A Few Words About A few words about...™ The Great Escape (Criterion) - in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Old Bones]

The real "Tunnel King" Wally Floody was a Canadian Spitfire Pilot who was a mining engineer before the war , an interesting read.......

Wally Floody - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[haineshisway]

I didn't have the problems with the first Blu-ray that everyone had because I understand the nature of the film itself. But the new Criterion IS better in every way - color, especially. Definitely worth getting if you love the film, which I do.

 

[Tony Bensley]

The real "Tunnel King" Wally Floody was a Canadian Spitfire Pilot who was a mining engineer before the war , an interesting read.......

Wally Floody - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

This gentleman, Alfred B. Thompson, was among the 73 who failed to escape recapture.

Alfred B. Thompson - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I read somewhere that the only reason he was among the Great Escapers to escape execution was because, as the first Canadian POW of the Second World War in Germany, Adolf Hitler himself had promised no harm would come to him. Sometime after the war, he and my father became friends, and for years was our Lawyer in Penetanguishene! According to my oldest sister, he was a really nice man, but his wife was a terrible alcoholic.

CHEERS!

 

[Old Bones]

Interesting story , thanks Tony

 

[Nelson Au]

Hey guys-

I was going to wait until closer to the 4th of July to watch the Criterion Blu ray of The Great Escape. But I decided to watch it last night.

I took stock of all the copies I have of this film. Without pulling out the laserdiscs, I know I have the Criterion and MGM laserdiscs. I have the MGM DVDs from 1998 and 2004 and the 2013 blu ray. I think I now have every home video iteration of this film. Except VHS. The Criterion laserdisc was one of my earliest laserdisc purchase! Watching the film, it reminded me of the first or second time I saw it, it was a special two night presentation on KTVU as I recall. And I recorded it on cassette tape. This was before the days of video tape.

I took a look at the DVD Beaver screen cap reviews. Very interesting that the Criterion blu ray more closely matches the Criterion laserdisc. I have not watched the MGM blu ray in a while, so I don’t remember the color grading being so blue, but I liked this Criterion Blu ray a lot. As I watched the first cooler sequences with Hilts, I remembered that one of the earlier discs has a major error as the framing was such, you could see the edge of the cooler set! So I was happy this wasn’t the case on the Criterion disc. It was either the MGM laserdisc or first DVD.

The 4th of July sequence has been questioned a lot about how it looks. To me, it looks great on this new blu ray, the brightness being lower I always thought was because Hilts sets off the explosion to wake up the camp, it’s very early in the morning. And everyone appears to be waking up. I guess the guards opened the window very early that day. And as I recall, Hendley comments to Blythe as he’s about to have a drink, “before your morning tea?”

in terms of the audio, I have to recheck it, the opening score sounded great on the 5.1 track. But I’m not sure I was hearing it right as I felt I was hearing a slight delay on the rear channels. As soon that the trucks arrived at the camp, I reset the audio to the mono track which was really stereo? So I’m not sure if there is a mess-up on my hardware settings as it sounded like all 5 channels were playing the same mono track when I had the DTS track going. But the rears as I said sounded like it was on a delay. I’ve never heard this on other discs. I felt the mono was great and clear dialogue, good audio range as the score is booming with the bombastic March as Hilts and Ives March into the cooler. The lower octaves were active on my speakers. So I’ll have revisit the film with the 5.1 track again and try to listen for the separation you guys are talking about.

I‘d like to review the special features too. I did look at one , the feature in the real Virgil Hilts as I didn’t watch that on the MGM disc. That was a good piece.

Until there is a 4K edition that is superior to this disc, this will be the go-to disc from now on. Though I don’t have a 4K display device, it looks great on 1080p. I’m not sure a 4K release would improve the image quality? More color depth?

 

[Nelson Au]

Tony, that is a very cool story.

 

[Old Bones]

The real Tunnel King Wally Floody with the movie Tunnel King Charles Bronson during filming

 

[Sam Favate]

I watched this last night and it was tremendous. The new Criterion looks great. I can't wait to dive into the extras.

 

[roxy1927]

Happy to see this is coming out 4k on Kino. Passed this up on Criterion. So considering the raves here I'm wondering if there can be that much of an improvement.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Happy to see this is coming out 4k on Kino. Passed this up on Criterion. So considering the raves here I'm wondering if there can be that much of an improvement.

I have the Criterion Blu-ray, I even have the 4K digital on iTunes, but will purchase this 4K disc with HDR applied as soon as pre-orders are available because it will be the best video format to view this fine film.

 

[Jeffrey D]

Is it coming out in the USA, or overseas?

 

[Alan Tully]

Is it coming out in the USA, or overseas?

Only US, but as it's a 4K UHD at least it won't be region locked (I think that's right).

 

[Johnny Angell]

He was a wonderful guy and despite all the time I spent with him he was tremendously kind to me.

That was a wonderful story of your childhood you told. The principal was indeed a great guy and I suspect he still remembered what it was like to be a kid.

 

[Worth]

I have the Criterion Blu-ray, I even have the 4K digital on iTunes, but will purchase this 4K disc with HDR applied as soon as pre-orders are available because it will be the best video format to view this fine film.

The upcoming Kino release won't have HDR.

Fully Restored UHD SDR Master by MGM – Color Corrected in 2020

 

[Robert Crawford]

The upcoming Kino release won't have HDR.

Fully Restored UHD SDR Master by MGM – Color Corrected in 2020

If that's the case then perhaps I won't buy this 4K disc.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

That was a wonderful story of your childhood you told. The principal was indeed a great guy and I suspect he still remembered what it was like to be a kid.

Ha, yes, I was a horror show as an elementary school student. Had a very active imagination that just constantly viewed everything around me as an opportunity. I got lucky having him as my principal as I am pretty sure he secretly enjoyed my antics and I doubt you could meet a kinder human being. When my wife met him she also was very impressed with him. The negative about it was my wife began asking me what i had done in elementary school to have earned such a reputation that even 30 some years later my principal would still remember my address and phone number as if he still had to call it daily. This led to all sorts of stories flooding back of my school years which, she then told to every educator she knew. Payback I guess for all that bad behavior. Funny thing was when I left elementary school for junior high school they were waiting for me and so my first day in school I was called out of home room to the principals office and introduced to the "team" that would be dealing with me. Including a vice principal that stood at least 6'5" and took me aside to let me know he was going to be all over me. This began a whole new adventure for all involved and they rapidly discovered how difficult I could be.

Back to film though, something I remember is that when I discovered McQueen in The Great Escape and he became my favorite actor there ended up not being many chances for me to see him on the big screen which was a huge disappointment to me. The first film I was able to see him in at a theater was The Towering Inferno and then I would not see him in a cinema again until his final film in 1980, The Hunter. That was it. Everything else I saw on TV.

 

[Robert Harris]

If that's the case then perhaps I won't buy this 4K disc.

Why do you find HDR to be a major attribute - enough to turn you away if it isn't offered?

On older titles, HDR is now being used lightly, as post houses are discovering that it isn't a standard, (ie necessary) part of the 4k ethic.

One has nothing to do with the other.

As to TGE, which would have been shot with Panavision anamorphics on Eastman 5251, the 4k uptick should be more visceral than obvious.

I'm looking forward to seeing how much of an uptick is on screen, and whether it will make a real difference (even in projection) from a nominal seating distance.

 

[JoshZ]

Why do you find HDR to be a major attribute - enough to turn you away if it isn't offered?

On older titles, HDR is now being used lightly, as post houses are discovering that it isn't a standard, (ie necessary) part of the 4k ethic.

One has nothing to do with the other.

As to TGE, which would have been shot with Panavision anamorphics on Eastman 5251, the 4k uptick should be more visceral than obvious.

I'm looking forward to seeing how much of an uptick is on screen, and whether it will make a real difference (even in projection) from a nominal seating distance.

Is not this the movie with extremely lengthy opticals that reduce the amount of detail available in the image?

If there's not 4K worth of detail on the negative, and the master doesn't have HDR, will this really have enough perceivable benefit over the Criterion Blu-ray to be worth buying on 4K media?

 

[Johnny Angell]

This began a whole new adventure for all involved and they rapidly discovered how difficult I could be.

But you made it through and all the buildings were still standing (I presume).

 

[Robert Harris]

Is not this the movie with extremely lengthy opticals that reduce the amount of detail available in the image?

If there's not 4K worth of detail on the negative, and the master doesn't have HDR, will this really have enough perceivable benefit over the Criterion Blu-ray to be worth buying on 4K media?

Remains to be seen.