The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (4k Remastered Blu-ray) Single Available for Preorder (1 Viewer)

[OliverK]

Maybe I misread your post but it seemed to me you were implying that the Italian BD of TGTBATU looks more correct because it looks like the theatrical prints you saw of Fistful Of Dollars and Once Upon In The West. Doesn't matter anyway. Even if you had seen TGTBATU theatrically I would still maintain that you can't use your memory as reference.

Some fans of the movie are so dissatisfied by the MGM BD that they have started their own project: http://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Th...gly-35MM-IB-Tech-Preservation/id/17006/page/2
I guess they never read Robert Harris' post about the myth of dye transfer printing either.

Ah, the quote did not open up, did not see that part of my original post. I am pretty sure that the prints looked more like that disc but I would not think that at this point it means much, As back then I already had the DVDs on a D65 calibrated projection system to compare to I would think that I was much more aware of how these looked then your normal moviegoer plus I still had the expectation that the sky in a western should be blue when the sun was shining in a movie

Thanks for the link to that site, I thought it was only for Star Wars. Seems that since 2014 not much happened with their project.

 

[haineshisway]

Just to be clear - the Italian Blu of Good, the Bad, and The Ugly is a brown mess and looks nothing like anything other than it is - a transfer off a faded IP or whatever. Not good and certainly not accurate. I don't know about that link to something in 2014, but I have been in touch with someone who has access to at least one 35mm tech print and has been transferring it slowly and has been sending me the samples - again, in what they've sent, at least, it looks very similar to the new Blu, other than some contrast issues that they'd need to correct in their transfer.

 

[OliverK]

Maybe there are different Italian Blu-rays but I find it interesting that you would call the one from Mondo a brown mess, comparison with the new MGM version:

http://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&a=0&d1=4091&d2=4088&s1=38021&s2=37973&i=14&l=0
http://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&a=0&d1=4091&d2=4088&s1=38009&s2=37961&i=2&l=0

I guess people can decide for themselves when they view this on a calibrated monitor, brown mess really?

Now that disc has other issues and also less detail and fidelity than the MGM version for sure but that is another matter and has nothing to do with the color timing.

 

[haineshisway]

I don't know which Italian you're posting - the one I had was very brown. I no longer have it, and I no longer am engaging with you in this, other than to say I didn't realize I had on my computer an entire reel of IB tech from the film that someone sent me - so I compared it again (why I bothered I have no idea) VERY close to the restored Blu-ray. And yes, I was idiot enough to look at yet more caps that don't reflect either transfer. You're on your own from now on

 

[Danny_N]

Thanks for the link to that site, I thought it was only for Star Wars. Seems that since 2014 not much happened with their project.

The link is not to a site but to a thread on a forum and something did in fact happen. From what I can gather a member of that forum bought an Italian IB Tech print and is getting it scanned (and restored and colour corrected etc). There are quite a few caps of the scan of the IB Tech print in that thread (and even some comparisons to the MGM and Mondo discs: http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison.php?id=110787 and http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison.php?id=110851 ).

 

[Danny_N]

... I have been in touch with someone who has access to at least one 35mm tech print and has been transferring it slowly and has been sending me the samples - again, in what they've sent, at least, it looks very similar to the new Blu, other than some contrast issues that they'd need to correct in their transfer.

If the scan of the IB Tech print is going to be similar to the MGM Blu with regard to colour it seems to me that the person is wasting a lot of time and money since the MGM Blu will have much more detail and much better contrast compared to a scan of a release print.

 

[OliverK]

I don't know which Italian you're posting - the one I had was very brown. I no longer have it, and I no longer am engaging with you in this, other than to say I didn't realize I had on my computer an entire reel of IB tech from the film that someone sent me - so I compared it again (why I bothered I have no idea) VERY close to the restored Blu-ray. And yes, I was idiot enough to look at yet more caps that don't reflect either transfer. You're on your own from now on

We are probably talking about different discs then which is fine, I think all has been said on the matter anyway

I have to say that I agree with Danny that I do not think that it makes much sense to have a Blu-ray from a print if the print looks like the certainly much higher resolved MGM disc but to each his own I guess.

 

[OliverK]

The link is not to a site but to a thread on a forum and something did in fact happen. From what I can gather a member of that forum bought an Italian IB Tech print and is getting it scanned (and restored and colour corrected etc). There are quite a few caps of the scan of the IB Tech print in that thread (and even some comparisons to the MGM and Mondo discs: http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison.php?id=110787 and http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison.php?id=110851 ).

Thank you, very interesting.

From this cap the IBtech print does have a blue sky in this cap (as I would have expected before seeing the MGM Blu-ray) and not this other color that is on the MGM disc:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison.php?id=110787

So I am surprised by the statement that they are supposed to look so very similar, this is a big difference in look to me.
The person who posted this seems to be of the same opinion as evidenced by writing (Say whaaaa??) after the MGM 4k version.

In any case it is quite exciting to see how much can be done on a shoestring these days, maybe there is even hope for Fall of the Roman Empire and El Cid

 

[Dr Griffin]

The link is not to a site but to a thread on a forum and something did in fact happen. From what I can gather a member of that forum bought an Italian IB Tech print and is getting it scanned (and restored and colour corrected etc). There are quite a few caps of the scan of the IB Tech print in that thread (and even some comparisons to the MGM and Mondo discs: http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison.php?id=110787 and http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison.php?id=110851 ).

Thank you, very interesting.

From this cap the IBtech print does have a blue sky in this cap (as I would have expected before seeing the MGM Blu-ray) and not this other color that is on the MGM disc:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison.php?id=110787

So I am surprised by the statement that they are supposed to look so very similar, this is a big difference in look to me.
The person who posted this seems to be of the same opinion as evidenced by writing (Say whaaaa??) after the MGM 4k version.

In any case it is quite exciting to see how much can be done on a shoestring these days, maybe there is even hope for Fall of the Roman Empire and El Cid

'I so confused.' Idunno. I just don't know anymore, and I am at peace with it.

 

[Steen DK]

As long as not everyone is watching these BDs via ISF calibrated screens/projectors (or have various degrees of colour blindness - supposedly some 5% of the population), these discussions are pretty pointless. If your TV is set to "torch" mode, the BD will look radically different from the way it's supposed to look.

Having said that, I'm definitely in the MGM-disc-is-absurdly-yellow camp; as seen via an ISF calibrated projector and suffering only from a very mild red/green colour blindness. On the other hand, the Mondo edition looks much better, colour-wise. Actual blue skies! Yay!

 

[OliverK]

I am only commenting on caps after looking at them on calibrated displays but I'd say that with the MGM disc it is enough to be in the ballpark to see that the sky isn't blue most of the time.

The Mondo edition mainly looks too bright which can be asily adjusted for, the colors of the MGM not so much - that is unless one likes them and/or thinks they are correct.

 

[Danny_N]

MGM-disc-is-absurdly-yellow

It's definitely not absurdly yellow. If anything there's too much green in the picture which would also account for the skies looking more cyan than true blue (if you mix blue and green you get ...).
Incidentally a lot of the restorations done by L'Imagine Ritrovita (of same era Italian movies) have this same look. Are these professionals doing something wrong again and again?

Personally I prefer the MGM to the Mondo disc because to me the MGM looks more like film and ultimately with better colour as well. The MGM might not look 100% like an IB Tech print but imo it's a whole lot closer than the Mondo which looks like video in comparison.

 

[OliverK]

It's definitely not absurdly yellow. If anything there's too much green in the picture which would also account for the skies looking more cyan than true blue (if you mix blue and green you get ...).
Incidentally a lot of the restorations done by L'Imagine Ritrovita (of same era Italian movies) have this same look. Are these professionals doing something wrong again and again?

I am sure they just specialize in the only movies on the planet that have this look, this is why they look like this
In my opinion they went too far chasing a certain look or maybe it is something that goes wrong during capture already, who knows?

Personally I prefer the MGM to the Mondo disc because to me the MGM looks more like film and ultimately with better colour as well. The MGM might not look 100% like an IB Tech print but imo it's a whole lot closer than the Mondo which looks like video in comparison.

I really cannot get over the colors on the MGM disc but I love the detail and textures which means that I currently do not want to watch TGTBATU any more. I hope there will be another version coming where they adjust the color timing a bit.

 

[Danny_N]

I am sure they just specialize in the only movies on the planet that have this look, this is why they look like this
In my opinion they went too far chasing a certain look or maybe it is something that goes wrong during capture already, who knows?

I don't. I have been going to the cinema since the early seventies and don't remember movies looking like what L'Imagine Ritrovita produces but I don't trust my memory to tell me what's right or wrong. Decades of watching video has of course polluted my opinion as well. So I just have to trust the professionals and the people at L'Imagine Ritrovita are professionals of course.
Then again, when I watched the German release of Don't Torture a Duckling (also IB Tech) which was restored by Torsten Kaiser, I thought "this looks exactly right with regard to colour". It's confusing as Dr. Griffin said.

I really cannot get over the colors on the MGM disc but I love the detail and textures which means that I currently do not want to watch TGTBATU any more. I hope there will be another version coming where they adjust the color timing a bit.

I have no problems with the colours when I watch the movie in isolation. It's when you start comparing screen caps that they stand out as different. Is the MGM disc wrong? I don't know. There are so many variables affecting colour that's impossible for me to tell what is exactly right but the MGM disc is not so terrible as some people think it is imo.

 

[OliverK]

I have no problems with the colours when I watch the movie in isolation. It's when you start comparing screen caps that they stand out as different. Is the MGM disc wrong? I don't know. There are so many variables affecting colour that's impossible for me to tell what is exactly right but the MGM disc is not so terrible as some people think it is imo.

Unfortunately it looks weird enough to me by itself. I wish it was otherwise as the textures and detail are both amazing. I also happen to think that High Plains Drifter looks slightly funny but it does not take me out of the movie.

I am looking forward to what the guys with the IBTech print come up with, this looks really interesting.

 

[haineshisway]

I don't. I have been going to the cinema since the early seventies and don't remember movies looking like what L'Imagine Ritrovita produces but I don't trust my memory to tell me what's right or wrong. Decades of watching video has of course polluted my opinion as well. So I just have to trust the professionals and the people at L'Imagine Ritrovita are professionals of course.
Then again, when I watched the German release of Don't Torture a Duckling (also IB Tech) which was restored by Torsten Kaiser, I thought "this looks exactly right with regard to colour". It's confusing as Dr. Griffin said.



I have no problems with the colours when I watch the movie in isolation. It's when you start comparing screen caps that they stand out as different. Is the MGM disc wrong? I don't know. There are so many variables affecting colour that's impossible for me to tell what is exactly right but the MGM disc is not so terrible as some people think it is imo.

I'm with you. And that's all I'm saying about THAT.

 

[Robert Harris]

Slightly OT, but why would anyone do an Eastman print of a Techniscope title? The grain would be awful. Part of the reason for printing Techniscope in IB was to manage grain with that "velvety" look that IB prints have.

Because dye transfer prints have not been produced except on an experimental basis, since 1977.

Any prints produced since then, would, of necessity be struck OCN/IP/IN/print, or if an older negative was available, OCN/CRI/print.

RAH

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Where would anamorphic conversion occur in the first chain?

 

[Lil Brutto]

I thought this would be of interest to the folks here...

http://theeditroomfloor.blogspot.ca/2016/06/unseen-footage-from-good-bad-and-ugly.html

 

[Dr Griffin]

Interesting. And the saga continues...