Jarhead - 2-disc CE: 03/07 (1 Viewer)

[PaulP]

http://www.dvdactive.com/news/releases/jarhead.html

Single-disc also available. No real details yet.

 

[TravisR]

This movie was quite good but I can live without a collectible book.

 

[PaulP]

DVDActive updated their article to include this:



Can't wait, loved this film. As far as I'm concerned, Sam Mendes is 3-for-3.

 

[Bob clamer]

Since I'm more of a CE/2 disc+ junkie I'll look forward to this one.

 

[TravisR]

Either I misread the article or DVD Active updated their info but I didn't realize that the collector's edition has a second disc. That'll be the one that I pick up.

 

[Jace_A]

Has the 2-Disc edition been cancelled? My online retailer has deleted the title and informed me that they won't be able to get this in. The single disc version is ready to ship, though.

 

[Johnny G]

Mine too Jace, I wonder if we use the same supplier.

 

[Harold Wazzu]

It's still showing up on Amazon.com so until they delete it I'd say it's still going to be released. I sure hope it's not going to be like the Cinderella Man 2-disc set, where only a few retailers have it.

 

[TonyD]

since no review has popped up yet, i'll ask here.

has anyone watched this yet?

i thought it looked awful.

i guess the washed look is the way it showed at the theater so i can live with that but the quality was just bad.

there seemed to be something, maybe mosquito noise that resembled grain but it was moving or buzzing.

i dont think it was supposed to look like that.
ringing/EE plenty to be seen, especially during opening credits on the lettering.

disappointing.

 

[Steve Tannehill]

I can't watch the DVD-R screener due to our new policy here, but am told that final product will be sent my way this week. I'll let you know how it turns out.

- Steve

 

[TonyD]

great.
you know i thought to post that question because i just saw the commercial of the origional trailer and it looked great, especially compared to the dvd.

 

[Harold Wazzu]

DVDtalk has a review of it: http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=20224

 

[Steve Tannehill]

Is that based on final product, or on the DVD-R screener that Universal sent out to sites?

Final product will not be arriving until today or later.

- Steve

 

[Jace_A]

The 2-Disc SE has been released, but only to some retailers it appears. Two of my online providers don't stock it, and I've had to order the DVD from Amazon instead. Weird.

 

[Bob clamer]

Best Buy and Circuit City had/have them. Had to hit 3 BB's to find one. Only got so many in.
BB - $32.99 (But with gift card and rewards points only cost me $10.00)
CC - $34.99.

 

[Elijah Sullivan]

Tony,

re: grain

I think it was a result of the bleached-out images. The desert is a ridiculously hard place to get accurate range of detail, and if Roger Deakins did most of his bleaching in-camera, rather than in the lab, you might get weird-looking blotches - clumps of grain in strange formations - turning up in the highlights, especially in the sky and highlights. It seemed pretty "natural", in a photographic sense, for the film to look the way it did, although I think this grainy defect was exacerbated by the edge-enhancement.

It's just a desert effect. As often as cinematographers complain about not having enough light, excess of light is equally difficult - and nothing is brighter than desert landscape. All the highlights are going to look blotchy.

Overall, I thought it looked pretty okay, although I really wish Hollywood's DPs would get over the bleach-processed look. But I digress...

Has anyone else watched the deleted scenes? A friend of mine went to a Walter Murch seminar in San Francisco a little while back (I know; lucky bastard) and he said that Walter Murch brought the deleted material with him, showed it to the audience, and explained to them why he thought Sam Mendes had crippled the film by removing them! Apparently, these scenes were vital to the book and removing them lost the film a great deal of purpose, which I must admit, was definately lacking in the final product.

So I watched the deleted scenes on the disc right after the film and have to agree: the original opening with the cameo appearance by Sam Rockwell as Swoff's uncle helped me understand why Swoff grew up the way he did. A few of the other deleted scenes... the fantasies and some of the stuff between Gyllenhaal and Sarsgaard's characters was terrific. I agree with Sam Mendes (on the commentary) that some of them needed to be cut for killing the tension of the final act, but overall, they felt like unusually vital elements of the film. The fantasies alone transform the film's tone and thematic focus completely.

Odd, though, that contrary to what my friend told me, Murch is mostly in agreement with Mendes on the commentary, although he's a bit reluctant to follow along. Anyway... maybe we'll see a director's cut someday, when Murch convinces Mendes that he's right.