"South Pacific" 1958 - when? (1 Viewer)

This DVD came out in 1999 and looks to be OOP now with no replacement reissue listed? What gives?

With R2 having recently had the 2-disc CE, looks to me that an R1 announcement is possibly imminent.

I find that odd.. an American film getting special treatment in R2 before or at the same time as R1 and not even seeing any info for R1 even mentioned?

I apologise on behalf of the people of the United Kingdom. It won't happen again...

Also looking forward to a nice R1 version. Though I am region-free and have been tempted to buy the PAL discs.

Though... look at my sig if you want to know what I'm *really* hoping for...

I highly recommend the Carnegie Hall concert version (2005), which is on DVD and CD. It's sublimely sung by Brian Stokes Mitchell and Reba McEntire (the outstanding cast also includes Alec Baldwin and Lillias White as Bloody Mary). And no color filters.

Bob: thanks for the encouraging reports on the Carnegie Hall disc. I've been looking forward to it ever since I learned about it. Now I've just got to find it! Off to DDD I go!

As successful as the movie version of "South Pacific" was in the U.S., it was even more successful in the U.K. It ran five years in one theater in London.

It was also a somewhat different version, with the rearranged scenes put back in the order of the original stage version. It would be interesting to have that version released in the U.S., along with all the cuts restored.

I'd be very interested in that. The movie (the US cut anyway) did not do the show justice at all.

I have heard very, very good things about the new Carnegie Hall performance from people who can be quite critical. It's practically a no-brainer purchase for fans of the show.

And I think we can safely pretend that Glenn Close's vanity production of the show for TV doesn't exist...

Indeed, the Carnegie Hall SOUTH PACIFIC is as close as I'll ever come to recommending a blind-buy purchase for any CD or DVD.

Agreed. I can live with the color filters, but the TV production, um, no.

I've got the new SE of South Pacific. And I'm really confused by it.

On Disk 1, is the familiar version of the movie. Now enhanced, it seems fine, though there certainly are motion artifacts and combing, a bit of a surprise to see on a disk in 2006.

Disk 2 contains the "roadshow" version, which is somewhat longer, and the extra footage has no yellow in it. I'm fine with this, but here's the confusion: I thought the roadshow had the scenes in the order of the stage show, with "Dites-Moi" beginning the show, on Emile DeBecque's plantation.

Though this version does have extra things, it is not in show order. Additionally, the soundtrack seems to be out of sync in many places. And there are faded shots which exist in beautiful shape on the other disk. What has happened to this version? What process did it go through to get it on DVD? I'm confused.

The R1 restored version is out 7th November:

http://www.amazon.com/South-Pacific-...?ie=UTF8&s=dvd

For some information about how this latest version got to DVD see

http://www.etcenter.org/Public/South_Pacific_final.pdf

and

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/...d.php?t=111697
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/...d.php?t=228951.

DeeF,

I've been waiting for this DVD, so it's concerning that you're seeing motion artifacts and combing...and that the soundtrack is out of sync.

I assume that the Roadshow version has been transferred in its entirety from the recently re-discovered faded print ...rather than patching together scenes from the best available elements....which would explain why some scenes look better in the cut version. Is the Roadshow version consistently faded?

No, the roadshow version on Disk 2 has clearly been newly assembled. There are the faded shots, and the rest looks precisely the same as what can be seen on Disk 1.

However, some shots which exist on Disk 1 are seen on Disk 2 in their faded condition. So, I don't think the "new" version has been done very carefully.

Additionally, the soundtrack does seem to be off in a number of places, only in this "roadshow" version. On Disk 1, everything is fine.

I'm going to convert these disks and watch them upscaled to 1080i, to see if I can remove the artifacts.

http://www.nmsi.ac.uk/NMPFT/film/rev...m=5120&id=1444

This site has a comment suggesting that there were three versions...


So, what we're getting is the normal US version, and the LONG US version, which has been assembled using pieces picked up from an International print.

Yes, the movie with the songs in the original show order was only released in the UK, not the US.

I have seen the longer version on screen (the whole film was pink) The scenes were in the order of the US release. The film was trimmed after it first opened (First few weeks) as a Roadshow presentation. That has become the version we are all familar with in the US on DVD. The British version had the opening scenes reversed - following the Broadway sequencing (At least in the original theatrical release).

The longer version on the DVD features the shorted US version plus scenes from the longer pink version that was put together from various versions of the film by a collector (who I believe was from England)

Fox has already released a two-disc special edition of The Hustler in R2, with The Verdict (1982) not far away from receiving the same treatement.

Hmmm...looking forward to seeing this, no matter what it is that's in store for us...