DVD Review HTF REVIEW: Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid - The Ultimate Collector's Edition (1 Viewer)

[JohnMor]

Darn! Looks like I might be double dipping after all!

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Thank God someone else agrees - I was starting to think I was going nuts!

 

[Michael Osadciw]

we are all entitled to agree or disagree.

Mike

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Of course! I was just happy to see that I wasn't alone!

 

[Soah]

I noticed in chapter 3 0:07:49 when Paul Newman says "I can't help you Sundance", and it shows the face of the guy about to draw on Robert Redford, the picture jumps for a second. A jump also occurs in chapter 5 0:14:56 when Paul Newman kicks the guy in the crotch

Does anybody else have this happen in their copies? Was wondering if it's a source problem or if I have a defective copy

thanks.

 

[Dave>h]

Michael,

Thanks for the review!

I could be wrong here but your description of the deleted scene refers to Butch, Sundance and Etta seeing themselves in Bulgaria (which is in Eastern Europe) not in Bolivia (South America). I suppose the news reel they were watching could refer to them being in Bulgaria when in fact they were in Bolivia but I am thinking not.

Thanks again. Just so you know that some of us are paying attention!

Personally, I don't understand why they didn't do a better job with this film - picture and sound wise. I am sure it would be an absolute labour of love for some DVD author out there. Why they couldn't give it a high def transfer and some attempt at a 5.1 sound track (purists will kill me for adding a 5.1 but it would have been nice IMHO).

Dave

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

Off the top of my head, the kick to the crotch crash cut is deliberate. Don't remember the other one.

I've seen the film well over a hundred times (really!) but not in the last three years.

 

[Ron Reda]

So, it sounds like I should keep my new copy and not return it...

Good thing I wait for reviews before removing the plastic wrap!

 

[Christian Preischl]

Missed this when originally posted. Anyway,

I do. Both of those odd cuts were on my previous DVD and on my old widescreen VHS. I've always wondered what that was all about.

 

[Michael Osadciw]

I'd jump as well if I were kicked in the crotch!!

Mike

{ps Dave H thanks for the correction! My bad!}

 

[obscurelabel]

The DVDBeaver screencaps reimined me a lot of the DVD look of Slaughterhouse Five, which I watched recently. Lots of diffusion and desaturation. Is it possible that this is director Hill's style at the time, and the DVD looks like the film? Even so, I've always thought that movies with an (intentionally) softer focus don't always show up well on DVD, that they tend to look grainy, when in the theater the projection smoothed things out more.

Also, about the jump cut ... I don't know if it's the same thing, but I've noticed in a number of films from the 60s, there was a device of pulling frames from an action shot to make it look more ... dynamic, I suppose.

This occurs in:

-Major Dundee, where a character gets shot with an arrow.

-The Day the Earth Caught Fire, where two characters are in a fistfight.

-Two for the Road, when two characters run toward each other and embrace.

-an earlier film, Mr. Hulot's Holiday, does this a number of times. It always seems to occur around crucial bits of business, like at Mr. Hulot's entrance, so I think it's on purpose.

I find this annoying as it makes me think the film has been damaged and spliced, but the strategic placement in these instances leads me to believe that it's intentional. I don't think the technique is used much if at all anymore. Director Val Guest mentions it on the commentary for TDtECF, so I know it's intentional there.