UHD Review A Few Words About A few words about...™ - The Way We Were -- in 4k UHD (2 Viewers)

[willyTass]

I'm on my second 4K disc and both exhibit glitches and shuddering as the film moves through the 3rd layer of the 100gb disc.
Has anyone had difficulty with the last segment...beginning with Redford coming down the second floor stair at the studio, through Streisand's car stopping for the student ralley in the extended edition?

the spanish amazon version is magnificent - pressed st Sony Europe by people who care. (ifpi code 94)

superb hardcoat, no scratches , no glitches , best glass masters , best resins that never bronze

why torture yourself with mexican quality control

 

[Indy Guy]

the spanish amazon version is magnificent - pressed st Sony Europe by people who care. (ifpi code 94)

superb hardcoat, no scratches , no glitches , best glass masters , best resins that never bronze

why torture yourself with mexican quality control

Thanks for the suggestion. I my try that just to avoid further frustrations! Does the soundtrack include 5.1 English?

 

[willyTass]

yes 5.1 lossless english audio tracks included. it’s the same disc as the american just pressed by sony themselves rather than technicolor mexico

and as u know only the original theatrical version has the original mono

the menu is in default of English

The Way We Were 4K Blu-ray (Tal Como Éramos - Edición 50º Aniversario) (Spain)

The Way We Were 4K Blu-ray Release Date October 17, 2023 (Tal Como Éramos - Edición 50º Aniversario). Blu-ray reviews, news, specs, ratings, screenshots. Cheap Blu-ray movies and deals.

www.blu-ray.com

its also available through Amazon Italy and Amazon Germany which i’ve used many times. All the euro Sony titles are pressed at Sony europe.

 

[titch]

its also available through Amazon Italy and Amazon Germany which i’ve used many times. All the euro Sony titles are pressed at Sony europe.

Only through third-party sellers, asking a staggering $54 retail price + shipping + tax. This is the US release, imported.

 

[willyTass]

amazon spain seems to have sold out, or amazon has sold there stock to third party scalpers

i’m seeing that amazon italy still has stock for 24 Euros

im happy to pay extra for a scratch free , glitch free disc

 

[Robin9]

Presumably at some point Amazon UK will have a European pressed disc available. I'll wait until the dust settles.

 

[willyTass]

i pre ordered mine. took about 20 days to get from spain to australia. often amazon will block titles for international delivery after street date, presumably some deal they have with low life 3rd party scalpers

 

[titch]

i pre ordered mine. took about 20 days to get from spain to australia. often amazon will block titles for international delivery after street date, presumably some deal they have with low life 3rd party scalpers

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I see it on Amazon.it, but only if I search using the Italian title! Ah well, I ended up ordering from MovieMars in the US. Odd that Spain and Italy get their own edition, but not Germany - which has far and away the largest gang of 4K UHD consumers on the planet.

 

[roxy1927]

Do the added scenes explain the divorce due to her communist leanings? Laurents was furious but Stark was right to make it the success it was. Redford would have come off as non sympathetic.

 

[Will Krupp]

Do the added scenes explain the divorce due to her communist leanings? Laurents was furious but Stark was right to make it the success it was. Redford would have come off as non sympathetic.

No, they don't. She has left wing leanings throughout the whole movie and before they even get married. Her politics have always been a non-issue for Hubbell. Besides, we find out she left the Communist Party during the war.

Spoiler:
The new scenes explain that Frankie, the James Woods character from earlier in the film, has informed on Katie. She won't become an informant herself, but won't stick Hubbell with a subversive wife as it will end his career as a writer in Hollywood. He thinks they should fight it but Katie knows how it will end. She decides they must divorce. He allows it.

Far from making him unsympathetic, his non-actions at this point telegraph his eventual sense of total loss and regret. I've seen this movie many many times and this is the first time that the fleeting look of sadness and yearning on Redford's face in closeup, as they embrace in the last scene, hits like a ton of bricks. It's actually Redford's performance, IMO, that suffers most with the deletion of those scenes because, with them, you see a man who lets everything slip away in 1948 for something that didn't even matter by 1954. The extra scenes deepen the emotional punch of that final scene and switch our focus from Streisand to Redford. He's a shell of a man at the end and we finally know why.

In the theatrical version, it looks like he throws it all away by sleeping with Lois Chiles. It's less sympathetic because their breakup is a result of his action rather than being the result of his inaction (which is the point of his character in the first place.)

 

[Mark-P]

I watched the extended version tonight (in 4K but without HDR, because that's all iTunes offers). I've always thought it was an exquisite movie, but now it's perfect. As I wasn't familiar enough with the movie to know exactly which scenes were new, afterwards I scanned through both versions side-by-side to locate the exact additions. The much longer scene of their breakup was where most of the relevant information was. I could have sworn that the scene where Katie stops the car to watch a young girl giving a speech protesting the McCarthy hearings was in the theatrical cut, but apparently it's not...

 

[Will Krupp]

I could have sworn that the scene where Katie stops the car to watch a young girl giving a speech protesting the McCarthy hearings was in the theatrical cut, but apparently it's not...

I think it's because that clip of Katie in the car played as "b" roll in the making of documentary on the Twilight Time disc. We've seen it before so it doesn't seem "new" now. I'm not sure if that doc is in the new package or not as I didn't check the special features yet.

 

[Mark-P]

I think it's because that clip of Katie in the car played as "b" roll in the making of documentary on the Twilight Time disc. We've seen it before so it doesn't seem "new" now. I'm not sure if that doc is in the new package or not as I didn't check the special features yet.

Ah, so I have seen it before, just not in the context of the movie!

 

[Mark-P]

I'm not sure if that doc is in the new package or not as I didn't check the special features yet.

Hey Will, the documentary is included and I just re-watched it. It‘s from 1999 and was made for the DVD release, which was about the last time I saw it. Surprisingly, the bulk of the outtakes are presented in the documentary, and in the interviews Barbra and Arthur present their case why they think the cuts hurt the picture, while Sydney defends the cuts, but admits he could be wrong and capitulates that he doesn’t think putting them back would destroy the picture. It’s been 24 years since that documentary came out, and I hadn’t remembered that that all this information about Barbra’s crusade to fix the movie was already out there.

 

[Will Krupp]

Hey Will, the documentary is included and I just re-watched it. It‘s from 1999 and was made for the DVD release, which was about the last time I saw it.

Thanks, Mark! That's great to know and I'm sure I will re-watch it when I dive into the "whole" package. I really wanted to see the extended cut and I haven't yet bothered with any of the rest of it. I'm glad it's still a part of it!!

 

[Noel Aguirre]

No, they don't. She has left wing leanings throughout the whole movie and before they even get married. Her politics have always been a non-issue for Hubbell. Besides, we find out she left the Communist Party during the war.

Spoiler:
The new scenes explain that Frankie, the James Woods character from earlier in the film, has informed on Katie. She won't become an informant herself, but won't stick Hubbell with a subversive wife as it will end his career as a writer in Hollywood. He thinks they should fight it but Katie knows how it will end. She decides they must divorce. He allows it.

Far from making him unsympathetic, his non-actions at this point telegraph his eventual sense of total loss and regret. I've seen this movie many many times and this is the first time that the fleeting look of sadness and yearning on Redford's face in closeup, as they embrace in the last scene, hits like a ton of bricks. It's actually Redford's performance, IMO, that suffers most with the deletion of those scenes because, with them, you see a man who lets everything slip away in 1948 for something that didn't even matter by 1954. The extra scenes deepen the emotional punch of that final scene and switch our focus from Streisand to Redford. He's a shell of a man at the end and we finally know why.

In the theatrical version, it looks like he throws it all away by sleeping with Lois Chiles. It's less sympathetic because their breakup is a result of his action rather than being the result of his inaction (which is the point of his character in the first place.)

I totally disagree. What about his child that he’s totally clueless about. How is that never explained? And how can I sympathize for someone who gave up his own daughter for his career?

 

[Noel Aguirre]

I think it's because that clip of Katie in the car played as "b" roll in the making of documentary on the Twilight Time disc. We've seen it before so it doesn't seem "new" now. I'm not sure if that doc is in the new package or not as I didn't check the special features yet.

That zoom in on her is way too fast too IMHO. But hey god forbid anyone coming between Babs and her “crusade to fix the picture”.
Is Hello Dolly next?

 

[Will Krupp]

I totally disagree. What about his child that he’s totally clueless about. How is that never explained? And how can I sympathize for someone who gave up his own daughter for his career?

I'm not surprised we don't agree as I don't think we look at things in the same way. I don't know all that much about you beyond what you post, but you seem like you're from the "you've made your bed now lie in it" school and, if so, I respect that. It's a different (yet valid) take from mine, but one shared by many. For my part, I do have sympathy for someone destined to live a life of utter regret based on a bad decision that seemed right when they made it.

In any event, nothing about their daughter is unique to the extended cut. All of it is present in the theatrical, the only difference being that it seems as though he gave up his daughter because he wanted to bang Lois Chiles one afternoon. We can disagree about who deserves our sympathy, but it hardly feels like that should engender more than the original, pre-edited, story.

 

[Mark-P]

I totally disagree. What about his child that he’s totally clueless about. How is that never explained? And how can I sympathize for someone who gave up his own daughter for his career?

It was also depicting a different era, where it wouldn’t be that uncommon for a child to be brought up not knowing that their father wasn’t their actual biological parent. Katie and Hubbel’s mutual separation was probably with the understanding that their child would not be the product of a broken home but only know an intact family, and Hubbel’s sacrifice (of losing his daughter, not his career) could actually be construed as noble in that he was giving his daughter a better life by not having a mostly absent father. But, like Sydney Pollock says, “I could be wrong”

 

[Sam Favate]

I watched this last night, and I thought it was terrific. The picture looks better than I expected for a film of this age. I also think the additional material in the new edition really works. I think it really shows Katie as a person who wouldn't change her principles, even for the person she loved -- even for her child, who'd never know her father. (That's an antiquated notion, I think -- one that wouldn't be included if the film was made now.) Despite a few things that probably would be written differently if the film was made today, I think this one stands the test of time. Is it Streisand's best role? It might be. It's not Redford's best role, but he's great in it. I bought this to be part of my collection of Redford films, even though it's primarily about Streisand's character, and she really owns the picture. For that reason, I think she was right to insist on the changes to the film for this edition. (I'm pretty sure Redford is on record, too, saying that he thought the deleted scenes should be included.)