What The Hell Happened With THE OSTERMAN WEEKEND Blu-Ray (1 Viewer)

[Mark Cappelletty]

I just scanned through my new Anchor Bay OSTERMAN WEEKEND Blu-Ray and I've never seen a disc so poorly assembled— the transfer is slathered with Edge Enhancement and Digital Noise Reduction (which is bad enough), but there are insane color shifts from not just shot-to-shot, but within scenes as well. There's a blue/purple color tint to more than half the film and it's incredibly distracting— that is, unless you've always wanted Rutger Hauer to look like Violet Beauregarde in WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY. It's so bad I'm probably going to return it to Amazon as being defective and downgrade to the two-disc DVD.

 

[Mark Cappelletty]

It's a bummer that Nick Redman and his team didn't get the rights to this (and, presumably, CROSS OF IRON).

 

[davidHartzog]

Good to know, I was going to order this.

 

[Worth]

I watched this on DVD not long ago. Sounds like the same transfer was used - too much EE and DNR.

 

[Charles Smith]

Yeah, the DVD image is nothing to write home about, either. It's a nice package, but the whole thing needs a makeover.

 

[Powell&Pressburger]

Yeah once early reviews for this BLU hit I ordered the 2 disc DVD set from Amazon. It isn't HD but IMO it is watchable the BLU looks atrocious. I wish Nick and TT could have gotten the rights, but still I wonder what the cost would have been to give the movie a good HD scan.

 

[Twilight Time]

Yes, it is debatable as to what we might have been able to do as the elements for the movie are apparently not in good shape. It would have been a personal project, especially for me, as I had been friends with co-producer Bill Panzer from the mid-80s right up to his untimely death in a freak accident in 2007. I'm glad we got to contribute to the DVD back in 2004, and that Jonathan Gaines's terrific documentary (which I narrated) has at least been ported over to the new blu. The DVD is well worth retaining for it includes the "alternate" cut of the film, albeit taken from a VHS source.


Best,


Nick.

 

[Mark Cappelletty]

Thanks for the heads-up Nick. Are the rights with CROSS OF IRON still with Hen's Tooth? And if so, have you heard word of a domestic Blu-Ray (and if not, I'm hoping you're on the case!)

Yes, it is debatable as to what we might have been able to do as the elements for the movie are apparently not in good shape. It would have been a personal project, especially for me, as I had been friends with co-producer Bill Panzer from the mid-80s right up to his untimely death in a freak accident in 2007. I'm glad we got to contribute to the DVD back in 2004, and that Jonathan Gaines's terrific documentary (which I narrated) has at least been ported over to the new blu. The DVD is well worth retaining for it includes the "alternate" cut of the film, albeit taken from a VHS source.


Best,


Nick.

 

[Powell&Pressburger]

I will be watching my DVD set tonite. I haven't seen the film since the DVD first was released and I barely remember much of the film.

 

[Twilight Time]

Our understanding is that the previous release of CROSS OF IRON is a bootleg and that the rights are a tangled mess...

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

It is not an attractive looking picture but I don't know if I have ever seen it look particularly attractive. There are so many shots that are meant to be surveillance video and people on television and there is more bad skin on display in this film than any film I have ever seen I think. Everybody looks a lot like a frozen corpse. It made me think these actors were intentionally filmed without make-up to give a more "gritty and realistic" look to everything (or there was no budget for make-up as there was no budget for milk according to the documentary). Sure, things do not look like film but I wondered if that was on purpose.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Our understanding is that the previous release of CROSS OF IRON is a bootleg and that the rights are a tangled mess...

Are you talking about the Henstooth US DVD or the European blu-ray being a bootleg? Or both? I was really hoping you would be doing Cross of Iron.

 

[JoHud]

I'm pretty sure he's referring to Henstooth.


Are the rights generally agreed to be with StudioCanal though? Since they released the blu-ray and did the most recent remastering for the film I would consider it extremely unlikely for Twilight Time to get the rights to release it. That is of course there's some remote chance they'll deal with StudioCanal in the future.


On the subject it would be welcome news since StudioCanal has lately gotten very little involvement in the Western Hemisphere. Their Lionsgate deal was a joke and Criterion can only handle a small amount of their films given all the libraries they currently juggle.