A Few Words About A few words about...™ West Side Story -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Stephen_J_H]

That and the inclusion of the original 6-track mix will be the deciding factors as to whether I will eventually buy a Criterion edition of West Side Story (supposing this is true).

Keep in mind that the original 6-track mix is too "big" for most home theatres, and would require substantial rewiring and jiggery-pokery to duplicate in the home setting. The original 6-track mix was restored in 2010 http://in70mm.com/news/2010/wss/index.htm, but the 4-track mix (also restored) would be the preferred mix for the vast majority of HT setups.

 

[warnerbro]

As I said before, the overture is my favorite part of the movie and they screwed it up on the bluray.

 

[Doug Otte]

Keep in mind that the original 6-track mix is too "big" for most home theatres, and would require substantial rewiring and jiggery-pokery to duplicate in the home setting. The original 6-track mix was restored in 2010 http://in70mm.com/news/2010/wss/index.htm, but the 4-track mix (also restored) would be the preferred mix for the vast majority of HT setups.

Can you please explain what you mean? Thanks.

 

[Camper]

Nobody ever says "I goofed"

 

[Mark-P]

Can you please explain what you mean? Thanks.

Magnetic 6-track from 70mm prints consist of 5 screen channels and 1 surround channel. No home theater setup supports that. In order to work the 5 screen channels must be mixed down to 3.

 

[john a hunter]

Which of course can be done and provide a much better mix than the present 5.1
As Stephen says the 4 track is far better on this present release.

 

[haineshisway]

The four-track sounds great as I recall. I remember that the 5.1 doesn't have the whistles pre-overture coming from all sides, which it absolutely did in the roadshow mix. I want that back. But if this news IS true, I can't imagine why anyone would think Criterion would ever do a release like this without a brand new transfer of some sort.

 

[Camper]

Doesn't it have a 4K transfer already?

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Can you please explain what you mean? Thanks.

Mark-P explained it relatively nicely, but the link I posted to in70mm.com is more in depth.

Tl;dr: 5 screen channels is overkill in most HT setups.

 

[Robert Harris]

Doesn't it have a 4K transfer already?

If this were to be done properly, it would begin with a 65mm 8k scan, which is 4k resolution.

Very expensive.

 

[Charles Smith]

And one of my holy grails.

 

[Tom St Jones]

I don't care who reissues the film next, on whatever media, as long as they fix the mistake. Subpar PQ is one thing, but a 3 - 4 second dropout or green-out just before the overture sequence climax, is something else...
I realise mistakes happen, but this is not Jaws 4 (no offence), this is WEST SIDE STORY. There are some films you don't screw up... and if you do, you FIX it and fix it correctly ASAP.

 

[ijthompson]

Hope this happens. It's nice to think I held onto my money for a reason!

 

[Tom St Jones]

Just bumping this out of obscurity for the moment to see if anyone's heard anything new as to whether MGM plans to bring this to 4k UHD anytime soon, or if it's more likely to be (Bluray only) via a third party such as Kino (who've brought us some nice editions of MGM/UA classics lately)... Last I heard, Criterion was supposedly eyeing this one for their illustrious line, but haven't heard anything more on that in almost a year...

 

[Tom St Jones]

Meant to revise post but ran out of time (semi-thanks to PC issues) - but since no one has responded...

Just trying to bump this out of obscurity to see if anyone has any new info on MGM plans to bring this to 4k UHD sooner or later, or if it's more likely to be (Bluray only) from a third party such as Kino (who've brought us some nice editions of MGM/UA classics lately)... I understand certain plans/announcements may be in temporary limbo since the studio's decision to trim itself (yes, pun intended) of Mr. Barber. Last I heard, Criterion was supposedly eyeing this one for their illustrious line, but that was almost a year ago..

 

[warnerbro]

We're getting a GREASE 4K so I'm sure we'll get WEST SIDE STORY in 4K in the future -- especially since Spielberg is working on a remake at this very minute.

 

[Dick]

Nobody ever says "I goofed"

VCI did, for ONE MILLION B.C. While not exactly saying "We goofed," Fox gave us a new PATTON, DreamWorks gave us a new GLADIATOR, Universal gave us a new SPARTACUS (long time coming, though). All but the last offered free replacement discs. There have been others. It's not unheard of.

 

[DP 70]

I heard the restored 6 Track mix in Bradford on the 70mm/Datasat print and it was fab.

 

[Worth]

MGM hasn't even started releasing UHD discs yet, so don't expect anything anytime soon.

 

[PMF]

MGM hasn't even started releasing UHD discs yet, so don't expect anything anytime soon.

Expect? Never. Demand? Always.