WHV Press Release: SORCERER (Blu-ray Book) (1 Viewer)

[Colin Jacobson]

I'd like to be AWAKE while watching the movie - his commentaries always make me drowsy.

You can make your own William Friedkin commentary by just describing exactly what you're seeing onscreen and giving no other info.

You both make legit points!

Though Friedkin's original "Exorcist" commentary was good. His chat for the alternate cut is pretty awful, but the original has good info...

Or better yet just read his autobiography The Friedkin Connection for the full lowdown. He may have felt written out on the subject.

The Blu-ray's book includes excerpts from the autobiography. I'd still have liked something else...

 

[TravisR]

Though Friedkin's original "Exorcist" commentary was good. His chat for the alternate cut is pretty awful, but the original has good info...

Yeah, I think that's because he had someone there to converse with so he didn't go into narrator mode. Oddly, I really enjoyed his 'fan' commentary on The Leopard Man and The Narrow Margin. He made interesting points, had some behind the scenes info and was a fun to listen to so I'm confused why he can't do that same thing with his own work.

 

[Charles Smith]

Agree about the narration-mode commentaries. Can't listen to those.

Too bad, because when he's just, you know, "talking", he's a delight to listen to, and he's a wonderful storyteller.

 

[Jari K]

Recent interview:"This new DCP of the film is just gorgeous. It looks as it looked when I saw it through the viewfinder. It’s just perfect. I remixed the sound into 5.1 and it looks and sounds as I always hoped it would."( http://thehollywoodinterview.blogspot.fi/2014/04/william-friedkin-hollywood-sorcerer.html?m=1 )

 

[JoHud]

It's possible that Friedkin just wanted to get this movie out on blu-ray asap and didn't want any pending extra feature approval to delay it further. That or Friedkin was just burned out on doing something like that after all the years' work of getting the rights to this film unclogged.

These days studio releases rarely have new extra features anymore. Booklets and digibook content is usually as good as it gets.

 

[hanshotfirst1138]

Yeah, extras were for the golden age of the DVD market, these days even high-profile releases don't tend to get that many, and older film like this isn't likely to get any.

 

[Harry-N]

Hang onto your old DVD. It's got the movie's trailer at least.

Harry

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

My friend saw Friedkin at a showing of Sorcerer the other night. I wasn't there, so I'm paraphrasing. After getting feedback on his commentaries ("you only talked about what's on-screen", "you didn't talk enough about the movie") Friedkin has decided not to do them anymore. He said commentaries are like going to a museum to see a Rembrandt and having the artist tell you how he did a particular stroke.

 

[hanshotfirst1138]

That's his prerogative, of course. While I'm iffy on the tweaking of the colors (or not), as long as a director doesn't go mucking with his film ala Lucas (I'm Mike O over at originaltrilogy.com by the way, Neil), I'm certainly willing to forgive a lack of extras. Is certainly be happy to listen to a commentary if he ever records one, but it's not top priority.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

He's no Frankenheimer when it comes to commentary. I agree that he just kind of tells you about what you're already seeing (I listened to The Exorcist commentary). Which is odd, because I read his book and it was a lot more illuminating about details behind his projects.

P.S. I'm all over this even without extras.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

He's no Frankenheimer when it comes to commentary. I agree that he just kind of tells you about what you're already seeing (I listened to The Exorcist commentary). Which is odd, because I read his book and it was a lot more illuminating about details behind his projects.

P.S. I'm all over this even without extras.

You thought that he simply did a "narration commentary" for the original cut of "Exorcist"? I think his extended cut commentary is "telling us what's on screen" time but the track for the original version is pretty good, IMO...

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

You thought that he simply did a "narration commentary" for the original cut of "Exorcist"? I think his extended cut commentary is "telling us what's on screen" time but the track for the original version is pretty good, IMO...

Then I probably heard the extended cut version, or THE VERSION YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN or whatever it was hyped as. The original was better. It always is.

 

[Rob Mac]

Sorcerer looks great about 80% of the film. Looks good for the rest. A couple of grainy shots...I'm happy with it. It was worth the wait.
Now I need something else to anticipate. Got a date on True Lies yet?

 

[hanshotfirst1138]

Sorcerer looks great about 80% of the film. Looks good for the rest. A couple of grainy shots...I'm happy with it. It was worth the wait.Now I need something else to anticipate. Got a date on True Lies yet?

Once upon a time I'd have been excited about True Lies on Blu-Ray, but now I'm just figuring Cameron will wash it in orange and teal again. I got the 1080p version from Vudu, I supported Walmart, I hate myself for it.

 

[Worth]

I saw the DCP projected last night and thought it looked excellent. Very natural and film-like. The colour was possibly a bit over saturated for a film of its era, but there was nothing that jumped out as being revisionist tinkering.

 

[Harry-N]

Six samples of SORCERER have been put up on YouTube by WarnerBrosOnline:








Looks gorgeous in these samples to me.

Harry

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Very excited to see this as it has been a very long time since I have watched this film. This week provides a very nice line-up of catalog blus for films it has been ages since I have watched...along with Sorcerer I'll be watching The Pawnbroker and the Michael Caine version of Get Carter.

 

[Harry-N]

WARNING: While the Blu-ray is apparently a fine transfer based on early reviews, the DVD being issued the same day is merely a port of the old UNIVERSAL DVD.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dvd-sorcerer-roy-scheider/3622448?ean=883929383047

Look at the back cover: It says "STANDARD VERSION" Modified to fit your screen.

Same report on a reviewer on Amazon.

Harry

 

[Dave B Ferris]

Very excited to see this as it has been a very long time since I have watched this film. This week provides a very nice line-up of catalog blus for films it has been ages since I have watched...along with Sorcerer I'll be watching The Pawnbroker and the Michael Caine version of Get Carter.

The Caine version was released on Standard DVD to coincide with the debut of the Stallone version in theaters. Looking for the Caine version (DVD), I called a Virgin Megastore and asked - my mistake - for "Get Carter". After a wait of several minutes, the clerk came back on the line and told me that DVD's are not released while the films are still playing in theaters.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

The Caine version was released on Standard DVD to coincide with the debut of the Stallone version in theaters. Looking for the Caine version (DVD), I called a Virgin Megastore and asked - my mistake - for "Get Carter". After a wait of several minutes, the clerk came back on the line and told me that DVD's are not released while the films are still playing in theaters.

Ha, I've gone through that kind of thing before as well, Dave. Perhaps you are just lucky that when you said "Get Carter" you did not get put on hold until a guy picked up and said "Hi, this is Carter."