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Robert Harris
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Amadeus, director Milos Forman's Best Picture of 1984 is not the film being released by WB on this new Blu-ray. This Director's Cut is a different film, which shares much of the same footage.
I had never seen the DC of the film, and was looking forward to the experience, but decided against it.
Somewhere between the film element and the Blu-ray this particular Amadeus has been turned to something odd and Patton-esque. Not necessarily soft, certainly clean, but with virtually no feel of film or cinema whatsoever, this Amadeus is an unwelcome surprise.
For those who like the music, close your eyes and you'll be fine.
My overall feeling about the release is that had less been done to the video master, it may have been a roaring success. As it is...
Not an especially good day for Warner Home Video, who incidentally, may have had nothing to do with the transfer.
RAH
"All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible. This I did." T.E. Lawrence
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Re: A few words about...™ Amadeus -- in Blu-ray
It's a bit sharpened and edges towards the "waxy" Patton look upon closer examination, but I suspect Warner did the best they could with the master approved by The Saul Zaentz Company.
I thought it was still an exceptional experience, and quite superior to the DVD from 2002.
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Robert Harris
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Re: A few words about...™ Amadeus -- in Blu-ray
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Originally Posted by Brandon Conway
It's a bit sharpened and edges towards the "waxy" Patton look upon closer examination, but I suspect Warner did the best they could with the master approved by The Saul Zaentz Company.
I thought it was still an exceptional experience, and quite superior to the DVD from 2002.
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Blu-ray MUST be superior to a DVD or the format should close up shop.
That is irrelevant. The salient factor is how good can it look on Blu-ray, which should be like film.
If is doesn't, it fails! These discs are not selling for $2.99. Perfection is easily attained.
Scan the film. Don't make changes.
RAH
"All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible. This I did." T.E. Lawrence
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Re: A few words about...™ Amadeus -- in Blu-ray
I asked this in the A History of Violence thread, but it could apply here too:
As a matter of practically (I fully understand the refusal to endorse a release in hi-def when compared to its source material and how good it could be), if one wanted this title and did not have it in any other format (recorded on DVR, SD DVD or, in a generic case, VHS), would the recommendation be A) get the BD if you really want this movie and don't want to wait because it's better than any other available format, despite the significant flaws it suffers from or B) don't get this under any circumstance because not only does it look bad on a "big screen" but even on a small monitor, it looks bad.
If I understand correctly, Patton could fall under option A) while Gangs of New York would fall under category B). If this makes sense, would Amadeus fall under Category A) or B)?
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Robert Harris
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Re: A few words about...™ Amadeus -- in Blu-ray
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Originally Posted by PaulDA
I asked this in the A History of Violence thread, but it could apply here too:
As a matter of practically (I fully understand the refusal to endorse a release in hi-def when compared to its source material and how good it could be), if one wanted this title and did not have it in any other format (recorded on DVR, SD DVD or, in a generic case, VHS), would the recommendation be A) get the BD if you really want this movie and don't want to wait because it's better than any other available format, despite the significant flaws it suffers from or B) don't get this under any circumstance because not only does it look bad on a "big screen" but even on a small monitor, it looks bad.
If I understand correctly, Patton could fall under option A) while Gangs of New York would fall under category B). If this makes sense, would Amadeus fall under Category A) or B)?
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Purchasing an NG title sends a bad message, and the message should be that if one creates garbage, it will not sell.
Again... buy a used DVD and enjoy the show, which used to be a decent film.
RAH
"All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible. This I did." T.E. Lawrence
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Re: A few words about...™ Amadeus -- in Blu-ray
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Originally Posted by PaulDA
If I understand correctly, Patton could fall under option A) while Gangs of New York would fall under category B). If this makes sense, would Amadeus fall under Category A) or B)?
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As one who bought Patton and Amadeus but passed on Gangs of New York, I personally would say buy it if you love the film and want to watch it at any point within, say, the next decade, because frankly speaking, the odds of a new BD of Amadeus within that time frame is slim to none.
Mr. Harris certainly has his own line in the sand in regards to category A and B.
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Re: A few words about...™ Amadeus -- in Blu-ray
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Originally Posted by Robert Harris
Purchasing an NG title sends a bad message, and the message should be that if one creates garbage, it will not sell.
Again... buy a used DVD and enjoy the show, which used to be a decent film.
RAH
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I will certainly take that under advisement for
A History of Violence. As for
Amadeus, I'm afraid the low price I saw this morning on Amazon (while browsing for books for my work) was too tempting and I'd not seen your comments, so it's on its way. I have held back on
Gangs of New York (though that film is one that interests me from a professional standpoint as an historian who works with historical feature films--I rely on the local rental copy at the moment and, based in part on your comments, I will continue to hold back on that title).
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Re: A few words about...™ Amadeus -- in Blu-ray
Glad RAH is outright dismissing this release.
I'm waiting for the TV & DC , isolated score, & w/o DNR/EE release anyway.
Hope it comes B4 I die.
GREAT movie!!!
Here is another review of the problematic video presentation:
Blu-ray.com - Amadeus Blu-ray Review (Director's Cut)
"Overzealous post-processing. Not only has digital noise reduction (DNR) been applied to the transfer, but edge enhancement has been peppered in to compensate for its ill-effects. While the artificial sharpening does firm up object edges (at the cost of injecting distracting halos into the proceedings), it fails to conceal the waxy close-ups, hazy textures, and intermittent motion smearing caused by the noise reduction."
EDitEDbyED:
I feel at fifteen bucks this is a ripoff.
(IMO)
Movies are: "The Greatest Artform".
HD should be for EVERYONE!
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Robert Harris
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Re: A few words about...™ Amadeus -- in Blu-ray
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Originally Posted by Ed St. Clair
Glad RAH is outright dismissing this release. I feel at fifteen bucks this is a ripoff.
(IMO)
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Let's take this one a step further. As an Academy Award Best Picture, the Blu-ray of Amadeus is best re-called, re-scanned and re-issued without all of the extra processing that went into this disc.
Make it simple. Just release the film on Blu-ray without cleaning it up.
RAH
"All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible. This I did." T.E. Lawrence
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Re: A few words about...™ Amadeus -- in Blu-ray
Wow, this sounds like complete garbage. Sony got raked over the coals for letting a garbage transfer of The Fifth Element out on BD. Maybe the online HT community should be doing the same to whoever was responsible for this mess. The responsible parties should own up, recall this disc, and do the job right.
This format is still in a developing phase and such poor quality transfers will do nothing to encourage people to upgrade to BD. The brag was that films on BD would look like film. It is about time these studios started living up to that mantra, especially with the prices they are charging; although, normally, 14.99 could not be considered a high price, in this case it sounds like it is.
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Re: A few words about...™ Amadeus -- in Blu-ray
IMO, there can always be a better presentation down the line. Give it enough time, and even the best HD transfer of a film in 2009 will be inferior in every regard to the 2020 home video release.
The question then becomes, as Mr. Harris puts it, could there have been a better presentation today. If the answer is ever "no" (and I'd argue that 90% of all titles released have that answer), the question then rightly becomes "at what point is that less than perfect transfer enough of a problem to dissuade a casual viewing?"
The last part can only, ultimately, be answered by each individual for themselves after their own viewing. As seen with the Patton discussion, this forum is gonna be evenly split down the middle, probably along the same lines.
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Re: A few words about...™ Amadeus -- in Blu-ray
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Originally Posted by Edwin-S
Wow, this sounds like complete garbage. Sony got raked over the coals for letting a garbage transfer of The Fifth Element out on BD.
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The comparison between the original release of The Fifth Element and this release of Amadeus is, IMO, completely unwarranted. The Fifth Element was a significantly worse transfer by comparison.
If perfection is 100, I'd put The Fifth Element at 40-45 and Amadeus around 80-85.
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Re: A few words about...™ Amadeus -- in Blu-ray
In comparison to what, John?
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Michael Osadciw
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Re: A few words about...™ Amadeus -- in Blu-ray
nice. i love the honesty here. I'll save my $$$.
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Re: A few words about...™ Amadeus -- in Blu-ray
No amount of forum-enthused boycott will put a big enough dent in sales to send any message. People should state their opinion here and let it get read by WB; with or without purchase it is the same.
A recall is a total pipe dream. Not gonna happen. Sorry, but that's the truth.
I fail to see the logic with "going for the older Two-Disc DVD". Even if one feels the BD is below optimal standards, it is plainly superior in every respect to the DVD. Blatantly so. Why degrade a viewing experience even further? To save $7-8? This makes no sense to me.
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Re: A few words about...™ Amadeus -- in Blu-ray
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Originally Posted by Carter of Mars
The previous DVD was about 10db over reference level if I'm not mistaken.
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That I don't know. My receiver defaults on at a lower volume, so usually such things are not brought to my immediate attention. For what it's worth, I played it back in the same volume range I play most of my films back on.
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Re: A few words about...™ Amadeus -- in Blu-ray
My suspicions are, seeing as how this is a Saul Zaentz property rather than Warner outright, that the Zaentz Company approved the use of the HD Master created for the 2002 DVD release rather than doing a whole new one. For that time the level of DNR applied here is actually relatively spare.
This is totally conjecture on my part, but it makes the most sense.
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![Amadeus (Blu-ray Book) [Blu-ray]](http://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/thumbs/9/91/B001JNNE64-51q-TkcsQGL.jpg/60x60px-LS-B001JNNE64-51q-TkcsQGL.jpg)
