Downfall on August 2 (1 Viewer)

[Haggai]

DVDAnswers has the announcement.

For extras, the only info given for now is "a making of featurette" and "some cast and crew interviews." I think the German R2 DVD has a longer doc and lots of interviews, but none of them have English subs. Corrections welcome on that info.

 

[EnricoE]

the german cover looks a lot better then the one of the upcoming region 1 :p)
but i may get the region 1 if the video encoding is better then the one from the german dvd. i also hope the region 1 gets a dts tracks as the german dvd provides a very good one.

 

[PaulP]

Maybe the UK will get a 2-discer as well, with DTS and all the German extras subtitled. But why do the studios do this. Release inferior versions, while the extras are out there already.

 

[Kain_C]

That really sucks. Such a tremendous film with what appears to be a not-so tremendous R1 release. Typical.

 

[ChristianB]

Maybe it's because Sony doesn't have the rights to include the supplemental material? Just a thought.

Just because R2 has it, doesn't mean the R1 will (and vice versa).

Christian

 

[Kain_C]

So? And they can't create new supplemental material or afford to license out the old material? I think not.

 

[Jace_A]

Well, it is a foreign language film, so I don't expect Sony would invest too much time or money in extra material, given the limited sales the title will generate.

 

[Perry L William]

As I understand it, there will be a special three hour edition of "Downfall" coming in 2006. They will broadcast this in a mini-series in Germany and then put it out on DVD. I don't know if we will get this here in America.

 

[JonZ]

I really want to see this. Heard it was excellent.

Was putting off going outside R1 because I was hoping for a decent version here.

 

[Sten F]

The Danish distributor Sandrew Metronome has confirmed that it has optained the rights to release an exact Region 2 version of the German 2-disc DTS Premium Edtion.

No word, yet whether this will have English subtitles on the extras.

 

[Ted Todorov]

Yeah, that's why Criterion went out of business last year, 'cause they spent too much time and money on extras for foreign films that nobody buys.

I'm sick and tired of stupid lame excuses. If you can't even be bothered to port a bunch of pre-existing extras, you shouldn't buy the rights to the film -- give somebody who cares a shot.

Ted

 

[Haggai]

Hold on a minute--Aaron Silverman posted the press release late last night, which says that there's going to be a director commentary as well on this disc, and I didn't see any indication that there was one on the R2 SE when I checked the DVDBeaver review. Maybe this R1 release will have something that the other regions aren't getting. Seems odd, though...maybe they screwed up the press release, but that's what it says.

 

[Miles]

Hmm... I believe there is already a R2 or R4 version out there with German DTS and english subs... as I have one. The film is one the best movies I've seen in a while.

 

[JonZ]

Heres a comparison of different versions.....
http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=6992

 

[Daniel Windsor]

I really don't like that Sony cover. Very cheap looking.

The German one is superior:



Great film and an absolute must see.

It is estimated that about 55 million people died in the European theater during World War II. Globally a total of over 60 million people died in WWII and of those 60 million, more were civilian than soldiers. The Soviet Union lost the most with 25 million deaths, but only about a third were combat related. China's death toll is incomplete but estimates are between 15 and 22 million, Poland had 6 million deaths including 3 million Jews, roughly 20% of its prewar population, Germany lost 4 million soldiers and 2 million civilians, many of them women, Japan had 1.2 million battle deaths and another 1.4 million soldiers listed as missing, almost 1 million civilians were killed in the bombing raids between 1944 and 1945, over 1.7 million Yugoslavs and 500,000 Greeks died in the war, France lost 200,000 soldiers and 400,000 civilians, Italy lost 330,000 people, Hungary lost 147,000 men in combat, Bulgaria lost 19,000 in combat, Romania lost 73,000 in combat, Great Britain lost 264,000 soldiers and 60,000 civilians in bombing raids, the United States lost 292,000 soldiers, the Dutch lost 10,000 soldiers and 190,000 civilians, Australia lost 23,000 men in combat, Canada 37,000 soldiers, India lost 24,000 men in battle, New Zealand 10,000 and South Africa 6,000. These totals do not include the 6 million Jews who perished in the Final Solution of Nazi Germany or the 17 million dead as a result of Japan's policies in Asia from 1931 to 1945.

Is that reason enough to watch?

The fact it has a non-English language is irrelevant once you get going. That's assuming you are not completely dumb.

 

[Kain_C]

AMEN BRO!!

And as I have done before, this film recieves my highest recommendation. Superb production design, acting, writing, EVERYTHING. Bruno Ganz is absolutely incredible.

And was there a reason the above poster 'bolded' the US casuality rate?

 

[Aaron Silverman]

I'm not sure why WWII casualty rates would be a particular reason to watch the film at all. . .