A Few Words About A few words about...™ The Spy Who Loved Me -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

Lewis Gilbert (now 92), took the directorial reigns again, a decade after You Only Live Twice, for the third Roger Moore Bond production, The Spy Who Loved Me.

IMHO, one of the better Bonds, its also a better looking Blu-ray -- with the exception of the window-boxed main title sequence.

One of the problems with the Bond 50 set, seems to be a catch as catch can attitude, using whatever HD masters happen to be available, some going back a number of years, and created for a different marketplace.

HTF member Josh Zyber has mentioned the odd main title sequence in OHMSS, and the anamorphosis on several others, where the "bullet holes" that start of the credits are off round. Enough of the Bond titles are slightly problematic in so many ways, that I'll not even get into this, except to repeat my overall displeasure in the Bond 50 release, which could have been something special had those behind it done things properly.

In this final issue of three Bonds, TSWLM fares the best in terms of quality.

Image - 4.0 ( would have been a 4.5 had it not been for the window-boxing.

Audio - 5

Recommended.

RAH

 

[Maggi Magg]

I totally agree that TSWLM is one of the better Bonds (best of Roger Moore's) and it's saddening to see how these film are treated.

 

[Scott Calvert]

I watched about 20 minuted of this last night and thought it looked great. The most natural
looking transfer of all of them. It looks like something Sony could have released.
However, the windowboxing of titles really needs to stop now. I don't remember windowboxing being this bad in the DVD era, and I was watching on a widescreen set which I set up with 1:1 pixel mapping. Why is it becoming more widespread?
This one was pretty severe. Why is it so hard to get studios to do this right? Are the transfer technicians locked in a dungeon somewhere where no one can get their attention? Really, a simple phrase to someone who can make the decision: "Stop windowboxing titles. HDTV's do not have the severe overscan of NTSC sets."

 

[Albert_M]

I'm glad that overall the review is good. Looking forward to watching this one. It's one of my top 5 favorite Bond films

 

[Gary Seven]

My only complaint (granted, a small one) with the sound mix occurs in the ski sequence as he is about to shoot from his ski pole. The 007 guitar riff is heavily muted and barely audible. It's odd because in the menu section the same soundtrack is played but the guitar riff is clearly audible (as it was in other video releases). A minor quible but I do like that Bond 77 soundtrack.

 

[ackbak]

This was a solid transfer compared to some of the others. One of my favorite Moore bond movies, and while Barbara Bach is a looker, she really should have taken some acting classes before filming this one.
Awesome bad guys in this one..

 

[andySu]

I notice a lot of cold breath and looked about for the answer found on wikipedia.

The production team returned briefly to the UK to shoot at the Faslane submarine base before setting off to Spain, Portugal and the Bay of Biscay where the supertanker exteriors were filmed. On 5 December 1976, with principal photography finished, the 007 Stage was formally opened by former Prime Minister Harold Wilson.[13]

I guess that explains it all must have been a bit chilly inside that large indoor set with no heating.

 

[Osato]

Here is the Open University documentary on the making of the film...

Eight parts..

 

[PMF]

When a film has the collaboration of a DP like Claude Renoir and a 2nd Unit guy like Ernest Day, how can any 007 film help but to look any greater? Well, we know that answer. 4K/UHD, where are you-u-u-u-u?

NOTE: And please, no window-boxing this time 'round.

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

When a film has the collaboration of a DP like Claude Renoir and a 2nd Unit guy like Ernest Day, how can any 007 film help but to look greater? Well, we know that answer. 4K/UHD, where are you-u-u-u-u?

NOTE: And please, no window-boxing this time 'round.

The current 4k master does not window box the titles.

 

[Osato]

Great film. It looks amazing in 4k on iTunes!