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Romero's Night of the Living Dead, Again

post #1 of 62
4/14/08 at 7:44am
Thread Starter 
well the Weinstein Company plans on releasing this again, and not sure if i would be willing to double dip, considering the great elite disc that is already out, what i would like for them to do is release grindhouse, the theatrical cut, SE, but the disc coverart is more inline with the grindhoues look.
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post #2 of 62
4/14/08 at 8:16am

Re: Romero's Night of the Living Dead, Again

Quote:
Originally Posted by dana martin
well the Weinstein Company plans on releasing this again, and not sure if i would be willing to double dip, considering the great elite disc that is already out, what i would like for them to do is release grindhouse, the theatrical cut, SE, but the disc coverart is more inline with the grindhoues look.
Dana,

I own the two-VHS tape release. I love the film (1968 version); as such, I'd like to purchase either the Elite disc or the Weinstein disc you mention here. Are there any benefits of one disc over another? I doubt very much I will be purchasing both. Thanks.
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post #3 of 62
4/14/08 at 8:30am
Thread Starter 

Re: Romero's Night of the Living Dead, Again

Night of the Living Dead

better than trying to explain, look for yourself
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post #4 of 62
4/14/08 at 8:53am

Re: Romero's Night of the Living Dead, Again

New Night of the Living Dead. Some extras are dropped but it claims to be "restored and re-mastered."
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post #5 of 62
4/14/08 at 10:19am

Re: Romero's Night of the Living Dead, Again

"Restored and remastered" makes me excited. This film has been long, long overdue for a thorough cleanup.
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post #6 of 62
4/14/08 at 10:55am
Thread Starter 

Re: Romero's Night of the Living Dead, Again

well i have the elite disc, and it was far superior to all the other PD releases, so i wonder how much better, it could be, maybe Romero, went in all George Lucas himself and fixed the worst jump cut of all time.
now the other question is , is the Weinstein Company saving this from PD hell? or is this just their version of what is in the PD?
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post #7 of 62
4/14/08 at 12:07pm

Re: Romero's Night of the Living Dead, Again

Not a horror film fan, but this one is the exception for me. I would love to own this one.
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post #8 of 62
4/14/08 at 12:26pm

Re: Romero's Night of the Living Dead, Again

Wait - how much more cleaning up needs doing? The Laserdisc version I had looked DAMN sweet and the DVD looked just as good too.
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post #9 of 62
4/14/08 at 12:33pm

Re: Romero's Night of the Living Dead, Again

Well, as good as the Elite version is, if you want to be picky there is more that could be done. There is a lot of dirt and scratches on the print, and the transfer on the R1 Elite disk could be a bit more detailed and have better contrast (from the looks of things the Elite R0 made these improvements). But there is still print damage and things of that nature. I'm fine with the film as it is, but if a "Restored and remastered" version can improve upon these flaws then so much the better.
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post #10 of 62
4/14/08 at 12:43pm

Re: Romero's Night of the Living Dead, Again

The Elite DVD is the definitive edition of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. It has commentaries by the director, cast and crew and is stacked with supplements. It is also authorized and endorsed by George Romero who allowed Elite to work from the original negatives. It's a superb print.

There is a huge drop in quality in the public domain editions. Stick with the Elite.

Now I will read the links.
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post #11 of 62
4/14/08 at 12:56pm

Re: Romero's Night of the Living Dead, Again

The Elite is all I want or need (and I'm referring to the first one).
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post #12 of 62
4/14/08 at 1:08pm

Re: Romero's Night of the Living Dead, Again

Restored and re-mastered how? So this isn't the rescue by Elite licensed out to another company? I admit the new documentary and the new discovered material on Duane Jones is tempting, but I would like to know more about the transfer. I would caution Genius Entertainment and the Weinstein Company to not over-digitize NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. It was filmed under adverse conditions, and its imperfections endow the cinema-verite / quasi-documentary style with a grittiness and authenticity that would be injurious to lose, and should not be corrected.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe Karlosi
The Elite is all I want or need (and I'm referring to the first one).
The first one? You mean the single disc edition with the girl on the cover?
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post #13 of 62
4/14/08 at 2:21pm

Re: Romero's Night of the Living Dead, Again

It looks like the Elite edition is the one I will be getting. Thanks to all for the useful feedback.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard--W
It was filmed under adverse conditions, and its imperfections endow the cinema-verite / quasi-documentary style with a grittiness and authenticity that would be injurious to lose, and should not be corrected.
That's very well said. That quasi-documentary style ought not to be fooled with, IMO.

Edited. That link is quite informative. I like being able to see the comparisons between the different transfers.
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post #14 of 62
4/14/08 at 4:17pm

Re: Romero's Night of the Living Dead, Again

Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard--W
The first one? You mean the single disc edition with the girl on the cover?

Yes. I even had the Millenium Edition briefly, but I noticed the layer change where there wasn't one in the first version. Not a big deal, but I eventually sold off the ME and kept the first.
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post #15 of 62
4/18/08 at 8:36pm

Re: Romero's Night of the Living Dead, Again

Don May Jr was recently working with Dimension on redoing one of the movies he's already done, so I wonder if this is it...
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post #16 of 62
4/19/08 at 8:04am

Re: Romero's Night of the Living Dead, Again

Well the current Elite Millenium is 480i not 480p, suffers from all sorts of cross coloration/luminence problems, and the restoration/transfer was done back in 1994. Thats more than enough to say it needs a new Romero supervised hi-def cleanup.

Bottom line - if you plan to watch it on anything other that a tube don't bother.
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post #17 of 62
4/26/08 at 10:09am

Re: Romero's Night of the Living Dead, Again

Yes, the Elite has a "video" look to it, noticebly blurring in places.
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post #18 of 62
4/26/08 at 11:56am

Re: Romero's Night of the Living Dead, Again

Quote:
Don May Jr was recently working with Dimension on redoing one of the movies he's already done, so I wonder if this is it...

He's been saying that "NotLD" could be done better for years so I'm sure of it.

The Elite discs were the best for their time and will always be a lot better than the countless public domain releases of the film but their time has come and I'm confident that this new Dimension release will set the bar for this film's home video presentation.

I'll probably hang onto my Millennium Edition since it doesn't look like all the extras are ported over but I think it has a great shot at making our Elite discs obsolete in regards to the film itself and that should be commended instead of met with cries of "I LUV MY ELITE DISC 4-EVA!"

I mean, at the end of the day the Elite transfer is still a laserdisc transfer that was subsequently ported to single-layer DVD and then re-issued on a dual-layer disc to accommodate the extras that were dropped.

This is a 40th anniversary edition that is approved by George A. Romero and, if the Don May Jr. thing is true (and I'd bet on it) it is being overseen by the man who is responsible for the Elite Edition. To put that in perspective, the current Elite editions are based on a 25th anniversary laserdisc. That's right, the Elite stuff was cutting-edge... in 1993.

This new disc has a 15-year advantage over the Elite discs and I would be shocked if the difference wasn't a revelation.

Edit: here's the May quote in question:

Quote:
I've also been hired to redo one of my classic restorations over again in HD (much like I did with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre). We won't be releasing it, but Dimension Films will be… I just can't tell you what it is yet!
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post #19 of 62
4/27/08 at 3:50am

Re: Romero's Night of the Living Dead, Again

I'm in the camp that believes NOTLD actually benefits from not being "pristine and totally flawless".
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post #20 of 62
4/27/08 at 5:17am

Re: Romero's Night of the Living Dead, Again

I don't think Night gains or disgains (is that an actual word?) from how the print looks. Its use of black and white is so well done it can be frightening in a snowy broadcast or a pristine HD or 35mm source. To suggest a film is reliant on the lack of quality of its source suggests the film is lacking something in the first place
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post #21 of 62
4/27/08 at 6:24am

Re: Romero's Night of the Living Dead, Again

Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard--W
Restored and re-mastered how? So this isn't the rescue by Elite licensed out to another company? I admit the new documentary and the new discovered material on Duane Jones is tempting, but I would like to know more about the transfer.
Unless this is something totally new, that "last" interview with Duane Jones was the audio interview that was on the LD and the Millennium Edition DVD. Also all of the commentaries listed for the new edition are exactly the same as the one's recorded in 1994 for the SE LD and ported to all of the Elite DVD's, sounds to me like a good deal of the primary Elite extras are going to be on this new edition....but will the most important one be retained?



I of course speak of the highly influential film classic Night of the Living Bread.
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post #22 of 62
4/27/08 at 6:31am

Re: Romero's Night of the Living Dead, Again

Quote:
Originally Posted by KevinM
I of course speak of the highly influential film classic Night of the Living Bread.
Of course! I own this one only on VHS, but it's still a hoot. That loaf is quite terrifying....
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post #23 of 62
4/27/08 at 9:24am

Re: Romero's Night of the Living Dead, Again

Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe Karlosi
I'm in the camp that believes NOTLD actually benefits from not being "pristine and totally flawless".

I understand where you're coming from, but I also used to think that about Texas Chainsaw Massacre, until I saw the restored version.

I for one am picking up this new release. I'll decide at that point if I think the same thing.
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post #24 of 62
4/27/08 at 8:20pm

Re: Romero's Night of the Living Dead, Again

Quote:
I'm in the camp that believes NOTLD actually benefits from not being "pristine and totally flawless".

Well then in that case the Elite disc is about to be even more obsolete. Those of us who want it to look the best its ever looked can pick up the new Dimension release and the people who inexplicably want it to look terrible will have a bunch of $1 public domain DVDs to choose from and the Elite discs will fail in both respects.

I myself initially had the standard "sour graping" reaction of "I already own this movie and now the copy I own is no longer definitive!" but that was short-lived. With May on board there's no reason to doubt that this will be a worthwhile upgrade.

His participation in the project took this DVD from being something I would compulsively pick up while buying "Diary" to something at least equally-exciting and arguably MORE exciting.

These two Romero "Dead" DVDs have the misfortune of being sandwiched between two geek events (GTAIV and "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull") but even so May 20th can't come fast enough.
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post #25 of 62
4/27/08 at 8:31pm

Re: Romero's Night of the Living Dead, Again

Quote:
Originally Posted by WadeM
I understand where you're coming from, but I also used to think that about Texas Chainsaw Massacre, until I saw the restored version.

I for one am picking up this new release. I'll decide at that point if I think the same thing.

Yeah there is that awesome Blockbuster video release where it looks like it was projected against a bed sheet and then re-photographed with a Hi-8 video camcorder. Really brings home the "drive-in" feel!
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post #26 of 62
4/28/08 at 4:07am

Re: Romero's Night of the Living Dead, Again

Quote:
Originally Posted by WadeM
I understand where you're coming from, but I also used to think that about Texas Chainsaw Massacre, until I saw the restored version.

I saw the restored verison of TEXAS but still feel it worked best the other way.
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post #27 of 62
4/28/08 at 4:10am

Re: Romero's Night of the Living Dead, Again

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill GrandPre
Well then in that case the Elite disc is about to be even more obsolete. Those of us who want it to look the best its ever looked can pick up the new Dimension release and the people who inexplicably want it to look terrible will have a bunch of $1 public domain DVDs to choose from and the Elite discs will fail in both respects.

I sure hope you're not including the Elite discs as "looking terrible"...
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post #28 of 62
4/28/08 at 8:54am

Re: Romero's Night of the Living Dead, Again

Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe Karlosi
I sure hope you're not including the Elite discs as "looking terrible"...
Well it doesn't look terrible persay, but it still suffers from a boatload of analog artifacts that keep it from looking truly stellar.
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post #29 of 62
4/28/08 at 9:09am

Re: Romero's Night of the Living Dead, Again

I have the colorized one. I've never been happy with the B&W print on the DVD. Seems too bright, just like that company's version of Carnival of Souls.

I might grab this one in the future...

Oh..and the TCM DVD mentioned on this thread as well. I have the old one with the black cover and closeup of the silver chainsaw blade on the cover. Upgrades can be fun.
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post #30 of 62
4/28/08 at 4:59pm

Re: Romero's Night of the Living Dead, Again

I'm of the opinion that the Elite/Millenium transfer could use some improvement (not that it's terrible by any means), and actually have thought that way for a while. C'mon - it's an old transfer done for a laser disc, fer cryin' out loud.

Looking forward to the new edition, though the Criterion Vampyr and High and Low are ahead of it in line.
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