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

[Persianimmortal]

How do you know that most people do that?

I'm psychic.

No, seriously, it's for two main reasons: firstly, because on other forums you will frequently see people quoting, and responding to, the score, or the summary of a review. Case in point: there has been fuss over RAH's 4.5 for The Great Escape when there shouldn't be any if more people had actually bothered to read his brief but detailed review text.

Secondly, I've been writing articles on the Internet professionally for over a decade, mainly tech articles and guides. Without fail I receive emails asking me questions which indicate the person read the first and last page of the article, and skipped everything in between. I also see the same when it comes to discussion of other tech articles, such as a review of a piece of computer hardware - people make misinformed comments based on reading only the summary (usually on the last page), without examining the details in the article itself.

It's human nature to try to get the gist of something with minimal effort. Reviews tend to make this easier for people by publishing prominent scores, star ratings, etc. This only encourages the lazy person in each of us to look at that score, and not read the nuances in the review itself.

 

[Robert Harris]

"What we have is a failure to communicate."

 

[Robert Crawford]

"What we have is a failure to communicate."

Which will be a problem with some people, no matter how you structure your disc comments.

 

[Yorkshire]

I'm psychic.

No, seriously, it's for two main reasons: firstly, because on other forums you will frequently see people quoting, and responding to, the score, or the summary of a review. Case in point: there has been fuss over RAH's 4.5 for The Great Escape when there shouldn't be any if more people had actually bothered to read his brief but detailed review text.

Secondly, I've been writing articles on the Internet professionally for over a decade, mainly tech articles and guides. Without fail I receive emails asking me questions which indicate the person read the first and last page of the article, and skipped everything in between. I also see the same when it comes to discussion of other tech articles, such as a review of a piece of computer hardware - people make misinformed comments based on reading only the summary (usually on the last page), without examining the details in the article itself.

It's human nature to try to get the gist of something with minimal effort. Reviews tend to make this easier for people by publishing prominent scores, star ratings, etc. This only encourages the lazy person in each of us to look at that score, and not read the nuances in the review itself.

Reminds me of Hugh Johnson's criticism's of Robert Parker's scoring of wines. Quite different to RAH's scoring here, though.

Steve W

 

[FoxyMulder]

Time for a whine, no i'll save that for later tonight.

 

[cb1]

Thanks to Mr Harris for the insight. This reminds me of the Guns of Navrone review. With that movie we got the best transfer possible with what materials were available.

Either way, My first experience with The Great Escape was coming home from school and watching this in two parts on the NYC channel 7 "The 430 Movie".
I just received my copy of the BD in the mail and I'm looking forward to this weekend to pop it in, relax and enjoy it.

Cheers!

 

[Robert Harris]

Reminds me of Hugh Johnson's criticism's of Robert Parker's scoring of wines. Quite different to RAH's scoring here, though. Steve W

One could consider catalog titles as being sourced from old vines.

 

[JoshZ]

The real problem is that most people just look at the number, without reading the review itself. I know this is not a suggestion that's likely to be taken up by any reviewer, but it would be wonderful just to do away with the whole scoring system. The numbers are not comparable across reviews, even from the same reviewer, in absolute terms, and by removing them, it would encourage people to actually read the review and digest its meaning rather than looking for a quick good/bad take-away.

A publication I worked for tried this once. Readers freaked the f--- out about it. After a barrage of countless vitriolic complaints, the publication had to bring the star rating system back a few months later.

 

[Robert Harris]

deleted

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Uhm...wow...this suddenly changes the situation at hand...

 

[Moe Dickstein]

I love a good detective story

 

[Robert Harris]

deleted

 

[Robert Harris]

Uhm...wow...this suddenly changes the situation at hand...

Not really. Still a very satisfying Blu-ray experience.

RAH

 

[TravisR]

I'm still attempting to make full sense of what I'm seeing via the new Great Escape Blu-ray.

According to incorrect press notes for the TCM Festival:

"John Sturges’ THE GREAT ESCAPE (1953) – 50th Anniversary Restoration, starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, James Coburn, Charles Bronson, David McCallum. Per TCM: the film “was restored by Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios at Deluxe Digital Media using a 4K scan of the original camera negative. The restoration entailed hundreds of hours of digital restoration to address significant damage and fading.”"

A few of thoughts. There should be little to no fading of the camera original, although dupes may be problematic. If that's the case, there is an easy fix.

With no guidance from MGM, I'm beginning to believe that there are two Great Escapes.

A new 4k restoration of one sort or another, and an older master used as the basis of the new Blu-ray, which looks nothing like or near a 4k derived image.

RAH

The Great Escape is playing at a theater near me in about a month and a half. I wonder if the DCP will be the new 4K (if it exists).

 

[Moe Dickstein]

[/quote]

Returning to Mr. Epstein's original post, the Blu-ray is spoken of as "an all-new masterful 4k transfer," whatever that is.

I believe it's a transfer done by masters as opposed to the usual practice of picking passers-by and allowing them to turn knobs while blindfolded during the transfer process.

 

[FoxyMulder]

Not really. Still a very satisfying Blu-ray experience.

RAH

Perhaps so but if a new 4K scan was done as seen in the notes above that you link to, and it is not being used for the blu ray, then maybe its not as satisfying as it could be and my opinion is that this would be cause for complaint, you say the blu ray looks nothing like a 4K derived image, okay then something is up, is it an older master, is it a new one from the 4K scan, are the digital tools at fault here, if not then why did they use an older master, doesn't matter whether the blu ray is "good enough" what matters to me is why if a new 4K scan exists it was not used for the blu ray but apparently is being used for the cinema edition and one poster has already said it looks fabulous as compared to the blu ray.

 

[haineshisway]

Not really. Still a very satisfying Blu-ray experience.

RAH

I feel that way, too. Again, my knowledge of this film is not as great as my knowledge about other films, but to me it looked really nice on my 55-inch Samsung - I've said all along that whether it could look better is not known to me. I'll be interested to see how the mystery unfolds.

 

[Felix Martinez]

One could consider catalog titles as being sourced from old vines.

Gives me a whole new way to look at Vinegar Syndrome...

I just picked up The Great Escape blu-ray for $5 after trading in the old DVD at Best Buy. Why are blu-rays so expensive?

 

[Moe Dickstein]

what matters to me is why if a new 4K scan exists it was not used for the blu ray but apparently is being used for the cinema edition and one poster has already said it looks fabulous as compared to the blu ray.

If they release the best now, what will they re-issue later?!?

 

[FoxyMulder]

If they release the best now, what will they re-issue later?!?

That is a good point.