David Lambert
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2001
- Messages
- 11,377
Yesterday I stopped into the Exxon Tigermart across the street from work to use their ATM machine. As I headed back to the door, I passed a display of cheap and used DVDs and videogames, which has always been there.
Imagine my surprise when I spotted on the rack a couple of copies of Hanger 18 on DVD!
The price was $4.84, and no mention of AR was on the back. The DVDs came from some company called "Treeline Films", who I've certainly never heard of before.
Sure that this was a MAR copy transferred from VHS, I nevertheless bought it anyway (longtime HTFers know that this film is something my wife and I both enjoy, as noted here and here).
This is the cover art, by the way...direct from the "studio's" website:
[c]
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It turned out that I was dead-on about the transfer. 4x3 open matte (which was framed perfectly when zoomed, I might add), fuzzy/blurry, washed out colors on many scenes, with noticable compression artifacts in places and dirt/scratch artifacts throughout. Sound showed "stereo" on my DVD player output, but it all was really mono, baby.
Having said all of that, I should note that I've watched worse. Much worse.
I don't know what Treeline's situation is rights-wise. It's easy to assume that it's similar to PFE's release of The Final Countdown - an unauthorized "retail" release of an 80's film with a cult following. But the IMDB shows that the rights to Hanger 18 at release were with The Taft Company, and I'm unsure of what their status is. Crappy release though this is, it may be perfectly legit rights-wise.
I have no intention of tracking that down. I hope they aren't the true owners of this, though, so someone else can bring it out and do a much better job of it. I admit that this movie was cheesy in many respects - notably the SFX of the space shuttle early in the film - but it had something to say, and said it well enough. An entertaining yarn, and the acting was done seriously enough. I enjoy it (a guilty pleasure, you might say).
I'd like a good edition down the road. For anyone else desperate enough, though, there ya' go.
Imagine my surprise when I spotted on the rack a couple of copies of Hanger 18 on DVD!
The price was $4.84, and no mention of AR was on the back. The DVDs came from some company called "Treeline Films", who I've certainly never heard of before.
Sure that this was a MAR copy transferred from VHS, I nevertheless bought it anyway (longtime HTFers know that this film is something my wife and I both enjoy, as noted here and here).
This is the cover art, by the way...direct from the "studio's" website:
[c]
[/c]It turned out that I was dead-on about the transfer. 4x3 open matte (which was framed perfectly when zoomed, I might add), fuzzy/blurry, washed out colors on many scenes, with noticable compression artifacts in places and dirt/scratch artifacts throughout. Sound showed "stereo" on my DVD player output, but it all was really mono, baby.
Having said all of that, I should note that I've watched worse. Much worse.
I don't know what Treeline's situation is rights-wise. It's easy to assume that it's similar to PFE's release of The Final Countdown - an unauthorized "retail" release of an 80's film with a cult following. But the IMDB shows that the rights to Hanger 18 at release were with The Taft Company, and I'm unsure of what their status is. Crappy release though this is, it may be perfectly legit rights-wise.
I have no intention of tracking that down. I hope they aren't the true owners of this, though, so someone else can bring it out and do a much better job of it. I admit that this movie was cheesy in many respects - notably the SFX of the space shuttle early in the film - but it had something to say, and said it well enough. An entertaining yarn, and the acting was done seriously enough. I enjoy it (a guilty pleasure, you might say).
I'd like a good edition down the road. For anyone else desperate enough, though, there ya' go.
