A few words about...™ The Sand Pebbles -- in Blu-Ray

Robert Harris · 05-25-2008, 05:12 PM

By any era's standards The Sand Pebbles is brilliant filmmaking.

Released in 1966, the production had initial engagements in major cities serviced by 70mm blow-up prints derived from the original 35mm Panavision camera negative. This translates to potential wear on the negative.

The Sand Pebbles initially opened at a Roadshow length of 196 minutes and was later cut to 179, which is quite properly the version now released via Blu-Ray disc. The original Roadshow is still available on standard definition in Fox's latest special edition.

Produced and directed by Robert Wise, who was still riding the wave of his Sound of Music, this is a massive production, with wonderful production values at all levels, and to be to the point, just brilliant storytelling.

Audio is lossless, and beautifully rendered. Image from the blackest blacks to the whitest whites (think naval uniforms) and everything in between is gorgeous.

Grain looks proper.

Fox has done a superb job harvesting an image from their film elements, and replicating them, still looking like film on this new Blu-Ray disc.

The Sand Pebbles is one of the great film of the '60s, and in its newest incarnation comes Extremely Highly Recommended.

RAH

Robert Crawford · 05-25-2008, 05:31 PM

I actually prefer the shorter version of this film, but Fox should have included both versions on this BR release.

Robert Harris · 05-25-2008, 06:03 PM

Would have had to have been a second disc.

MatthewA · 05-25-2008, 06:56 PM

Why couldn't they just have used seamless branching?

Brent Avery · 05-25-2008, 07:04 PM

Thoroughly enjoyed this film last night - numerous times in the past but of course this latest version on BD sure makes having a projector setup worth it! And I might add the sound track surpasses the last 2 disc SD edition. I was only getting the DTS core ( over optical ) - not the HD lossless through the Nu Force processor I use and it was quite dynamic and detailed, in fact I will probably watch it again just to listen to it! Now I know why I don't go to the Cinema anymore - as far as I am concerned they have not been able to approach movie making like this for many years.

**HTF Ads**

Robert Harris · 05-25-2008, 09:31 PM

It could not be branched "seamlessly" as nothing would have been seamless. Totally different elements, which would have in no way matched.

Michael Osadciw · 05-25-2008, 10:03 PM

I must agree with Robert on this disc. I intended to get a review up on this title before street date but that just won't happen. I might as well chime in here saying both the audio and video on this disc is superb. I was pleasantly surprised with the audio mix. It's 5.1 and has directional dialogue intact accross the front soundstage. In almost every scene, there is phantom imaging of dialogue between center left and center right and fits exactly over top of the actor on the screen (my screen is 8 feet wide and my speakers are a 10 foot spread). The sound travels with the moving actor on screen too.

The 5.1 and the 4.0 soundtracks are different. There is a pull to the left surround channel in the DTS-HDMA 5.1, wheras it's clearly mono surround with DD 4.0. The music score is much more prominant in the surrounds (as well as some hiss) with the 5.1. These channel levels sound correct and not high by any means.

This contrasts with the soundtrack on A Bridge Too Far, were the DD4.0 is the preferred selection for surround envelopment. The discrete 5.1 DTS-HDMA encode, while lossless, is one of a mix that has reduced activity in the surrounds making them almost inaudible and uneffective.

Mike

GregK · 05-25-2008, 10:36 PM

Thanks for passing along the audio specs and mini-review, Michael!

It's good to hear FOX is still preserving the directional dialog, and offering a choice of mixes, vs simply offering redundant audio formats.

DavidJ · 05-26-2008, 04:12 PM

Thanks for another great review. Despite having an affinity for war films this is one I've never seen (and I haven't seen The Longest Day properly), but I will definitely have to check it out. I really appreciate these threads for the discussion of the the history of the films and their presentation. I always learn something.

Aaron Silverman · 05-27-2008, 04:18 PM

Quick question. . .how close is this film to the source novel? I was thinking of reading it but am not sure whether it's worth waiting to watch the movie until afterwards.