A Few Words About A few words about...™ Hawaii -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Jim*Tod]

Yes, it is interesting that '66 didn't produce any box-office hits with takes well over the $30-35 Million range (at least, in that calendar year), yet '65 had three mega-blockbusters that made much more than that, box-office hit phenomenons actually, and '67 produced eight movies that took in significantly more than $30-35 Million.

So I clicked on the year 1966 In Television and noticed there were several prime time color television debuts in the USA that year. Also, three television series debuted in '66 that got tons of media coverage, pop culture attention and viewership interest; Batman, The Monkees, and Mission: Impossible (Star Trek, too, but I don't know if many people were staying home to watch that series to talk about it the next day the year it debuted, but I could be wrong about that).

Unless I am missing something obvious, I can't exactly say the same for prime time color television events and notable pop culture television series' debuts for '65 and '67. Maybe television made more gains in its war against the movies that particular year of 1966 than the year before or after..?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966_in_television

That is an interesting theory. And of course we were entering the late sixties where the cultural climate of the country was changing very rapidly. Hollywood was somewhat behind the curve. I also wonder if there was something of a glut of big budget roadshows too.... some succeeded at the box office but many died there and most of the major studios were in bad shape by the end of the decade.

 

[Joe Caps]

All this is interesting info.
My main complaint is that mgm us have not provided a replice of the laser laser long version in stereo, but in mono. Why?

 

[Dr Griffin]

Depending on the conditions of the elements there would also be the option to do a quick and dirty 4k scan of a faded 70mm roadshow print. The one used to create the SD material should still exist but maybe MGM also practiced annihilation by rejuvenation with it like they did for the roadshow print of The Alamo?

In any case, the fading can be overcome and result in colors that look more natural than for many of todays blockbusters as can be seen here for a scan from a faded 70mm print of Savage Pampas:
http://in70mm.com/news/2015/pampas/images/pampas.jpg

With this being an MGM property they may as well decide to not do anything with what roadshow footage they have nor let anybody else do something with it but it would be possible to arrive at so much better quality than what is currently available for the roadshow version.

I suspect that it will sell slowly on blu-ray and that consequently nothing else will be done.

I think by now we all know MGM isn't going to do anything more with catalog titles that will not sell well. Something like this and The Alamo, which would cost quite a bit to restore properly they are staying away from. We also know, as in the case with The Alamo, that they do not want outside money or help, so with all this I think it's safe to say, barring a quick sellout at TT, and more demand from the consumers, this is it for Hawaii.

 

[Rob_Ray]

1966 was really the year when the late sixties kicked into high gear -- the year of BLOW-UP, WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF and other decidedly adult fare. After years of blockbuster family fare like MARY POPPINS, MY FAIR LADY and THE SOUND OF MUSIC, the family film market was beginning to be ignored. Sure there was G-rated fare like FANTASTIC VOYAGE and sentimental smaller scaled titles THE TROUBLE WITH ANGELS and THE SINGING NUN, but The Big Change in the culture was elevating and I think that change showed up in the box office tallies. Large segments of the population were staying home and watching safer fare on TV. The glut of family musical roadshows in the wake of THE SOUND OF MUSIC hadn't hit theatres yet and when they did, it only reinforced the idea that a major portion of the moviegoing audience was now staying home.

It was also the year that THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI scored massive ratings on the ABC SUNDAY NIGHT MOVIE, which made the networks sit up, take notice and start forking over millions of dollars for the TV rights to all the earlier Hollywood roadshows from the last ten years.

The studio era was now finally breathing its last breath, after having been on life support for years. And the New Hollywood wasn't really open for business yet. I think all these things contributed to the weaker box-office tallies of 1966.

 

[Keith Cobby]

It is interesting to look at the hits of 1965 where the three top hits grossed $163,214,286, 111,721,910, and $63,595,658. But in '66 the two top grossing films were less than 35 million each. Granted SOUND OF MUSIC, DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, and THUNDERBALL were all making money well into 1966 and may have well pulled audiences away from the films released that year. Was this a particularly bad year for Hollywood? Certainly many of the roadshows in '66 and '67 did not do very well and clearly tastes were changing with THE GRADUATE over 100 million in '67.

It is interesting to look at the highest grossing films by year and then to consider which of them have been released on blu-ray. Some of the top money makers have been released and not others. I suppose the reason is down to the state of the elements and restoration costs. Also some are now looked on more or less favourably than when they were released. My two favourite films from the 1966 list are A Man for All Seasons and The Professionals, both of which have received excellent releases. Hawaii made more money but isn't a film I need on blu-ray.

 

[JohnMor]

John Mor - is there any music missing from the isolated score track?

Joe, I don't know as I haven't played the isolated track in it's entirety yet.

 

[John Maher_289910]

Yes, it is interesting that '66 didn't produce any box-office hits with takes well over the $30-35 Million range (at least, in that calendar year), yet '65 had three mega-blockbusters that made much more than that, box-office hit phenomenons actually, and '67 produced eight movies that took in significantly more than $30-35 Million.

So I clicked on the year 1966 In Television and noticed there were several prime time color television debuts in the USA that year. Also, three television series debuted in '66 that got tons of media coverage, pop culture attention and viewership interest; Batman, The Monkees, and Mission: Impossible (Star Trek, too, but I don't know if many people were staying home to watch that series to talk about it the next day the year it debuted, but I could be wrong about that).

Unless I am missing something obvious, I can't exactly say the same for prime time color television events and notable pop culture television series' debuts for '65 and '67. Maybe television made more gains in its war against the movies that particular year of 1966 than the year before or after..?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966_in_television

THE SOUND OF MUSIC was the Number 1 grossing film of 1966, so that's part of the reason.

 

[Joe Caps]

Anyway, does anyone know when Hawaii was cut? I saw it twice, a year after roadshow release at two different theaters where it had continuous showings and it was still the cuncut 35mm version.
Even CBS ran it uncut over two nights when it played on the network. Alater showing was shown on only one night - cut.
the group is leavin harbor in New England and on the very next shot, they are arriving in Hawaii.

 

[Joe Caps]

BTW - I see from scans that my copy of Hawaii has arrived in town today for delivery. Time to attack that music track.

 

[Thomas T]

Just looked my TT copy of Hawaii over. I don't think the blu looks all that great and I don't think the standard look all that bad. So I'm grateful to TT for making the Roadshow version available even if on SD. Thank you, TT!

 

[PMF]

This whole argument is testament to the damage that can be done by those shortsighted studio execs who just throw away footage cut from the films. Not to mention the ones who let completed films just rot away (can you say The Alamo?). The original footage, shot at great expense, is gone forever.

As I've said in the past:
There are some people in this world who covets the ownership of a Rolls Royce.
Only a rare few know how to handle, drive and maintain theses beauties.
There are some who know that the Dipstick is under the hood;
but, most of the time, you will find that the one true Dipstick is the one behind the wheel.

BTW, have you ever heard the joke about a Barber who began as a follicle and quickly grew into a fossil?

 

[PMF]

...Reserved Seat Roadshow (for the anointed few)...

I was anointed at the age of 5 with "The Sound of Music" and "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines".

 

[PMF]

ROclockCK said:
So although I agree that studios *should* have saved more from this era, and preserved better what they did save [...]Few envisioned then that all those original [...]elements would ever be required or desired again.
*...except for Disney, which was always well-protected.[/QUOTE]

PMF replied:
**...and Chaplin, too.

 

[PMF]

This is true. They even got some of that money from my Mom and me (and we loved "Hawaii").

And don't forget about me and my Mum, too.

 

[JohnMor]

One performance that always goes unheralded imo is Dorothy Jeakins' moving performance as Max Von Sydow's mother. Small a role as it is, half of it appears only in the Roadshow version, but it's a quietly effective, very sad performance. Always impressed me for a costume designer who never seemed to act in anything else (unless I'm mistaken).

 

[Rob_Ray]

One performance that always go unheralded imo is Dorothy Jeakins' moving performance as Max Von Sydow's mother. Small a role as it is, half of it appears only in the Roadshow version, but it's a quietly effective, very sad performance. Always impressed me for a costume designer who never seemed to act in anything else (unless I'm mistaken).

She also has a wordless bit role as a nun in THE SOUND OF MUSIC.

 

[ROclockCK]

I was anointed at the age of 5 with "The Sound of Music" and "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines".

It was around '65/'66 when I began taking day trips by train to Toronto to catch the roadshows...especially 70mm releases. Prior to that, in the small Eastern Ontario city I grew up in we typically waited up to a year to see these pictures...and then in 35mm only...more often than not cut.

Once I discovered how much routinely got trimmed going from roadshow to wide release, that became as much of a motivator for my day trips as the improved 70mm quality.

 

[bruceames]

I watched the complete roadshow version last week (in two sittings). As I said, the window-boxed PQ is roughly DVD quality, but zoomed it looks pretty bad (but then I sit fairly close too). I enjoyed the movie presented that way: low to mid grade SD on a window-boxed screen. Would I have enjoyed it more watching minus the 18-20 minutes of deleted scenes in HD? I doubt it. Would I have enjoyed it more watching the roadshow in HD? Of course. But remember we enjoyed these movies when they could only be seen in SD and on a smaller screen, and we can still enjoy them that way when there is no better alternative.

 

[davidmatychuk]

I watched the complete roadshow version last week (in two sittings). As I said, the window-boxed PQ is roughly DVD quality, but zoomed it looks pretty bad (but then I sit fairly close too). I enjoyed the movie presented that way: low to mid grade SD on a window-boxed screen. Would I have enjoyed it more watching minus the 18-20 minutes of deleted scenes in HD? I doubt it. Would I have enjoyed it more watching the roadshow in HD? Of course. But remember we enjoyed these movies when they could only be seen in SD and on a smaller screen, and we can still enjoy them that way when there is no better alternative.

Likewise, the laserdisc. I've actually been thinking of getting and maintaining a 90's-era tube television just for such situations. I still watch VHS tapes and laserdiscs from my collection, and modern displays just aren't that forgiving. At the same time, the audio on those older formats usually compares favourably to DVD or Blu-Ray on modern playback set-ups, much more than the picture quality does. I used to have a splendid 35" Toshiba, but the tube needed replacing after almost 10 years of great service, and that 35" tube would have cost more than the whole TV cost me in 1992. I could even take advantage of the anamorphic squeeze on DVD's with that set; there was an adjustment screw in the back that was easy to access with a tiny screwdriver, which I kept by the TV. Mind you, the TV was 200 pounds, with no handles. Setting that beast on its matching stand after I assembled it was a four-person job. Anyhow, perhaps someday there will be a secondary market for refurbished vintage video gear. Who knows? Record players came back, and I don't mean the high-end ones that never went away.

 

[bruceames]

Likewise, the laserdisc. I've actually been thinking of getting and maintaining a 90's-era tube television just for such situations. I still watch VHS tapes and laserdiscs from my collection, and modern displays just aren't that forgiving. At the same time, the audio on those older formats usually compares favourably to DVD or Blu-Ray on modern playback set-ups, much more than the picture quality does. I used to have a splendid 35" Toshiba, but the tube needed replacing after almost 10 years of great service, and that 35" tube would have cost more than the whole TV cost me in 1992. I could even take advantage of the anamorphic squeeze on DVD's with that set; there was an adjustment screw in the back that was easy to access with a tiny screwdriver, which I kept by the TV. Mind you, the TV was 200 pounds, with no handles. Setting that beast on its matching stand after I assembled it was a four-person job. Anyhow, perhaps someday there will be a secondary market for refurbished vintage video gear. Who knows? Record players came back, and I don't mean the high-end ones that never went away.

I've only watched a few LDs and VHS tapes the last several years, but I have found them very watchable from my bedroom TV (a 50" plasma, but the viewing distance is 14' away). I would watch more of those formats but I always have so many DVD and Blu-ray (and HD DVDs) to watch too. Now next week I'll have another format (UHD), making the competition for my viewing time among the various formats even more intense.