RAINTREE COUNTY on Blu? (4 Viewers)

[classicmovieguy]

Elizabeth wasn't even nominated for Giant. I think that was what miffed Mike Todd. She did score four consecutive nominations from 1957-1960 finally winning for Butterfield 8, a performance even she admitted wasn't her best.

It's generally conceded that Taylor's win for "Butterfield 8" was more an acknowledgement of her near-fatal 'flu battle than her performance in the film. The sentimental vote, if you will.

 

[Konstantinos]

What happened to the guy that had said in the Raintree facebook page that he knew from the inside that it was coming in 2015?
Andrew, it is your page, right?
Have you talked with him again?

 

[OliverK]

What happened to the guy that had said in the Raintree facebook page that he knew from the inside that it was coming in 2015?

Andrew, it is your page, right?

Have you talked with him again?

Somebody from Warner wrote that there were no immediate plans.


On the other hand Warner has been known to release less popular epic movies in a rather unceremonious way, the last examples being Mutiny on the Bounty (deservedly so as it looks rather weak) and King of Kings (undeservedly, it is a great looking disc).


What works against Raintree County is the missing long version, its problematic negative stock and that its income potential is rather low which makes an extensive restoration a money losing proposition. At some point I would prefer for them to just scan the large format elements that they have in at least 4k and to bring the shorter version to Blu-ray. With maybe the longer version being made available via seemless branching or on another disc.

 

[Robin9]

What is the Italian pressing like?

It's in anamorphic widescreen and it's watchable. That's the most I can say for it. It's not good and no-one should buy it expecting a quality product. There's a lot of distortion which sometimes gives the actresses a slight moustache and sometimes make Montgomery Clift look as though he has braces on his teeth! Mind you, I was watching via a projector and the images were ten foot wide so it is possible on 40', maybe 50' screen, these defects won't be so prominent.


Oh, and it's the "short" version.

 

[Konstantinos]

Somebody from Warner wrote that there were no immediate plans.


On the other hand Warner has been known to release less popular epic movies in a rather unceremonious way, the last examples being Mutiny on the Bounty (deservedly so as it looks rather weak) and King of Kings (undeservedly, it is a great looking disc).


What works against Raintree County is the missing long version, its problematic negative stock and that its income potential is rather low which makes an extensive restoration a money losing proposition. At some point I would prefer for them to just scan the large format elements that they have in at least 4k and to bring the shorter version to Blu-ray. With maybe the longer version being made available via seemless branching or on another disc.

well, seeing a clip of the roadshow version at TCM site, I would be perfectly fine with it and would not mind at all!

 

[Robert Harris]

Somebody from Warner wrote that there were no immediate plans.

On the other hand Warner has been known to release less popular epic movies in a rather unceremonious way, the last examples being Mutiny on the Bounty (deservedly so as it looks rather weak) and King of Kings (undeservedly, it is a great looking disc).

What works against Raintree County is the missing long version, its problematic negative stock and that its income potential is rather low which makes an extensive restoration a money losing proposition. At some point I would prefer for them to just scan the large format elements that they have in at least 4k and to bring the shorter version to Blu-ray. With maybe the longer version being made available via seemless branching or on another disc.

Long or short version. Many of the same problems. Very expensive restoration.

RAH

 

[Konstantinos]

Long or short version. Many of the same problems. Very expensive restoration.

RAH

Yes, this is presented as a reason all the time but i was wondering this:


is this the ONLY movie that requires such expensive restoration?

I mean none of all the movies that have already been released on Bluray required that sum?

(and I don't mean the more famous ones like Gone with the wind, Ben-Hur, Casablanca, Wizard of Oz etc. that it was certain they will have huge sales but lesser known too)

 

[Dr Griffin]

It's generally conceded that Taylor's win for "Butterfield 8" was more an acknowledgement of her near-fatal 'flu battle than her performance in the film. The sentimental vote, if you will.

I think Raintree County is one of Taylor's worst performances, but she was very good in Giant.

 

[RolandL]

Long or short version. Many of the same problems. Very expensive restoration.

RAH

If its too expensive for WB to restore why not have Dave Strohmaier, Image Trends and friends do the restoration? That would save a lot of money. It will not be perfect but many are happy with the Cinerama Blu-ray discs that they did.

 

[Allansfirebird]

If its too expensive for WB to restore why not have Dave Strohmaier, Image Trends and friends do the restoration? That would save a lot of money. It will not be perfect but many are happy with the Cinerama Blu-ray discs that they did.

If it's too expensive for WB to handle, wouldn't it therefore be prohibitively expensive for a 3rd party to work on?

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I am happy to see that RAH followed up on this thread with the information he supplied.


I had spoken to someone at Warner last year about Raintree County. After all, I knew there

was a demand for its release and I wanted to try and find out what was going on.


I can confirm that the response I received is exactly what RAH has stated. It's just too

expensive for the studio to restore.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

So they won't do it and will not license it to someone who is willing to take it on?

 

[RolandL]

If it's too expensive for WB to handle, wouldn't it therefore be prohibitively expensive for a 3rd party to work on?

Not if Dave Strohmaier and his friends do it.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I have no horse in this race.


I have never seen the film. For all I know, I may be missing one of the

greatest films I have never seen.


However, as usual, it always comes down to deciding whether there would

be enough sold copies to warrant the expense of the restoration.


I just don't know how popular this title is outside of the large handful of HTF
members that have been pushing for its release for the past few years.


If Warner truly felt the title would sell "oodles" of copies I think they wouldn't

hesitate to invest money in restoring it. The fact that they are taking a hands-off

approach -- and this is from a studio that does a lot of restorations -- may be

telling us more than we really want to know.


Just my thoughts.

 

[cinerama10]

I have no horse in this race.


I have never seen the film. For all I know, I may be missing one of the

greatest films I have never seen.


However, as usual, it always comes down to deciding whether there would

be enough sold copies to warrant the expense of the restoration.


I just don't know how popular this title is outside of the large handful of HTF
members that have been pushing for its release for the past few years.


If Warner truly felt the title would sell "oodles" of copies I think they wouldn't

hesitate to invest money in restoring it. The fact that they are taking a hands-off

approach -- and this is from a studio that does a lot of restorations -- may be

telling us more than we really want to know.


Just my thoughts.

You are not missing anything by not having seen this overlong and very tedious bore. Such a huge waste of talent with the amazing cast.

 

[ahollis]

So Raintree County is Warner's The Alamo.

 

[cinerama10]

I think Raintree County is one of Taylor's worst performances, but she was very good in Giant.

I think Raintree County is one of Taylor's worst performances, but she was very good in Giant.

I agree. She was however superb in the much overlooked and largely forgotten SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER. This controversial film ( for its time) dealt with homosexuality and cannibalism. Katherine Hepburn, and Montgomery Clift were also amazing .The film is still powerful even today.

 

[RolandL]

If Warner truly felt the title would sell "oodles" of copies I think they wouldn't

hesitate to invest money in restoring it. The fact that they are taking a hands-off

approach -- and this is from a studio that does a lot of restorations -- may be

telling us more than we really want to know.

I agree, let someone else release it.

You are not missing anything by not having seen this overlong and very tedious bore. Such a huge waste of talent with the amazing cast.

It does have its followers - 55% of the audience liked it on Rotten Tomatoes and 64% on IMDB and a web site devoted to the book and movie.

So Raintree County is Warner's The Alamo.

Yes, except The Alamo has been released on DVD.


Check out this 4 minute video on TCM where you can see one of the roadshow scenes (starts at the one minute mark) that was removed after its premiere.

 

[Mark Collins]

As much as I want Raintree thanks Ron for your evaluation of where we stand. Suddenly Last Summer a Sony release would be a great Twilight TIme release along with Night of the Iguana which is a WB release. Looks like I had better record it from TCM. I thought it looked very good from the little scenes that I saw on my now old and ready to move to the bedroom 2010 Samsung LED and replace it with a new 4k model.

 

[lionel59]

I stand corrected re Liz and her non-nomination for GIANT. Thanks Matt.

I personally find RAINTREE COUNTY such a superbly crafted movie (with one of the greatest musical scores of all time) that its merits outweigh its flaws. Like all Civil War epics, it was/ is unfavourably compared with GONE WITH THE WIND (even MGM were selling it with a thinly veiled reference to the Selznick movie in its ad line "In the Great Tradition of Civil War Romance") a movie no other film can ever hope to emulate. I also like Elizabeth Taylor's performance in it. She apparently went to some lengths to perfect her Southern accents (which British actresses seem to be the best at imitating). Portraying an unsympathetic, disturbed character who lies her way into an unhappy marriage for herself and the leading male character is no easy feat, particularly if you can eventually make the character's pathetic, hopeless state moving to audiences. I find Liz quite moving in a number of key scenes in the film. The fact that she is at her most beautiful and sensual in this period also helps, as it did in CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF (which many feel her BUTTERFIELD 8 Oscar was really for, as public sentiment turned against her at that ceremony due to the Eddie Fisher/Debbie Reynolds scandal. The operation also helped and -although she elevated it- Taylor correctly labelled BUTTERFIELD as "trash" which she was forced to make).

Considering the difficulties Montgomery Clift was going through, his performance is nothing short of miraculous. Eva Marie Saint aquits herself well in a somewhat thankless role.and the restored version contains more good work by supporting cast members such as Rod Taylor, Nigel Patrick and Walter Abel.

To make some of us fans happy, I suggest Warner Archive release the restored version from the master employed for the VHS release as a DVD-R (SD). If restoring it to meet Blu Ray standards is prohibitive, why not just give its fan base a better version of the last VHS release so we don't need to live off our LBX recording from TCM or the tape itself. I'd be happy with that. Warner Archive would do a better job than the Italians and (sad to say being an Aussie) the Australians with their lacklustre releases.