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

[Dennis Gallagher]

I was there on Sunday. The announcer mentioned two specific titles for the summer 70mm festival--IT'S A MAD....WORLD and SPARTACUS, plus others still being negotiated.

Let's hope they do a better job showing "Mad" than they did in 2004. At that showing they chopped off the song leading into the Intermission and left the curtain open during the Intermission police calls.
I'm all for encouraging 70mm presentation - but it would also be nice if theaters made an attempt to replicate the "roadshow" experience.
On that note - was "Patton" shown with Intermission and Entr'acte music?
(Sorry - I really couldn't motivate myself to drive two hours on a holiday weekend to see this.. I'm hoping for more than one film a day at the
Festival - but figure this might be logistically unfeasible. Any chance for "Ryan's Daughter" or a re-run of "West Side Story"?)

 

[John Skoda]

On that note - was "Patton" shown with Intermission and Entr'acte music?

Absolutely. AFI is very good about such things, as you would expect.
RYAN'S DAUGHTER would be welcome. I'd especially like to see STAR! in 70mm.

 

[Jim*Tod]

Definitely agree about STAR! and RYAN'S DAUGHTER. I'd also like CLEOPATRA, SOUTH PACIFIC, and OKLAHOMA! AFI generally does the roadshow thing right though they rarely close the curtains for the intermission. I did send them a link to the AMERICAN WIDESCREEN MUSEUM, which has a section on showmanship telling the exhibitors how to show such hard ticket films as THE TEN COMMANDMENTS and WEST SIDE STORY. I think you can count on a quality presentation of the 70mm material, though I do expect the quality of the prints themselves to vary.

 

[John Skoda]

I'm happy to say I saw OKLAHOMA! in 70mm in the 80s(?) when they did a 70mm reissue. It played briefly here in the DC area at the Uptown Theater--not only in 70mm, but in 30 fps 70mm (the original Todd-AO format). The Uptown was reconfigured for Todd-AO and OKLAHOMA! in 1956, so that's where locals would have seen it at the time. It was truly astonishing. I involuntarily ducked during the opening shot through the cornfield as if the leaves were going to hit me in the face.
Come to think of it, I guess all 70mm prints of OKLAHOMA! are 30fps rather than 24....

 

[Jim*Tod]

Yes... I also saw OKLAHOMA! in 70mm/30fps at the Naro theatre in Norfolk, Va in the early 80's. They advertised it as "Not just 70mm but TODD-AO." It was pretty impressive even though I have read the 70mm cameras used for OKLAHOMA! had some issues with their shutters, which I think is apparent even on the (not so hot) dvd version. I do think the Todd-ao version is better than the Cinemascope version. Only OKLAHOMA! and AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS were shot at 30fps... with the 3rd Todd-Ao film, SOUTH PACIFIC, they switched to 24 fps. The American Widescreen Museum site has interesting details on how AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS was shot at the two different frame rates and the many variations in format that were used during its release. Would love also see this Mike Todd epic in 70mm but I doubt there are any decent prints of this left.

 

[Doctorossi]

I've often wondered if the eventual Blu-ray releases of Oklahoma! and 80 Days would be transferred at 60i. Anyone have any insight?

 

[Dennis Gallagher]

Definitely agree about STAR! and RYAN'S DAUGHTER. I'd also like CLEOPATRA, SOUTH PACIFIC, and OKLAHOMA! AFI generally does the roadshow thing right though they rarely close the curtains for the intermission. I did send them a link to the AMERICAN WIDESCREEN MUSEUM, which has a section on showmanship telling the exhibitors how to show such hard ticket films as THE TEN COMMANDMENTS and WEST SIDE STORY. I think you can count on a quality presentation of the 70mm material, though I do expect the quality of the prints themselves to vary.

I believe I sent them a similar e-mail about roadshow showmanship after the botched "Mad World" showing in 2004 - but it's not viewable on the computer I'm presently using.
Does "rarely" mean they HAVE closed the curtains at Intermission during some presentations? Did they do this for the "Patton" showings?
(You'd think that theaters that still have curtains could program this kind of thing now.)
In the Silver's defense - they showed a 70mm print of the 7 hour Russian "War and Peace" some years ago - and I very much doubt that too many theaters would try that.

 

[Jim*Tod]

I can easily forgive the lack of curtain closings if the projection and sound are good. They did not use them for PATTON.
Glad to hear someone else saw the 70mm print of WAR AND PEACE at the Silver... I did the whole thing in one day. It was both exhausting and thrilling. Too bad there is not a good blu ray or even dvd of that. I have the Rustico version which does have great sound, but apparently the disc was mastered in PAL and there are lots of flaws on the video end. As I recall, WAR AND PEACE did not attract very large audience.
In recent years they have not had quite as adventurous programming as they did the first year or so. I do hope this planned 70mm festival will find a good sized audience. What amazed me was a few years ago, just before the Miriam dvd release of EL CID, they had a screening (digital not film) of the movie on a cold January Monday night and there was a packed house. Unfortunately there was a problem which could not be corrected which left about half of the screen out of focus for the entire screening. Still... it shows there IS an audience for quality road show films of the past. And my guess is that if this 70mm festival is not supported, we will not see another one.

 

[Kevin M]

I've scanned about 10 of these 17 pages to see why RAH removed his initial "words" regarding this transfer.....why did he edit/delete it?

 

[Robert Harris]

I've scanned about 10 of these 17 pages to see why RAH removed his initial "words" regarding this transfer.....why did he edit/delete it?

It has apparently been lost. It was removed, by me, as it became a political hot potato with Fox.
Best to visit Digital Bits, where my other piece can still be found. Hopefully.
RAH

 

[Dr Griffin]

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/robertharris/harris062408.html

 

[ackbak]

Sigh...
I have been thoroughly enjoying the book titled "The Second World War" by Antony Beevor (his previous books on Stalingrad, and Berlin in WWII are excellent as well) and I ready to start watching my favorite WWII movies again in a marathon (Das Boot, Bridge On The River Kwai, Sand Pebbles, etc)...
Patton is one of my favs, and I own the Blu-Ray but really wish Fox would fix this mess...
Please Fox!!!

 

[DavidJ]

Me too Tim. I really like Patton and want to add it to my collection, but I will not purchase the current disc.

 

[Dr Griffin]

A new transfer on the way.
http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=9281

 

[dpippel]

^ Fantastic news!

 

[Robert Crawford]

Originally Posted by schtan /t/272830/a-few-words-about-patton-in-blu-ray/510#post_3960038
A new transfer on the way.
http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=9281

Why are you posting that link here when Mr. Lumenick actually posts on the HTF?

Here's the link he posted here earlier today.








Crawdaddy

 

[Rachael B]

I'd sure like to have a better Patton disc! I won't even watch the original BD except on my 2 smaller TV's. It looks miserable on my big set with it's blank faces.

 

[Doctorossi]

I felt like I was the only one still asking after this re-release once it had missed its original release window last winter. I'm sooooo glad it's finally being scheduled.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Why are you posting that link here when Mr. Lumenick actually posts on the HTF?
Here's the link he posted here earlier today.
Crawdaddy

To be fair, that was posted in a thread titled with the films "War of the Roses" and "Hoffa" and in the DVD subforum (not the BluRay forum), an area I normally do not frequent. I never would have found the item on Patton had it not been mentioned in this thread.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Originally Posted by Scott Merryfield /t/272830/a-few-words-about-patton-in-blu-ray/510#post_3960159
To be fair, that was posted in a thread titled with the films "War of the Roses" and "Hoffa" and in the DVD subforum (not the BluRay forum), an area I normally do not frequent. I never would have found the item on Patton had it not been mentioned in this thread.

From now on, I will make sure informational links are posted for everyone to see then.