A Few Words About A few words about...™ The Caine Mutiny -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

Just look at the credits, and you're half way there.

A Stanley Kramer production of an Edward Dmytryk film, based upon the novel by Herman Wouk.

A score by Max Steiner.

Photographed by Frank (Franz) Planer, who also shot the recently discussed Breakfast at Tiffany's.

And then the cast:

Humphrey Bogart

Jose Ferrer

Van Johnson

Fred MacMurray

E.G. Marshall

and a very young Lee Marvin

Nominated for seven Academy Awards

Late three-strip Technicolor

The fact that the element accessed was the original three-strip negative was the cause of occasional fringing, instability and color problems, few of which will be noted by the Blu-ray audience. They have been handled exceptionally well. Unlike nitrate film, which was flammable, but was otherwise stable, early acetate safety film was problematic. Shrinkage, instability and breathing were the main problems tacked toward the creation of a new digital master.

The Caine Mutiny is a film that beautifully stands the test of time, with superb performances, not the least of which is that of Mr. Bogart as the unstable Captain Queeg.

A great classic motion picture.

A beautifully produced new digital element.

A great Blu-ray.

Highly Recommended, and at under $15, a no-brainer purchase.

RAH

Wow, I didn't know that 3-strip was used into the widescreen era. So the recombine is comparable to Warner's ultra-resolution precess?

I had no idea this was coming out on Blu-ray. For under $14 this is a no brainer and I am off to buy it as soon as I have the last of the leftover strawberries.....Which are missing!!!!!

Originally Posted by Robert Harris /t/314747/a-few-words-about-the-caine-mutiny-in-blu-ray#post_3850144
Late three-strip Technicolor

The fact that the element accessed was the original three-strip negative was the cause of occasional fringing, instability and color problems, few of which will be noted by the Blu-ray audience.

Click to expand...

Quick question, i have read that Warners do allow other studio's use of their ultra resolution process which aligns the three technicolor negatives and can give us near perfection for some of these older films shot that way.

Could they not have used Warners Ultra resolution process on this film. ?

Originally Posted by FoxyMulder /t/314747/a-few-words-about-the-caine-mutiny-in-blu-ray#post_3850186
Quick question, i have read that Warners do allow other studio's use of their ultra resolution process which aligns the three technicolor negatives and can give us near perfection for some of these older films shot that way.

Could they not have used Warners Ultra resolution process on this film. ?

Click to expand...

Warner may well have a superior process, but if the film elements are shrinking and not laying flat (for example), one is pushing the limits. Generally, what one is doing is setting a standard, nominally the magenta record, and then bending distorting and reshaping the other two records to match it.

As to Caine Mutiny, the problems that I saw were actually quite minimal. As I noted, most people won't be seeing them, because, as always, Mr. Crisp and his staff have done beautiful work.

RAH

I'm glad to see you confirm my opinion about this BRD. I still need to watch this BRD again for the audio commentary.






Crawdaddy

Wow. I'm there. (Another "blind buy", since I don't really know the film -- but I just learned enough about it, right?)

Chas in CT said:

Wow. I'm there. (Another "blind buy", since I don't really know the film -- but I just learned enough about it, right?)

Click to expand...

Welllll......as a film it's not great IMO. It's an entertaining show from the early 50's, but falls well short of the best films of the 40's and 50's. The lead is bland beyond belief and the tacked on love story is a complete waste of time. Bogart and MacMurray are great of course as is Jose Ferrer in the last act. YMMV as always.

Scott Calvert said:

IMO. It's an entertaining show from the early 50's, but falls well short of the best films of the 40's and 50's. The lead is bland beyond belief and the tacked on love story is a complete waste of time. Bogart and MacMurray are great of course as is Jose Ferrer in the last act. YMMV as always.

Click to expand...

While I agree its not one of the very, very best of a fabulous decade, I really enjoy it and pull out the DVD every year or so for a spin. You won't regret the purchase.

Robert Harris, do you still restore films?

Originally Posted by Gordon McMurphy /t/314747/a-few-words-about-the-caine-mutiny-in-blu-ray#post_3850360
Robert Harris, do you still restore films?

Click to expand...

Yes.

Watched this today on my projection setup from roughly 2X screen height and I saw no obvious color fringing at all. A wonderful job, and the audio, which is 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, which seems to have been remastered from pre-print sources, was also extremely well done. There are even directional surround sound effects in some of the battle scenes.

Vern

My only issue with the Blu-ray (which could not help but improve upon my 90s-vintage DVD) is that the stock footage of ships and battles really stands out. Not enough to bother me, though.

It was one of the MAJOR films of the 50s and Bogart gives a performance of both subtlety and power. I saw it when first released and this is as close to that experience as one will ever get. GORGEOUS Technicolor photography.

Bob Cashill said:

My only issue with the Blu-ray (which could not help but improve upon my 90s-vintage DVD) is that the stock footage of ships and battles really stands out. Not enough to bother me, though.

Click to expand...

That's an issue with the way the film was made. That's not an issue with the bluray.

It just looks that much worse on the Blu-ray, is all.

Originally Posted by Bob Cashill /t/314747/a-few-words-about-the-caine-mutiny-in-blu-ray#post_3850914
It just looks that much worse on the Blu-ray, is all.

Click to expand...

Everything that isn't beautifully produced, new, digital imagery, is going to look worse on Blu-ray than on less highly resolved formats. In VHS, for example, one would not be able to see the difference between stock footage and production footage, but I'm not sure that that's a good thing.

The Blu-ray replicates what this film looked like on film, not on VHS or DVD, and it is that transparency that should be desired.

But I'm sure you know this.

RAH

A good reminder, thanks.

Mark-P said:

Wow, I didn't know that 3-strip was used into the widescreen era. So the recombine is comparable to Warner's ultra-resolution precess?

Click to expand...

Wasn't The Barefoot Contessa shot in 3-strip at 1.75:1 ?

Several studios (MGM, Universal, Paramount, Columbia) began composing for 1.66, 1.75, 1.85 or 2.1 widescreen presentation in April of 1953. However, they were still protecting for Academy 1.37.
Warner Bros. and RKO went widescreen in May of 1953.
I'm not sure which productions utilized the three strip camera after that point.
I can confirm that Nat Holt and Paramount began shooting FLIGHT TO TANGIER with the Technicolor 3-D camera rig on May 19, 1953 and were composing for 1.66. That massive camera rig utilized 6 rolls of 35mm film: yellow, cyan, magenta Left and YCM Right.
Bob Furmanek
3-D Film Preservation Fund
http://www.3dfilmpf.org/