Various editions of "Alien" (1 Viewer)

[JohnnyZ]

Does anyone know if "Alien: 20th Anniversary Edition" and "Alien: Director's Cut" are the same disc (in different packaging)?

The Anniversary edition (1999) got a great review for the re-mastering and Ridley Scott's commentary.

I assume the Director's cut is baiscally a re-release of the disc a few years later?

I want to make sure I get the best version of this classic!

 

[Robert Anthony]

This should probably be moved to software, and someone probably will, but before that happens:

No, the 20th anniversary edition is NOT the same as the Director's Cut. Not even close. Not much of the disc extras are duplicated, the transfers are different, the soundtracks are a little different, and the commentaries are different.

check out www.dvd-basen.dk and select the English option to read the site in english, and then type in Alien and just scan through the reviews.

 

[Eric_R.]

No there are some things on the 20th aniversary version that aren't on others, like the isolated audio track, the isolated musical track, and a different commentary by Ridley.

 

[mike kaminski]

The transfers are totally different to start. The 1999 version of obviously lower in bitrate and less detailed as well as being dirtier and scratchier but the colouring is also different in some instances--the best example being the scene were Brett is killed--since the DC re-timed much of the film (very minorly though). The 1999 disk is a probably a more accurate representation of the original 1979 release in some ways but i would say that the 2003 disk is a far, far better presentation of it. The extras are also very different. the 199 disk had a DIFFERENT ridely scott commentary, as well as an alternate score track and a production audio track, all three of which are very good features for purists to have. The deleted scenes included on that disk i believe are also slightly different than on the 2003 supplement disk (the box set bonus disk--disk 9--reproduces the Laserdisk release which has the same original-versions of the deleted scenes but i believe that the 1999 disk has them in a higher quality).

 

[Haden]

The original is worth keeping just for the isolated track of Goldsmith's score.

 

[Kramer Lowry]

 

[Greg K]

The 1999 disc is the best version (in terms of historical accuracy) to the original 1979 release.

The 2003 version has the more modern 20th Century Fox logo at the beginning, and all of the remastering/color correction (and a few digital tweaks and cleanups to the visual effects) that the Director's Cut does (due to the seamless branching, which enables you to watch either the original or Director's cut).

So, if you want to see exactly what was released in 1979, get the 1999 DVD. If you want better quality picture/sound, get the 2003 version.


Both versions have (mostly) different extras, so if you love the film, get both!