Straw Dogs (MGM) - Yet Another DVD Release (1 Viewer)

[Chris_Marin]

This morning MGM sent us details of their upcoming release of Straw Dogs:


For the full article, including a look at the cover art, click here.

 

[Eric DiPiazza]

If that is true, I'm more than willing to double dip on this.

 

[Brian W]

Hope it matches the existing Criterion transfer which is absolutely superb.

 

[Michael Elliott]

Wasn't the AB and Criterion versions uncut?

I've already got three DVDs of this film so won't be buying this one. I was hoping for a Hoffman interview or commentary.

 

[Simon Caleb]

Great, uncut at last.
If you want extra's hold on the previous releases & thank god Paramount didn't own this one. Thank you MGM for giving us fans what really matters, An uncut feature at a great price, unlike the still cut F13th set @ $90.

 

[Tim_Stack]

What happens in the missing minute? No features? Good thing I got the Criterion.

 

[Kai Penttila]

On their site, Criterion advertise their edition as unrated, and incidentally its runtime is 117 mins 44 secs.

 

[Michael DeKlerk]

I already own the Criterion edition, which is excellent. So I don't think I will be double dipping, even if it is unrated.

 

[oscar_merkx]

I also have the Criterion dvd so no double dip

 

[AlexHL]

I'm on the fence whether to double dip or not. I would have to know what's in that additional minute. But it is a film I would like to have the complete cut of.

 

[Kai Penttila]

As it's also touted as an extended version, maybe they put back something that Peckinpah had purposely left out.

 

[John Hodson]

I honestly doubt that this 'extra footage' is of any significance at all and it's just a cynical marketing ploy from MGM, the company that brought you - in 2004 - the non-anamorphic Junior Bonner. That they also added a commentary track to that release only made it all the more frustrating.

MGM I have the Freemantle and Criterion versions; that's enough.

 

[Simon Caleb]

Every company can slip up once in awhile with non anamorphic releases, it generally depends on what they have to hand, does it not?

Isn’t it far better to have a completely uncut film rather than a cut 16x9 release? Granted non anamorphic do tend to look soft on my 50” plasma, but missing footage is unacceptable.
We really are lucky MGM press for the most complete releases possible, their Planet of the Vampires, Edge of Sanity, and Flesh & Blood restoratons speak volumes for them.

 

[John Hodson]

Wuthering Heights, The Best Years of Our Lives, both R2 (and both worse than previous HBO releases), the aforementioned Junior Bonner and a whole slew of non-anamorphic releases that came out at the same time in R1, many of the 'Western Legends' series that seem to be chucked onto DVD without much care and attention (The Horse Soldiers is a disgrace), also speaks volumes. And does MGM know what a 1.66:1 anamorphic transfer looks like?

Af for the 'missing footage', we'll see. I cannot believe Criterion, or Freemantle for that matter, would have left anything out of the cut of any significance at all

thedigitalbits.com reports that Warners may be in with a chance of buying MGM and all that entails back-catalogue wise - we can only hope.

I'm sorry, I've bought quite a few sub-standard MGM releases recently, and I'm a bit sore!

 

[Simon Caleb]

I was refering to R1 releases only.

If you've been stung with MGM titles your not happy about, why buy them?
I wait until a few reviews have popped up before putting my hard earned down, that way you've nothing to be sore about...

 

[John Hodson]

Because (a) You tend to think 'surely it can't be that bad' and (b) for a lot of the older back-catalogue stuff there simply are no reviews.

And even for the titles I want, where I've read reviews that tell me to 'stay away, run for the hills', of course I'm still sore. Fox, Warner, even Paramount whose releases are bare-bones but tend to be excellent transfers, can all do it - why not MGM? For every Flesh + Blood there's a Vera Cruz (and I won't even go into them sitting on stuff like Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia).

EDIT - Having said all that, I've just opened up three MGM DVDs I received this morning. Along Came Jones is an adequate full-frame transfer of a b&w film, Valdez is Coming is a poor non-anamorphic rendtion of a 1.66:1 movie...but the new SE of The Manchurian Candidate looks fantastic, from the nicely designed case to the fact filled 'booklet', the new anamorphic transfer and the extras all appear to be first rate. It's the flippin' lack of consistency that puzzles me!

 

[TonyDale]

No point in double (or triple) dipping, According to Peckinpah expert Nick Redman, the MGM DVD will be the exact same UNCUT version as the Freemantle and Criterion releases - they simply don't have a clue in their press release. Furthermore, even though they were offered all the extras the appeared on the Freemantle DVD, plus some new ones, they opted to make it a bare bones release.

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

The Freemantle and Criterion editions are of the 118 (or 117m, 45s) uncut version.

The only other cut version is the 113 minute version which ommitted the second rape. This is why MGM are calling their version the uncut version.

The movie has always been rated R in the U.S.

I don't see any reason to buy the MGM edition. It was well known that the Criterion was a limited edition.

 

[richardWI]

I guess MGM just rounded up? I agreee, this is a cynical marketing ploy. And Junior Bonner shoulda been animorphic.

 

[soop.spoon]

Mr. Hodson... Junior Bonner and many other recent non-anamorphic releases coming from MGM are actually DISNEY/ABC properties... MGM is just distrubting them. That certainly doesn't let MGM off the hook, but there are more factors at play than meets the naked eye.

Also... I've read in Video Watchdog magazine and elsewhere that the Anchor Bay version of Straw Dogs contains a frame or two of r*pe footage that the Criterion version does not. Supposedly it is a quick cut, either a subliminal falsh or a bad edit.

Does anyone have any info about this? What exactly is contained in those frames if they truly exist?