SOUTH PACIFIC (2 Viewers)

[Will Krupp]

I think the parts of the original negative were thrown out when it was edited down from the Raodshow version. I don't think it's possible to do an HD version of the longer Roadshow for South Pacific.

The source of the extended sequences found in the current Road Show version is a faded 70mm print. There's no reason they couldn't harvest an HD transfer if they wanted to. The 70mm print, as faded as it may be, is still "HD" after all!

 

[GlennF]

I love me a musical, but I am in the "mixed" camp on this one. The music of course, especially with the Alfred Newman touch, is wonderful. The blu-ray looks and sounds great. I have come to like the colour filters in some parts like Bali Hai, not so much the yellowish tinge when they actually visit that island. For me the big problem is the direction. The songs are basically performed the same way they were on the stage...stand there and sing. I lay the blame with Josh Logan, who also directed the stage show, and basically recreated most of the numbers the same way, without in anyway taking advantage of the fact that this is a MOVIE and not a stage show produced in 1949. Much as people malign the tv version with Glenn Close, a couple of the numbers, like "There is Nothing Like a Dame" and "I'm In Love With a Wonderful Guy", are much more creatively staged and show you what could be done. (Believe it or not, I actually own the DVD.)

 

[RolandL]

I remember seeing this movie when it was first released. For Thanksgiving the whole family (over 30 aunts and uncles and all their children) would go to my uncle Albert's house in Hartford CT. After dinner the children would go to a movie at the Colonial theatre. I remember I liked it then even though I was only seven. It was not the roadshow version, so having that on the Blu-ray now even in SD is cool to see. The Colonial theatre was later converted to Cinerama but I only remember seeing 2001 a space odyssey on the Cinerama screen.

 

[rsmithjr]

The source of the extended sequences found in the current Road Show version is a faded 70mm print. There's no reason they couldn't harvest an HD transfer if they wanted to. The 70mm print, as faded as it may be, is still "HD" after all!

This 70mm print of the roadshow version was shown at the Egyptian in LA some years back with the restored 70mm print of the shorter version shown just before. I was there.


The SD version on the Blu-ray is made by intercutting the restored version with the clips from the roadshow version where appropriate. Surely the roadshow 70mm print could be rescanned and the same intercutting done.


The roadshow print had faded to magenta (with a few glimmers of other colors). They seem to have made it rather grey/blue as part of the assembly process. It would be interesting if the color could be improved with modern techniques.


I was interested in comparing the sound since the restored print had DTS "Special Venue" digital while the roadshow print was 6 track magnetic. The sound was similar overall, but the roadshow print was a bit mellower while the restored print was sharper. Not sure which I preferred.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Still, Mitzi Gaynor has grown on me over the years .. the 'Wonderful Guy' sequence on the beach is stunning.

Mitzi still looks great at age 84!


http://missmitzigaynor.com/

 

[Keith Cobby]

Mitzi, like Ann Miller, always lights up the screen whenever she appears.

 

[Dr Griffin]

This 70mm print of the roadshow version was shown at the Egyptian in LA some years back with the restored 70mm print of the shorter version shown just before. I was there.


The SD version on the Blu-ray is made by intercutting the restored version with the clips from the roadshow version where appropriate. Surely the roadshow 70mm print could be rescanned and the same intercutting done.


The roadshow print had faded to magenta (with a few glimmers of other colors). They seem to have made it rather grey/blue as part of the assembly process. It would be interesting if the color could be improved with modern techniques.


I was interested in comparing the sound since the restored print had DTS "Special Venue" digital while the roadshow print was 6 track magnetic. The sound was similar overall, but the roadshow print was a bit mellower while the restored print was sharper. Not sure which I preferred.

Interesting about the DTS Special Venue designation. I'm assuming it was just the digial version of the 6-track magnetic layout of 5 screens and mono surround. Interesting also, was the various configurations (discs/hard drive) in which it could be found, and depending on the whether the film had a time code imprinted, and which DTS processor was used. Can you imagine the theater employees today in multi-plexes having to deal with the varying technicalities?

I'm guessing a place like The Egyptian would have been setup for the 5 screen channels instead of the now more familiar 5.1?

 

[mark brown]

I believe Seattle Cinerama and Bradford ran 70mm 6 Track which sounded awesome both times!

 

[Mike Frezon]

Ugh.


I've got the same kind of love/hate relationship with this film as many others here do. I love some parts, yet hate other parts.


I love "There is Nothing Like a Dame"(especially the roadshow extended version). And while I loooove the song "Wonderful Guy", I have always felt that Logan's staging of this particular number resulted in the dumbest, weakest, most boring musical number ever committed to film. A wasted opportunity. (I have always imagined a HUGE smile on Hammerstein's face as the words of this song left him and found their way onto paper. Bromidic, indeed!)


This is definitely a film which evokes strong opinions from people...THAT'S for sure!

Ever since I made this post a couple of days ago, I have been in a conventional dither.


I just can't help it!

 

[whale2]

The color filters would have completely ruined the movie for me--if it hadn't already been utterly ruined by the awful script, misguided direction, terrible acting, etc. With the possible exception of THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH, I consider SOUTH PACIFIC the single worst big-budget mainstream Hollywood film from the Golden Age of Hollywood. .....


The movie's so awful I simply don't care.

I don't care for the filters either, but I love the movie. Here is a reviewer for NY Times that also did not like some of the filters:


http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9D07E0DE1031E73BBC4851DFB5668383649EDE

Most obvious and striking of these features is a photographic method used by Leon Shamroy, camera man, that bathes in changing rainbow hues most of the scenes and settings in which the musical numbers are sung.

That is to say, when the sound track cues the performers into songs (which, incidentally, are sung for the most part by people other than those you see on the screen), waves of unnatural mists and colors blow across the scene, providing a sort of polychromatic aura for the various romantic words and melodies.

It is a theatrical concept and a plainly theatrical trick that is probably aimed to help the audience into the frankly deeper musical moods. And it does, in at least one instance. In the rendering of the haunting "Bali Ha'i," which comes along early in the picture and sets the tone for amorous magic ahead, the filtering of green and purple colors upon the natural beach-front scene brings in that unreal island off there in the distance with appropriate awe and mystery.

But the trick does become very obvious and stagy with some of the later songs, and quite inconsistent with the usual striking naturalness and beauty of the scenes. For instance, it is most disconcerting when Mitzi Gaynor and Rossano Brazzi in the roles of the Navy nurse Nellie Forbush and the French planter.