A Few Words About A few words about…™ Midsommar (Director's Cut) - in 4k UHD Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[harync]

A24 finally has the 4K director's cut back in stock for anyone interested.

 

[Reed Grele]

This was one of the most brutal fictional films I have seen in recent memory, and it wasn't even the director's cut.

Yet, I was completely captivated throughout. It took me a day or two to piece it all together and realize how much I liked the film.

However, sadly, I can't watch this again.

I couldn't "bear" it.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I couldn't "bear" it.

 

[harync]

I couldn't "bear" it.

 

[WillG]

So I broke down and bought the directors cut on UHD. Part of me does kind of feel gipped. The disc is bare bones as they come, aside from a screen that lets you decide if you want to watch with subtitles or not the disc doesn’t even have a menu. For the asking price, we couldn’t get an audio commentary or at least a featuette about the difference between the theatrical and extended cut. Something for that price.

that being said the packaging is nice, but I’d rather just have a cheaper price instead of the book it comes in (and just a pro tip, if you have young kids in the house don’t leave the book just lying around or you might have to have an awkward talk with them sooner than you might have intended to). I think my copy was damaged (spine from book got unglued and separated from pages) but don’t know if it’s worth going though hassle trying to get a replacement from A24

the movie did look great and as for the extended cut, I guess the overall difference is (and I don’t think it need as spoiler since it’s not plot specific) is that Christian comes off clearly as more selfish in the extended version. In theatrical I could kind of see him a guy who just isn’t very good at meeting the emotional needs of his girlfriend. But in this cut he’s more clearly defined as just selfish.

I think on a second viewing some of my complaints around what I thought were the holes of my initial viewing got somewhat alleviated

on a side note I am currently on a Disney trip. Did Epcot Yesterday and when I got to the Scandinavian section there was that stone before the you know what scene. And I was like “hey that‘s the thing from Midsommar” to my wife.

 

[titch]

So I broke down and bought the directors cut on UHD. Part of me does kind of feel gipped. The disc is bare bones as they come, aside from a screen that lets you decide if you want to watch with subtitles or not the disc doesn’t even have a menu. For the asking price, we couldn’t get an audio commentary or at least a featuette about the difference between the theatrical and extended cut. Something for that price.

that being said the packaging is nice, but I’d rather just have a cheaper price instead of the book it comes in (and just a pro tip, if you have young kids in the house don’t leave the book just lying around or you might have to have an awkward talk with them sooner than you might have intended to). I think my copy was damaged (spine from book got unglued and separated from pages) but don’t know if it’s worth going though hassle trying to get a replacement from A24

the movie did look great and as for the extended cut, I guess the overall difference is (and I don’t think it need as spoiler since it’s not plot specific) is that Christian comes off clearly as more selfish in the extended version. In theatrical I could kind of see him a guy who just isn’t very good at meeting the emotional needs of his girlfriend. But in this cut he’s more clearly defined as just selfish.

I think on a second viewing some of my complaints around what I thought were the holes of my initial viewing got somewhat alleviated

on a side note I am currently on a Disney trip. Did Epcot Yesterday and when I got to the Scandinavian section there was that stone before the you know what scene. And I was like “hey that‘s the thing from Midsommar” to my wife.

I have been really sitting on the fence, regarding the A24 4K Director's Cut. It's horrendously expensive - factor in the shipping and customs charges to Scandinavia - and I already have the Italian 4K disc of the Theatrical Cut. I felt that the Theatrical Cut was satisfactory and didn't miss the more in-depth character developments, described in the Director's Cut. I mean, it's not like the extended version of Aliens, or something. Midsommar itself is very polarising - you either like it or hate it. And the Director's Cut seems to divide even further those who liked the theatrical cut of Midsommar.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I think this is a pretty film to look at but overall, not a great story. For the length of time taken to tell the tale the characters, in my opinion, never come alive nor are even mildly interesting. Quite honestly with what is here for story and characters, this really could have been done as an hour long or less Twilight Zone episode. The massive length of the director's cut seems ridiculous. I guess if you love being in this "world" then perhaps you would enjoy hanging out with this for over three hours but outside of that...not particularly gripping stuff. I think if you want to create an "epic" you've got to have a lot more story than you have here and it pays to have characters you can get invested in.

 

[TravisR]

I think this is a pretty film to look at but overall, not a great story. For the length of time taken to tell the tale the characters, in my opinion, never come alive nor are even mildly interesting. Quite honestly with what is here for story and characters, this really could have been done as an hour long or less Twilight Zone episode. The massive length of the director's cut seems ridiculous. I guess if you love being in this "world" then perhaps you would enjoy hanging out with this for over three hours but outside of that...not particularly gripping stuff. I think if you want to create an "epic" you've got to have a lot more story than you have here and it pays to have characters you can get invested in.

I only saw the director's cut back in theaters but my memory is that, like most longer versions, a few things helped the movie but most of the scenes were left out for a reason.

 

[john a hunter]

I enjoyed it even if it was not a particular original story. Indeed quite predictable.
However the environment the director created was extremely effective.
Not sure why the 2:1 AR .
A strange choice unless it was intended for Netflix.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I only saw the director's cut back in theaters but my memory is that, like most longer versions, a few things helped the movie but most of the scenes were left out for a reason.

Yes, I have not watched the director's cut. I read his comments on it and saw clips of the additional scenes somewhere on the internet. Basically, between what Aster said and the clips nothing encouraged me to sit through the director's cut. I mean the key thing he said about it that made me interested in it was he felt the longer version was a totally different film that I believe he said made it play more like a drama than a horror film. In the end I decided I prefer it to be a horror film. I think he thinks of it as a "bad relationship" movie because his inspiration for creating it was a relationship falling apart for him.

I like the genre of "folk horror" and the idea of traveling to a strange place and meeting strange people that may mean to do you harm but there are a lot better films in this genre that deal with this and "cult" activities.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

However the environment the director created was extremely effective.

I agree with this completely. He does establish a wonderful sense of place and you feel the sense of strangeness there. It's also quite cool how he chose to have this mainly take place in daylight with lots of beautiful flowers and the white costumes. I thought all that was great. I just did not latch on to any of the characters and the story seemed almost to be a reworking of Hereditary with the general idea that family tragedy makes you much more susceptible to cult activity. Interesting, but overall he did it better the first time.

 

[WillG]

I think this is a pretty film to look at but overall, not a great story. For the length of time taken to tell the tale the characters, in my opinion, never come alive nor are even mildly interesting. Quite honestly with what is here for story and characters, this really could have been done as an hour long or less Twilight Zone episode. The massive length of the director's cut seems ridiculous. I guess if you love being in this "world" then perhaps you would enjoy hanging out with this for over three hours but outside of that...not particularly gripping stuff. I think if you want to create an "epic" you've got to have a lot more story than you have here and it pays to have characters you can get invested in.

yeah, the characters weren’t among the movie’s strength. You have Christian who is selfish (though to what degree depends on the cut you watch) but his personality is integral to the story. However, while Dani seems nice enough, you get the sense she’s not all that much fun to be around either. Then you have the other guy who’s just a typical douchebag ugly American who you know right off the bat is going to do something to piss off the cult and get killed over it. And then you have the black guy who’s.......well.......the black guy (to be clear I don’t mean that as an insult, but just the Hollywood trope of a black supporting character who isn’t given much to do). Characters with more dimension might have helped.

 

[Robert Harris]

yeah, the characters weren’t among the movie’s strength. You have Christian who is selfish (though to what degree depends on the cut you watch) but his personality is integral to the story. However, while Dani seems nice enough, you get the sense she’s not all that much fun to be around either. Then you have the other guy who’s just a typical douchebag ugly American who you know right off the bat is going to do something to piss off the cult and get killed over it. And then you have the black guy who’s.......well.......the black guy (to be clear I don’t mean that as an insult, but just the Hollywood trope of a black supporting character who isn’t given much to do). Characters with more dimension might have helped.

William Harper, who played Josh, was one of the few truly sane characters in the film, who remained after the early exodus.