I pre-ordered it with Columbia house and it has not shipped yet. So I am thinking many vendors may be sticking to the original Aug 29th date to put it on the shelves or for sale.
I ordered my copy from Amazon via 1-day shipping... shipped out Monday, arrived on Tuesday. I've started to make all my DVD purchases online, because I don't have to hunt around various retailer's stores to find 'em, and it saves some gas money
I watched it over the last weekend and thought the film looked pretty good overall but somehow it did not stand out like say White Heat - which would be tough to beat. A fair number of the darker interior scenes seemed to have what I would describe as a pulsating look and did not appear more than just average. Still enjoyable of course. Maybe I should throw on my old laserdisc version just to see how much better this new release is. As for the extras - the main feature was interesting but after 20 minutes or so I decided to just watch the film - guess I was somewhat bored with it. I'll have to try and watch it later again.
I couldn't find it at Fred Meyer or K-Mart, so I ended up racing out to Best Buy on my lunch.... they had ONE copy.
I thought the transfer looked quite good... infinitely better than the earlier Image DVD. The documentary was top notch too. Finally, a presentation befitting a film of this stature.
Jack, I had the same problem. I eventually found one at a Best Buy on the other side of town (Louisville). It was the only store that had any stock (and they only had 3 copies.
No stock at Target, Walmart, Circuit City, two other Best Buy stores, Sam's, KMart and Blockbuster.
Only Best Buy and Movie Stop had copies in my area. Went to Movie Stop and I picked up the last one. Clerk at the store said they only ordered 3. I thought a Legacy Series collection like this would have had more visibility.
Got mine at BB Tuesday night. I don't remember how many were on the shelf, but like Richard, they were not in the "new release" section. I had to do a little in-store hunting to find it.
I have to agree here. I was expecting something special, and maybe that was unrealistic. I had the IMAGE disc, and this is better looking, but not by much. It's still soft and doesn't live up to the hype. The packaging isn't very attractive, but it's certainly sturdy. The accompanying documentary is good, but nothing we haven't heard before. It's certainly better than many of the predicatbly blah pieces we usually get from Fox via their A&E or AMC re-treads, which are the worst in the biz.
After waiting all these years, I expected U to deliver something special, and I don't know if it's fair to condemn them for a mediocre looking transfer. Perhaps this is the best they can do with what survives. I don't know, only they do. I'm pleased to see them give this film its deserved 'special treatment' and I want to believe they gave it their best shot.
The Schickel commentary is OK, but doesn't really have anything special to offer. The second commentary (by people I'm not familiar with) reminded me of a very boring class in college. A good substitute for a sleeping pill.
i finnally found it. i went to best buy .com and it said it was in stock at one store i went there but nothing. so i asked a worker and he went into the back and brought me a copy (then put the rest on the shelf)
Universal's remaster is virtually perfect to my eyes. The photographic quality is absolutely stunning. They clearly performed a huge amount of dirt/scratch removal (as usual with their newer remasters). UCLA's Film & TV Archive (and Robert Gitt) performed the restoration from the nitrate fine-grain positive. Universal put a huge amount of work into this and it shows.
I think it looks fantastic and is a really well put together DVD.
One thing I want to give major props for... and it might seem like a small insignificant detail... but I REALLY appreciate how Universal prints the aspect ratio of BOTH discs (bonus material also) directly on the DVDs.
I don't understand why ALL studios don't follow this simple practice. It makes viewing for those of us with front projection so much easier (even though there's really no need for this movie anyway as its obvious... but its the idea)!
IMHO, I believe this a very acceptable transfer with no faux grain, but very nice genuine film grain visible. And yet there are still some people complaining about "too much grain". Visible film grain (not compression artifacts, "faux grain") provides a wonderful film-like viewing experience. I hope the studios do not give in to those people demanding "grainless" transfers. Filtered, grainless transfers are NOT a sign of quality. Without the grain structure visible, they are digitally manipulated, butchered transfers . This is especially important with upcoming HD-DVD transfers of catalog titles.
To the movie itself: A masterpiece that I could watch every couple of months without getting tired. The great Edward G. Robinson as the star in one of his first "non-starring" roles.