A Few Words About A few words about... Kingdom of Heaven - The Director's Cut (1 Viewer)

[Steve Schaffer]

I watched the theatrical cut and was less than impressed. The DC is a completely different experience, and truly the way this film should have been released in the first place.

I strongly believe that until you've seen this director's cut you have not seen this excellent movie.

 

[Brett_M]

Well said. I agree totally.

 

[Brett_M]

I was a little miffed at this as well. The scuff did not affect playback for me.

In the future, I will not push and rotate the disc so it is right-side up. There's a time to be anal and a time to say "who cares -- DON'T SCRATCH THE DISC!"

 

[Tim-H.]

OK, despite being disappointed by the theatrical version, I ordered this from Amazon. I feel even flawed Ridley Scott movies have tremendous virtues, and it sounds like this set does the film justice. Thanks for the great discussion.

 

[Max Leung]

Ah yes, the scratches - I exchanged my copy because the first two discs were scratched - the 2nd one being scratched badly. My PC's DVD writer had no trouble reading it (I ripped it to test for errors), but I didn't want to take chances when using it in a standalone DVD player, so I exchanged it.

The exchanged copy had discs 3 and 4 scratched, so I swapped the discs out with the good ones from my first copy.

Poor packaging - the scratches were circular, as if the discs were spinning when they were placed onto the hubs! WTF?

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

My disc two locked up during the end sequence between Bloom and Csokas that was cut from the theatrical release -- I'll check it for scratches tomorrow.

 

[Rich Malloy]

Wow, count me as another who's been convinced to give this film another shot.

But unless I missed it... the Director's Cut is not available from Netflix?

 

[Ray H]

Nope. Netflix doesn't usually carry extended versions, etc.

 

[JediFonger]

except for LOTR =)...

and...
blues bros.
gladiator
dune
outsider

and that's it for popular flicks =).

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Got my set yesterday. The plastic trays have little dimples on them that put nice arcing scratches into two of the discs. Didn't get a chance to test out the discs, though.

 

[Tim-H.]

Just got my set with slight scratches from the tray dimples. [Shakes fist: Curse you tray dimples!] Can anyone who had playback issues suggest where in the film to check? Might be a while before I can actually sit down & watch all 4 discs. Thanks!

 

[ErichH]

Just closed the 3 & 4 disks tonight. Yet another amazing production from Charlie de Lauzirika (gearing up for Blade Runner as most of you know)
The docs play like a film (especially in play all mode) OK, they ARE a great film!

I love the final comments by everyone at the end of disk 4.
Of course it didn't do well here - the stinkin' suits butchered it into swiss cheeze, and then complained about the story lacking depth (along with their sock puppet critics) Typical

E

 

[CraigF]

Holy Crap!! This sure looks and sounds a lot to my taste, very high quality. Must be one of the better SD's out there for balanced quality PQ/SQ. Took me a while to get around to watching it because of the long running time but very worthwhile, a showpiece.

Like the packaging too, haven't seen one quite like this before...still not sure why it takes 4 discs, but if it does to get this quality, then do it! One of my doc discs was pretty scuffed though, not because of the package itself, hope it plays OK.

 

[JediFonger]

well, i usually don't buy on impulse, but now i have to. based on the reviews here and i had been expecting to see this since the very excellent teaser came out. hopefully receiving it in the mail next week =).

 

[Soah]

although the discs all have minor scratches, for some odd reason, it's disc 3 that has the most. I've been thru 3 copies so far and in each copy it was disc 3 that looked like somebody put it facedown in a parking lot, stepped on it, and used it to wipe the floor.

I hate it when a nice release is marred by scratched discs issues. I had the exact same problem with Black Hawk Down Deluxe. Every copy I went thru had multiple scratches, although not nearly as bad as this Kingdom of Heaven release...

 

[CraigF]

FWIW, my Disc 3 is the only one scuffed, and quite badly too. And no more copies at the store :frowning: Sounds like there may be no point in trying to replace anyway...

Edit: The disc 3 played perfectly after all. The doc is very good, certainly one of the best I've seen. Not having seen the theatrical cut, I have a much better idea of what was added in the director's cut now. Some of the stuff that was cut seems quite important to me, to getting you more involved in the story and to understand motives and circumstances etc.

 

[Jeff Whitford]

I watched this a few a days ago and it felt like I watching a different. A much btter one

 

[JediFonger]

well i finally managed to see everything on the 4 disc set.

since you guys hyped it SO much in this thread... i was expecting lawrence of arabia... but got... somn less than even gladiator (both cuts).

i didn't see the theatrical cut, but even the director's cut felt lacking.

it looks very nice... but i still feel it lacked substance in every sense of the word. ah well. lack what? well, there's always a magical element that can push a film over into becoming a classic, but this KOH is very dry. it's just not something that made me emotionally invested into the story or any of the characters. i think even troy does one up better than this!

one quibble. is syblla married to guy already or not? if she's married, then balian's adulterous actions sullies his "moral integrity"... which unravels the fact that he is supposed to be this "perfect knight".

and don't get me started on the compromises just for the sake of the message of tolerance. just somn that wouldn't have happened which carries the entire film over into absurdity.

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

Sorry, you lost me -- what compromises?

As to the perfect knight business, I don't think Balian ever claims to be perfect, merely "good". Others thrust the mantle upon him, which I don't believe he is comfortable with.

 

[Ray H]

Not that it matters, but in the extras (maybe of the first release though) it states it was fairly common for married couples to have extramerital affairs due to the nature of arranged marriages and love.