International BARABBAS (1 Viewer)

[OliverK]

Could well have been Oliver.
Just dragged out the DVD and it is pretty crappy. Couldn't find the DVD of King of Kings for comparison but no luck.
Interestingly the DVD is 4 track while this new one is only stereo I believe.

I fully believe that it is. I still have the King of Kings DVD (1961) as I like to use it to show people the difference between really good DVD and a very good Blu-ray, that is always a very effective presentation.

Regarding the 4 track sound that was on a bunch of Columbia DVDs for some time, I still have DVD with 4-track sound of The Man from Laramie.

 

[Ed Lachmann]

Well, it seems to look a bit better than the horrid review one buyer posted at Amazon.fr. suggests. I had decided not to pick it up based on that. I just might go for it now as it looks every bit as good as the Twilight TIme Hawaii to my eyes. Beggars, as the saying goes, can't be choosers.

 

[OliverK]

Well, it seems to look a bit better than the horrid review one buyer posted at Amazon.fr. suggests. I had decided not to pick it up based on that. I just might go for it now as it looks every bit as good as the Twilight TIme Hawaii to my eyes. Beggars, as the saying goes, can't be choosers.

You definitely will not find this level of detail on the Barabbas Blu-ray:
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/screenshot.php?movieid=135082&position=5
This does not even look that good but better than all the caps of Barabbas which should tell us something.

I find it deplorable to release a large format movie looking like Barabbas, the only criteria seems to be that it looks a little less horrible than the DVD (by Blu-ray standards) and it is almost the same for The Long Ships. While I think that there is little hope for The Long Ships being revisited by Sony any time soon the chances for Barabbas should be much better.

 

[RolandL]

I guess this is not the same French group that did a wonderful transfer of Circus World.

 

[JPCinema]

I guess this is not the same French group that did a wonderful transfer of Circus World.

Nope :-( not even close.....

 

[john a hunter]

I guess this is not the same French group that did a wonderful transfer of Circus World.

Nor even the better one,IMO, of 55 Days.

 

[OliverK]

This is not as much a matter of where but of when. Work on Barabbas was probably done before the DVD release which means at least 15 years ago. The work on 55 Days and Cirucs World is much more recent and was performed at Pinewood in the UK in 2011 and 2013 with technology that had evolved massively by that time.

 

[Douglas R]

I bought this to judge for myself and because I don't see the point in waiting for something which might be better but which may never appear.

It's considerably better than I expected and, of course, vastly better than the DVD. Yes, maybe the color veers too much to brown but I thought the film always looked rather brownish especially in the interior scenes. Exteriors look far better - in fact, very good. Sound is 5.1 as well as stereo and again, is a huge improvement over the DVD.

I'd say that most people who appreciate the film would not regret buying it.

 

[OliverK]

Doug, I am still trying to convince somebody to screen his 35mm IBTech print for me

Judging by the screencaps the Blu-ray does look better than the DVD so it is currently the best version that is available on disc. It is just not comparable in quality to other roadshow titles from the era that made it to Blu-ray in much better shape.

 

[RolandL]

I wish caps-a-holic or dvdbeaver would do a comparison of the DVD and Blu-ray.

 

[john a hunter]

Thanks Doug for biting the bullet for us fans of this much underrated epic. Will have to get one.

 

[Paul Rossen]

Thanks Doug for biting the bullet for us fans of this much underrated epic. Will have to get one.

What region is the Bluray? Also, are any subtitles forced that cannot be removed?

 

[haineshisway]

Well, whoever posted the caps here did this release a great disservice - unless, of course, the transfer is really devoid of most hues other than brown. Until I see something that tells me otherwise, I can't take a chance on this - folks seem to have a high tolerance for brown transfers that don't have proper color - I don't. Someone post something that shows me an outdoor scene with actual correct color and I may bite.

 

[Ernest]

What region is the Bluray? Also, are any subtitles forced that cannot be removed?

The Blu-ray i purchased was played on a OPPO player set to Region A. When you select the English audio track the subtitles appear in French and CANNOT be turned off. If you own an OPPO like I do you can use the subtitle shift feature to move the subtitles off the TV screen.

 

[Douglas R]

What region is the Bluray? Also, are any subtitles forced that cannot be removed?

The box says Region B but I've tested it and it plays on both region A and Region B. I can't remove the French subtitles on my player.

 

[Douglas R]

Well, whoever posted the caps here did this release a great disservice - unless, of course, the transfer is really devoid of most hues other than brown. Until I see something that tells me otherwise, I can't take a chance on this - folks seem to have a high tolerance for brown transfers that don't have proper color - I don't. Someone post something that shows me an outdoor scene with actual correct color and I may bite.

These are photos of the TV screen - but with that proviso, they give an idea of what the image looks like (the banding on the sky is due to the camera; it's not on the screen).

 

[OliverK]

Thanks, Doug.
It still is an oldish transfer I guess but one has to wonder why there were no caps of outdoor scenes when they look like this.
Maybe to discourage potential buyers?
In any case probably a safe buy for people who just want something better than the DVD, me I will wait for another way to watch it and hopefully also for a new Blu-ray from Sony.

 

[haineshisway]

Doug, thanks for the photos - I actually trust those more than I do caps. And as OliverK says, one has to wonder why anyone would post the caps they did when they have zero color in them - they should have SOME color so they were obviously taken poorly or something is screwy somewhere. There's natural color in the images you posted and I would feel much more comfortable buying this now. Is there a link somewhere.

BTW, there are several bad reviews of this disc on amazon.fr.

 

[Douglas R]

I bought it direct from Amazon.fr:
https://www.amazon.fr/Barabbas-Édit...=UTF8&qid=1481868108&sr=1-1&keywords=barabbas

 

[JPCinema]

The HD iTunes version is identical to the French Blu Ray.