Aliens: SE vs Alien: 20th Anniversary (1 Viewer)

[JustinT]

I tried doing a search about these two titles but couldn't find anything comparing the two. What's the difference between the SE and the 20th anniversary? How does the quality compare between the two? Thanks in advance.

 

[Artur Meinild]

The main difference between "Alien: 20th Anniversary" and "Aliens: Special Edition" is that they're different movies (the first and second installment in the Alien series).
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~ Stud. Polyt. ~ Artur Meinild ~

 

[Matt Butler]

Alien 20th anniversary. Directed by Ridley Scott 1979
Wonderful disc with commentary, deleted scenes etc. The transfer is quite wonderful for a 20 yr old film.
Aliens SE Directed by James Cameron 1986.
Good transfer of the expanded version produced for the laserdisc in the early 90s.
Theres only been one release of each of these films on DVD and the other two films.

 

[JustinT]

I understand that they are different movies, but wanted to know why they got different dvd treatment (as opposed to all the Die Hard movies getting the same 5 star treatment, etc). I don't want a comparison of the movies, but a comparison of the actual dvd's. Thanks

 

[Jussi Tarvainen]

The difference is probably that 1999 wasn't the 20th anniversary of Aliens...

The only real difference is that there are fewer extras on the Aliens disc. Both can still be considered Special Editions. As for why, who knows? Cameron doesn't like commentaries, but there are other reasons to choose from: lack of time/money/extra material available/disc space... take your pick.
[Edited last by Jussi Tarvainen on October 21, 2001 at 04:40 PM]

 

[Artur Meinild]

I understand that they are different movies...

I just misunderstood your post then, sorry...
Quality-wise they're both very good, but it's important to realize that these two films were made using very different ways of filming.
Alien was filmed in anamorphic 2.35:1 while Aliens was shot in spherical 1.85:1. In addition, different film stocks were used, so it's hard to compare the "look" of each film.
Both has a nice (but quite different) set of extra features: Alien has deleted scenes, audio commentary, concept art and storyboards, Aliens has behind-the-scenes, interview and lots of still photos.
I recommend them both!
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~ Stud. Polyt. ~ Artur Meinild ~

 

[David Lambert]

I understand that they are different movies, but wanted to know why they got different dvd treatment (as opposed to all the Die Hard movies getting the same 5 star treatment, etc).

Keep in mind that these films were put together into a box set 2½ years ago, back in June 1999.
Back then different people were in charge of Fox DVD, for starters. But, mainly, not too many of the studios back then had any really enlightened thoughts about the DVD market. This was in the pre-mainstream era.
These days Fox (thanks to Peter Staddon and others) will actually contemplate a uniform look/layout to the DVD's that will go into a box set together.
Heck, these days they will even contemplate in advance that the DVD's will actually GO into a box set together!

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DAVE/Memphis

MORE TV ON DVD, PLEASE!

 

[Chad Ferguson]

The whole set is awesome!! They stand up to even todays standards. The only problem I have with the set is that they didn't do much with ALien 3(most likely cause Fincher didn't want to) and Alien 4 which I heard had over 20-40 minutes cut out of it.

 

[Dwayne]

To me, this set was the turning point for Fox.
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-Dwayne

 

[Joe D]

Alien has an extremely good transfer. Ridley Scott did a commentary that is quite good for the DVD.
Aliens transfer is alright. The DVD isn't nearly as good as Alien, but it's still pretty good. The 5.1 sound is pretty good though.
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Joe Dahlen
"Take hold of the flame, you've got nothing to lose, but everything to gain."

 

[Michael Reuben]

(as opposed to all the Die Hard movies getting the same 5 star treatment, etc)

This may be a distinction without a difference, but only the original Die Hard was labeled a "5 star collection". The other two were simply called "special editions".
M.

 

[jason celaya]

just posted on digital bits....5-star alien in the works.

 

[Rob Tomlin]

To me, this set was the turning point for Fox.

Agreed. I just happened to have watched Aliens last night. It is a very good transfer with great 5.1 sound. Nice, sharp, detailed picture. I was somewhat surprised at how good the transfer was considering this was a somewhat older DVD release.