A Few Words About A few words about...™ El Cid (1 Viewer)

[OliverK]

I can understand your reasoning very well - But I watched the French DVD last year and I do not regret it as it has slightly better PQ than the Weinstein edition although it only has a 2.0 soundtrack. But I watched all of the extras and I do now think that i deserve something better than DVD quality to fully appreciate El Cid

 

[James 'Tiger' Lee]

I wonder whose restoring these things for Weinstein. I know the team behind Dragon Dynasty is astoundingly incompetent in some areas

 

[David_B_K]

Posted by john a. hunter:
Are you sure? As I recall, there was little, if any "surrounds" on the LD 5.1 track. I think the surrounds were only heard on the 2.0 track. I will try to listen to mine this week. I have my LD player unconnected right now, but will try to get it re-installed this weekend.

 

[john a hunter]

Perhaps it was the pro logic track on an earlier release that I'm thinking off. Will be interested on your thoughts after you have checked the disc.

 

[Stephen PI]

I was informed by a reliable source that the dvd 5.1 track is the same as the one made for the Criterion laserdisc. The surround channel on the original 4-track stereo mix (L,C,R,S) was minimal with mostly trumpet fanfares. The surround track was beefed up for the 5.1 as well as adding an LFE track.

 

[john a hunter]

I've only dipped into the film but I have yet to hear any surround at all!

 

[PatrickDA]

So, how has "El Cid" sold? 20,000 copies? 50,000?

 

[OliverK]

I would like to know that, too. Although I would think that classic titles do also sell pretty well in the long run this is a special case of a movie that is practically new to the US DVD market.

 

[Ric Easton]

Well, I'm late to the party and I wish I never showed! I'm so used to "A few words" from RH being good news, that I just kind of let this pass me by, because I thought an HD version may be on the horizon.

I haven't seen this movie in over 25 years and was looking forward to it... Now, not so much. A big disappointment that I will probably pick up anyway (or at least rent, if I can find it), now, for the story... not so much the presentation. A real lost opportunity.

 

[John Hodson]

The words 'Limited Edition' may actually be true in the LE's case; at least one etailer is now showing it to be OOP.

 

[Simon Howson]

It is still worth buying, at least in the regular set.

It certainly isn't the definitive SD-DVD release we all craved. But it is still up there as probably the best it will ever look on DVD. I can't see how a release in any other country will be able to improve on it.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Ric: I can agree with this. Not reference material, maybe...but very watchable. And, most certainly, enjoyable.

 

[Billy Fogerty]

I rented this film from the. Are we talking about the same film? The transfer looked awful. It was not DD5.1. It was not anamorphic.. There was no studio name on the disc, except the word Garrys. Also under the words El Cid there was chinese or japanese writing, I would assume was the title. I thought El Cid was a restored and pristene release.

 

[Robert Crawford]

We're not talking about the same dvd release because I don't know what you rented and watched!

 

[Richard--W]

I'm disappointed.
I waited a long time for a state-of-the-art transfer of EL CID.
This isn't it.

EL CID is a unique and special film.
There's no other epic quite like it in terms of story and ideas and visual aesthetics and technical execution.

EL CID merits special attention, or at least professionalism and good judgment on the part of those responsible for the transfer process. The average, uninformed consumer has higher standards than whoever supervised this DVD.

The single most important DVD release of the year, and the Weinstein organization has treated it like just any old B movie.

 

[AdrianTurner]

I think that's a bit harsh, considering the effort that has been put into the extras, which I think are excellent. The transfer isn't the best - the day-for-night shots during the various battles for Valencia are especially unsatisfactory - but given the problems that have always surrounded the Bronston catalogue I think this El Cid is pretty good.

For me, the single biggest annoyance is the division of the two discs - having the Entr'acte on Disc 1 and Part 2 starting on Disc 2 is a terrible aesthetic mistake which I hope isn't repeated on Fall.

 

[David_B_K]

Obviously, you did not rent the new Weinstein release. What you rented is apparently a bootleg. Before the Weinstein release, there was no "official" release of El Cid. There were various versions available that were of atrocious quality. many were not anamorphic, and some were not even widescreen.

It has been discussed before, but some rental places do not update their titles. So, if newer versions comes out, such as the Gladiator extended cut, or Kingdom of Heaven extended cut, or an anamorphic version of a title, some rental chains or stores do not order them.

 

[Billy Fogerty]

The copy I rented from NetFlix was not a Weinstein disc. The disc has El Cid on it. Under that was oriental writing. The disc is yellow. It was not anamorphic or in dd. Very blurry picture, almost looked like vhs. This was on a Panny 50" 1080p flatscreen. This means that there are infirior copies of El Cid out there, and NetFlix has them.

 

[OliverK]

In my opionion this movie got a very nice release save for the picture quality. Of course of all things you can screw up in a new DVD release PQ is the last one so this explains the disappointment by many members of this forum about the less than acceptable picture quality that disappoints for both detail and color timing.

I am happy with the extras at least and hope for something better down the road. As supposedly El Cid was still selling very good for a classic title I doubt that this has persuaded anybody to go for better picture quality with their next Bronston release but I will happy if the next release proves me wrong.

Unfortunately we have not heard anything from Weinstein with regard to this release although I am sure there will be somebody fromt he company who reads this forum. I also tried to contact the person who was said to be in charge of the Bronston titles at Weinstein but no answer from there either...

Oliver

 

[David_B_K]

That is incredibly lame of Netflix to not have the official release. They should not even be carrying those imported (probably bootleg) discs. FWIW, Blockbuster Online shows the Weinstein version. I left Netflix for BB Online, and have enjoyed the change.