Deer Hunter 2-disc SE in September (MERGED THREAD) (1 Viewer)

Does anyone know if they are going to release The Deer Hunter - Robert Deniro and Christopher Walken on DVD. Collectors Edition maybe? I know they have it on DVD, but has anyone heard of something new coming out.

I can't wait for this summer - Fistful of Dollars and A Few More Dollars!!!!

A 2 disc SE is out in the UK (and has been since mid-2003). It has a great commentary from Cimino and an hour making of documentary (split into 3 parts) on the second disc. It's a Warners, not Universal, release, which may explain its non-appearance in R1.

There's a rumour that Universal is prepping an R1 SE of The Deer Hunter for release this year.

Let's hope. This, All the President's Men, Cool Hand Luke, and The Sting as well as countless others I am missing deserve MUCH BETTER than their current DVD representation.

The Deer Hunter is one of the most powerful films ever.


Not to change the subject too much, but I haven't read anything about these re-releases. I will say I hope they don't ruin the films like they did with the GB&U re-release by the inclusion of pointless and badly-dubbed scenes. Those extra scenes were deleted for a reason.

Anyone heard anything new on a Deer Hunter SE? Hate to spend a fortune on what seems to be an OOP DVD if something is in the works.

Yeah an SE would be GREAT!!! I heard tht it may come out in 2008 on its 30th Anniversary. Please may this not be true!!!

Announcement here, on DVDAnswers. Woo-hoo! Is the Universal "Legacy Series" something new? According to DVDAnswers, there are also going to be 2-disc SE Legacy Series releases on Sept. 6 for To Kill a Mockingbird and The Sting(!!). Looks like Universal is finally stepping up to the plate on some of our most long-desired SEs.

Excellent. Looks like I need to start saving those pennies because it's going to be an expensive release day for me.

This is great news!

It also seems to follow the recent trend from studios in releasing new SE editions of older DVDs before the next generation DVD comes out. These new releases may also hint that HD editions will be available soon.

DVD Times has news of a September release of The Deer Hunter SE here:

Universal Studios Home Video have announced the Region 1 DVD release of The Deer Hunter (Special Edition) for 6th September 2005 priced at $26.98 SRP. Robert De Niro stars in director Michael Cimino's 1978 classic which examines the way that the Vietnam war affects the lives of people in a small industrial town in the USA.

This two-disc set presents the film in 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen with English and Spanish Stereo audio plus optional English, French and Spanish subtitles. Bonus features are TBC.

I don't really understand the logic of waiting to release an SE until just before HD comes in, if that really is one of the determining factors here. What's the advantage for the studios of doing that, as opposed to releasing these, say, two years ago?

um fellas fellas we've had a 2-disc Deer Hunter on region 2 for a couple of years now, is this the same copy I wonder. And thanks to the wonders of PAL speed-up it's half an hour shorter too!

Netflix has been listing Deer Hunter as September for about a month. I wonder how they get their info.

The logic is mostly the desire to unleash as much popular product on SD DVD, before they release HD editions. It isn't all that much different than releasing a barebones DVD, then following it up a few months to a year later with a special edition. It is an opportunity to get people to double dip.

In addition, keep in mind the majority of consumers have very little to no knowledge of plans for a new generation DVD technology. Studios know that even if they are not going to rush out and buy this new technology it will likely keep them from buying as many current DVDs with the idea that at some point they will switch. Thus studios are very anxious right now to get as much popular product out there as possible.

The reality of course is that standard DVD will likely outsell HiDef DVD for many years to come, but I'm sure we will see an impact on sales of standard DVDs simply because of the perception many consumers will have that they will eventually switch and thus wont want to invest as much in standard DVD as they have in the past.

That's Warner's edition, as they own the rights to DH for R2. Universal owns the rights for R1. It will be interesting to see how the two compare.

The thing I'm wondering about with big titles like this, where SEs were sure to be big sellers no matter when they released them (I'm sure The Sting falls into that category), is why they would have waited at all. I guess I don't quite see why these would fall into the "ok, let's go ahead and get it out before HD comes in" category. They could have gone for the double dip several years ago and still made as much money, I would think.

I would agree, but only the folks at Universal know for sure why they didn't.

Several studio execs like Peter Staddon at Fox and George Feltenstein at Warner have said on several occasions that even when they own the rights to a film and they know it is a popular and often requested title, there can be several reasons why it takes a very long time for them to release it.

Studios may have a lot of money, but their physical resources, especially when it comes to working on older films and special edition DVDs with features that have not been produced can take as much and even more than two years even after getting the green light.

It is easy to understand the frustration fans have when they see so many DVD releases, and yet their favorite film(s) has(have) yet to be released on DVD or receive a special edition treatment, but many also do not realize how complicated certain releases can be and the issues that effect whether or not or when a title gets released.

What is certain is that the studios must feel under the gun right now to get a lot of these titles out before interest in standard DVD dies down, which could be in as little as two or three years.

This is, of course, sensational news (although I'd argue that the news regarding The Sting should have at least been included in the thread title). This Legacy Series sounds like a pretty sweet deal, although it seems a bit late to be introducing something like this into the marketplace. Is it pushing our luck to speculate that they're planning on releasing - gulp - Double Indemnity under this banner?

See the end of this thread for some celebration regarding The Sting. Maybe I should have linked to that in the first post of this thread.

Even more odd is that the only previous Legacy collection releases from Universal were the Monster Classics DVDs:

[c] [/c]