Favorite Blu Ray.......With a Lousy Transfer (1 Viewer)

[Michael Reuben]

Robert Harris' review of NxNW on Blu is probably best remembered for its parody of restoration write-ups, but he did address the "softness" issue -- and there are few people around who know Hitchcock's films better than RAH:

Originally Posted by Robert Harris

Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest, generally considered to be the master's greatest chase / thriller finds its heritage in his mid to late 1930s UK productions such as The 39 Steps and Young and Innocent. The basis of these films concern someone wrongly accused of a crime, who must survive those who want him dead while staying away from the long arm of the law that is constantly moving in on him.

For its 50th Anniversary Blu-ray release WB has gone back to the basics and totally restored the film, beginning with its problematic original negative.

* * * *


The bottom line is simple, be it Ned Price or Ted Rice -- it's all part of the same alphabet soup -- the final product looks and sounds superb on Blu-ray. There is minimal grain, as befits not only VistaVision, but negative that has spend some time in Benedictine DOM. Sharpness varies, as it did in 1959, as quite a bit of diffusion was used in production, yielding a beautifully rendered, fully velvety image. Audio is uncompressed.

With thanks to our friends in Germany, North by Northwest is once again available for prime viewing here back in the States.

North by Northwest from WB is Very Highly Recommended, and a film not to be missed.

RAH

 

[Cinescott]

There does seem to be a preponderance of opinions regarding transfers appearing "soft" before it's ever determined if that's the way the movie was shot. Not every movie was filmed with the intention of 100% sharpness and clarity. If that "softness" translates over to blu-ray, I'd consider that a tremendous success for the format.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I rented "Spartacus" after hearing that it was a disappointing Blu-ray, and I was, well, disappointed. Nevermind the lack of supplements which Criterion had done such an incredible job with; for a large-format epic film, there was no excuse for it to look as DNRed and indistinct as it does. Here's hoping that Criterion might get the chance one day to upgrade their outstanding edition to a new Blu-ray.


I hate to say it, but when it's a catalog title by Universal, I won't buy it without renting it first. With all of the space available on a Blu-ray disc and HD mastering/authoring technology as good as it is, there's really no excuse for a Blu-ray of any movie to not be an accurate representation of the original theatrical presentation. Sadly, it seems like they're just not putting enough effort into their stuff.

 

[benbess]

Originally Posted by Josh Steinberg

I rented "Spartacus" after hearing that it was a disappointing Blu-ray, and I was, well, disappointed. Nevermind the lack of supplements which Criterion had done such an incredible job with; for a large-format epic film, there was no excuse for it to look as DNRed and indistinct as it does. Here's hoping that Criterion might get the chance one day to upgrade their outstanding edition to a new Blu-ray.


I hate to say it, but when it's a catalog title by Universal, I won't buy it without renting it first. With all of the space available on a Blu-ray disc and HD mastering/authoring technology as good as it is, there's really no excuse for a Blu-ray of any movie to not be an accurate representation of the original theatrical presentation. Sadly, it seems like they're just not putting enough effort into their stuff.

+1! Very well said.

 

[FoxyMulder]

I agree with the people who say North By Northwest looks great on blu ray, the softness is intentional and can be found on many productions from that era, not everything is intended to be pin sharp, also memories of how a film looked at the cinema are not always remembered correctly.


Regarding The Searchers, it wasn't shot with lots of diffusion filters, they were going for a different look on that one.


Put it this way, i see many people saying Zulu on blu ray is great, i disagree, they say there shouldn't be any grain seen, i once again disagree with these people, i point out that The Sound Of Music is superb and there is fine grain within that image, there is no fine grain within the image of Zulu, but there should be since Super Technirama 70 was known to have more prominent grain than other formats like Todd-AO, logic simply dictates that there should be more film grain, as it stands and viewing on my 104inch screen ( no i'm not trying to come across as better than those with smaller screens - just saying what i viewed the film on ) anyways Zulu has DNR, it has edge enhancement, it looks processed and yet reviews all over the internet say its magnificent. You might say well maybe the softness in Zulu is also intentional, well i'd be fine with that but for the fact i see the blurriness caused by the DNR and the edge enhancement caused by trying to sharpen everything up once they had removed the detail just because someone wanted to degrain the image.


I guess my point would be that many people, even reviewers can sometimes think there is DNR ( as some think there is in North By Northwest ) but in reality there isn't, then they can think a transfer is perfect and detailed ( as in Zulu ) but it's actually DNRed and sharpened too much and lacks fine detail. I tend to suggest that people should just view for themselves, if they are happy then so be it, if they don't spot the issues i spot then good, they will enjoy the film more, personally i just can't help seeing problems with older transfers and DNR tends to show a mild amount of blur to an image, especially noticeable when you look at a screencap but also visible on large screens, edge enhancement just pulls me right out of a film, for me thats a dealbreaker if it exists on the entire transfer.

 

[montrealfilmguy]

thank you Kevin EK !


i guess ill be listening to that Spike commentary this week.


i think its still the very best he ever did.