The Guns of Navarone...........new transfer? (1 Viewer)

[mike--]

Is this new collector's edition a new transfer, or the same as the Superbit version just repackaged with extra features?

 

[RickER]

I guess the 82 who have looked at this thread want to know. I am holding off as well until i know if its worth the double dip. I did upgrade my Caine Mutiny, and it sounds like its a new transfer, but it wont be here til the end of the week.

 

[Richard Gallagher]

Unfortunately, Sony still hasn't sent me review copies of either The Guns of Navarone or The Caine Mutiny, so I can't answer your question. If they get here anytime soon I'll put up reviews.

 

[Frank@N]

I've got the 2000 release SE...is there a new one?

If it's now a 2-disc, then Disc1 might be the SB.

 

[Douglas R]

I assume it is the same as the new 2 disc version released in the UK - and that is not a new transfer. Personally I think the new version is worth getting for all the additional extras. Although unfortunately the original Roadshow "End of Act One/Intermission" is presented as an extra and not integrated into the film - as no doubt it would have been if it was a new transfer.

 

[CULTMAN1]

the UK has a new print and it is the full 1962 roadshow version with numerous extra features. it does not includ ethe colour booklet which was available in the 2005 release though

 

[Douglas R]

As I said in my post above the UK version is NOT the full roadshow version and, to me, the picture appears the same as the previous version.

 

[Joe Caps]

The region two has the music for the prologue minus the narration. Does the new region one also have this?

 

[Rob_Ray]

Yes. It's in the bonus section, along with the entr'acte music for the
intermission supposedly rarely if ever seen in the US.

 

[Thomas T]

Does the DVD have the option of including the overture, intermission, entr'acte etc. during viewing the movie proper like the West Side Story DVD which gives you a choice whether to include it or not?

 

[Douglas R]

No. Unfortunately the Intermission/Entr'Acte is only available as an extra on the bonus disc. There never was an Overture.

 

[Mark Anthony]

This from DVD Savant's review...

"The original 1961 road show release used beautiful Technicolor prints made in London, which gave the film an eye-popping clarity and disguised all of the rough edges in the sets and special effects.

When it came time to turn out mass runs of prints for the general release, Columbia shipped the original negative to a bargain-rate lab in New York, where it was reconfigured for normal Eastmancolor printing. This meant re-cutting the negative to insert standard opticals to approximate the Technicolor process's smooth dissolves, etc. No preservation separations were made and the negative wasn't properly protected.

General release prints looked okay but not terrific; this reviewer remembers the difference, even as a small child. Poor-quality dupe sections were soon patched in to replace damaged pieces of the negative. Eventually two entire reels would have to be replaced in this way, after that New York lab accidentally destroyed the originals through handling errors. Columbia also discarded the film's original sound elements and stereo tracks.

When it came time for Bob Gitt to 'rescue' the movie, there was only so much he could do, as the bad contrast, color and other image flaws were permanently built-in to the only existing elements. A collector's magnetic print was used to recover the original four channel stereo mix."

Which explains a lot, I doubt even DTS Digital could do much to improve the current hi-def transfer, what a disgrace...

M

 

[Mark Cappelletty]

Yeah, it's not great. I've seen the hi-def version on cable too. The extras are terrific, but a lot of the footage has a dupey quality.

 

[William Miller]

I have watched The Guns of Navarone at least 100 times over the years.

I am old enough to have seen it in the theaters in 1961 as a teenager. I first saw it at the Loew's State theater in downtown St. Louis, one of those glorious huge movie palaces of the good old days. I then saw it at several other theaters in 1961 as it moved along to subsequent runs. I've seen it on TV, cable, laserdisc, VHS, DVD, etc. All I can say is that it has never looked so hot. From the very beginning it had a grainy, weird look. Lots of brown tinge to the color and erratic changes from scene to scene and from reel to reel. I was always puzzled by this because Oswald Morris is a top notch cinematographer and the production was very high class. The DVD Savant quote may have finally solved the mystery to me. It sounds entirely correct.

I can't tell if the new DVD is an updated transfer or not. Some sections look really awful but others look fairly nice but that was the case in the previous DVD's.

No one should complain about the intermission not being cut into the movie. 99.9999 percent of the people who saw this movie saw it exactly the way it is on the DVD. The European roadshow engagements were few and far between.

The one thing that I was never disappointed with was the stereophonic sound which has always been outstanding and I am very happy that a correct print was found with the original tracks. In the big theaters, the sound of the mast cracking when the ship hits the rocks was amazing. It came from the back of the theater and people literally turned around in their seats to see what that sound was never realizing it was part of the movie. And some of the other sound effects are outstanding.

It would be very wonderful to see the original Technicolor print to finally see this movie the way it was intended to be seen but I guess that will never happen. Columbia Pictures should be ashamed of themselves in the way this movie was handled. But of course, we are talking about the same studio who lost the original stereo tracks to The Bridge on the River Kwai. If they can't preserve the elements for a major Oscar winning film like Kwai, then there is no hope for any other film.

 

[Douglas R]

I don't think that is correct. Even in general release, the film always had an intermission (at least it did in the UK).

 

[William Miller]

I stand by my statement.

Several books say the same thing. The new DVD extras say the same thing.

This I can say for sure:

100% of the people who saw The Guns of Navarone in the United States did not see an intermission.