DVD Review HTF Review: Fargo - Special Edition (1 Viewer)

[GuruAskew]

It could also be done with alternate angles. For example, angle 1 could contain the English text while angle 2 could contain French or Spanish. Disney has done this on their DVD's before.

 

[CarlosL]

I must admit, I was really looking forward to this SE release of Fargo. I've never owned it on DVD, and this release seemed the way to go. But now that you mention it uses player-generated captions, I am definitely NOT buying this release.

MGM, you just lost a sale.

 

[Andrew Bunk]

I noticed the player generated subtitles too and thought it was strange. I knew it was different when I saw the original version in the "Minnesota Nice" feature. It's a minor annoyance, but I may just hang on to the previous version so I have the "original" version as well.

BTW, my Minnesota Nice feature starting pixelating and freezing after the 22:50 mark. I'm chalking it up to a bad disc and intend to do an exchange, but I thought I'd mention it all the same.

Picture quality for the film was excellent on my 57" set. It seems better than the old version, but the last time I watched that it was before I got my 16:9 set. If I have time I'll have to try and A/B comparison.

 

[CarlosL]

Actually, I'm wondering now. Are these actually player-generated captions, with ugly block text? Or are they of the Star Wars Ep I type, with nicer looking pre-rendered fonts? Just wondering. Thanks!

 

[Joe Schwartz]

Are these actually player-generated captions, with ugly block text? Or are they of the Star Wars Ep I type, with nicer looking pre-rendered fonts?

I don't know what Fargo's captions look like, but all "player-generated" DVD captions are actually pre-rendered. The subtitle tracks contain bitmap data, not text data.

 

[CarlosL]

Really? I never knew it was all bitmap information. In that case, movie studios should make a more concerted effort to use nicely rendered fonts, as opposed to the often ugly yellow block font outlined in black. Ick.

Thanks!

 

[Lyle_JP]

I just discovered a neat unadvertised feature on the Fargo Special Edition DVD. It has reversible cover art on the keepcase! The "alternate" cover art is a map of the Fargo/Brainers/Minneapolis area notated with events that take place in the film.

Very cool!

-Lyle J.P.

 

[Shawn Collins]

Bottom line- Is this release worth an upgrade?

I love this movie and the extras do not appear to be earth shattering.

So, what's the consensus?

-Shawn

 

[Andrew Bunk]

I just compared both version on my 16:9 set and there is a noticeable difference. The SE seems brighter and more detailed.

A word of caution though, I've had two bad discs so far. First one pixelated and froze during the documentary. This happened on three different players. I then got a replacement this morning, and the film itself would lock around the 1:13:20 mark, which is definitely past the layer change.

Third one seems good so far-was able to search all the way through the movie with no freezes. To anyone that picks this up, I would advise against leaving it on the shelf for a long time before viewing it. Hopefully it was just a bad batch.

 

[BobH]

Jason Perez: Thank you for doing the reveiw of a movie I certainly agree is a classic. I am too lazy to do reviews so my hat is off to you.

I DID read your review, and with interest, because I would love to have some good extras from the cast and crew. But despite your "nice complement of extras" comment, here is what you ACTUALLY wrote:

1. Deakins' commentary is "somewhat disappointing" and is "mostly silent".
2. The SE "lacks participation from the Coens, McDormand, " etc and is "almost unforgiveable"
3. The Minnesota Nice "brief documentary does not make up for the lack" of the major cast and crew
4. The Charlie Rose docu adds "really little more than promotional" advertising
5. The Photo Gallery is "not terribly interesting"
6. You couldn't find the hidden menus (probably not there as a Coen joke)

ACCORDING TO YOU, this is a "nice complement of extras"??

Read your own review!

I call the extras "lame". I meant only to characterize what YOU wrote. I stand by that. I think you wrote a good review of the movie but your conclusions about the EE version were confused by that.

I ask that all reviewers remember the difference between reviewing the movie and reviewing the DVD.

 

[Lyle_JP]

Well, I'll add my own 2¢ to the discussion.

I found the Minnesota Nice documentary to be excellent. I also found the Charlie Rose show excerpt worth watching if you're a Coen Brothers fan (as opposed to just being a Fargo fan). The commentary (like the one on In the Mouth of Madness) is a typical D.P. commentary: technical and dry. Only interesting if you have a strong interest in cinematography.

The transfer is indeed cleaner and more detailed, but I do have one or two gripes. This transfer seems "cooler" color-wise. Many of the scenes that were stark white or grey on the other MGM disc seem slightly bluish on this one. Also, the computer generated subs I find distasteful and close to unforgivable. MGM is the only studio that feels the need to do this; I hate it and really wish they would knock it off already!

The "hidden menu" is just an alternate set of menus for the disc with a snowglobe theme. The link to them was quite easy to find, but these new menus do not reveal any special features that you couldn't get to from the default "icy wasteland" themed menus.

The reversible cover art (which I mentioned earlier) is pretty neat.

I will definitely keep this new one for the supplements, but I honestly don't know which disc I would prefer watching the movie on. If it were just the minor color timing issue I'd be fine with the new disc and chuck my old one, but player-generated title cards replacing the film ones is a [rant]big[/rant] pet peeve of mine. I may be keeping the older MGM disc for awhile.

-Lyle J.P.

 

[Jason Perez]

BobH,

Before I say anything else, let me make it perfectly clear that I have great respect for all of the members of this Forum (yourself included), and will never discourage them (or you) from voicing an opinion. I also wanted to thank you for recognizing the hard work that goes into each of my reviews (believe me, they are more work than you might imagine)!

Now that I have said that, I still have a problem with the fact that you have misrepresented my statements not once, but twice. In addition, you felt the need to make this ridiculous, unfounded, and just plain wrong statement:

6. You couldn't find the hidden menus (probably not there as a Coen joke)

This has absolutely nothing to do with your argument. All I was doing was pointing out that the keepcase advertised these "hidden menus" and that I could not find them. I will not comment on extras I could not find, as I do not think it would serve any purpose. This does not reflect negatively (or positively) on this release, but speaks more to the fact that I do not want to have the members of this Forum waste their time reading speculative ramblings.

The bottom line for me is that DVD is about bringing the movie into the viewer's home with the best picture and sound quality possible. If the extras are great all the better, but the last time I checked, retailers are not selling the extras for Fargo, or any other title, separately. I wonder why that is?

It is also important to remember that my opinion on the quality of the content in these extra features might differ radically from yours, so I will refrain from questioning your assessment of the extra features as "lame" and stick with my assessment of "nice", or a bit above average.

Lastly, please keep in mind that I said (word for word) "...with the exception of the commentary, a nice compliment of extras." I never said the extras were "great", "spectacular", "awesome", "extraordinary", or any other glowing term, now did I? When you consider the statement I made in light of the frivolous fluff that passes for extras on most DVDs, I think you should agree that they are nice, especially the "Minnesota Nice" featurette. This is also reflected in the three star rating I gave to the extras (mostly because of the lacklustre commentary track), and my noting specifically that the commentary track was disappointing in my The Last Word section of the review.

In closing, I do want to say that I have no problem with you personally, and that I am accepting of criticism, provided it is based on facts. I am here to serve you, as well as the other HTF'ers, but I will not sit back and allow people to take shots at me based on things they claim I wrote. Be assured that I took great pains to prepare this review, and proofread it many times so this type of thing would not happen, and I still feel comfortable with every word in it.

Now...I am tired of beating this dead horse, and I really don't want to come down to hard on you, so let me just ask that everyone be more careful to make criticism and comments more accurate in the future. I do not think it is appropriate (or fair) to grab a couple of quotes taken out of context and try to misstate someone's position on a film or topic, and then take shots at people for no reason. Let's try to keep things constructive around here people...

Regards Bob!

 

[Mark_TS]

Jason-you wrote an excellent review of the disc/film.

So what if this is not the Be-all end-All SE of FARGO; likely its what the COENs wanted, and it is what we got;

The picture quality is definately improved over the last MGM disc.
And at $15-16 retail most stores, no charges of extortion can be leveled.
4 out of 5 stars from me

 

[BobH]

Jason;

I appologise for the tone of my replies since that must be the reason you are so reacting so angrily to my posts. I really did not mean to attack you or the quality of your review. I was sincere in my appreciation for your review and especially the effort it takes to so thoroughly prepare it. Going to all the trouble of carefully documenting all the separate issues of DVDs is a lot of care and time spent. I was debating rather than arguing.

I think if we had been talking about this over the phone or in person this would not have happened. It seemed to me that the additional features of the new DVD were not very interesting and I would rate them as below average. I think the only interesting thing worth the price was the Minnesota Nice feature. Our opinions about this issue are obviously quite different but I NEVER intended my writing to be personally critical.

Because of your review I have chosen not to buy the DVD again for the extra features. For that, I thank you since you saved me money. I am greatful to you not angry at you. Please accept my appology.

(I must say though, that I am dissapointed there weren't better extra features on this disc. I feel it is sucker-baiting to put out a Special Edition and not make it special. For the profit they make on sales, they could have paid the Coens a fine fee to talk for an hour.)

 

[Christ Reynolds]

Wonder if he would've kept it if it had no commentary at all.

you dont have to ask others, i'm still a member here. the answer is, i sold it because i was selling off a bunch of dvds to help fund my 45tx, and blood simple got caught in the mix. i will be re-buying it, but i wanted to illustrate how much i hated the commentary. and the very first thing i noticed about my fargo se was the player generated true story warning at the beginning. i am now wishing i hadnt sold the dvd that has gone oop, although i still have the laserdisc. the roger deakins commentary is currently putting me to sleep, time for bed.

heck norm, ya know, we're doin pretty good.

CJ

 

[Jason Perez]

BobH,

I thank you since you saved me money.

That's cool!! I hope you will use it to pick up another DVD! Some cool older stuff came out this week, like Treasure of the Sierra Madre and the classic Robin Hood

Cheers Bob!

 

[Mark Cappelletty]

I got this today. The player-generated titles aren't bad at all and the trivia track is surprisingly fun. I just put it on to scan through the film and I can't stop watching it. The transfer is a gazillion times better than the last version of the film I had (the Polygram DVD from '98). Deakins is interesting, so I'm not complaining about the commentary. The Coen Brothers are notoriously hands-off, so I'm not surprised they didn't do a commentary track.

Also, to find the "alternate menus" (which use a snow-globe motif), click on the snow-globe next to Jerry Lundegaard in the Special Features menu. To turn back to the original menus, click on the dead fly on the "Chapter" menu screen. Not essential, but nice.

 

[Dougieha]

I picked up this disc today, and while I enjoyed the new transfer and improved audio, I had the same problem that Andrew Bunk had. Around 1:13:30, the picture locked up completely and didn't recover until around 1:19:00 (from chapters 29-30).

I'm going to do an exchange and see if maybe I was just unlucky, but since I'm in Spokane, WA, and Andrew is in Chicago, it seems like there must have been a complete bad batch of discs.

Upon further inspection of the disc, it appears that there is a sort of fine "bubbling" in the topmost layer at the edge of the disc. I'm not sure if this is the problem or not, but I think that it could be.

I'll let you all know if the new disc I get is any better.

Doug

 

[Andrew Bunk]

Doug,

I was able to expose the problem with my by fast forwarding through the whole disc, so if you get a replacement and don't want to watch it all the way through again right now, fast forwarding should hopefully expose any flaws.

I may watch mine again soon with the trivia track just to be sure the disc is OK.

 

[Dougieha]

An update:

I got a new copy of the disc, and everything seems to be ok now.

Thanks for the idea about fast-forwarding...that worked great, although I could tell just from visual inspection that this disc would be better, as the first had a "bubbling" effect in the topmost layer of the disc near the edge which I think was causing the problems.

In any case, thanks...

Doug