captainsolo

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia. Brilliant, dirty, grimy, barren, bleeding Peckinpah vision of tormented lives in Mexico. Probably the last great work from the director. (I know, haven't seen Cross of Iron yet.) It takes the intense degree of utter emptiness from Pat Garrett and amps it up several degrees. Insanely brilliant.

4 severed heads out of 4 sweaty, bleeding Warren Oates carrying machetes.

Duel/The Sugarland Express

I got to see these at my local arthouse in 35mm as double feature. I've wanted to see Duel theatrically forever, as it was supposed to be extended to 90 min (same as DVD version) and be opened up to 1.85:1. The print I saw was unbelievably vibrant, relatively free of damage, and had absolutely remarkable color depth. It was the extended 90 min version, but shown at 1.33:1. I don't know if that's the print Universal sent or if it was masked that way. (didn't look that way because there was no real screen spillover, and it took the projectionist a good 5-10 minutes to switch the masking to 2.35:1 for Sugarland.)

All I can say is after seeing this film a good 15-20 times, I was still blown away.

A still brilliant 4 manic Dennis Weavers out of 4 endless stretches of desert road.

Sugarland  is the lone Spielberg film that I hadn't seen. It's really the lost film in his canon. For quite some time I've held a theory that both this film and Duel are combined into the overall story arc of Jaws. (Duel behind the second half of man alone vs. powerful beast, and Sugarland as the more folksy, humorous, down to earth portrait of society.)i think it's finally time to put this down on paper, because Sugarland indeed came off that way.

It is a well made film with a very Earthy tone of browns and a dense grain structure from the 70's stock and location shooting. The overall problem comes from the abrupt switch from quirky folksy humor to sudden dramatic scenes. The film is based on a true story, but it seems to not know where it wants to go in the end.

A well made 3 100 police car chases out of 4 Ben Johnson closeups.

DVNR on the SE LDs?? Hmmm....I'll have to check my ANH disc closely....thank goodness for full frame control!!

Adium said:

captainsolo said:

It's just that the OT is viewed as the past, and only desired by a niche market. The dollar signs are not large enough. It doesn't matter that people would do the work for next to nothing. Most of us on here know more about the presentation of the films than anyone on the Blu production staff. (We should just petition them to let us freelance the work.) Ever since Robert Harris mentioned that he knew the OT existed in decent to good condition materials and could certainly be presented well instead of the LFL claimed "they don't exist/deteriorated/destroyed" there's been no validity to their argument. Now they hide behind the supposed cost instead of the personal vision.

See, this I don't buy. Criterion releases movies handled with great care to an extremely niche market. How do they get around this? they price their Blu Rays at higher prices, usually in the ~$35 range, but sometimes even in the ~$50 range.

If the OT was actually released, it would sell because it has the Star Wars logo on it. 'nuff said. If making a profit was really a concern (which we all know it isn't), then I'm sure the niche market would be willing to shell out ANY amount of money necessary.

 

The fact of the matter is, George doesn't want these movies out there. And that is a nearly impossible obstacle to get around. GOUT was just a "shut the fuck up" to the fans of the original trilogy. I can't see him following that up in his lifetime.

I always forget that. Criterions have been cheaper with all of the discounts and sales offered in the past few years. They've gotten better about their list prices. No more shelling out $50 for Notorious.

Tyrphanax said:

Anyway. I'm reading Goldfinger, currently. This version:

I also have that same version of Thunderball, which I'll probably read next.

My personal favorite book type ever. I've collected almost all the series in that 60's Signet PB printing. Freaking love the little artworks, color covers, printing, red lined edges and just the way they smell...

Goldfinger was my first Bond novel. It's like Fleming went for broke with it and Thunderball. Really his two over the top works, which are different from the first ones, and led to the ultra-dramatic OHMSS and finally to the coda of YOLT/TMWTGG.

adywan said:

Has anyone noticed that they seem to have changed Nien Numb's voice slightly in the death star footage? Or is it just my sound system crapping out?

http://youtu.be/4fq4CH3I7SU

It sounds like it's through a voicebox with effects or something. The whole sound mix feels/sounds so wrong! The levels are totally different, and everything has been both scrubbed of detail/range and just shoved back into the timeline at an approximate guess!

And great, still mattes all over the TIE through cockpit shot.

zombie84 said:

Also--Fox spent $20 million restoring and updating the films from 1993-1997. The films were very meticulously restored, by hand and also digitally. The only bit to do would be to wash the negative again (it's been handled since then) and do a 4K scan, and then retrieve the missing pieces from storage (or other print sources if they are damaged), clean them and splice them in. This accounts for, what, maybe eight minutes of material for ANH and five minutes for each of the following two films. How long do you think that would take? Just over a week maybe, plus all the release/home video prepwork. Cost maybe, I dunno, 300 grand or so per film?

They underwent the restoration at YCM labs and have the different color timing. The thing that gets me is the complaints people had of the softness in the image and how it didn't resemble the original films.

It should be simple to work from the restored films-as in those finished so that they could even do the added bits. If it came to it, they should simply scan those personal prints of George's. It would cost less, involve less people and time, and they could also sync the alternate mixes (70mm, mono) that they now have scanned digitally into their HDs.

Can't be that much more, the scanners are in-house at ILM and so is everything else, since 110/120 minutes of each film is already restored your main cost is the labour of the people actually putting those bits together. You'd have to pay a film librarian a day's wage to identify and retrieve the missing pieces (day 1), pay a supervisor to approve or select another source (day two), find and approve any alternate sources (day three), pay a lab technician to clean, scan, digitize and back up the negs and new pieces (day four), pay an editor and assistant editor to log it all and then edit together a new D.I. (day five), pay a colour correctionist to grade the D.I. under the supervisors approval along with select areas of digital repair while a sound mixer scans and masters the soundtracks (day six, seven, eight and nine maybe?) and bam, done. You overlap the film work so that you are constantly moving the work forward (i.e while ANH pieces are being scanned the film librarians are searching for ESB, so they can be scanned while ANH is in the D.I.) and within two weeks, you have a 4K restoration of the entire trilogy, probably not costing more than a few hundred thousand dollars. They could add a $2 tax to the tickets for the next Celebration and the fans themselves would have footed the bill.

It's just that no one wants to take the time to do it. It doesn't take much time or money at all. Even if they just scanned and released the 97s this release would be better all around. The materials exist to preserve the films. The restoration was already done (quality is somewhat questionable) and if further work is needed on those, it should not be very difficult.

It's just that the OT is viewed as the past, and only desired by a niche market. The dollar signs are not large enough. It doesn't matter that people would do the work for next to nothing. Most of us on here know more about the presentation of the films than anyone on the Blu production staff. (We should just petition them to let us freelance the work.) Ever since Robert Harris mentioned that he knew the OT existed in decent to good condition materials and could certainly be presented well instead of the LFL claimed "they don't exist/deteriorated/destroyed" there's been no validity to their argument. Now they hide behind the supposed cost instead of the personal vision.

The Aluminum Falcon said:

captainsolo said:

It's here:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Apocalypse-Now-OAR/topic/11386/page/3/

Thanks captainsolo. Sorry about being off-topic on the thread. The reason I asked this is because I was trying to understand exactly how vivid Star Wars should be since they both are very saturated Technicolor films.

It's a good question, but AN is much more saturated than SW. SW was 77 Panavision, so it wasn't really that different in color from other similarly shot '77 productions. Lots of browns, yellows etc. It's the IB prints and 70mm that really draw out the color because I don't think the general 35mm would have had the same density.

Just watched this, and it was really great to see the original cut with that awesome theatrical 5.1 EX. Thanks Ady!

I think it would resemble an early LD/DVD letterbox image instead of the full anamorphic scope 2.35:1 stretch. Not bad though.

Is there a good complete release of TPM? You have to have the regular CD and limited 2CD to have most but not all of the tracks.

It's here:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Apocalypse-Now-OAR/topic/11386/page/3/

Criterion really needs these back. The DD Blu of Hard Boiled is merely the old master bumped to Blu with noise reduction applied.

I found that the VHS and LD releases are all the same early 90's master I first saw with their own color credit. The Dossier and Blu-ray both came from the same IP of Redux. The Blu reveals more details and better color, but the 79 cut is still just re-created from Redux. It looks wrong. Then again I'm not HD ready yet, so I don't physically have the Blu.

But I freaking love my 93 WS LD. Color is spot on imo, and it supposedly has the full 70mm 4.2 just literally transferred as close as possible to the digital tracks. Freaking powerful! Destroys every DVD and even my 5.1 reissue LD.

Reading Heir for the first time was like starting all over again. Magical.

I revisited TPM, and have now jumped back into my EU collection.

Jedi Apprentice #1. This is the reason I don't despise the Prequels completely. The single best thing to come out of Ep. I-III. In this first book, 13 year old Obi-Wan is being thrown out of the Jedi Temple. He has reached the age where not being taken as an apprentice can no longer become a Jedi. He is to be a farmer.

Yes it's a kids book. It's better than most if not all the post Zahn adult EU. Still reads well today.

It works, it feels like Star Wars, the characters are well developed, and it only gets better. Book #2 pits Qui-Gon against his former apprentice who turned to the Dark side...these books really get darker as they go along, with surprising plot turns and virtually every bit of Obi-Wan's character is born then scrutinized then developed. Qui-Gon's past, war, turmoil, love interests, siege, genocide, depression, resignation, society, slavery and the list goes on...

And in the end of Book #1, Obi-Wan still has an uncertain future! Pre-OT tension? Yay!

Heck, I'm gonna re-read all 20. Damn well written, fun books. The first one has a different author than the other 19, so it's a bit rougher. 2-20 are exceptional.

10 training lightsabers out of 10 conniving Hutts, Togorian pirates and Yoda schemes.

Since I just re-watched TPM, I find myself missing our good friend stoner Yoda.

More info from shtv:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Derek Gee Vidiot, was the Lowry Digital restoration done after your color correction sessions?

Yes. I was actually very impressed, given that what I saw had all kinds of noise, dirt, and damage in it, and then we'd ship the DPX files out and a week or two later we'd get back in the cleaned, perfect-looking pictures. Those guys are miracle workers.

xhonzi said:

What do you mean by "complete"? Because I, for one, feel that it is too short. I would like to see more of Kane's life. I feel like he gets old too fast and even so, we don't get to see more than a few moments from each phase of his life. I would love to see more of Xanadu, both the building of it and the completed structure.

And I can't say I follow you to 'energetic' either. If energetic were a category, I think the Fred film would have won something. Fred Movie Trailer

 

By complete I mean that every aspect in both creative elements and production is absolutely spot on. There is not a wrong note anywhere, even down to the bad dubbing of Kane's butler. I could write out some critical theory onto how that was a dramatic stroke of genius, but I won't. ;) If there was more of Charlie's life depicted then he wouldn't be as much of an enigma, and the storyline would start to drag. Those giant leaps in time burned through every writing convention held.

The energy comes from it's boldness imo.

Okay...LMS is The Phantom Menace. The "hate prequel" thread made me do it!

As I've said before, it stands on its own as a movie. Coming back to it after several years and after RLM's lauded review (which is almost entirely correct.) it still works. In fact, I think on TPM George finally made the space adventure he wanted to because he was able to tie more things into the idea of a space opera. This is what began to creep into ROTJ and what made that film seem tired and anticlimactic.

And I've found that Jar-Jar never really bothered me. I can't explain it, but I don't hate the character or the stupid scenes meant for "humor". He works in the context of the space serial the movie is. In fact, I didn't really think about much of anything critical during the film-just found myself actually watching an adventure serial with a good soundmix and way too much CGI that sticks out like a sore thumb. Especially now, some 12 years on, it has become painfully obvious that the 97SE was just a trial run to see if the effects worked.

Only in TPM do any actors, dialogue or scenes carry something remotely like weight. The 35mm adds more life to the proceedings, especially when there is no computer enhancement. This can be laughed at, but the difference is clear. you don't need things flying around the background when two people are talking inside a house. Remember how we all hung onto every word coming from crazy old Ben in his hut? Nothing but simple dialogue and two people reacting off each other.

This humanity that began to seep away in ROTJ and is only so present in TPM is all but gone in Clones. By Sith it had been completely eradicated.

So, I enjoyed TPM for the most part, taking it for what it was. And I hate everything the Prequels stand for. I love paradoxes. The more I think about it though, I start to beat myself up for thinking this.

I did a slight jump by the time the end credits came. Somehow one always forgets this is supposed to be Star Wars.

BTW, this is all based on Ady's Theatrical cut without that awful coloring, stupid additions and edits. This is what I saw theatrically with that groundbreaking first 5.1EX soundtrack.

3 goddamn midichlorians out of 4 why the hell didn't they send more than just two Jedi back to Naboo when a war was supposed to be breaking out?

Oh...and balls.

I have a bad feeling about this...

So did I. Better but still not best.

I asked the shtv forum member who worked on the 04 transfers about the OCN:

So this means, if I'm reading correctly, that the 04 is in fact a 2K scan directly from the 97SE o-neg restoration. (I think he meant 97 instead of 99.)

xhonzi said:

I get all of that too... but I think context should be carefully handled when rating a film.

Best for its time? Or best ever? I think, perhaps, we should have a list of most influential or most historically relevant, or best in its time movies apart from the "best ever" list. Yes, Kane was groundbreaking in its day and dared to take on Hearst in such a way that everyone involved in the project should have been committed. That's great. But also, at the end of the day, a film is a film and not the people who made it or the way or reasons that they did. 

Good points. The big problem is that stupid AFI list that they keep doing variants of. They're just done to increase recognition and get people to donate money. You can't rank films in such a way. That said, the only list as such of any real merit is the Sight & Sound poll done every 10 years. It's the best place to start to find a good list of some of the great masterworks.

In those terms, I think the notion that no one has made a better film than Citizen Kane in the past 70 years to be ridiculous.

No one has made a more energetic or more complete film. That's it's staying power. Probably the most "complete" film ever shot. The cinematic kitchen sink.

YOU WILL NOT TAKE HER FROM MEEEEE!

It happens everywhere. It is said by many that Coppola had to be heavily coerced into putting over an hour back into The Godfather and that the ending was crafted by a studio editor in the nick of time.

I posted in the SE comparison thread about the cockpit croppings. I think on ESB they decided to make things look a bit less hokey and fake-by making the cockpit more crowded/lived in/battered. But the crew was a very good one who knew just how to frame shots so that there is enough information in the composition in order to tell the story. The 04 adheres to the idea that "tighter=better or more intense". This is not the case, and it does nothing to the cockpit scenes except screw with the original cinematographer's composition. If you weren't there that day, composing the shot, why are you messing with the framing?

GL doesn't care for it. Criterion can license it and put it out for the selective OT fan and their own usual fanbase. They've gotten unbelievably efficient at scanning, repairing, processing, making extras, building the disc and releasing with great inventive packaging relatively quickly for a transfer process. They do things simply-even take the film soundtracks from the source and do light click removal in ProTools by hand. It's not difficult or that expensive LFL!

The thing about Kane is this: no one wanted to push the envelope at the time. Welles pushed anything and everything he ever came into contact with. They thought he would do great in Hollywood. He sat around and couldn't get a project off the ground for over a year. So, you can definitely say that he came tearing out of the gate. However, they gave a young Orson Welles full control of the production. Kane is simply undiluted Welles on crack, with a great writer and brilliant and innovative people who actually wanted to do more than the same 9-5. Also, one must mention the fact Welles was usually on Benzedrine at this point in time. That's what makes it stand out. And all of the primary gushers for the film wouldn't even consider letting the man make another film. It took decades for it to even be considered as good, let alone even be shown.