", with its gorgeous pseudo-classical strings intro, is a sumptuous airwaves banquet, as Madonna wrestles with the have-the-baby-or-give-it-up dilemma (abortion's not in the picture) in newly gritty tones. "Open Your Heart"'s marriage of jitter-pop and wistful melody underscores the singer's yearning but forceful stance ("You better open your heart to me, buster"). And "Live to Tell" is a riveting ballad, lushly melodic yet spare and haunting--a place, as the song says, where beauty lives. --Ken Barnes