Lonesome Dove (1 Viewer)

[MatthewA]

Unless the director wanted it to be in this aspect ratio, forget it. And you may draw the line at the idea of an MAR Twin Peaks, but who's to say Paramount wouldn't? Although since they already remastered it in 4x3 (presumably for HD), they could release it that way.

My OAR purism extends to TV as well as movies.

 

[Eric F]

So far, from what I've read this will be released in 1.66 which will be a decent compromise. Ah well, better than nothing.:frowning:

 

[DanMel]

What was the original run time for this movie?

imdb has it at 384 min

The original DVD has it at 360 min

The new Blu-ray has it at 372 min

Are we still losing 12 min from the original movie on the Blu-ray?

 

[Jeff Adkins]

I wonder if the 384 minute runtime includes some recaps from when it was shown over multiple nights on TV?

 

[TonyD]

the disc has a 373 runtime.
no mention of a dir commentary, unless that was a joke.
"Apparently the Blu Ray has the 6 hour director's commentary as an exclusive."
does that mean the commentary was previously somewhere else?

i see listed;
making of 50 minute featurette

original interviews on the set

a new interview with the dir

blueprints of a masterpiece -sketches and concept art

interview with mr. McMurtry

 

[Terry H]

I don't doubt that this isn't OAR and I understand that is usually the kiss of death. But... look at these BD screenshots from dvdbeaver Lonesome Dove - Blu-ray Robert Duvall Tommy Lee Jones
This will never be your gold standard BD demo disc but the PQ is vastly better than the current OAR release. I may wait for another review or two but I'm a hair away from purchase.

 

[Mike Williams]

Having checked out the specs on DVDBeaver, I, for one, am horrified. They've put Parts 1, 2 and 3 on the first BD-50, with only Part 4 and standard def extras on a BD-25. That's over four-and-a-half hours of video and audio on a single BD-50. That's absurd! Each part eats up roughly only 15-17 GB of disc space. I think we've been shafted here, and for no real apparent reason.

 

[TonyD]

i only watched about 45 minutes of the first sd release and stopped because it looked miserable.

this br looks miles better then that old dvd.

there are going to be those who still won't like it becauase
it still looks soft, but i bet it will never look any better then whats on this blu-ray.

my complaint is the dialog and the subtitles.
dialog is very low compared to the rest of the sound and sometimes words get cut off.

also most of the subs are skipping a lot of words.

i never understood why subs aren't exactly whats said on screen.


i think there/s going to be some complaining about this release.

 

[Mike Williams]

Tony, I have no doubt this Blu-ray could have looked better than it does by giving it two BD-50s with Parts 1 and 2 on Disc One and Parts 3 and 4 on Disc Two, with the 50 minute doc on one of the discs and the other extras on the other disc. I really can't imagine what the geniuses and Genius were thinking when they decided to put 4 hrs., 39 mins., on a single BD-50. But in my opinion, they've seriously crippled what could have been a great release. I'll see for myself tonight how it actually looks, but there's no doubt in my mind that it could have looked better.

 

[TonyD]

you're proaly right about that mike.

i did notice from one part to the next a difference in pic quality.

part 2 was much better then part 1 and part 3.
there were a lot of scenes that looked to me may have been filmed
with natural lighting, candles only, and these scenes suffered.

as for the show.
this was the first time a made it all the way through and i was just moved
by every performance and character in this.

Towards the end i kept having a Les Miserables feel from this.
that is a compliment as i love that story(the show not the book).

 

[Mike Williams]

I watched about 45 minutes of Part 1 on my lunchbreak today. It is an enormous improvement over the previous DVD and better than it has ever looked. While I still believe it could have looked better with not too much forethought and execution, I'm still very pleased, as this is my all-time favorite western and mini-series.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

I watched half of part one last night. The 5.1 sound mix struck me as very strange with the foley pushed way forward at times, especially those darn pigs. The pig squeals were mixed louder than the stampeding horses.

Ambient sound effects (shuffling feet, clanging cookware, etc.) also seemed extremely forward in the mix. I have not A/B'd it with the previous release to confirm if this is faithful to the original mix, but it was more jarring to me than any potential framing deficiencies.

Regards,

 

[TonyD]

i noticed the sound mix was odd too, i just couldnt pinpoint what was odd about it.
other then the dialog problem that i mentioned.
the original dvd was a 2.0 mix so was this a new 5.1 mix for this release?

 

[Mark-P]

Even though I picked this up last Tuesday, I just now got around to sampling it on my system and comparing it to the first DVD. Yes the picture is 1000 times better and even the compromised ratio was nicely handled to make a cinematic widescreen picture. However, what is up with the 5.1 sound mix? My god, I don't know if they re-recorded the foley, but it is so over-cooked that it practically drowns out the dialog. I Compared it to the earlier DVD, whose mono sound was well balanced with background noises IN THE BACKGROUND. It would have been nice to have a fully emersive 5.1 audio experience that used the whole range of subtle to powerful instead of every single sound being blown out and turned up to "eleven" !

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

Having lived with it a little longer, now, I applied some dynamic range compression via my receiver and it actually helped things out. This should never be necessary, though, and the mix is still a disappointment.