Is Sony reissuing "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bridge on the River Kwai"? (1 Viewer)

Hey... I just saw my distributor is listing 2-Disc Collector's Editions of those two great David Lean classics on March 20th.

Any word on whether these are just re-packagings the old two-discers? Or should I be biting at the bit to have remastered discs of these films; with the quality of the SuperBit plus the proper disc split, Lawrence would be the must-buy disc of the year.

EDIT: Dangit! It always bums me out to have typos in the thread title. :frowning:

I have not heard of any remastering of these titles so I bet they're simply re-packagings. But I would LOVE to be wrong.

Lawrence is coming out on Blu sometime this year if that's what you're asking?

The Superbit release of Lawrence of Arabia should have been a 3-disc Superbit Deluxe plain and simple.

If they do release a new edition, can I hope for a Peter O'Toole & Omar Sharif commentary?

It'd be really great if they could get O'Toole's involvement in the extras. He seems much more in the public eye these days with all his new films and awards, so hopefully he'll add to any new set.

I would love for the Superbit transfer with the proper Intermission end point for Disc One...then I would buy.

Here in Toronto, I've noticed both HMV and BestBuy have the 2-disc limited edition releases of these titles "on sale" for $29.99 or less. It's not exactly a bargain price by today's standards, but still, I've never seen these editions so cheap or in such mass quantities. Makes me wonder if they're trying to clear out the old versions and if the new releases might be more than a straight reissue...

I noticed that too, I was tempted to pick up LOA while christmas shopping purely for the extras but my better judgement prevailed. I still think that this release has gone down in history as one of the all-time botched dvd release, along with the original star wars films. They tried to undo the damage with the superbit release, and it certainly did to a degree, but a proper all-purpose release is sorely needed. This should have been a 3-disk set from the beginning, with all the proper picture info and colouring--its a shame that you have to buy two different releases and shell out about 50 bucks just to get a good set of this film, and even then things are not perfect.

I would be ecstatic if there was a new, proper release on the way but really i think this is just a new pressing of the previous out of print set. You might remember that for a period the SE of Fight Club was also out of print, replaced with the single-disk edition--companies do this type of thing occassionally to increase demand/profit.

FWIW, TCM is airing LOA at 12noon today (EST) and they've been advertising it as being "remastered" etc., but whether that's just the same source material they always use when they show LOA, or a harbinger of a brand new DVD release is anybody's guess.

I imagine the "remaster" is RAH's from a few years back. Which is wonderful, of course. I happened to catch a few moments of this on TV while channel-flipping this afternoon and it did look remarkably good, even on standard definition television.

mike kaminski, can you elaborate on why the Lawrence of Arabia DVD's are so inadequate? I have never really heard this before. In complete agreement concerning the original Star Wars DVD release!

VPD's Close-Up newsletter has pics (no specs) of the cover art... they do look like repackagings. Kwai looks identical to the previous 2-discer, and Lawrence has the old RAH Collector's Edition cover art in a normal keep-case.

There's no specs, tho, so anything is still possible...

I'd love for a reissue of Kwai that fixes the obnoxious overlong layer change.

Saw these in London Drugs tonight. They're just reissues of the original 2-disc versions. I concur with the idea that a 3-disc Soperbit Deluxe version was needed for LoA. I guess we'll just have to wait for the inevitable BD release.

The original two-disk version had a botched picture. Basically, the entire film was mis-timed, resulting in inaccurate colours, most notable due to the sometimes pink-tinted sand, as well as sky issues. Its not all that noticeable when you are watching the film but a comparison reveals a pretty big difference in colour. On top of this there was an error with some sort of enhancement software in the authoring stage which resulted in edge-enhancement over top of the already-enhanced picture, or something like that, so theres all kinds of artifacts. The release was such a botch that Robert A Harris rectified it by releasing the Superbit version, accurately re-colouring it and with optimal picture fidelity. Unfortunately this release is missing the great extra features from the first release, so you have to have both to get the true package.

Check out the comparison at DVDBeaver.com (direct link). The RAH release is the Superbit version which is #3 in the set of screen shots.

When the bluray/hd-dvd version is released, it would be nice if it included that extra bit of dialogue between Lawrence and Allenby in the balcony scene. Mr. Harris wanted to include it when they did the initial restoration, but couldn't because the voice double for Allenby didn't match well and they ran out of time before they could find another actor.

As far as I know, the extended scene wasn't included in any of the DVD releases.

Now I'm seeing alternate (and superior) cover art in the newest Close-Ups catalog... it looks like Sony is re-releasing a bunch of classic titles with new packaging. It's still uncertain whether the contents vary. The suspense!

Strictly a re-packaging, according to DVD Times.

When they put it out in Blu-Ray, I pray that they include the longer Allenby balcony scene, if not integrated into the film, then at least as a bonus feature. I've got the script and it's a brilliant scene, and I'd love to see it as filmed.