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post #181 of 280

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

You guys kill me at times! Land of the Pharoahs looks great to me. Disaster? No way. I'm glad to have a dvd in the correct aspect ratio made from a clean print or negative. As I will be if El Cid proves to be in the correct ratio so that I can get to see the whole frame at long last.
You seem to enjoy complaining about all and everything, rather than just being grateful that you can get a decent dvd copy of a favourite movie.
post #182 of 280

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe Caps
I see no reason to trust this thread.
There are screen caps of laser Land of Pharoahs vs new dvd yet some here say they use the same master as the master, even thought they look completely different.
While the dvd is not thrilling, it looks better than the old laser.
But WHY are we again, getting from a major company a 2.0 mixdown instead of the original 4.0 ????
tHERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR THIS.

How can you not trust the screencaps regardless of what anybody says ? They look very bad.
In the end it does not matter what kind of master was used - the DVD looks very bad compared to other transfers of movies from the same time frame (man in a grey flanell suit anyone ?).

I you are happy with the picture I can assure you you will be more than happy with El Cid as Weinstein will not be able to put out something worse than Land of the Pharaohs - in fact all 3 widescreen versions of El Cid that I currently own are better already.
Regarding 4.0 vs. 2.0 sound: On a transfer I consider worthwhile I wholeheartedly agree but with Land... I could not care less because if the picture is as unwatchable as it is in this case I will never watch the movie anyway.

But El Cid will of course be a disappointmnt if it does not have a 4.0 or 5.1 mix, the LD from Criterion already had a great 5.1 mix and I expect something like that from Weinstein, too andf I am pretty sure we won't be disappointed.
post #183 of 280

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by ptb2007
Yes, I did see them all on giant screens back in the 60s. I was 11 when I saw Ben-Hur for the first time and 12 when Spartacus arrived.
The programmes would take a long time to scan in and are in fact full sized versions of the ones they put in with the likes of the 4 disc Ben-Hur. Some are too big for my scanner. Sorry. El Cid was quite a small one in comparison to say Cleopatra's.
Pity so many are available to buy on e-bay.

Being able to watch these on a big screen must have been something back then and great to see you still look forward to watching these movies again at home !

Regarding complaints about picture quality of DVDs: Land of the Pharaohs is the worst looking epic I got, even worse than The Robe. I think it is my right as a customer and one of the purposes of a forum like this to be able to demand better quality from studios that are capable of vastly superior transfers than The Robe and Land of the Pharaohs currently are. I watch these movies on a large screen front projection system and for them to look watchable just having the right aspect ratio won't cut it.
post #184 of 280

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Douglas R
I don't find DVD Savant's reviews of much value either. His reviews tend to consist mainly of discussions about the film with not enough information about the technical aspects of discs.

He seems like a good guy and brings attention to movies that deserve a second look like Land of the Pharaohs.

But when it comes to the assessment of the actual technical quality of the discs at hand it seems that his grades are not much more than wishful thinking. After all if Land of the Pharaohs is excellent I would not have to worry about 98% of my DVD collection as in fact it is better than excellent in video quality - all these movies look better than Land of the Pharaohs
post #185 of 280

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Douglas R
I don't find DVD Savant's reviews of much value either. His reviews tend to consist mainly of discussions about the film with not enough information about the technical aspects of discs.
It is hard to trust the technical considerations of someone who writes 2:35 instead of 2.35:1. :-P
Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe Caps
I see no reason to trust this thread.
There are screen caps of laser Land of Pharoahs vs new dvd yet some here say they use the same master as the master, even thought they look completely different.
I don't think they used the same MASTER, I think they probably used the same FILM ELEMENT to make the DVD transfer. It certainly wasn't a NEW element made just for the DVD.

In other words, they didn't want to go to the expense of making a new inter-positive from the original negative. If they did that, then the DVD would probably look a lot better, and it would be in the original aspect ratio - 2.55:1.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ptb2007
You guys kill me at times! Land of the Pharoahs looks great to me. Disaster? No way. I'm glad to have a dvd in the correct aspect ratio made from a clean print or negative.
Well, it isn't in the correct aspect ratio. The DVD is 2.35:1, but LoPs is an early 'Scope film, so it should be 2.55:1.

The DVD isn't off the negative or from a print, it is from an old inter-positive, probably the same one that was used for the LaserDisc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OliverK
Regarding complaints about picture quality of DVDs: Land of the Pharaohs is the worst looking epic I got, even worse than The Robe. I think it is my right as a customer and one of the purposes of a forum like this to be able to demand better quality from studios that are capable of vastly superior transfers than The Robe and Land of the Pharaohs currently are.

Obviously Warner's reply would be that if you want a better looking DVD you would have to wait longer so that some manager could OK spending tens, if not hundreds of thousands making a new I.P. from the negative. I think the real issue here is that there is a growing number of people (me included) who think LoP is a much better film than what it is generally made out to be, therefore it deserved a better release, rather than being issued in the budget Camp Classics line. But if that was the case, a lot of people would be complaining "Where is it!?" at every Warner chat.

So I'm happy I've got it, but I hope in 5 years Warner restore this film, and release it on - blu-ray, then I can put my DVD on eBay. :-P
post #186 of 280
Thread Starter 

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Howson
I think the real issue here is that there is a growing number of people (me included) who think LoP is a much better film than what it is generally made out to be, therefore it deserved a better release, rather than being issued in the budget Camp Classics line.

I think that's right. I saw the film when it was first released in cinemas and thought it was great then and still do. I don't understand why so many people seem to dismiss it as being little more than a joke. But then there are many people who simply don't appreciate or understand the epic style of filmmaking of the '50s. Unfortunately the powers that be at Warners think the same or they would not have released it under a "camp classic" label, which I consider an objectionable treatment of the film.
post #187 of 280

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Douglas R
I think that's right. I saw the film when it was first released in cinemas and thought it was great then and still do. I don't understand why so many people seem to dismiss it as being little more than a joke. But then there are many people who simply don't appreciate or understand the epic style of filmmaking of the '50s. Unfortunately the powers that be at Warners think the same or they would not have released it under a "camp classic" label, which I consider an objectionable treatment of the film.

The other thing may be that the reputation of the film becomes self fulfilling. By this I mean if the film hasn't sold well in the past on VHS, then that creates the reputation that guides how the film is treated on DVD. Whereas if Warner went all out and gave it a new transfer from a new element, and a 5.1 soundtrack, and added more extra features, then maybe, just maybe it would've sold more, because people would assume that it was a classic film deserving of a better release.
post #188 of 280

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Howson
The other thing may be that the reputation of the film becomes self fulfilling. By this I mean if the film hasn't sold well in the past on VHS, then that creates the reputation that guides how the film is treated on DVD. Whereas if Warner went all out and gave it a new transfer from a new element, and a 5.1 soundtrack, and added more extra features, then maybe, just maybe it would've sold more, because people would assume that it was a classic film deserving of a better release.

Add to this argument that one of the strengths of epic movies are sweeping vistas and scenes with hundreds and thousands of extras. On a bad quality release these scenes are extremely painful to watch and take away from the enjoyment of the movie. Epics NEED the best transfers out there because of all of the information that is on the screen at any given time - a bad transfer will hurt Ben Hur much more than it will hurt The Big Lebowski.
post #189 of 280

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Douglas R
I don't find DVD Savant's reviews of much value either. His reviews tend to consist mainly of discussions about the film with not enough information about the technical aspects of discs.

DVD Savant writes great reviews of the movies themselves, but his technical discussions indeed aren't valuable. If you want to learn about a movie, he's a great source, but if you want a dissection of a DVD, you need to go elsewhere.

I watched El Cid and was pretty impressed with both picture and sound. The transfer isn't flawless - some source flaws appear sporadically - but overall it's quite good...
post #190 of 280

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Land of the Pharoahs was made in 1955.
The Wide Screen Museum says this....

1953 - 2.55:1. By the time The Robe was ready to premiere, 20th Century-Fox had solved the magnetic stereo sound problem on the picture film with the able assistance of Cinerama sound guru Hazard Reeves. Adding the four small bands of magnetic oxide required the use of smaller perforations and a slight reduction in the width of the picture.

1955 - 2.35:1. Exhibitor resistance to investing in stereophonic sound reproduction equipment forced the use of several different sound formats for CinemaScope. There was a mono magnetic sound stripe that was located in the same area as the optical soundtrack in standard films and there were optical mono soundtracks as well. In addition, MGM utilized the crummy Perspecta system to create ersatz stereo effects. These formats used standard film perforations and necessitated a reduction in image width to yield 2.35:1. In 1957, with the adoption of the magoptical sound track, which incorporated both a narrow optical mono soundtrack along with the four magnetic stripes, finally eliminated 2.55:1 as a ratio for CinemaScope and other anamorphic 35mm systems.


So it may not have been 2.55:1 but in fact 2.35:1
post #191 of 280

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

I do indeed look forward to seeing some of the 50s and 60s epics at home on my wide screen tv mainly because getting the chance to see them in a cinema on a big screen these days is virtually impossible. They showed a 70mm print of Cleopatra recently at the National Film Theatre here in London, but I couldn't get there so don't know what it looked like. Imagine seeing El Cid or FORE on the Imax! I saw a digital Imax projection of '300' which looked amazing. If only they'd try some of the older epics.
post #192 of 280

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Some good info here.
but first - When the Mag Optical Prints was introduced (both mag tracks and an optical track one one print) it indeed narrowed the aspect ratio from 2:55 to 1 down to 2:35 to 1

However, I still have fox original announcement of the intro of the mag oP Print from the middle of 1956 - the firt mag op film was with the release of Bus Stop.

Therefore, Land of the Pharoahs should be 2:55.

Again, Before I left l.A. in 1992, the egyptian theater had a minifestival of Hollywood films that took place in ancient egypt.
They ran The egyptian, Ten Commanments, and Land of the Pharoahs in a new print that Warners had made up.

Land looked positively awful, far worse than anything on laser or dvd.

Since the old Laser release, some work seems to have been done on Land, since it seems to have gotten its Blue Layer back.
I'm irked that we only get 2.0 sound when we should get 4.0 sound - bummer.

Remember Land was shot in Warner color which was not good to begin with.
Further it was shot on location in Egypt and interiors were NOT done at the Warner studio in Hollywood, but shot at Titanus studios in Rome.

I can;t prove this but I feel that dailies were certainly processed at Titanus and the film may have been processed there rather that at Werner superior hollywood facilities, leading Land to look not as good as it could have in the first place.
post #193 of 280

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe Caps


I can;t prove this but I feel that dailies were certainly processed at Titanus and the film may have been processed there rather that at Werner superior hollywood facilities, leading Land to look not as good as it could have in the first place.


As an Editor I must jump in here and say that where the dailies are processed should make no difference to the final look of the film. It is the negative that matters. The cameraman would liase with the labs processing the cut negative to ensure the first print is the way he wants it. As the sound was done in Hollywood it is most unlikely the picture would be processed in Italy, which actually has good facilities. And are you suggesting that the cameraman couldn't light the movie the way he wanted because he was in Egypt and Italy?
post #194 of 280

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Thanks for putting many words in my mouth.

I did NOT say that the way the dailies were processed affected the look of the final film, but that if everything was processed in Italy and quickly, it probably didn't even liik as good as regular Warnercolor which was not that great to begin with.
post #195 of 280

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe Caps
Thanks for putting many words in my mouth.

I did NOT say that the way the dailies were processed affected the look of the final film, but that if everything was processed in Italy and quickly, it probably didn't even liik as good as regular Warnercolor which was not that great to begin with.

I'm sorry but I do not get what you are saying at all. You appear to be suggesting that filiming outside Hollywood and getting dailies processed abroad explains why you think the end result looks, what was the word you used, a disaster.
Doesn't matter where a film is processed originally, it is the negative that counts in how the film looks in the end.
But then what do I know after 30 years as an Editor?
post #196 of 280

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by ptb2007
I do indeed look forward to seeing some of the 50s and 60s epics at home on my wide screen tv mainly because getting the chance to see them in a cinema on a big screen these days is virtually impossible. They showed a 70mm print of Cleopatra recently at the National Film Theatre here in London, but I couldn't get there so don't know what it looked like. Imagine seeing El Cid or FORE on the Imax! I saw a digital Imax projection of '300' which looked amazing. If only they'd try some of the older epics.

I saw the new print of Cleopatra in 2006 and it was nice to be able to watch a 70mm movie looking rather close to how it was meant to be seen. Detail was very strong and it was the most impressive picture I saw at the 70mm festival Cleopatra was shown at.

It was discussed back then that probably color timing was not as good as it could have been as Fox had done only one print as part of the restoration project they did on Cleopatra but as Fox is the only studio doing anything like this at all I guess there is no reason to complain. If only more studios would strike at least one print of their restored classics like Fox has been doing for some time now with their large format movies we would not be relegated to watch all the other large format stuff in pink these days.

And Imax is great for movies shot in Super 35 or the old Vistavision movies like Vertigo or North by Northwest, but it seems that it is avoided to show movies in IMAX that have a wider AR than 1.78 in the OCN - not good for movies shot in 70mm and something that I would like to change.
post #197 of 280

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Looking back at my two posts, I never used the word "disaster" I'm merely trying to make suggestions as to why a film may look inferior than other films shot during the same era.

BTW - also shooting in Italy during this time was another Warner spectacle - Helen of Troy. Robert Wise himself told me that Warners originally wanted all the film cut andprocessed there but Wise refused as he thought the work being done at Italy was inferior to what he could do back in Hollywood.
But then what would Wise know. He only edited Citizen Kane.
BTW - Helen underwent a full restoration and looks and sounds wonderful.
post #198 of 280

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe Caps
Looking back at my two posts, I never used the word "disaster" I'm merely trying to make suggestions as to why a film may look inferior than other films shot during the same era.
Maybe because the transfer for Land of the Pharaohs wasn't made from a new element?
post #199 of 280

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

AS I said, it does seem to be a new element as the blue layer is now back. It was gone on the old laser and gone on the new print Warners had made back in 2001.
post #200 of 280

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe Caps
AS I said, it does seem to be a new element as the blue layer is now back. It was gone on the old laser and gone on the new print Warners had made back in 2001.

I doubt that a new master has been created for several reasons:
By boosting the blue channel and simultaneously dropping a little the red and green one I can get a similarly bluish picture from the LD. It is not like there is no blue layer present on the LD, it is just not that prominent. Regarding the color balance I would also think that DVD screenshot leans a bit too much to the bluish side. Also there is very little detail together with halos and other artefacts present on the Land of the Pharaohs DVD and that would be the first remastered movie from Warner that looks like this.

Setting aside the question of the master that was used there are movies from the same period that were also done in Warnercolor that look much better, an example that immediately comes to mind is Rebel without a Cause and I am sure there are others.

With regard to the OCN:
It is beyond me how it can look even remotely as bad as to explain how the DVD of Land of the Pharaohs looks and frankly I have yet to see a theatrical 35mm based presentation even of a movie from the Fifties that approaches what LOP looks like on DVD.

As LOP was not intended to be a failure Or "camp classic" from the start you also have to take into consideration that it was a prestige production with a very good director and therefore it was not intended to be done on the cheap. All of this gives me no reason to believe the movie would have been shot in a way that made it look worse than other Scope movies of the time.
post #201 of 280

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Colin Jacobson
I watched El Cid and was pretty impressed with both picture and sound. The transfer isn't flawless - some source flaws appear sporadically - but overall it's quite good...

Wait a minute
Can you tell us from where you got it ?
And can you post a screen capture preferably of the scene I posted ?
This is pretty exciting...
post #202 of 280

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe Caps
Looking back at my two posts, I never used the word "disaster" I'm merely trying to make suggestions as to why a film may look inferior than other films shot during the same era.

BTW - also shooting in Italy during this time was another Warner spectacle - Helen of Troy. Robert Wise himself told me that Warners originally wanted all the film cut andprocessed there but Wise refused as he thought the work being done at Italy was inferior to what he could do back in Hollywood.
But then what would Wise know. He only edited Citizen Kane.
BTW - Helen underwent a full restoration and looks and sounds wonderful.

Citizen Kane Academy frame black and white, directed by the wonder boy who had his hand into everything. Not a great example.
I would also suggest that maybe he didn't want to stay in Italy a further 4 months after shooting ended, or that Warners didn't want the extra expense that would incur paying expenses to director and editing team.
Helen looks great agreed, and LOTP on my system is overall only darker in comparison to Helen.
post #203 of 280

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by OliverK
Wait a minute
Can you tell us from where you got it ?
And can you post a screen capture preferably of the scene I posted ?
This is pretty exciting...

I got it from the studio, just like every other DVD reviewer - see the link in my sig?

No, I don't have any screen caps - I have cheap DVD software on the computer...
post #204 of 280

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Colin Jacobson
I got it from the studio, just like every other DVD reviewer - see the link in my sig?

No, I don't have any screen caps - I have cheap DVD software on the computer...

Oops, I do not usually read sigs but in this case I should have

As I ordered from DVD Pacific I just hope that maybe my disc will ship by tomorrow with this week's HDM releases, we'll see.
post #205 of 280

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Review of "El Cid" is up on DVD Savant

DVD Savant Review: El Cid (Limited Collector's Edition)

With 5.1 sound: just waiting for my copy to come!
post #206 of 280

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Colin Jacobson
No, I don't have any screen caps - I have cheap DVD software on the computer...

Try VLC Media Player (free):
VLC media player - Overview

To make a screen capture you just go Video, Snapshot. Then crop out the letterboxing and you're done.
post #207 of 280

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Sharp
Review of "El Cid" is up on DVD Savant

DVD Savant Review: El Cid (Limited Collector's Edition)

With 5.1 sound: just waiting for my copy to come!


The review says it is 2.35:1 rather than a 70mm format, but it does give us a date for Fall - April 20th. How reliable is DVD Savant? Some earlier posts don't seem to think much of the author. Any neutral comments?
post #208 of 280

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by ptb2007
The review says it is 2.35:1 rather than a 70mm format, but it does give us a date for Fall - April 20th. How reliable is DVD Savant? Some earlier posts don't seem to think much of the author. Any neutral comments?

He seems to be very forgiving with the technical aspects of DVDs, giving some positive reviews of discs where others have found serious fault.

Regarding the aspect ratio, if this DVD was made from a Technirama element, then 2.25:1 would be the ideal ratio. If it was made from a 4 perf 35mm anamorphic element, then 2.35:1 makes sense.

My understanding is that the VistaVision large aperture has an aspect ratio of 1.5:1, multiply this by the 1.5 X factor of the anamorphic lens makes 2.25:1. However this was cropped very slightly at the sides to convert the footage to the 2.21:1 aperture of 5 perf, 70mm prints.
post #209 of 280

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

I like DVDSavant for what he writes about things that are not related to video and sound quality as it sure is fun to read. No need to read his video and audio quality assessments of the DVD as even by the way he presents his findings we can see that first and foremost he likes movies and does not loose sleep over a mediocre or lesser transfer.

Regarding the April date for Fall it is what other sites have been reporting, too so I would think it is accurate.

Regarding the 2.35 AR: From what info I could gather 35mm low contrast elements were the source of the HD master for El Cid. So 2.35 is the aspect ratio to expect for both the SD and HD version. As doing a new master from the horizontal 35mm elements of El Cid already was deemed to be too expensive there is a very high probability that the less popular Fall will not see a release in its original aspect ratio either - going back to the OCN would cost hundreds of thousands for Fall.
post #210 of 280
Thread Starter 

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Just received my copy of EL CID. The transfer is far superior to all previous DVD versions from Europe and elsewhere. The picture has been cleaned up well and looks very clear with scarcely a sign of any blemishes. The DD 5.1 sound is particularly good, especially as regards the music track (although don’t expect to hear much, if anything, in the surrounds – it was never that sort of film). Nevertheless the picture is not perfect – it seems to me that the colors lacked vibrancy but it’s probably the best that could be done in the absence (I assume) of the original negative.

Unlike the DVDs from Europe etc this is the first complete road show version with Overture, Intermission, Entr’acte and Exit music. I haven’t gone through all the extras yet but they seem to be very good and Weinstein have done an excellent job in giving the DVD special treatment. I was surprised to find that the souvenir programme reproduction contains 40 pages because the British version, which I have, contained only 16 pages. It’s printed on high quality paper as is the Dell comic book reproduction, and both are larger than the similar programme reproductions which Warner Bros and Fox have issued, making for good collectable items.

Where Weinstein have slipped up is in their placement of the Entr’acte which they have put at the end of the first disc, immediately following the end of Act 1. The Entr’acte music for road show presentations always came immediately prior to the start of Part 2 of the film and the Ent’acte should, of course, have been placed at the beginning the second discs. Fox did exactly the same thing with CLEOPATRA to the annoyance of many collectors. I’m sure this error stems from people who work on these DVDs never having seen these road show attractions and therefore not understanding how they were presented. Neither, of course, should there be title cards with the words Overture, Intermission or Exit Music as is the case here.

The editing of this film towards the end of Part 1 has always puzzled me. El Cid is leading his army to the convent where he is to take his leave of Chimene. There are four scenes as follows.

1. At the 1.55.22 mark there is a long shot of Charlton Heston beginning to dismount from his horse.

2. At 1.55.15 there is a medium shot of Charlton Heston still ON his horse with his army moving across the screen from left to right.

3. At 1.55.22 there is a shot of the army moving from right to left (in other words looking as if they are going in the opposite direction to the previous scene.

4. At 1.55.31 there is a medium shot of Charlton Heston dismounting from his horse.

Now it seems fairly obvious to me that scene 4 should immediately have followed scene 1 and that scene 2 and 3 were inserted into the final print in error. But I don’t understand how this could have been missed in such a major film. Has anyone got any ideas or have I somehow completed misread those scenes?
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