Conan The Barbarian: SE - why no 5.1 audio? (1 Viewer)

[Dave H]

I watched this tonight and have to say that the transfer, besides some grain in the blue sky scenes, was excellent. I was very impressed. The documentary was very good, as well.
But, why wasn't there a 5.1 audio mix on this disc considering the effort put into this disc. The two channel, while original I assume, was very hollow sounding.
Listening to this movie in a solid 5.1 mix would have been awesome.
[Edited last by Dave H on September 23, 2001 at 09:58 PM]

 

[Sean Moon]

Around time of release it was said the original elements were in so bad condition(or lost, cant remember) to do a 5.1 remix.
Too bad....that is one music score BEGGING for 5.1
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[Mike Heenan]

The film was never released in stereo in the theatres. I had a print of the movie and it was mono of course. I dont think they ever had any additional materials, but a new soundtrack wouldve been nice I agree.

 

[Scott Dill]

There is no 5.1 soundtrack on the DVD because the film has a mono soundtrack. How would 5.1 encoding of a mono soundtrack be effective without altering the original intent?
[Edited last by Scott Dill on September 25, 2001 at 12:39 AM]

 

[Damin J Toell]

How would 5.1 encoding of a mono soundtrack be effective without altering the original intent?

see: The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
see also: the Kubrick remasters.
these are sure to draw numerous originalist complaints (heck, the mono track on the RHPS disc is a prized possession of mine), but i think that they do the job quite nicely.
intent isn't a static thing. intent can change. one can intend something given current circumstances, but be completely willing to modify those intentions in the future. i have no problem whatsoever with a filmmaker who chooses to do a remix, as long as the original track is included. remixes can be very bad, but they can also be quite good, and i think it must be taken on a case by case basis. in the case of Kubrick, for instance, he had certain reasons for preferring mono; those reasons have evaporated, by and large. perhaps Kubrick becomes the easy case that is the exception to the much harder one: intent may sometimes be simply impossible to discern. the person in question may be long dead with little in the way of documentation of his/her intent.
here, the realm of law becomes a prime analogy: how does a judge interpret the intent of legislators long dead? sometimes, there is a large body of legislative materials that explain it. but quite often, the language of the statute itself is all that exists. if one believes that a judge should follow law's intent, then, construction of intent becomes a guessing game at best and a mere fiction at worst. in such hard cases, why should one construction of intent be given preference over another? switch this all around to filmmaking: how do viewers (remixers? rights owners?) determine the intent of a filmmaker, long dead, who has only left the film itself as evidence?
one can easily imagine a filmmaker's intent as the goal of evoking a certain response from an audience. as technology changes, audience responses will change, and they might no longer respond the same way to a certain component of a film over a span of years. imagine further that the filmmaker's intent was the "wow" factor, and that the sound mix (done, say, 50 years ago) was designed to amaze/scare/etc. in such a case, it might be argued that leaving a film in mono would actually be going against the original intent and that a multichannel mix would accomplish what the previous mix no longer could. while it would be unwise to go to such lengths in all cases, i certainly think that limiting a person's "intent" to "what that person actually did" is a grave mistake, and regarding all remixes as going against intent is a fallacy.
DJ

 

[Mark Roger]

This could have been a great release if the sound track could have been 5.1.
I find this disc difficult to watch due to the crappy audio sound. I have tried to sit through it a few times but sooner or later the nasty audio sound drives me to hit eject.

 

[Mike_G]

I would have at the very LEAST liked the msuic to be in stereo. I was watching the documentary and then went to wtch the movie, and it was pathetic to hear this wonderful score crashed into one speaker after hearing it in stereo.
Mike
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[Matt_Stevens]

Stereo has really spoiled this world. Some films are in mono. Some GREAT films. To not enjoy them is simply absurd. I've watched my CONAN dvd twice and loved it both times. The lack of stereo surround never bothered me.
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[Brian Lawrence]

I say Thank you Universal!
I am so god damned sick of this 5.1 remix crap that studios have been pumping out at the cost of the original soundtrack. If Universal had included a 5.1 track they would not have even bothered to include the mono mix, Past history shows this to be the case with most all Universal & Warner dvds.
The Kubrick collection v.2 could have been great but the 5.1 junk knocks it down to being merely okay. Sure the new mixes have made most Home Theater geeks happier than a pig in shit to have sound coming out of all their speakers, But Mr. Kubrick is rolling over in his grave.
Classic mono and Dolby Surround films should not be pumped up on 5.1 steroids to sound more like the majority of todays big dumb lumbering idiot films.

 

[Mike_G]

Well, I never said stereo SURROUND although I can see why that's implied. It's funny, people think that just because it was released in mono that it should stay in mono, but in the meantime poor Basil Palidorous' score suffers compared to the original stereo masters.
I never even said I wanted 5.1, just that the music get opened up a bit like it deserves to.
Mike
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[Matt_Stevens]

Basil's score is better in stereo, but the fact is the audio elements were in bad shape, so a 5.1 track was not created. Most music tracks for film are usually kept in vaults and protected, as they can be used for soundtrack releases. A shame the normal sound elements do not get such care.
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[James T]

I thought I remembered someone on this forum saying awhile back that Basil wanted to get payed extra money to have his score remixed to 5.1 and since they weren't going to pay extra money, that was the reason for not having a 5.1 track

 

[Matt_Stevens]

Rubbish. He wouldn't get a dime if they did it. Studios can remix to their heart's content.
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