A Few Words About A few words about...™ The Longest Day -- in Blu-Ray (1 Viewer)

[Felix Martinez]

Not only is the image of The Sand Pebbles a treat after all this grain-obliterating nonsense, but also - Jerry Goldsmith's score sounds amazing. My mouth dropped open during the Overture, and it was just music over black!

I'd never seen The Sand Pebbles before. Seeing it on Blu was a great way to discover it.

 

[john a hunter]

Yes and a big thank you to Fox for doing it right. No inane stills telling us it is an overture, etc.Another reason why Pebbles is a must on BD.

 

[Robert Harris]

I posted this to another site within the past day, and realized that it belongs as an attachment here.

It is a direct link to Patton, but attempts to explain my general position at this point in time.

***************************

Blu-ray was, from the outset, designed to be a multi-functional system capable of serving many masters.

Combined with the PS3, it becomes a superlative gaming system.

Played back on that same PS3, or any Blu players, it can offer a totally immersive and perfectly honed rendition of film (cinema) as a digital video product.

Because of its huge data handling capabilities, compression becomes much less of a problem, and along with that the need to reduce, no less remove, the original grain structure of a motion picture.

If the consumer, as a matter of personal preference, determines that they like to view some or all older motion pictures encoded to Blu with a slightly softer appearance, the system can handle that request with the simple turn of a digital dial.

The Blu-ray system stands as a consummate achievement of modern technology in its ability to do many things, and to do them very, very well.

As I see it, the only thing that can damage or destroy its commercial image is a run of software that prohibits the system from doing the job that it was designed to do -- that being the replication of the theater experience in a home setting at the highest level of reproduction and purity.

And this is where some of the most current releases fail the system as well as the consumer.

Blu-ray discs are too expensive to allow the public to be complacent about quality, when quality is all to easy to achieve.

I believe that we've reached a plateau in development cycle, where transfers that are "good enough" or films that have been heavily digitized are no longer viable.

RAH

 

[Dave Moritz]

My mistake I thought it had the same problems as Patton and A Bridge Too Far.

 

[Douglas Monce]

Actually A Bridge Too Far looks pretty good too. I think your thinking of Patton and The Longest Day.

Doug

 

[Robert Harris]

I'll take that a step further.

To my eye, Fox's release of Sand Pebbles is absolutely gorgeous!

 

[Robert Crawford]

It's amazing how lately, your opinion confirms my own.

 

[Dave Moritz]

After go back through the post you are corect Douglas. I will be placing A Bridge To Far and Sand Pebbles back on my puchase list.


Update: Just picked up A Bridge Too Far 7/3 and I am glad I did. There are places where the transfer looks slightly blury and others that have an almost 3D look and very sharp. Overall the transfer looks good and the sound is very good in my book. I am looking to pick up Sand Pebbles the next time I am buying Blu-ray movies. But I will be staying away from The Longest Day and Patton as I hope they will get around to fixing the use of DNR on these titles. I will also be staying away from Gangs Of NY as well.

I wish they would stop trying to erase film grain with DNR as it just sucks.

 

[GlennH]

deleted.

 

[Dick]

I caught this movie on its initial release at the Broadway (NY) Cinerama theater, and it was projected on the same enormous curved screen on which I'd seen GRAND PRIX, 2001, ICE STATION ZEBRA, etc. and looked, as I recall, pretty excellent. Could a 35mm print (or even a blow-up to 70mm) look decent on a Cinerama screen?

 

[john a hunter]

That would be its 70mm reissue in the late 60's, Dick. It was first released in 62,well before the other films you mention.

 

[OliverK]

Some Blow-Ups could look fantastic although not as good as the real thing.
Best I have seen with regard to detail was a Blow-Up of Papillon, it put newer Blow-Ups like Terminator 2 and Titanic to shame.

 

[john a hunter]

Terminator 2 and Titanic were from"Super"35 originals. I was never sure what was meant to be super about that process given all the negative that is wasted when "blowing up". The best 35 to 70 print up I have ever seen is " The Wind and the Lion" and was from an anamorphic original.The best 70mm print from 65mm was "The Fall of the Roman Empire".

 

[OliverK]

It seems to be that the Blow-Ups that are named when it comes to what looked best are invariably from movies that were shot anamorphic.

I am still waiting to watch Fall of the Roman Empire in 70mm - I have also heard from others that it looked VERY good even though it is kind of a Blow-Up coming from an anamorphic 65mm negative.

 

[Robert Harris]

???

 

[OliverK]

I meant to say that while it was shot anamorphic in UP70 it was printed to flat 70mm prints with the standars ca 2.2:1 aspect ratio so that only 80% of the picture area of the 65mm negative were used. Therefore it had to be enlarged horizontally by 25% for the 70mm exhibition prints and that is why I wrote it was technically a Blow-Up which I admit might be misleading compared to what is normally called a Blow-Up

Therefore I would rather have expected it to look a little less stunning than films that were shot flat given the smaller negative area used for the release print and the fact that it had to be printed differently and I imagine similar in technique to Super Technirama 70 movies.

I think this is the only movie shot in anamorphic 65mm that was released with only flat 70mm prints.

 

[Robert Harris]

Ben-Hur re-issue c. 1968-69

 

[OliverK]

A very bad decision and I think there was only one print made ?

Together with Fall of the Roman Empire and El Cid it tops my list of movies that I would like to watch in 70mm with a new print.

 

[RolandL]

What was the reason for filming The Fall of the Roman Empire in Ultra Panavision if they were going to release it in flat 70mm prints? They could have waited till the summer and release it to Cinerama Theatres instead of Circus World. It would of looked better on a Cinerama screen than Circus World.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Only Samuel Bronston knows.