- Joined
- Feb 8, 1999
- Messages
- 18,312
- Real Name
- Robert Harris
Note: I'm just slowly getting up and running again after my lightning strike, so I'm going to be reporting on some of the titles missed in the interim.
A decade or so ago, during a discussion with a author friend, he explained his position when people ask how he feels if one of his books has been unsuccessfully turned into a film. How does he feel when his book is "ruined?"
"Simple," he said...
"My book is right there on the shelf. No one has touched it. It's the film that's the problem."
And so it was.
Kenneth Branaugh's huge 65mm originated, four hour version of Shakespeare's Hamlet has finally come to Blu-ray.
I'm not certain that this is the best Hamlet on film. There are many, inclusive of the 1948 Olivier version.
But it is huge, and colorful, and filled with the faces of as many known actors as is It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
Taking Mr. Branaugh's film, scanning a 65mm element and preparing it for Blu-ray should not have been a major task, and the final result should have been gorgeous.
As it is, someone as Warner Bros. has taken a beautiful image and homogenized it into something that looks clean, nicely colored, and much like a poorly scanned 35mm production. There is neither proper sharpness, nor high resolution information.
Which considering the available elements and the concept of why and how the film was made, rather defeats the purpose.
Fortunately, Mr. Shakespeare's play is still on the shelf, as is Mr. Branaugh's film.
A special note to the technical people at WB. You can neither fit a gallon of water into a quart bucket, nor a four hour 65mm production onto a single Blu-ray disc at full quality. The format is good, but not that good.
And packaging a poorly produced Blu-ray in an attractive little book delivers nothing more than an attractive package holding a poorly produced Blu-ray.
Fail.
RAH
A decade or so ago, during a discussion with a author friend, he explained his position when people ask how he feels if one of his books has been unsuccessfully turned into a film. How does he feel when his book is "ruined?"
"Simple," he said...
"My book is right there on the shelf. No one has touched it. It's the film that's the problem."
And so it was.
Kenneth Branaugh's huge 65mm originated, four hour version of Shakespeare's Hamlet has finally come to Blu-ray.
I'm not certain that this is the best Hamlet on film. There are many, inclusive of the 1948 Olivier version.
But it is huge, and colorful, and filled with the faces of as many known actors as is It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
Taking Mr. Branaugh's film, scanning a 65mm element and preparing it for Blu-ray should not have been a major task, and the final result should have been gorgeous.
As it is, someone as Warner Bros. has taken a beautiful image and homogenized it into something that looks clean, nicely colored, and much like a poorly scanned 35mm production. There is neither proper sharpness, nor high resolution information.
Which considering the available elements and the concept of why and how the film was made, rather defeats the purpose.
Fortunately, Mr. Shakespeare's play is still on the shelf, as is Mr. Branaugh's film.
A special note to the technical people at WB. You can neither fit a gallon of water into a quart bucket, nor a four hour 65mm production onto a single Blu-ray disc at full quality. The format is good, but not that good.
And packaging a poorly produced Blu-ray in an attractive little book delivers nothing more than an attractive package holding a poorly produced Blu-ray.
Fail.
RAH