The Deer Hunter - 2-disc R2 Special Edition! (1 Viewer)

[JulianK]

Warner Home Video (who own the European rights to the film) will be releasing a new two-disc special edition of The Deer Hunter on August the 4th.

The disc will have a commentary track by director Michael Cimino, and video interviews with cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond and co-star John Savage.

More details at http://www.zetaminor.com/whatsnew.htm

 

[Tim Ke]

Great news for fans. Unfortunately, I am not one of them!

 

[oscar_merkx]

fantastic news indeed and great to see that Michale Cimono is doing an audio commentary for this one

 

[Brajesh Upadhyay]

Julian, thanks for the news. This is the best of the Vietnam war films. May just have to order the R2 version (for the 16x9 enhancement alone).

 

[Robert_eb]

Great news indeed.

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

Be sure to post cover-art image or link if you find it, folks!

Because this isn't something else - this is THIS!


Gordy

 

[Anthony Thorne]

William Lustig's company Blue Underground are also handling the documentary for this release (which they've been working on for something close to a year or more, unless they actually wrapped production of it up a long time agao). The docos they did for DON'T LOOK NOW and BIG WEDNESDAY are Region 2 exclusives, but I guess it's probably likely that this whole package will come out in the States (and Australia) at some point in identical form, just like the MISSION and RIGHT STUFF and TRUE ROMANCE packs that Warner have already brought out. Seeing THE DEER HUNTER officially listed as a new Warner 2-disc S.E makes me anticipate their future GOODFELLAS set and wonder what they have in store for us next year.

 

[Craig: Mclaren]

Wasn't Deerhunter released last year? Why do companies release two or three different versions so close together? Surely it eats into sales? :frowning:

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

Gordy

 

[Jeff_HR]

An order has been placed with Benson's World.

 

[oscar_merkx]

great cover indeed

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

I got my copy today.

The transfer is quite good. Maybe it's actually great, but as I haven't got anything to compare it with - the previous edition was also from Warner/Canal+ would be great, and it being a few years since I saw it on VHS, all I can say is that it looks very good for a 25-year-old, 3-hour movie on a DVD-9. Fine film grain is present in a few scenes and heavy during the dark, smoked-filled scenes in 'Nam. But colours look accurate - the blue-hued skies at magic hour in Pittsburgh, for example look beautiful - I never noticed those in previous viewings. The shots up in the mountains during the hunts look stunning. But those expecting a razor-sharp, 100% cleaned up transfer will be disappointed - the film doesn't appear to have been shot that way, with many scenes shot in apparently natural light with minimal artificial balancing by the great Vilmos Zsigmomd, who is renowned for his idiocincratic but brilliantly inspired shooting style. On the whole, a very good transfer.

The soundtrack is presented in stereo. A 5.1 remix would be been nice, but it sounds great to my ears. Dialogue is clear and everything else is well placed in the mix.

I haven't checked out the extras yet.

It's in a keepcase, not a cardboard slipcase like the other "2-DISC SPECIAL EDITION" releases from Warner.

If you are a fan, then I'd say get this DVD.


Gordy

 

[Jeff_HR]

Mine should be in my hands by the middle of next week. I then retire my old LD.

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

Great stuff, Jeff.

Could you do a comparison of the LD and the DVD?

'Cause this ain't somethin' else - this is this!


Gordy

 

[Nick Laslett]

Gordy,

Does this version have english subtitles?

They were missing from the previous R2 release.

For some of us subtitles are deal breakers when it comes to DVDs.

Thanks.

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

Unfortunately, there are no subtitles, Nick.

In my opinion, it should be manditory to put English subtitles on a English language DVD. Anchor Bay and the worst for not having subtitles, although they have started using them on their 'bigger' releases.

This is really more a Canal+ release with Warner distribution. Had it been a full-on Warner release, it would definately had subtitles.

But everything else is in place and in very good quality.


Gordy

 

[Garry Cowell]

Bought the SE today...

At first glance it seems to be an identical print to that used in the non SE r2 version...

Here's some grabs from the SE.

(click images for full size version)

[url=http://www.cityonfire.com/gZa/dh/dhse001s.jpg] [/url] [url=http://www.cityonfire.com/gZa/dh/dhse002s.jpg] [/url]
[url=http://www.cityonfire.com/gZa/dh/dhse003s.jpg] [/url] [url=http://www.cityonfire.com/gZa/dh/dhse004s.jpg] [/url]
[url=http://www.cityonfire.com/gZa/dh/dhse005s.jpg] [/url] [url=http://www.cityonfire.com/gZa/dh/dhse006s.jpg] [/url]

 

[Garry Cowell]

...and here's some grabs from the NON-SE.

(click images for full size version)

[url=http://www.cityonfire.com/gZa/dh/dh001s.jpg] [/url] [url=http://www.cityonfire.com/gZa/dh/dh002s.jpg] [/url]
[url=http://www.cityonfire.com/gZa/dh/dh003s.jpg] [/url] [url=http://www.cityonfire.com/gZa/dh/dh004s.jpg] [/url]
[url=http://www.cityonfire.com/gZa/dh/dh005s.jpg] [/url] [url=http://www.cityonfire.com/gZa/dh/dh006s.jpg] [/url]

The two transfer have bitrate peaks of 9.8Mbps on the SE and 9.5Mbps on the non SE.

Therefore I conclude the SE is 0.3Mbps better!!! :b :b :b

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

Nice one, Garry.

Do you have the previous edition? Could you maybe post a comparison of the previous edition and the SE? Not that I need to see one - I'm sold on this one - I love the transfer on the SE, but some others may want to see a comparison. There may be subtle differences.

In his interview, Vilmos Zsigmond's says that he flashed the film in the lab in post production. In case you dom't know, 'flashing' is a technique when the exposed camera negative (with the filmed images on it) is further exposed to a low-level light to achieve a washed-out pastel look for stylistic purposes. Zsigmond did this on many of his 70s films, but I wasn't aware that he did it on The Deer Hunter, but one can see the effect on this transfer and it adds greatly to the look of the film. I love Zsigmond's work and his comments on this and many other DVDs are very interesting and enjoyable.

Cheers, Garry.


Gordy

 

[Garry Cowell]

Do you have the previous edition? Could you maybe post a comparison of the previous edition and the SE?

Are you on crack, mate?!

That's what I've done! Unless your talking about the non anamorphic R1 (which I don't have)?!

Anyway.

Here's the sleeve from the non SE version as they forgot to include one in the SE.

www.cityonfire.com/gZa/DH/sleeve.jpg