HTF REVIEW: "The Quiet Man" (with screenshots) (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

To show you just how bad magazine DVD reviews are....
Take a look at this week's Entertainment Weekly
magazine (with "24" on the cover).
Inside is a review of The Quiet Man. Read
the review and see if you get the impression that
this reviewer never looked at the DVD.
Why is there no mention of the atrocious quality
of the transfer? Nothing there! If I remember
correctly, there's a review of the story and
absolutely nothing else. Furthermore, it got a
rating of B+

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Ron,

That's pretty pathetic. Sadly quite typical of your standard print-review "for the masses". Frustrating when we already know what a great movie it is...and what *we* want to know is does the DVD do the film *justice*.

So,

is there any way we can actually get someone from the studio responsible to tell us exactly WHY this transfer is so bad? Are the source elements lost forever to a fire and is the beta-copy that they have on file the only remaining master?

I'll still never forget MGM saying "no studio could have done better" referring to their Jean De Flourette R1 DVD abomination...when at the same time there is a (much better) 16x9 anamorphic PAL DVD of the same title!

Who makes these decisions at Artisan and how can we talk to them?

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

David,
As Robert Harris' post indicates above, there are no indications that there is anything wrong with the elements for The Quiet Man. Artisan probably is just trying to squeeze a bit more juice from the rinds of it before they lose the video rights, so they had to make a decision about what what would give them the most bang for their buck. They decided to put the money towards new supplements rather than a new transfer.

If it's any consolation, the two previous video transfers (prior to 1992) were even worse. One had better detail, but the color was so nonexistent that it practically looked sepia tinted, the other was not much better and was severely zoomed in, apparently to hide element damage on the outside of the frame which must have been even worse than the readily visible element damage on the inside of the frame. I believe that last one had a blurb on the video box that said "From the Original Negative". This was only true in the sense that all versions are technically derived from the original negative, sort of like CDs that brag about being "digitally remastered".

Regards,

 

[Jay E]

Artisan probably is just trying to squeeze a bit more juice from the rinds of it before they lose the video rights

Ken, Is Artisan going to lose the rights to the Republic catalog of films or just The Quiet Man. I would be overjoyed to know that they will be losing the entire catalog.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

I hope some others of you have taken the time to go to Criterion's website and put in a "request" for this title. Several Criterion DVDs came to be from this type of request.

-dave

 

[Phil Reed]

I traded my unwatchable Madacy DVD, along with another DVD for the upcoming Spider-Man. I had been hoping against hope that this release would do justice to this wonderful film, and am very disappointed with this news. I've seen it recently on satellite TV and the presentation was quite good, far superior to my old DVD. I'll not buy this one and hope that some day we'll have the definitive transfer.

Phil

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

Phil,
What Madacy DVD are you talking about? Or are you just using "Madacy" as an adjective to describe the transfer quality of Artisan's "The Quiet Man".
Regards,

 

[DaViD Boulet]

I've seen it recently on satellite TV and the presentation
was quite good, far superior to my old DVD. I'll not buy this one and
hope that some day we'll have the definitive transfer.

Hugh? Well that makes things even weirder...that there might be a better master/transfer of this film already in existence that was not used for the DVD. What gives???!!!

p.s. just another reminder to tell criterion you want them to do it...

 

[Brian W.]

One would think atleast in today's more enlightened (?) times Native Americans would no longer be referred to as Indians because they are not.

There's no concensus on this. Most Native Americans I've met in recent years do not call themselves such -- they simply call themselves Indians.

That reminds me of when I worked at Boeing back in the early nineties. I worked in a predominately Asian-American group, mainly Vietnamese and Korean. This was long after the term "Asian" was PC, but none of them referred to themselves as Asian -- they called themselves Chinese.

 

[Phil Reed]

I just recorded this on my Dish Network Model 501 receiver last Wednesday. That's 2hr 15min that's protected. The quality is better than my old DVD.:frowning: I know the only extras are Robert Osbourne's comments, but I'm going to wait for a high quality transfer before I buy it again.
Phil

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

Bringing this one back to the top.
RAH's comments in post 21 above are absolutely correct. The elements for The Quiet Man are in superb shape and Artisan's DVD is a travesty. How do I know? I ran a 35mm print today (as part of my Big Screen Classics series - info Here ) and it was stunning! The image on the print was flawless - rich and pure color, sharp focus, and clear sound. The print was struck by Paramount in 2002, so I sure hope the negative material they used for it is going to be used some day on a proper DVD.
Shame on Artisan!

 

[Jefferson]

WOW....i hope the title is revisited
with the materials you mention.

 

[oscar_merkx]

yep same here. Thanks for the update

 

[Dave Mack]

Wow, I've gotta go to that theater!!! Superman on a big screen again!!!!
Any directions from NYC...?? Buses, I hope?
D

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Sounds like Artisan might have been releasing it to DVD to make some $$ on the title before the rights transfer to Paramount??? I'd assume Paramount has the Home Video rights if they just released a new restored/remastered 35mm print???

 

[Terry St]

I bought this DVD blind. Great movie, but ye gods what a horrendous transfer! It literally looks worse than something that's been duped a couple times on VHS in extended play mode. I watch a lot of films that have less than ideal image quality but this one was just needlessly bad. Does anyone have any snail-mail or email addresses we can send angry rants to? I have no delusions that it will do any good, but it might make me feel better.

As for this indian PC bit... Most any word you use will be taken differently depending on the context. Regardless of what PC term you use, in the context of John Wayne movies such as "The Searchers", it may be very hard to avoid offense because of the way indians were portrayed as wanton, bloodthirsty savages. In fact, using a more modern PC term might be more offensive since it could imply that these outdated stereotypes are accurate. Personally, I think we should face past prejudices in film head on instead of trying to PC them away into oblivion. It was "Cowboys and Indians" darnit! Not "European immigrant pastoralists of both genders and North American native aborigines".