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The Graduate (40th anniv. edition) - any reviews ? (1 Viewer)

Gordon McMurphy

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Craig, I wondered about the level of darkness too. But on my plasma it appears less dark than the Beaver screencaps. Those hotel room scenes were intended to be dark; on all the previous transfers, those scenes were brightened and blown out, as the screencaps show if you look closely. Nichols and Soderbergh supervised the transfer for Paramount's, Catch-22 (Soderbergh mentions this on the commentary)DVD, though I am not sure about Warner's, Virginia Woolf DVD (which I feel is stunning) being supervised by them.
 

CraigF

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Thanks Gordon. It's likely partly my fault as I have my "brightness" turned way down, maybe too low, as I usually watch in complete darkness (yeah, I know that's not great, but I'm old already...).
 

Gordon McMurphy

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I, too err on the side of "better to slightly too dark than slightly too bright", but I am careful enough make adjustments if I feel that detail is being lost. Upgrades in monitors over the years has made it easier to gauge the brightness level.
 

Marty M

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I saw this movie 5 or 6 times in 1968, and I don't recall the projected image looking too dark, at all. It seemed fine to me.
 

captainjoe

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The link works for me now, the new transfer is brilliant. Quite stunning in clarity and colour.
 

Ronald Epstein

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I have some interesting news on this title.

This was a restoration by Sony Pictures a couple of years ago.
Sony has the TV rights, MGM has home video rights, and it is owned
by Canal Plus. But, all agreed Sony would restore it. Mike Nichols
attended an early screening of the film to get the color and densities
correct and it is indeed a 'dark' film as some of the comments have
noted. In a first meeting with Nichols, he asked if Sony knew how
dark it should look, that it was a very dark film, and he meant
literally as well as figuratively. It is an exceptionally well-photographed
film that needed no embellishing from Sony. It is my understanding
that Nichols was very gracious about the quality of the final work
when Sony had the premiere at the Academy a year or so ago.
Once completed, Sony then oversaw the new HD transfer of the film
following the same guidelines from the director on the look once again.
Sony also compared framing on the earlier transfers of the film to make
sure they were getting the most out of the image, not cutting off as
much as on the previous transfers.
 

Haggai

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Thanks for the details, Ron. Kudos to Sony for coming around on this title and putting in the effort to get it right.
 

Scott Merryfield

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I'll echo the thanks for sharing this info, Ron. I'm really looking forward to this release. The Graduate is one of my favorite films. The professor in my college film class over 25 years ago used it as an example of how pan & scanning can ruin a film, showing the OAR and "edited for TV" versions side by side. It made a lifelong lasting impression, demonstrating that not only is a significant part of the frame lost, but scene flow can be dramatically altered by all the camera cuts required by p&s.
 

Rich Malloy

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Yes, very interesting Ron. And you can tell that the earlier transfers also had the white levels set too high. My previous best version... the Optimum R2 ... is completely blown out in that shot of Ben in the church balcony framed against the large window.

So, is there a hi-def release of this (France, maybe?), and does anyone know how the images compare?
 

Jim*Tod

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Great deal for shoppers at Best Buy. Not only do you get the restored dvd version of the film and a cd with some Simon and Garfunkel songs, but also a dvd of S and G in concert in Central Park. Not bad for 14.99.
 

Mike Frezon

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Jim: That combo was $14.99 in-store? I'm only asking because BB advertised that as $19.99 in their flyers...but bb.com was listing $14.99 for the film-only.
 

Jim*Tod

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I found it in the store.... it was not shown on the website. I am guessing like the bonus disc that Circuit City had for the APOCALYPSE NOW dvd about a year ago, the quantity is limited. By the way... the transfer looks great. As they say on tv... get yours NOW!
 

Patrick McCart

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I watched the DVD last night... this is now one of my favorite movies. I actually waited until a remaster came along since I didn't want to see the old disc since it looked awful.

The remaster is fantastic. They could have used a bit less DVNR, but I only spotted 3-4 specks throughout the movie. The 5.1 remixes are great. I haven't listened to the commentaries yet. The S&G concert freebie at Best Buy was a nice deal. $15 for a great movie in remastered form with lots of extras, an EP, and a feature-length concert... that's a real deal.



My only issue is the cover. It's not that good and I would have prefered the original '67 stylized one (designed by Richard Williams):



Also, this line made me laugh the hardest:

"Oh no, Mrs. Robinson. I think, I think you're the most attractive of all my parents' friends. I mean that."
 

Rich Malloy

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Particularly as the new artwork is just terrible. Shame to hear about the noise reduction, and it'll be interesting to see whether it obscures any fine detail that's visible on the R2-Optimum.
 

ScottR

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Is the DVNR evident during the opening credits? That's where I noticed it on the previous edition.
 

ScottR

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The only shot I felt was too dark was during the hotel room scene when Hoffman bangs his head on the wall...in this edition, you can't really see him doing it. The camera changes focus from the foreground to the background, so shouldn't it have been lighter so you could see it?
 

BethHarrison

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Many of Warners' classic releases retain the original poster art - the result is always marvellous.
 

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