haineshisway
Senior HTF Member
Oh, the horror, the horror. Oh, the calling for heads to roll, the blame, the shame - that's the name of the game. I have read such damning comments elsewhere. It began with a reviewer downgrading his original video score and adding comments that had been mentioned in a thread about the film. Warners had given Twilight Time an ancient master filled with "combing" and "jaggies" especially in one memorable jaggy scene at about the thirty-two minute mark. And so that went on for days - typical Warners early transfer crap, said they. Then something funny happened. One of the head honchos came on and said the problems with Heaven and Earth weren't sourced based - the transfer was not the problem, the authoring was the problem. He neglected to say whether he'd actually seen the disc, but let's put that aside for the moment. Then everyone suddenly changed their stories and Twilight Time, not Warners, were the complete villain. They had somehow screwed up the authoring on a perfectly okay but older transfer. My head was already spinning before I read that it was back to Warners being the villain. Somewhere in all this, I began to wonder if anyone, ANYONE, had actually watched the damn movie. The answer is - the reviewer, certainly. The head honcho - doubtful. The others pontificating? From what I could tell, maybe two or three.
Now, I must be really stupid - I hear talk of jaggies I want to see the damn jaggies whatever they are. But here's how I don't want to see them: I don't want to sit one foot from my 55" TV. I don't want to pause the image and then blow it up. I don't want to look at a magnified screen capture. I want to see the damn jaggies as I'm watching the motion picture. One person said they hadn't seen them or what a couple of people called "pixilation." But he was angry anyway because even though he hadn't seen them he "knew" they were there. At that point I began to think I was reading an Ionesco play rather than a discussion board.
So, I put on Heaven and Earth, a motion picture. I watched the first ten minutes - looked pretty good to me. It was apparent immediately that it wasn't a new transfer, just like a lot of Warners' Blu-rays back in the day were not new transfers - there was a bit of dirt, a scratch or two (not noted by the reviewer, BTW), but I was seeing excellent color, nice detail and something that looked reasonably like the photography of Robert Richardson, which in the case of this film is fairly breathtaking. Perfect? No. Acceptable and nice looking - absolutely positively. Is it a decade old master? I don't know, I don't care. Could it be better? I have no doubt. Is it a travesty of the highest order? Of course not.
I got twenty minutes in - still looked fine to me, with all the caveats above. Then I got thirty minutes in and I couldn't wait to see all the combing and the jaggies so I could finally see what all that stuff looked like. I was primed, I was ready, I was salivating. I took a sip of Diet Coke, ate a piece of candy and hunkered down. The specific scene that had everyone in an uproar came on. My eyes combed the screen for combing but funnily I didn't see any. Then my eyes darted from object to object looking for those damn jaggies and damn if I saw one, so either I need to go take a class in jaggy identification or they're just not noticeable when watching a motion picture. I went back and watched it again because, you know, the eyes can play tricks. I looked and looked and didn't see anything untoward. Oh, I suppose I could have paused the image and blown it up, then have gone right up to the TV and combed for combing and jaggies, but alas, I did not. After all, if I couldn't see them from a reasonable viewing distance then of what concern were they to me. Perhaps if I was watching this on a 120 inch screen I might have seen them, although who knows really? Then I went back and watched the scene a third time because I actually wanted to know what was happening in the movie.
So, this seems like the same tempest in a teapot as Titus's teapot. A decade old master (although no one actually KNOWS how old this is, but I would posit that it could not have the detail that it has if it were much older than that). Now, what no one probably wants to hear is that a lot of Blu-rays are taken from decade old masters and those transfers have been praised to the high heavens so I'm not really seeing the point. For example, right here on this site the praise was lovely for Inherit the Wind and Judgment at Nuremberg, and it was deserved. And both transfers were a decade old, as were the Woody Allen transfers that have gotten some nice praise on the thing called the Internet, as are most of what MGM has given Kino - Kino, BTW, seems to get a pass for this kind of thing regularly. Having watched the absolutely horrendous faded thing called The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes and seeing people post stuff like, "I'm just grateful it's on Blu-ray, sure it could be better but this is what they were handed." There was nothing inherently wrong with Titus other than a fresh new transfer would have probably yielded a better Blu-ray, and it's the same with Heaven and Earth. I can only speak for myself, but I never once sat there and thought it was a disaster or an affront to humanity as we know it. I had a nice viewing experience of a very interesting movie by Oliver Stone, of a transfer he, at whatever point, signed off on. And since it was Mr. Stone who wanted this out and made sure it got licensed, I'd make the grand leap that he's happy it's out on Blu-ray. Warners isn't going to revisit this title anytime soon, that you can be certain of. If you like Heaven and Earth, you're safe in the purchase, at least from where I sit.
Oh, and just a side note to the head honcho - no, there are no authoring problems on Heaven and Earth. None. If you had the disc you could probably check out the bit rate and all that jazz. The authoring house that Twilight Time uses does terrific work - I've used them and I know. If one has a problem, then it's with the transfer itself and that Twilight Time can do nothing about, no matter where the transfer is coming from. The fact that the owners of Twilight Time thought the transfer was good enough to issue is really the end of the story. And it is good enough to issue and Mr. Stone is happy they issued it.
Now, I'm going to have another piece of candy and see if can find them damn jaggies even if I have to watch that scene thirty times.
And there you have one person's opinion. I know some may refer to my friendship with one of the owners, but he and those who know me know I call it as I see it for any release I feel like writing about.
Now, I must be really stupid - I hear talk of jaggies I want to see the damn jaggies whatever they are. But here's how I don't want to see them: I don't want to sit one foot from my 55" TV. I don't want to pause the image and then blow it up. I don't want to look at a magnified screen capture. I want to see the damn jaggies as I'm watching the motion picture. One person said they hadn't seen them or what a couple of people called "pixilation." But he was angry anyway because even though he hadn't seen them he "knew" they were there. At that point I began to think I was reading an Ionesco play rather than a discussion board.
So, I put on Heaven and Earth, a motion picture. I watched the first ten minutes - looked pretty good to me. It was apparent immediately that it wasn't a new transfer, just like a lot of Warners' Blu-rays back in the day were not new transfers - there was a bit of dirt, a scratch or two (not noted by the reviewer, BTW), but I was seeing excellent color, nice detail and something that looked reasonably like the photography of Robert Richardson, which in the case of this film is fairly breathtaking. Perfect? No. Acceptable and nice looking - absolutely positively. Is it a decade old master? I don't know, I don't care. Could it be better? I have no doubt. Is it a travesty of the highest order? Of course not.
I got twenty minutes in - still looked fine to me, with all the caveats above. Then I got thirty minutes in and I couldn't wait to see all the combing and the jaggies so I could finally see what all that stuff looked like. I was primed, I was ready, I was salivating. I took a sip of Diet Coke, ate a piece of candy and hunkered down. The specific scene that had everyone in an uproar came on. My eyes combed the screen for combing but funnily I didn't see any. Then my eyes darted from object to object looking for those damn jaggies and damn if I saw one, so either I need to go take a class in jaggy identification or they're just not noticeable when watching a motion picture. I went back and watched it again because, you know, the eyes can play tricks. I looked and looked and didn't see anything untoward. Oh, I suppose I could have paused the image and blown it up, then have gone right up to the TV and combed for combing and jaggies, but alas, I did not. After all, if I couldn't see them from a reasonable viewing distance then of what concern were they to me. Perhaps if I was watching this on a 120 inch screen I might have seen them, although who knows really? Then I went back and watched the scene a third time because I actually wanted to know what was happening in the movie.
So, this seems like the same tempest in a teapot as Titus's teapot. A decade old master (although no one actually KNOWS how old this is, but I would posit that it could not have the detail that it has if it were much older than that). Now, what no one probably wants to hear is that a lot of Blu-rays are taken from decade old masters and those transfers have been praised to the high heavens so I'm not really seeing the point. For example, right here on this site the praise was lovely for Inherit the Wind and Judgment at Nuremberg, and it was deserved. And both transfers were a decade old, as were the Woody Allen transfers that have gotten some nice praise on the thing called the Internet, as are most of what MGM has given Kino - Kino, BTW, seems to get a pass for this kind of thing regularly. Having watched the absolutely horrendous faded thing called The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes and seeing people post stuff like, "I'm just grateful it's on Blu-ray, sure it could be better but this is what they were handed." There was nothing inherently wrong with Titus other than a fresh new transfer would have probably yielded a better Blu-ray, and it's the same with Heaven and Earth. I can only speak for myself, but I never once sat there and thought it was a disaster or an affront to humanity as we know it. I had a nice viewing experience of a very interesting movie by Oliver Stone, of a transfer he, at whatever point, signed off on. And since it was Mr. Stone who wanted this out and made sure it got licensed, I'd make the grand leap that he's happy it's out on Blu-ray. Warners isn't going to revisit this title anytime soon, that you can be certain of. If you like Heaven and Earth, you're safe in the purchase, at least from where I sit.
Oh, and just a side note to the head honcho - no, there are no authoring problems on Heaven and Earth. None. If you had the disc you could probably check out the bit rate and all that jazz. The authoring house that Twilight Time uses does terrific work - I've used them and I know. If one has a problem, then it's with the transfer itself and that Twilight Time can do nothing about, no matter where the transfer is coming from. The fact that the owners of Twilight Time thought the transfer was good enough to issue is really the end of the story. And it is good enough to issue and Mr. Stone is happy they issued it.
Now, I'm going to have another piece of candy and see if can find them damn jaggies even if I have to watch that scene thirty times.
And there you have one person's opinion. I know some may refer to my friendship with one of the owners, but he and those who know me know I call it as I see it for any release I feel like writing about.
