Blu-ray Review Hair Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

[Techman707]

Originally Posted by GMpasqua

I wonder if they will ever come up with a way of removing the white speckles from older films without losing picture detail.


Watched this today and though overall it looked pretty good. The colors and black levels were okay, the sound was also okay - nothing great - though this film was originally shown in 70MM blow ups so the sound should really pop.


The film does have a fair amount of speckles through out - too bad they couldn't remove them. It's doubtful this film will ever get a restoration but the blu-ray is miles a head of the DVD. MGM may have used an older transfer, but it is quite sharp at times (the film has some soft focus now and then) and the colors is pretty much as I remember it in the theater.


I wonder if they will ever come up with a way of removing the white speckles from older films. I remember the DVD of "Funny Girl" looked great - it had just been restored but there were white specks through out (probably now part of the original negative)

Since the white specles is missing emulsion, the only way to fix it is by hand, with information from the frame before or after to replace it. They might come up with an algorithm, but as of now....none.

Where did you see this in 70mm? As far as I know, they were all 35mm prints.

 

[theonemacduff]

I saw the film theatrically when it came out, and as I recall the opening, it always was kind of drained of colour. I forget whether the titles play over a scene or whether they are a separate roll, prior to the images, but my memory of the opening is that it shows a misty morning, an older truck coming towards us in wide shot down a country road, and because its misty and morning, the image is pretty much drained of colour anyways, and that that was what the director intended. One of the things I liked in the film especially was the way in which the acid trip plays out, I think in the celebration in the park. No real obvious hallucinations at first at all, just alterations to the sound (I think maybe they played with the sync), and a kind of slowing down and odd moments glimpsed out of the corner of one's eye, with the John Savage character doing slight double-takes, as if he's not sure he saw what he just saw. I thought it was perfectly executed. The black boys/ white boys number is also a personal favourite, wickedly funny. At the price offered, I can't wait to get it.

 

[GMpasqua]

Quote: Originally Posted by Techman707

Since the white specles is missing emulsion, the only way to fix it is by hand, with information from the frame before or after to replace it. They might come up with an algorithm, but as of now....none.

Where did you see this in 70mm? As far as I know, they were all 35mm prints.


I may be wrong about the film being blown up to 70MM.


I thought it was and I thought some of the 70MM sites have it listed (This would have been in Manhattan - many films were blown up for 70MM when they first opened - usually only at select Time Square theaters. I first saw "Grease" as a 70MM blow-up as well as "Annie", "The Best LIttle Whorehouse in Texas" and "A Chorus Line" The multi-plex showed 35mm prints

 

[Techman707]

Originally Posted by GMpasqua

I may be wrong about the film being blown up to 70MM.


I thought it was and I thought some of the 70MM sites have it listed (This would have been in Manhattan - many films were blown up for 70MM when they first opened - usually only at select Time Square theaters. I first saw "Grease" as a 70MM blow-up as well as "Annie", "The Best LIttle Whorehouse in Texas" and "A Chorus Line" The multi-plex showed 35mm prints

I worked at the DeMille theatre (closed because of fire in 1974) and when Hair came out I worked vacations at number of other Broadway theatres and I'm pretty certain that none of them ran Hair in 70mm. In addition, I saw Hair myself with a friend shortly after it opened at the Pacific Dome Theatre in LA and not even they ran it in 70mm. In NY I ran both Best Little Whorehouse and Grease in 70mm. I don't recall Annie being 70mm. but I could be wrong about that.

 

[GMpasqua]

Originally Posted by Techman707






I worked at the DeMille theatre (closed because of fire in 1974) and when Hair came out I worked vacations at number of other Broadway theatres and I'm pretty certain that none of them ran Hair in 70mm. In addition, I saw Hair myself with a friend shortly after it opened at the Pacific Dome Theatre in LA and not even they ran it in 70mm. In NY I ran both Best Little Whorehouse and Grease in 70mm. I don't recall Annie being 70mm. but I could be wrong about that.

"Annie" was definately in 70MM (it was even in the advertising at the Loews Astor Plaza) and it looked like a 70MM blow-up. Was "Whorehouse" (Rivoli Theater) in 4 channel stereo as advertised - all video versions seemed to be either mono or have very little separation. I do remember the music being very loud, but I think it was also 4 channel. I saw "Hair" at the multiplex and there it was 35mm

 

[GMpasqua]

Hair: 70MM.com lists the re-release as 70MM in 1982

US 70mm re-issue in ‘82.


Imdb also lists a 70MM format.

 

[John Skoda]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Techman707

I recall the film itself was flat and hard matted 1.85:1.

It's a little confusing--the official credits and poster advertise that it's in "Panavision" which probably just means that it was photographed with Panavision cameras and lenses, but you usually don't see that credit on the poster unless it's 2.35:1.

 

[GMpasqua]

I always remebered "Hair' being 2.35:1 when I saw it in the theater - it may be that the theater cropped the top and bottom somewhat but I was surprised to see it in 1:85 when 1st it came out in letterboxed on laserdisc.


Could the film have been photographed with an open matt option? There is a lot of empty space on the top and bottom of the image

 

[MatthewA]

Originally Posted by GMpasqua

I always remebered "Hair' being 2.35:1 when I saw it in the theater - it may be that the theater cropped the top and bottom somewhat but I was surprised to see it in 1:85 when 1st it came out in letterboxed on laserdisc.


Could the film have been photographed with an open matt option? There is a lot of empty space on the top and bottom of the image

in70mm.com is the site that has the list, and they don't list "Whorehouse" but they do list the others mentioned, "Hair" included. They do mention which films were OAR blow-ups, and they don't say that about "Hair". Would the 70mm prints have been cropped for 2.20:1?


It's funny that they credited Panavision on the poster when it was never used to credit films shot spherically, even if they used their cameras and lenses. They stopped crediting the camera and lab on the posters in the 1980s. The nomenclature in the credits wasn't always consistent either; I recall that even the TV show "Seinfeld" claimed to be "Filmed in Panavision".

 

[GMpasqua]

boy was I off, Whorehouse was not in 70MM but only 4 track stereo. These were the 70MM blow-ups in the summer of 82 (NYC)

 

[ahollis]

This link says that HAIR was shown in 70mm Spherical Blow-up/Six Track Dolby Stereo for it's re-release in 1982. It further states that HAIR did not play a 70mm engagement in the 1979 original release. In 1982 it played in Cinema 5 Theatres - Cinema 1.


http://www.fromscripttodvd.com/70mm_in_new_york_1982.htm



This is one interesting thread.

 

[trajan]

When I saw HAIR in 1979 it was 1:85.

 

[GMpasqua]

Quote: Originally Posted by Techman707

I worked at the DeMille theatre (closed because of fire in 1974) and when Hair came out I worked vacations at number of other Broadway theatres and I'm pretty certain that none of them ran Hair in 70mm. In addition, I saw Hair myself with a friend shortly after it opened at the Pacific Dome Theatre in LA and not even they ran it in 70mm. In NY I ran both Best Little Whorehouse and Grease in 70mm. I don't recall Annie being 70mm. but I could be wrong about that.


Was "Best LIttle Whorehouse" shown in 70MM - the ads do not say anything about it. I thought it was but I could be wrong.

"Grease" looked great in 70MM (June 1978 Lowes State 1) saw it after that at the multiplex and it was grainy and dirty. Saw the 20th anniversray 70MM print at the Chinese in Los Angeles - it looked awful, grainy muddy, the colors weren't as bright - just like the multiplex. Never looked like it did at the Lowes State in June 78 since

 

[GMpasqua]

Quote: Originally Posted by MattH. Interestingly, Forman, two-time winner of the Best Director Oscar, was able to easily mesh his directorial style with the very unique and individualistic demands of the film musical, something fellow award-winners like John Huston (Annie), Richard Attenborough (A Chorus Line), and Sidney Lumet (The Wiz) had no success doing at all.



Matt Hough

Charlotte, NC


Actually Richard Attenborough did a pretty good job with the film musical of "Oh, What a Lovely War" - Much in the same way Forman did with "Hair"

It's out on DVD from Paramount and looks very good. It was also an anti war reveue and Attenbourgh crafted a story around it while the songs carried the action along

 

[Techman707]

Originally Posted by GMpasqua /forum/thread/312077/hair-blu-ray/30#post_3821808

 

[MatthewA]

Where did you find all these great newspaper ads?


It's interesting to read these threads and look back. I doubt people will be as nostalgic about today's moviegoing experience 30 years from now, unless theaters are gone completely and they're nostalgic for the idea of going to a building just to watch movies.

 

[Techman707]

Originally Posted by MatthewA

I doubt people will be as nostalgic about today's moviegoing experience 30 years from now, unless theaters are gone completely

I think you're absolutely RIGHT! With a few exceptions, today's movies are mostly "throw aways". It figures that when they finally had a way to scan film in high resolution and keep the color, there's not much worth saving today. If the theatres are gone completely, there will only be square boxes left to watch movies in and it wouldn't be the same.

Did you see the Beacon Theatre that they used for the Tonys Sunday night? It's been totally renovated and really looked beautiful. I worked there in the late 1960's when they were still running movies and was operated by Brandt Theatres. It was a real dump back then. Today it looks like what it is...a palace, like a miniature Roxy Theatre.

 

[koolgrap]

Hi, could you please check the languages on the disc, please?


MGM tends to have wrong covers when it comes to audio and subtitle languages.


I'm asking, because Hair is being released in Europe with multiple dubs and MGM often just releases one version worldwide.

 

[Christian Preischl]

Originally Posted by koolgrap

Hi, could you please check the languages on the disc, please?


MGM tends to have wrong covers when it comes to audio and subtitle languages.


I'm asking, because Hair is being released in Europe with multiple dubs and MGM often just releases one version worldwide.

Yup, that's what's happening with Hair, too. The audio tracks are:


English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Castillian, Hungarian, Turkish

Subtitles:


Bulgarian
Chinese
Croatian
Dutch
English
French
German
Hungarian
Italian
Slovenian
Spanish
Thai
Turkish

 

[Matt Hough]

Originally Posted by Christian Preischl




Yup, that's what's happening with Hair, too. The audio tracks are:


English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Castillian, Hungarian, Turkish

Subtitles:


Bulgarian
Chinese
Croatian
Dutch
English
French
German
Hungarian
Italian
Slovenian
Spanish
Thai
Turkish

Thanks for providing those. That will save me some time later today.