A Few Words About A few words about...™ Lawrence of Arabia -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Rob_Ray]

To my mind, the 1994 CBS / Fox My Fair Lady's were still about the best.
RAH

The My Fair Lady box is indeed a gem. I say *is* rather than *was* because I still keep it at hand along with the later DVD. They didn't come much nicer than that beautiful set, along with Fox's The Sound of Music boxset, with its book analysing Ernest Lehman's script development, the laserdisc sleeve with the original artwork, the extended soundtrack CD, the now-familiar making-of documentary and the incredible still-step analysis that takes days to digest. Disney also did some boxes around this time. Those were the days, as long as you didn't mind paying over $100 for one film.

 

[TravisR]

As a Star Wars fan, the 1993 LD trilogy boxset was amazing. It had the movies in widescreen (which was a revelation for someone who had only seen them in pan and scan), it was CAV so I could freeze frame all the model/effects work, costumes or just cool shots, it had mini-audio commentaries, hundreds of pictures and art, trailers, a hardback copy of George Lucas: The Creative Impulse book and it all came in a heavy duty box. Today, the content wouldn't be anything special but at the time, it was incredible and helped spur my interest in how movies are made.

 

[Robert Harris]

Originally Posted by TravisR /t/324904/a-few-words-about-lawrence-of-arabia-in-blu-ray/120#post_4001481
As a Star Wars fan, the 1993 LD trilogy boxset was amazing. It had the movies in widescreen (which was a revelation for someone who had only seen them in pan and scan), it was CAV so I could freeze frame all the model/effects work, costumes or just cool shots, it had mini-audio commentaries, hundreds of pictures and art, trailers, a hardback copy of George Lucas: The Creative Impulse book and it all came in a heavy duty box. Today, the content wouldn't be anything special but at the time, it was incredible and helped spur my interest in how movies are made.

Once again, CBS / Fox.

RAH

 

[Ruz-El]

I know they are multi-title, but the prettiest laser disc sized boxsets I have are the "Ford At Fox" and "Mournau, Borsage & Fox" sets.

 

[Walter Kittel]

For LD Boxsets I swear by the deluxe Disney boxsets. Two of my favorites were the sets for Toy Story (with the original unedited Pixar shorts) and Tron.
- Walter.

 

[Charles Smith]

Yes, those Disney LD box sets were among the best.

My favorites, though, Disney aside, and in fact the only ones still gracing my shelves: My Fair Lady, Sound of Music, African Queen, Ultimate Oz, Breakfast at Tiffany's (those last two for the inclusion of full-size reprints of scripts/continuities), Amadeus, The Godfather Trilogy: 1901-1980.

I didn't know the "Murnau, Borzage and Fox" set was that large. Silly me. But it's been in my Amazon cart forever, and that's even sillier. Note to self...

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

One should be returned to Sony.  Would you like the mailing information?
RAH

If one of you would loan me some dirty clothes....

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

I'm putting together my own boxed set as an Xmas present for my benighted liberal journalist nephew.
it contains the 2 disc regular BRD edition, plus:
A somewhat rare FIRST EDITION (1936) of Seven Pillars of Wisdom
and
A new copy of Hero by Korda.
He will get the Hollywood version, the eye-witness version, and the historian's version of the story of how the middle east got so screwed up.

 

[MatthewA]

Originally Posted by Robert Harris /t/324904/a-few-words-about-lawrence-of-arabia-in-blu-ray/120#post_4001498

Once again, CBS / Fox.

RAH

Those Fox box sets were works of art. I have yet to see a non-Criterion Blu-Ray come close in terms of depth and breadth of extras, but it looks like this one might be it.

 

[OliverK]

To my mind, the 1994 CBS / Fox My Fair Lady's were still about the best.
RAH

That is a great boxset and I lucked out with a nice frame on that one, I hope I am that lucky with LoA, it shipped a few days ago.

 

[Robert Harris]

I'm putting together my own boxed set as an Xmas present for my benighted liberal journalist nephew.
it contains the 2 disc regular BRD edition, plus:
A somewhat rare FIRST EDITION (1936) of Seven Pillars of Wisdom
and
A new copy of Hero by Korda.
He will get the Hollywood version, the eye-witness version, and the historian's version of the story of how the middle east got so screwed up.

Are you gifting him the 1935 limited, with four color plates? Very nice gift. Continues to rise in value. As I recall, there were two runs of 750 each -- US & UK.
Nice gift, regardless. Why not add a signed copy of the Morris / Raskin tome?
RAH

 

[Charles Smith]

And while you're at it, can you use another nephew?

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

RAH,
No it's just the somewhat rare 1st Ed. 2nd printing of 1936. What you describe is a rare edition. The original 1926 private editions are the VERY rare editions.
To quote Claude Raines in another context "I'm only a poor corrupt official".

 

[cineMANIAC]

There should be a category for "Best Home Video Presentation" at the Academy Awards to honor this type of restoration work and presentation. This LoA set deserves many accolodes and worldwide recognition! The attention wouldn't hurt sales, either

 

[Bill McCamy]

RAH,
No it's just the somewhat rare 1st Ed. 2nd printing of 1936. What you describe is a rare edition. The original 1926 private editions are the VERY rare editions.
To quote Claude Raines in another context "I'm only a poor corrupt official".

You might consider one more volume, the Castle Hill Press printing of the 30% longer 1922 edition of Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Castle Hill has also published a matching volume of "The Mint." Seven Pillars is out of print now, but a paperback version is pending. Due to copyright issues, the volume is not available in the U.S. (There are some cheesy Kindle knock-offs, I think), but can be shipped from the U.K. to the U.S.

 

[lukejosephchung]

I just opened my LOA box edition...the 70mm frame I have is #25712...Ali, Lawrence and Auda at Auda's wells after the trek through the Nefud Desert...NICE!!!

 

[Bill McCamy]

I picked up my big box at Costco this morning. After my purchase, there was one left. The contents pulled out from the right on one box, and from the left on the other.
Frame 28956: Left to right, Farraj, Brighton and Lawrence in the officers' mess with a crowd of officers looking on in the background. One of them may be Robert Bolt. I'll have to look for his photo in the Raskin/Morris book. It's right after Lawrence tells Brighton that the bed with sheets is for Farraj.

 

[PaulDA]

My box arrived today at my office. Sadly, it has to remain unopened until Christmas (I didn't want to risk getting the basic release, so I ordered it myself as a present from Santa). I will be taking an "anti-social" day during the holidays to watch the film and explore the extras (no one else in my family will join me--kids are too young and my wife is utterly uninterested).

 

[Bill McCamy]

I have just got my mine, my frame is all black , it must be from the Overture !

Until I realize who had posted, I was going to suggest holding the frame up to a light source.
VERY FUNNY. Overture indeed.

 

[Brian Husar]

Christmas came early for me. I unfortunately never saw this in 70mm, even though I could have in 89 at McClurg Court in Chicago. I became more excited when it came out on video tape that Holiday season. I have since seen 2001, and Apocalypse Now in 70mm, but Lawrence I still have not. This is the closest to the effect at home. This Blu Ray is a miracle. People at MGM/UA, and Universal need to see what care and effort Grover Crisp has done for this film, and maybe West Side Story can be done the right way. This is the way it should be done every time out. Bravo.