A Few Words About A few words about...™ Spartacus (Take 2) -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[PMF]

Oh, I forgot to mention "Lawrence of Arabia", too. But that's really because I can't decide if it belongs in my Top 5 of the best looking titles on Blu-Ray; as it remains in a stratospheric class of its own.

 

[John Hermes]

Oh, I forgot to mention "Lawrence of Arabia", too. But that's really because I can't decide if it belongs in my Top 5 of the best looking titles on Blu-Ray; as it remains in a stratospheric class of its own.

The Ten Commandments has to be in there too.

 

[PMF]

The Ten Commandments has to be in there too.

Honour thy Vistas and thy Visions.

 

[Jacksmyname]

Hi all. I'm watching Spartacus as I try to compose this post on my point phone (tablet needs a new battery). I'm watching my HD-DVD copy. May not be perfect but it still looks pretty darn good.

 

[OliverK]

Hi all. I'm watching Spartacus as I try to compose this post on my point phone (tablet needs a new battery). I'm watching my HD-DVD copy. May not be perfect but it still looks pretty darn good.

The HD-DVD is a lot closer to a DVD in quality than to the new Blu-ray and is generally considered to be less than satisfactory even by the lower standards around the time it was released.
You are robbing yourself of a fantastic viewing experience of this movie that can be had for less than 10$ right now which is an absolute steal. My advice is to buy it now and to continue watching it or better start all over when you have received the new Blu-ray:

https://www.amazon.com/Spartacus-Blu-ray-Kirk-Douglas/dp/B011KME7FU/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1514242093&sr=1-1&keywords=spartacus&refinements=p_n_format_browse-bin:2650305011

 

[OliverK]

A few screencaps that nicely demonstrate how the new Blu-ray is much better in every regard:

http://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=1&x=720&y=296&d1=6603&d2=4867&s1=62223&s2=45347&l=0&i=2&go=1

http://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=1&x=547&y=361&d1=6603&d2=4867&s1=62221&s2=45372&l=0&i=0&go=1

http://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=1&x=308&y=196&d1=6603&d2=4867&s1=62226&s2=45349&l=0&i=5&go=1

Especially the opening scene is demo quality with regard to detail and textures and of course looks even better in movement than the screencaps.

 

[Clayking38]

Hi all. I'm watching Spartacus as I try to compose this post on my point phone (tablet needs a new battery). I'm watching my HD-DVD copy. May not be perfect but it still looks pretty darn good.

I had the HD-DVD. It was poor quality, soft image, and I believe Robert Harris had stated that its source (and that for the first Blu-ray) was mastered at 720p. The newest blu-ray is terrific quality, like night and day compared to the previous releases.

 

[benbess]

Watching this amazing restoration again right now. As we all know, outstanding and even jaw-dropping picture and sound quality for this movie. It looks so much better than the previous release.

The 15-minute documentary on the restoration is well worth watching. Needless to say, a stunning amount of work went into it to make this movie look and sound probably slightly better than it looked and sounded on opening night back in 1960.

Anyway, as a side note, in the new Liam Neeson movie The Commuter there's a little homage to Spartacus. The bad guys are looking for a someone name "Prynne"--and they are going to kill them. But at the end one after another innocent person stands up and says, "I am Prynne!" "No I am Prynne." "I'm Prynne!" etc. It was one of my favorite parts of the movie.

 

[Spencer Draper]

For those interested or in the Nashville, TN area: The Frist Art Museum will be running a 35mm print of Spartacus tomorrow afternoon at 2 PM. I believe it is a print of the 1991 restoration unless Universal made a few prints of the new digital restoration. The screening is free and open to the public.

 

[benbess]

Watched the restored Spartacus with my 22-year old son today. It was his first-ever viewing of the film, and he said the movie from his pov was perhaps the best of the ancient epics from this era because of the intensity as well as the subtleties found in the performances/screenplay. We both noted what we felt were "Kubrick" touches in the film in several places, including the cinematography, the editing, etc. Truly an impressive film—and an amazing restoration!