Got a chance to watch the new 4K Dolby Vision version of Lawrence of Arabia, and my goodness did it remind me what a proper film restoration is supposed to look like with the latest tech. It was bright and grainy and the colors looked more like old film stock than some of the HD clips from an earlier release I found on Youtube. I pulled up Empire Strikes Back by comparison that looked dull and waxy by comparison. (Of course LOA was shot on 65mm vs 35mm for SW, but I don’t think most of what I was seeing was due to that).
I even watched King Creole, a B&W film staring Elvis Presley from the 50’s, in 4K Dolby Vision and that looked better these 4K versions of the Original Trilogy. (forgive some sections that were restored from a late generation print, but otherwise the vast majority was sourced from the original negative).
I seriously am more and more disappointed and confused about how these movies continue to look like absolute shit when compared to other classic films.
Because, except of 2003 when the scanned it for DVD and HD broadcast, they haven’t actually scanned it for release since. The 2011 BR was just the 2003 HD scan. The 2006 extra disc was just a quick transfer of the 93 Definitive Collection LD master. And this was the scanned master for a supposed 3D conversion from several years back. So we have never really had a quality release of these films. I don’t suppose we ever will. What we need is a proper restoration for all these films.