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Why of all titles this should be a BB exclusive? It doesn't make any sense to me that they would restrict purchasing options for this particular title.
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Robert, the gist I get is that the Steelbook is a BB exclusive. The regular version should go on sale via Amazon.
At least that is my best guess as to what is going on here.
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I wouldn’t bet against that - seems to be the status quo these days with a lot of steelbook releases.
For me (and some others I’m sure), the $64,000 question is whether the included BD is also sourced from the new master (as was the case with 2001 and The Shining) or whether it’s a repressing of the ancient BD edition from 2007 (which was the case with Full Metal Jacket).
Jeffrey D
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I sure hope this UHD will be a vast improvement over the current BluRay
(monochromatic mush).
(monochromatic mush).
Amazon has a 4K disc link that hasn’t gone live yet.
Dave H
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I've been waiting on this one for a long time. That older Blu-ray is pretty ragged.
david hare
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street date in Australua for UHD disc bare bones is September 24.
titch
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All of the Leon Vitali-supervised 4K UHD Kubrick transfers for Warner are in the upper echelons for what an old film can look like at home, played from a little silver disc. I wouldn't expect this to be different.
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I'm not comfortable giving Vitale credit for that. He's the guy who insisted for many years, despite written documentation from Kubrick himself, that Stanley composed all of his movies only for 4:3.
I'm sure the Vitale "supervision" is mostly an honorary credit.
Lord Dalek
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The 4:3 thing never applied to A Clockwork Orange anyway. The film was shot 1.66:1 hard matte and every disc has it represented that way (even the first two non-anamorphic ones).
Nevertheless, Vitale has proven to be an unreliable source of information when it comes to technical matters and home video transfers.
darkrock17
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I don't usually care for steelbooks, but this one is 100 times better than the regular 4K cover.
Blu Eye
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I would argue he probably does deserve the credit.
Leon knows his stuff when it comes to film. He did colour timing and video transfers on Stanley's films to name two of the many processes he was trusted to do by Stanley.
He checked the prints with Stanley and then directed the labs on Stanley's instructions.
I am of the opinion he could hold his own with anyone doing the necessary work to put Stanley's oeuvre on UHD or any other format.
He's probably the authority on his films. I would be surprised if anyone is more knowledgeable on Stanley's films than Leon.
Maybe there could be an argument on whether he knows much on some of the modern processes such as Dolby Vision etc.
Dennis Gallagher
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"Film Worker" - the documentary about Vitali and his incredible service to the Kubrick vision - is definitely worth watching. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6851066/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
I've watched the Filmworker documentary. I have sympathy for Vitale as a person. It sounds like Kubrick was a real slave-driver who made his life miserable.
At the same time, that documentary is filled with quite a lot of self-aggrandizement to prop up Vitale's assertion that he is the supreme authority on Kubrick's films. In reality, Vitale has a long history of demonstrating poor knowledge of technical matters.
- It was Vitale who insisted that Kubrick composed The Shining and Full Metal Jacket for 4:3 and only wanted them presented at that ratio, despite storyboards from The Shining explicitly notating that the photography would be composed for 1.85:1.
- It was Vitale who convinced Warner Bros. to recycle decades-old full-frame VHS masters for the initial DVD releases of Kubrick's films rather than remaster them, because "that's what Stanley wanted."
- It was Vitale who convinced WB to encode the DVD edition of Clockwork Orange (as previously noted, the film was hard-matted to 1.66:1 in camera) in non-anamorphic letterbox format because he didn't understand what anamorphic enhancement was and believed it was somehow akin to changing the camera lens after the movie was finished.
- It was Vitale who insisted that the one and only correct aspect ratio for Barry Lyndon was 1.77:1, and stuck to his guns on this story even after presented with a letter Kubrick sent to theaters unambiguously instructing that the movie was to be projected at 1.66:1.
Over the years, Warner Bros. has continued to allow Vitale to "approve" the home video editions of Kubrick's films as a courtesy, but has moved away from following all of his directions. I seriously doubt that Vitale was in the room making decisions during the 4K remastering for Clockwork Orange. More likely, WB did all the work and only allowed him to screen the master after it was finalized and locked.
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Blu Eye
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Maybe you interpreted Filmworker differently to how I did.
Leon came across as quite humble and did not appear to show any "self-aggrandizement" from my perspective.
On the contrary, he did not appear to boast or comment on the respect he was given by professionals such as the VP of restoration at Warner Bros. Ned Price who commented on how Leon knew how to look at the negatives and sung his praises etc.
Are you claiming these professionals were influenced by Leon to say these things? Or just doing it out of courtesy?
If so, I would like to see information to supports this.
He might not have been in the room making the decisions but he wouldn't have to be.
He would have the reference prints to go by and would check all Warner Bros. work against them and instruct personnel on any issues that might arise unless he has given all those over to Warner Bros. in which case then he wouldn't then need to be consulted and then that might support your views.
If he still has the reference prints then it stands to reason he would have been consulted throughout the process.
I don't have a time-code, but there is a section in the documentary where Vitale superficially addresses some of the controversies above, shrugging them off with the suggestion that he was right all along and everybody else was just being a jerk for no reason.
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