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06-14-2003, 09:07 PM
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#1 of 32 
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Once Upon A Time in America. Who edited these discs??
I just watched this movie. Why does it end on disc one before the intermission? Disc one ends at chapter 34 , intermission is chapter 44. A very lousy job. No reason they couldn't have at least went to the intermission on disc one. The Right Stuff was all on one disc and done superb. Warner blew it with WUATIA.
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06-14-2003, 09:08 PM
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#2 of 32
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Nobody blew it. From The Digital Bits review by Robert Harris:
Quote:
One anomaly may disturb some, while I didn't have a real problem with it, considering the alternative...
There was apparently a plan in place to divide the film with the first disc ending with the Intermission and the second picking up thereafter.
Part One is approximately 160 minutes. Had Warner encoded the discs so that 160 minutes was on disc one as planned, it would have necessitated a lowering of the bit rate. Even though printed materials lead one to believe that this is the case, it is incorrect.
Disc One ends at the two hour point, in the middle of a sequence. There is no "painless" break point in this area of the film. Disc Two begins with the end of that sequence, continues an additional forty minutes to the Intermission, and then goes on to Part Two of the film.
Although not what one might wish for in a perfect world, taking into consideration the look and textures which have been accomplished with the transfer and compression, I would have made the same decision rather than to lower quality. I firmly believe that the correct decision has been made.
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06-14-2003, 09:16 PM
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#3 of 32
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It still ruins the continuity. I think they could have come up with a better solution. It just ends abruptly, when you are into the movie. They should have used a third disc for the extras. I don't buy the explanation. A superd job was done on the right stuff , which is a long film.
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06-14-2003, 09:20 PM
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#4 of 32
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Aside from a low bit-rate audio commentary and a trailer, there are no special features on Disc One which could have been removed to allow nearly 40 more minutes on that disc.
Regarding The Right Stuff, every movie compresses differently. The type of photography present in OUATIA requires a very high bit rate to look good without artifacts.
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06-14-2003, 09:22 PM
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#5 of 32
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They should used a third disc for the extras.
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A third disc would have no impact on how much of the film could fit on the first disc before the video quality began to appreciably decline.
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I don't buy the explanation.
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So what do you think the "real" story is? That they just did it to annoy you?
DJ |
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06-14-2003, 09:46 PM
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#6 of 32
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I think at any cost they wanted to keep it a two discs.
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06-14-2003, 09:56 PM
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#7 of 32
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That's very possible. But, as has been explained, making it three (or ten) discs would not have changed the way the first disc is presented at all.
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06-14-2003, 10:22 PM
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#8 of 32
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I think at any cost they wanted to keep it a two discs.
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That doesn't explain why they wouldn't put the disc break at the intermission instead of where they put it. If their main concern was some nefarious scheme to force this to be a 2-disc set no matter what (not a difficult task with a film that's almost 4 hours long), they could've easily put the break at the intermission. Unless, of course, there is a better explanation than the one you offer.
DJ |
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06-14-2003, 11:35 PM
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#9 of 32
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Damin, the explanation has already been given above by Robert Harris. I suspect you don't know who he is, or you wouldn't be questioning him. Among other things, he's the man who restored the film elements of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA and VERTIGO. He probably knows more about these things than any other regular contributor to this forum.
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06-15-2003, 01:34 AM
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#10 of 32
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Michael Reuben
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Quote:
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the explanation has already been given above by Robert Harris. I suspect you don't know who he is, or you wouldn't be questioning him.
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He isn't.
M.
"Most people never have to face the fact that, at the right time and the right place, they're capable of anything." -- Chinatown
"What kind of movies would there be if everyone in them had to do what we thought they should do?" -- Roger Ebert
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06-15-2003, 02:47 AM
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#11 of 32
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Quote:
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A superd job was done on the right stuff , which is a long film.
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In this case, the term "long film" is relative. Yes, both are long movies, but "Once Upon a Time In America" is a little more than 45 minutes longer than "The Right Stuff." That makes a big difference. |
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