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Info Wanted: The Alamo (1960) - has anyone done a preservation of this?

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In light of a recent article on The Digital Bits: http://www.thedigitalbits.com/columns/my-two-cents/052814_1330 it appears that MGM is willing to let the roadshow version of ‘The Alamo’ degrade to nothing.

That said, there WAS a laserdisc release of this cut of the film and it absolutely should be preserved by fans if the studio won’t.

Does anyone have this laserdisc and want to take on the project?  We unfortunately sold off our copy long ago.

If nothing else, but a bee in MGM’s bonnet as suggested at the end of the linked article.

Dr. M

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That is really pathetic the way MGM has allowed it to get like this. But pretty much their entire decision making is pathetic.

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I believe I have the laserdisc in storage if someone wants to work on the project.

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PDB said:

I believe I have the laserdisc in storage if someone wants to work on the project.

 I am more than willing to help out. I have a laserdisc player and I've made a number of custom discs from them, some of which you can find on MySpleen under this same username.

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EO, I wanted to look for your posts on MySpleen, but can't find them.  You apparently can't search by user name, only ID.  What is your id# there?

Dr. M

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The Magnificent Ambersons, Boxing Helena, Texasville, She's Gotta Have It, The New Age. These were put up in the last week.

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I have the roadshow LD and am hoping to make a capture in the next month or so.  Unfortunately, I've been stuck in an extended stay motel for the past few weeks, so life is on hold.  I'm hoping to color match it to the DVD and make a composite.  Same with "Hawaii" once I get the chance.

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OmegaMattman said:

I have the roadshow LD and am hoping to make a capture in the next month or so.  Unfortunately, I've been stuck in an extended stay motel for the past few weeks, so life is on hold.  I'm hoping to color match it to the DVD and make a composite.  Same with "Hawaii" once I get the chance.

 Wouldn't the aspect ratios be completely different between the roadshow and theatrical cuts?

Dr. M

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Not sure.  If you look closely at the roadshow LD, it appears more than one source was used.  Added 70mm scenes are more faded and seem to suffer from more rainbowing.

And there is one scene in particular midway through Side 1 when two men are riding up on a horse that immediately follows a scene not present in the 35mm version.  (I wish I could give you a screengrab or at least a rough timecode.)  Not only is there a jump-cut in quality, but I think there was a slight shift in the screen composition, too.

My guess is the LD is already a composite of the 70mm and 35mm versions with higher-quality 35mm shots used wherever possible.  If that's the case and the aspect was already altered to match one or the other, there might not be much of a difference between it and the DVD to contend with.

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Never noticed that.  So when you say composite you mean to use the DVD footage when available and laserdisc footage for the extra scenes?

I'm okay with that.  You might want to contact Dark_Jedi and see if he can give some pointers on getting the most out of upscaling the laserdisc.

Dr. M

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Eek.  Almost missed this update on TDB:

According to Robert, all versions of The Alamo are currently endangered. The film’s original 65mm elements are essentially gone, both for the 202-minute roadshow version and the 167-minute cut down version. The roadshow version could possibly still be salvaged in a half-decent home video version, but it's no longer possible to restore it to anything remotely like original quality. Sadly, the same is also true of the 167-minute version created by UA, because the original negatives can no longer be printed to anything viewable. According to Robert: “All that remains [of The Alamo] are old 35mm dupes, which do not represent the film as a large format epic, and even those elements are less than stellar.”

Dr. M

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I found my laserdisc over the weekend. I can make a lossless copy if someone wants to work on it.

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I think both Elmo Oxygen and OmegaMattman were talking about being willing.

OM's color matched hybrid version sounds like just what we want.  You up for that?

That said, EO has some nicely authored discs.  Wouldn't mind seeing that.

With regard to the aspect ratio differences, it appears that both versions may have been 2.20:1.  So that really shouldn't be much of an issue.  I was concerned there would need to be cropping of the DVD source.  Of course the LD will need to be upscaled to anamorphic wide.

I'd like to be able to do more with this than cheer on from the sidelines, but once you are getting into color matching, I'm just not really equipped to do that so it looks professional.

Dr. M