Blazing Saddles DVD. Any info on quality of release? (1 Viewer)

[BooneG]

First off, there is a Special Edition of "Blazing Saddles" out, but with good news and bad news.

The good news...

There is a trailer and a brand new documentary.

The bad news...

It is only availible on VHS and full frame only.

That's a bitch, isn't it?

That's not true. I was at my local Tower records today and they had the SE you speak of.......in widescreen. I bought it because it was on clearance. The doc is very short but nice. WB recently announced that they are bringing out a new series of dvds called 2-disc special editions. The first five come out in Sep. Everyone knows that but they plan on doing 10-12 a year starting in 2003. This means that Blazing Sadles will probably be one.

 

[Richard Ruffner]

I think in addition to the Mongo vs. Sheriff extra scenes, there is also extra scenes in the studio stuff near the end of the picture. It would be nice to have these back in the film, as it doesn't detract from the film. But then I'm not Mel Brooks

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

The Mongo vs. Sheriff Bart stuff was the best of the extra scenes, but there are a number of other ones as well. There's a whole sequence with Governor Le Petomane arriving in the simulated Rock Ridge before the finale, too.

They also had extended sequences with Bart and the Kid in the KKK outfits and Lili Von Shtupp's song (more of an intro).

Regards,

 

[Peter D]

Just to comment on the problem Vince described - I have it too - both on my JVC and playing it on my PC. It's like the disc can't decide whether it's progressive scan or not (but it doesn't help to manually select a mode). Here's a close up of the problem:
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I never noticed any problems with my old player, which didn't support PS, but it pretty much makes the disc unwatchable now (to me at least). Just something to be wary of if you're considering this disc.

 

[Dave Poehlman]

I'm just reviving this thread to say I picked this disk up at Best Buy yesterday and noticed the "twitching" problem... it's really annoying. Mine is marked "Special Edition" and still has this problem. I've searched the 'net for a better version out there and can't find any (other than the Deluxe, which looks like the same disk packaged with a poster and a piece of the film).
Was there ever a better copy of this film released?
Perhaps someone could bring this up at the WB chat in March.
It seems to me, WB has really dropped the ball with Brooks' films. Young Frankenstein is non-anamorphic, Blazing Saddles has a poor picture... I can only imagine what Spaceballs and High Anxiety might be like... oh, wait it doesn't look like High Anxiety is even available on DVD. :rolleyes

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

Glad someone else finally noticed, i never really heard it mentioned before-- and my original notice was not on a PS player--- it was on my interlaced A-110 and then my RV-80. I got rid of the disc before HTPC, so have never tested it- but it is absolutely authored wrong in some manner which seems to create a combed frame every few seconds.

I also saw this one some other warner discs of the era, but i can't recall which ones-- they promptly left my collection.

 

[Tim Glover]

Isn't there suppose to be a true Special Edition released in June 2004? Think I remember reading something about that on the Digital Bits.

 

[Dave Poehlman]

Per Digital bits, it looks like they'll be releasing a region 2 version:

, Three Godfathers, Mogambo, Shalako, Wyatt Earp, The Hunger, Fearless Vampire Killers

I'm guessing it'll be the same version as the R1. It would be interesting to see if the "twitch" is gone, however.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

It seems to me, WB has really dropped the ball with Brooks' films. Young Frankenstein is non-anamorphic,

Young Frankenstein is a Fox title. Spaceballs is an MGM title, as is The Producers.

I don't recall seeing this combing problem with my copy of the original DVD of Blazing Saddles. I'm running interlaced from my Philips 936 into an AVToolbox 3700 scaler and thence 1024 x 768 progressive to the projector. My scaler is very good however at ignoring bad flags.

 

[Dave Poehlman]

Young Frankenstein is a Fox title. Spaceballs is an MGM title, as is The Producers

Whoops! :b Let me rephrase that: Studios, in general, have dropped the ball when it comes to Brooks' films.

 

[Matt Gordon]

Studios, in general, have dropped the ball when it comes to Brooks' films.

Absolutely correct.
...I'm still hoping that when Silent Movie comes out, it'll have a kickin' DTS track!

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

I'm still hoping that when Silent Movie comes out, it'll have a kickin' DTS track!

Absolutely! It would be a travesty to hear Marcel Marceau in anything but full bit rate 7.1 DTS:ES

 

[Brian Thibodeau]

In light of a (much) earlier reference to his success on stage with The Producers, many of Mel Brooks films would make great Broadway musicals, particularly Blazing Saddles (in spite of its broad cinematic scope), & Young Frankenstein. Hell, even High Anxiety and History of the World might work. They've all got kooky musical numbers, and I'm sure more could be written or existing dialogue scenes could be reworked into songs. The man's sitting on a gold mine.

 

[Dave Poehlman]

Absolutely correct.

So, why is it that Brooks' films are getting such poor treatment, DVD wise? Is it because he chooses not to oversee the quality of the releases? Or perhaps it's the studios that don't want to put too much effort into his films?

 

[Galen_V]

In light of a (much) earlier reference to his success on stage with The Producers, many of Mel Brooks films would make great Broadway musicals...Young Frankenstein.

Not to go off topic, but Mel Brooks is developing Young Frankenstein for Broadway. Not sure when it is supposed to open though (probably sometime before Fall 2005).

 

[Brian Thibodeau]

Good to hear that Young Frankenstein on Broadway news. Figured he'd start mining his the rest of film library sooner or later. We're going to see the Toronto production of The Producers this summer, and if Blazing Saddles ever hits the stage, I'll be first in line. Not sure how the racial stuff would work, but I'm sure it could be massaged into something workable. They'd probably need a rotating stage with about four separate set quarters just to accomadate that wonderfully destructive finale.

Back to the topic at hand though, I'd give my eye teeth for full-blown SEs of just about all of Brooks' films, with the exception of Life Stinks and perhaps Dracula: Dead & Loving It (although even that was a beautiful film to look at).

 

[Dustin James]

.

 

[Patrick McCart]

Let's hope that Warner puts the BLAZE GLORY short on the DVD which inspired the whole scene where Bart puts the gun to his head. It's extremely rare, but extremely funny!

 

[Roger Rollins]

Let's hope that Warner puts the BLAZE GLORY short on the DVD which inspired the whole scene where Bart puts the gun to his head. It's extremely rare, but extremely funny!

Doubtful this would ever happen...

BLAZE GLORY was released by United Artists, not WB.

 

[Jay Pennington]

BLAZE GLORY was released by United Artists, not WB.

Wouldn't that put it under WB's control today?

UA merged with MGM, whose library was then sold to Turner, who was absorbed by WB....