Robert Redford: The Natural (April 6th)

Glad to see it's the theatrical cut.

But is it only the theatrical cut? I haven't seen the "director's cut" and have always felt something was missing from the film. I'd like to see both in the same package.

I'm not convinced this release is the theatrical cut. The statement at bluray.com says 138 mins. But the theatrical cut ran 134 mins,
and the director's cut runs 144 mins. Adjusting the 144 mins to PAL speedup results in 138 mins.
Maybe Sony are preapring a European DVD release of the director's cut and someone used the running time of that for the press release.

Too bad they won't include both cuts on one disc, which would save me from speculating which version is on the disc.
I'm hoping for the director's cut though.

This is one of my top 10 favorite films.  I've been waiting for this announcement.

From today's Digital Bits:

"And speaking of Sony, a lot of you have asked which version of The Natural Sony is going to be including on their just-announced Blu-ray release. The answer is (confirmed directly with the studio a couple hours ago) it will be the original theatrical cut only."

I prefer the directors cut of the film but I understand people who like the theatrical cut but I find this whole announcement very confusing. First, there was no press release and just a news article on this site stating it would just be the theatrical cut only (DigitalBits said the same and got confirmation from Sony). So one would assume at this point that the Blu-ray would be the theatrical cut. Then shortly after this announcement the Blu-ray went on pre-order on different online stores but what made it confusing for me is that some online retailers used Blu-ray artwork that clearly had director's cut on it while others had similar artwork that did not have the red directors cut top border. A perfect example of this is how the artwork on this site does not have the top red border and the back cover art clearly states the theatrical cut run time and does not have the intro by Barry Levisiton about the director's cut but when you go to Amazon the cover art has the red border and the item title says "The Natural (Director's Cut) Blu-ray". So the question is whether or not the Blu-ray release is the director's cut or the theatrical cut or is it both separately available by different retailers. I emailed Amazon and they did not know but they gave me Sony's Home Entertainment email address so I asked this question and here is the response I got from Sony: 

Dear Joe,

Thank you for your e-mail. We appreciate your interest in Sony Pictures Home Entertainment products.

It will be the director's cut.

Thank you for your continued patronage and for taking the time to contact us.

Regards,

David Griffin
SPHE Consumer Affairs Team

What I plan to do is respond to this email to make sure he is correct. I think Sony has really dropped the ball in this situation since a press release would have solved this problem.

Well, IIRC, Sony had initially scheduled the Director's Cut to come out in 2006, but then canceled it. So it's possible that some departments in Sony are using old info from then.

I also would hope for the Director's Cut. And while having both would be nice, I wouldn't want to sacrifice quality to get there. So I think it would have to be a two disk set with each movie on its own disk if they decide to include both.

While they could do branching between the two on one disk, I think it might be difficult for this film to implement. It is not just adding a few scenes here and there but really reordering much of the beginning and taking out some later scenes no longer needed. Also, for branching the masters between the two cuts would have to be of the same quality and look. Otherwise, it would be obvious where the joins occurred.

 I held off picking up the director's cut on DVD but have the original cut on DVD. Hoping that the release is indeed the DC. I am really glad this film is coming to blu ray. Day 1 purchase for me. 

Same here and it seems that Sony has yet to respond to my last response so really it's a coin flip as to which version this will be. I guess will just have to wait for the reviews to trickle in to find out.

For what it's worth: The cover for the German release (also a Sony disc) clearly sports the Director's Cut banner.

See here.

Thanks. 4/6 will be an expensive day for me. LOTR and The Natural!! 

I haven't seen a press release, but here's a scan of the back of the BD case. They don't have a high-res scan of the back available, but it is showing a running time of 138 minutes.

 The Digital Bits confirmed that this will only be the theatrical cut. 

NO SALE! 

But a sale for me.

works for me, only version i've ever seen anyway.

Same with me just because being an extended version doesn't mean it's the best version of a film.




Crawdaddy

 I have the theatrical cut on DVD. I passed on the director's cut DVD as I knew The Natural would be coming to blu ray. 

Sony really should have included both cuts of the film on one disc. I was really disappointed by the news. 

I might change my mind at some point, but I really don't watch The Natural that often. 

I have the theatrical and the extended. While I have always liked the theatrical and could have easily lived with it, I think the extended is a tad better with its "looking back approach" in the beginning then being completely in chronological order.

Releasing only the theatrical shows me a bad trend when both would have been readily available. I see no reason at this point to purchase a BR theatrical when an extended could be on the horizon in the future. So I will have to wait this one out. If I see no extended in the next couple of years then I may go back and get the theatrical BR, but until then, no sale.

Very true. Just curious have you seen the extended version of this film?

Some just extend certain scenes. Others try to remake the film. In this case, I thought everything flowed a bit better without trying to overly change the film. All they really did was show him traveling on his way to join the team with flashbacks of his past. Basically, all the same content, but it seemed to flow better to his walk up the tunnel into the stadium.

I have the extended version on SD DVD, but have never watched it.  I'll probably watch it this weekend to get me in the mood for the upcoming baseball season and before I get the BRD next week.  As somebody that viewed this film during it's theatrical run and several times since then, I don't know how much the extended film will be an improvement for me.





Crawdaddy

While it would have been nice to have both versions, its still a must buy for me too.

I fall into the same category having watched it theatrically and having seen it on VHS and DVD probably 10 times over the years. And yet I found that I liked the extended version a bit better. It doesn't really change any events but just how they get referenced.

I hope you give it a chance because I would be interested in your take.

I prefer the extended version, should we call it a director's cut since it seems this is closer to the director's original vision at least according to the intro on the DVD, I believe that the Director's Cut is more centered on the Roy Hobbs character and I would say is more reflective due to the use of flashbacks. Despite saying that I think the theatrical cut is still pretty good and I don't blame people who like that cut better since it was what was seen in theaters. I do think the Director's Cut DVD should have included both cuts as well as this Blu-ray so that both versions could be enjoyed by fans of both cuts. 

The review won't be up for a few days, but I can confirm that the BD has a running time of 137 minutes, 43 seconds.

I have the DVD of the director's cut, but not the theatrical cut, so I'm wondering if someone could check it out and confirm if the running time is actually 134 minutes as every published source says.

I haven't yet had a chance to compare the PQ between the BD and the director's cut, but I will say that the BD looks and sounds very nice.

My dvd is 138 minutes, My dvd of the dir cut is 144 minutes

 I might pick up the extended cut on DVD. I've been waiting since the DVD came out to see it. 

So the BD is the theatrical release with no changes. There has been a lot of confusion about this because IMDB and other sources put the running time of the theatrical cut at 134 minutes.

The new blu ray of The Natural is the theatrical version of the film.