JayArgonaut

SilverWook said:

Lucas had been trying to get this made since the 80’s.

Really, that long? I thought it was since 1991 - and even that amount of time surprised me.

SilverWook said:

An HBO movie on the same subject came out in 1995.

Yes, The Tuskegee Airmen, I’ve got the DVD somewhere. Damn good film with a great cast.

As for Red Tails, I was eager to see it because of the subject matter, especially after enjoying the HBO film, so I imported the US Blu-ray as the UK theatrical release date hadn’t even been announced. Despite a good director (I enjoyed Hemingway’s work on The Wire) and cast, it came across as ok but nothing more. Frustratingly, it fell way short of its potential to be an epic war and historical film.

The “Double Victory” documentary included on the Blu-ray that featured testimonies from the real life Tuskegee Airmen was much more powerful, engrossing and compelling than the feature film. Lucas should’ve based RT around those actual true stories instead.

Does it have the full aspect ratio? That’s an important thing to consider because Netflix is a notorious online offender with this butchery. Also is it true HD?

R2-D2 And Luke Skywalker said:

I called Lucasfilm…

I’m surprised that none of the pre-2012 theatrical versions have made it onto the Spleen.

Thanks for the insights. I wish I still had my VHS recording of the TESB ITV premiere because I would’ve loved to see what you made of that. 😃

Ok and would those early home video masters have been sourced from 35mm or 16mm? The reason I’m asking is because I’m intrigued as to which would’ve been superior, the telecast or the home video copies.

SilverWook said:

If only the 1993 LD masters had been taped over. Even the old Japanese LD transfers looked better.

Agreed. Hence my earlier comments about much preferring my CBS/Fox W/S LD’s. I know that you’re a massive collector, have you got the Jpn discs and the Faces/DE sets?

Williarob said:

Another “See how much better the new SE version is” tactic.

Yeah, we’ll give you the originals but in the worst possible form that we can get away with - just to spite you all. At the time Lucas had said something like, “let’s see how well they do”, implying that no-one would want them and with such blatant sabotage at play, that outcome wouldn’t have been a surprise.

SilverWook said:

Doesn’t the master tape have to be 16:9 to begin with?

Is it not 16:9 inside a 4:3 frame though?

SilverWook said:

robertelee said:

It is the correct aspect ratio, but the disk is mastered at awful ancient laserdisc standards, so the image doesent know how to scale on a modern tv.

Those standards weren’t awful in 1993 though. 😉

😃 Even now, the sound on many LD’s remain superior to their modern rivals and my NTSC W/S CBS/FOX SW discs still look good, even taking into account the limitations. The subsequent FACES/Definitive Edition sets suffered from DVNR smearing and Lucasfilm used those masters, which didn’t help matters much.

Cthulhunicron said:

Can someone explain to me why the GOUT is non-anamorphic?

As was mentioned above, it’s sourced from a Laserdisc master and also it appears to have been a deliberate choice by Lucasfilm not to set the 16:9 flag during the DVD mastering so that the original versions look as bad as possible in every capacity.

http://www.indiewire.com/2017/04/michael-ballhaus-dead-cinematographer-the-departed-goodfellas-1201804760/

http://www.indiewire.com/2017/04/13-images-cinematographer-michael-ballhaus-1201805097/

olePigeon said:

Now, my dad also remembers it being undubbed when he saw it on a plane (it had subtitles.) Do airlines get different versions than regular DVDs?

Yes, they do on occasion. Others will probably weigh in with more detail but The Rock, Fantastic Four(2005), The Abyss, The Truman Show and allegedly BTTF 2 are just some of the films to have received alternate versions for airlines.

Here’s some articles on the topic:

https://stephenfollows.com/in-flight-movies/

http://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/director-pulls-credit-after-airlines-cut-film

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1549215/BA-airbrushes-Branson-from-in-flight-Bond-film.html

http://www.newnownext.com/carol-movie-delta-airlines/08/2016/

http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2017/01/sanitise-skies

olePigeon said:

Could it be that non-North American copies still have the original audio?

Unfortunately it doesn’t appear so:

http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=557

I didn’t quite understand your post, so with a Google search for “Galaxy Quest uncensored”, I found the following article that shed light on the matter:

http://www.geeksofdoom.com/2012/03/10/wait-what-galaxy-quest-was-initially-r-rated

The best best is probably a “For Your Consideration” copy, to check if that contains the uncensored dialogue. I had a look in the usual places but nothing came up.

The Laserdisc audio as well? Nice work! 😃

I suspected it was AVGN’s review. Very funny.

The Making of Superman 64 - The Story Behind The Creation of The Worst Nintendo 64 Game of All Time

Regardless of any interference by Warner, Titus was simply a crap software house. Most of their releases were dreadful.

The longplay, for those with the stamina or masochism to endure…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ2UzTpXfpU

Ah, I failed to spot, “This is not a SCOPE print.” Yes, crazy.

Out of curiosity, were 16mm sources very likely used for the 80s TV broadcasts of the Star Wars films?

DuracellEnergizer said:

Then you need to play Superman 64 post-haste.

Perfect sense. 😃

If you can answer another question related to this topic, why would TV companies use 16mmm over 35mm for their telecasts? Was it because of technical reasons or were the 16mm prints just cheaper to obtain?

Understood. Thanks for the thorough explanation. 😃

For the benefit of people such as myself who aren’t that clued up on film prints, can you please go into further detail about why 16mm is avoided unless you can’t obtain the film on 35mm?

Download links are all dead.

Please do! 😃

Any chance you can show us some screenshots please?

Just throwing this out there in case any of you might be interested. There’s quite an assortment and whilst it looks like most of the films have Russian audio tracks, that wouldn’t be too difficult to resolve.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/adapted35/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=

If my finances were in better shape, this would be extremely tempting because of the preservation value, seeing as the home video versions were slightly modified to avoid litigation:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/35mm-Feature-IRON-MAN-2008-/332168359322?hash=item4d56c6ed9a:g:u3oAAOSwa~BYYm5F

A search for 16mm prints produced the following:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=16mm+feature&_ipg=200&rt=nc

Amongst the above list of 16mm’s, I found…

http://www.ebay.com/itm/16mm-Feature-THE-BLACK-HOLE-1979-Walt-Disney-Sci-fi-/352023531151?hash=item51f63cce8f:g:9-8AAOSwVctY5Vht

The ROTJ print is still on there and will probably remain so for a long time to come.

Cameron is probably too distracted with the perpetually delayed, four Avatar sequels and deliberating over the level of teal he should apply to The Abyss Blu-ray to consider capitalising on the anniversary of one of his best money-spinners.

In the meantime, the significance has not been lost on others. Here’s the line up over the next 7 days on my EPG for Titanic related content:

A Night to Remember

Titanic: The New Evidence

Titanic: Secrets Revealed

Titanic: Birth of a Legend

Titanic: Anatomy of a Disaster

Titanic: The Aftermath

Yup.