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Heaven's Gate is an excellent movie and to watch it now on Blu-Ray is so good I would be in tears if I were the sort of person to shed tears about movie transfers. Unless I'm starting to lose my hearing I thought the soundtrack remained a problem, although I notice now that is usually whenever...

As Owen35 says above, at times the Blu-Ray release looks wonderful. The winter scenes look dreadful, grey and wasted. Maybe they are supposed to, due to the rise of facism and Bertolucci's connection of winter with facism, but it still looks awful. The last 45 minutes of this movie seem a lot...

Nice review. Cameron makes a good point about the Maximum Movie Mode (MMM) and how it explains some of the more complex points of the story. In the past, I've found the appearances and uses made of the Sword of Gryffindor particularly baffling without having to resort to the source-text, but the...

In the UK, we didn't get a flipper we got a Super Jewell case, a huge, expensive casing format which was soon dropped. It was also one of the rare (for the UK) discs where you were given the choice of apect ratios, OAR or "modified to fit your TV".

Although on the whole the picture quality is very good, some of the outdoor scenes, especially on the beach, looked very "muddy" indeed. I guess this can be put down to the low quality equipment used when filming the beach scenes. Terrific movie. Can't think of another film with such vicious...

An excellent review, Michael. I was struck by your point about the initial watching experience and in particular that of the American audience expecting the film to offer some sort of (definitive ?) answer to the traumatic Vietnam years. One of the reasons we go to great art is to find...

Sad news and so young. George Hickenlooper is the guy Mrs Coppola gives a brief mention to on the Hearts of Darkness commentary, when she makes the comment that he was brought in to help out with an editing problem.

I know Coppola doesn't want to see credits either at the beginning or end of Apocalypse Now (and that is kind of ironic in itself given that he appears to be the one who with The Godfather started what has become, when the credits roll, the current gargantuan list of those who worked on, or were...

I didn't hear any mis-use of big words. To claim that a major director frequently uses words he doesn't understand, seems to me to be pretty insulting. It's difficult to tell which words that reviewer was talking about because he doesn't mention any of them.

While Josh Katz in the Culture Mob (?) link provides a useful list of the main changes which Michael Mann has made in his definitive cut of LOTM, I was surprised he felt the need to take a few swipes at the director for how he handles the commentary. Far from Mann being wordy in his commentary...

TMWTGG always seemd to have the lamest of endings for a major movie let alone for a Bond movie. Christopher Lee's villain gets bumped off almost of-screen and a good 20 minutes before the film limps to a close. And I can still remember watching TMWTGG when it was released in 1974 and feeling...

The scene in the tunnel where Bruce and his side-kick duck as car is hurled toward them but caught by objects either side didn't look very practical.

I had another listen to the FFC/Mrs Coppola commentary to the HoD DVD, I was wrong: Hickenlooper does get a single mention by the Coppolas around the 46 minutes mark. Mrs C is talking about how they were having trouble editing the documentary and claims that Hickenlooper was brought in to sort...

Maybe there could now be some focus on how the Hearts of Darkness director, George Hickenlooper, seems to have been shuffled out of the scene so that Mrs Coppola gets all the limelight. It's been a few years since I heard the FFC commentary on HoD but I don't think Hickenlooper gets a single...

To my embarassment I find I am confusing High Chaparall with Stuart Whitman's 1967 TV series Cimarron Strip, apologies to silverking (can't locate an apologetic smilie !).

Many thanks, Chris. This show was an old favourite back in the 60s. I am a little worried that watching it again after all this time (40 years) what seemed to be innovative while also retaining the loved western "themes" would now appear hackneyed, but I must give the show a shot ! I...

This movie had regularly looked poor on home video - I won't mention the VHS version but anyone remember that Fox Lorber thing inflicted on the public back in 1998/99 ? And the Wellspring "clean-up" in 2003/4 ? Hoo-boy !!! The subsequent Criterion didn't look great (they seemd to be into...

I note this is now released as part of the "Miramax Award-Winning Collection" - I'm being picky but does the back of the sleeve reveal which award Gangs of New York won ?

Many thanks to RAH for clearing up whether or not this was worth getting. I can still remember buying the DVD back in 2003 and being horrified at the mess they made of that disc - and wondering how long it would be before it was "re-mastered" from start to finish. So, 7 years later...

Mohinder dead ? They wouldn't have flown the actor in to simply have him act lying dead in a caravan. surely. All we know for sure is he appears to be unconcious and will soon be up and running and - we hope - brought to justice for the treatment of those people left dead or alive in his fly's...

That's a superb read and very useful indeed, many thanks JulianK ! I remember when Manhunter was first released back in the mid 80s there were producer rights issues which prevented it from being shown in UK cinemas for almost a year. So, while newspaper critics like the Guardian's Derek...

This is also being discussed in Robert Harris' thread about the trilogy. Although I too would rather get a single-disc release of Manhunter, it appears that MGM have the rights to the original theatrical cut (which is the best IMO). A UK 2 disc set released by Momentum in 2003 also contains...

I apologise for obsessing about this, and probably boring a lot of people, though the Manhunter cut I prefer encapsulates the fate of the killer in the story (which is why I prefer it). Just checked the 2 disc UK Momentum release and neither version has the lines of dialogue. I've been told...

ScottJH, I didn't know that so many thanks for that useful pointer. I have the 2 disc Region 1 2000 Anchor Bay Limited edition and the UK Momentum 2003 release, four cuts in all and none of which have the dialogue I referred to above. You wouldn't happen to know if Michael Mann had any input...

Manhunter has a history of being made available in various cuts, not all of which are as good as the others. The cut on this release appears to be one that hasn't been available for some years and one which Michael Mann seems to have chosen not to use when preparing his commentary track for the...

It will interesting to see if the Harry Potter bandwagon is still capable of attracting huge audiences, it's been two years since the fifth movie and more importantly two years since the final novel, will audiences feel they know the ending and going to a dramatisation of book 6 would be old hat ?

Half-Blood Prince is one of the weakest books in the series, like a filler and its only purpose was to give us a few unnecessary details about Voldemort's background and set-up the Horcrux business which oddly enough hadn't even been hinted at previously - but it makes you want to skip the sixth...

He's like Dr Manhattan, appearing in two threads at the same time