A Few Words About A few words about...™ Escape from New York -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

Watch the opening sequences of John Carpenter's Escape from New York, and you'll immediately pick up music later used in The Thing, which hit screens a year later - and it works.

Escape from New York (1981), not to be confused with Escape from L.A. (1996), or for that matter Escape from Little China (1996), is a fun film, and a very dark visit to a Manhattan without controls.

The cinematography by Dean Cundey takes advantage of a myriad of practical locations in New York, St. Louis and Los Angeles, and binds the film together with a cohesive, dark look.

The new Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory via MGM is a generally good-looking affair, and albeit presumably from a dupe, has a bit of grain and enough resolution to hold things together.  Color, likewise, works for the disc.

Scream Factory has added enough extras here, to keep fans happy, and the double disc set, priced at $19 is well worth the price of admission.

Image - 4

Audio - 5

Pass / Fail - Pass

Recommended

RAH

I'm sorry, have you seen the original MGM Bluray?

I was wondering which release you prefer, and which one do you think is closer to the original negative.

Konstantinos said:

I'm sorry, have you seen the original MGM Bluray?

I was wondering which release you prefer, and which one do you think is closer to the original negative.

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I believe this may be a newer transfer, as packaging makes note of "new 2k scan." This is MGM at its best.


RAH

The Thing's music was composed by Ennio Morricone. It's not the same music as Carpenter's EFNY score.


And while Shout's is a newer transfer (from the same IP as the MGM disc), the contrast boosting and questionable color grading is just plain ugly.

CobraVerde said:

The Thing's music was composed by Ennio Morricone. It's not the same music as Carpenter's EFNY score.

And while Shout's is a newer transfer (from the same IP as the MGM disc), the contrast boosting and questionable color grading is just plain ugly.

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Presume you've experienced both scores, and have found no similarities?

Robert Harris said:

Escape from New York (1981), not to be confused with Escape from L.A. (1996), or for that matter Escape from Little China (1996), is a fun film, and a very dark visit to a Manhattan without controls.

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You mean Big Trouble in Little China (1986).

Kilgore said:

You mean Big Trouble in Little China (1986).

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Or Getting Lost in Little China...

Robert Harris said:

Presume you've experienced both scores, and have found no similarities?

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Although Morricone composed the score for The Thing, it does sound "Carpenterian." I always assumed that Carpenter provided the themes and/or otherwise asked Morricone to compose in Carpenter's style.

Doug Otte said:

Although Morricone composed the score for The Thing, it does sound "Carpenterian." I always assumed that Carpenter provided the themes and/or otherwise asked Morricone to compose in Carpenter's style.

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Yeah I've read elsewhere he wanted as few notes as possible and the only reason Carpenter didn't do it was because of time. I still love the music in both films. I love The Thing score more even if most of it wasn't used.


I want this new BLU edition but does anyone recall was the old BLU have the 2.0 in HD audio or was it DD only? I only ask because I was told the 2.0 on the new BLU edition is just a downmix of the 5.1

Powell&Pressburger said:

Yeah I've read elsewhere he wanted as few notes as possible and the only reason Carpenter didn't do it was because of time. I still love the music in both films. I love The Thing score more even if most of it wasn't used.


I want this new BLU edition but does anyone recall was the old BLU have the 2.0 in HD audio or was it DD only? I only ask because I was told the 2.0 on the new BLU edition is just a downmix of the 5.1

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I was at a 70mm print test screening. Mag audio was beyond belief.


RAH

Powell&Pressburger said:

Yeah I've read elsewhere he wanted as few notes as possible and the only reason Carpenter didn't do it was because of time. I still love the music in both films. I love The Thing score more even if most of it wasn't used.


I want this new BLU edition but does anyone recall was the old BLU have the 2.0 in HD audio or was it DD only? I only ask because I was told the 2.0 on the new BLU edition is just a downmix of the 5.1

Click to expand...

The MGM Blu-ray's 2.0 track is Dolby Digital, but it is (as nearly as anyone can tell) the original Dolby Stereo mix. Shout's 2.0 track seems to be a downmix of the 5.1 remix.

Robert Harris said:

I was at a 70mm print test screening. Mag audio was beyond belief.


RAH

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Robert, were there any 70mm prints released?

Shout's 2.0 is a 5.1 down mix.
The video also has some aliasing.

Bryan Tuck said:

The MGM Blu-ray's 2.0 track is Dolby Digital, but it is (as nearly as anyone can tell) the original Dolby Stereo mix. Shout's 2.0 track seems to be a downmix of the 5.1 remix.



Robert, were there any 70mm prints released?

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Not certain, but presume so. A good question for Mr. Coate, the keeper of all such info.

I decided to rebuy the MGM BLU after checking out screenshots which show a much brighter image I really don't want the Shout release for anything other than the bonus features so I will wait for a sale. the image quality looks far better on the MGM I should have never given it away. The fact Shout also did a lazy 2.0 downmix from the 5.1 makes what could have been a good release just decent. The whole release could have been the ultimate BLU edition but sadly it isn't.

Amazon is hiding the older releases from searching for some odd reason
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003O7I6L6?ie=UTF8&at=&force-full-site=1&ref_=aw_bottom_links

Powell&Pressburger said:

I decided to rebuy the MGM BLU after checking out screenshots which show a much brighter image I really don't want the Shout release for anything other than the bonus features so I will wait for a sale. the image quality looks far better on the MGM I should have never given it away. The fact Shout also did a lazy 2.0 downmix from the 5.1 makes what could have been a good release just decent. The whole release could have been the ultimate BLU edition but sadly it isn't.
Amazon is hiding the older releases from searching for some odd reason
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003O7I6L6?ie=UTF8&at=&force-full-site=1&ref_=aw_bottom_links

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The Shout Blu notes 5.1

Yes it has both a 5.1 and 2.0 track, but the 2.0 track is not an uncompressed version of the 1981 stereo mix.

Its a stereo downmix of the 5.1, Shout has made this same error many times now. Most egregiously with The Howling.

FanboyZ said:

Yes it has both a 5.1 and 2.0 track, but the 2.0 track is not an uncompressed version of the 1981 stereo mix.
Its a stereo downmix of the 5.1, Shout has made this same error many times now. Most egregiously with The Howling.

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One might presume that this may not be a Shout error, but rather the format in which the master was delivered from the rights holder.

How is the 5.1 mix on the Shout! disc? If it's good then I won't miss the original 2.0 mix (although I now have concerns about the PQ).

I have both Blu-Rays (I think I'll keep the MGM one for what seems like the original stereo surround audio mix, until I'm sure if it is or not), and I thought that the picture quality on the Shout! disc was slightly preferable for colour and smoothness. The 5.1 mix on the Shout! disc is very good, although if it's the case that the 2.0 mix is just the 5.1 mix folded down, it makes me wonder how true to the original audio the 5.1 mix is. The 2.0 mix is stronger than and different to the MGM 2.0 audio track in ways that make the MGM track seem truer to the original, which in this case is purely subjective on my part. When I got the 2003 2-DVD Special Edition, and compared the 5.1 audio on that to the 2.0 PCM audio of the Image laserdisc, the new mix on the DVD did sound stronger and better to me. I got the Shout! Blu-Ray mostly for the new extras anyhow (so I'm clearly pretty far gone), and if you just want to watch the movie I think that either Blu-Ray will suffice. Does any of this help?

I'm pretty sure the 5.1 on Shout's disc is the same 5.1 that's been on every DVD since 2000 or so, and the 2.0 is definitely a downmix of it. It is noticeably different from the original mix in several areas. First of all, the music and effects sound hotter throughout in relation to the dialogue, so much so that it actually almost drowns out the first couple of lines of the opening VO. It's a much "drier" mix throughout.


There's also part of at least one music cue that's been dropped (about an hour in when Snake is running alongside the train), and apparently at least one cue has been added (not sure where that is). Also, in the last shot, the sound effects of Snake pulling the cassette apart are almost totally gone. That's all I know for sure, but it makes me wonder how much else is different that I just don't notice.


I emailed Shout about the sound options, and they replied that MGM supplied the audio, so Robert's suggestion is correct. However, the fact that the 2.0 track on MGM's Blu-ray was the actual original stereo mix makes me wonder if something just got mislabeled, or if the people involved on both sides of this release just didn't realize there was a difference.


I wish this didn't bother me so much, but overly revisionist audio remixes are kind of a sticking point for me. And it's disappointing that Shout seemed to be willing to provide the original audio as an option, but somehow ended up with the wrong track (it's apparently happened on Mad Max, also).