On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1 Viewer)

[IanS]

I just received this DVD today from Amazon UK just after ordering it only 4 days ago.

To mention...the DTS sound is AWESOME..especially the bass.. and the picture is SPOT ON !!!!!.

I received the disc via std Royal Air Mail from the UK. Faster than the regular domestic postal service.

I couldn't wait another 4 months for the R1 versions so I figured to wet my apetite with one of my favorite Bond titles.

I am playing it on a Diamond Vision progressive scan DVD player, Model DVDV807-04A, picked up at Walmart for $29.95 CDN. It plays all regions, PAL or NTSC.

 

[Douglas R]

I agree. I bought OHMSS and Goldfinger, being my two favorite Bond titles. The picture quality of OHMSS is great and the sound is fantastic. This is no phoney 5.1 mix; they have clearly gone back to the original sound elements and have created a stunning soundtrack. Goldfinger looks very good but the sound is more like a mono spread (apart from the title sequence) and is nowhere near as good as OHMSS.

 

[RichardCrowther]

I don't know about the picture being "spot on". Certainly, it is cleaner that it has ever looked, with less print damage, but the colour in places has been loused up completely. For example:

(Original release at the top of each comparison, the Ultimate Edition at the bottom)

http://www.ohmss.ohmss-007.com/video...e_frames5.html

http://www.ohmss.ohmss-007.com/video...e_frames4.html

We do gain a bit more picture area, which is nice, but the opening beach sequence in particular has been given a damaging blue "wash", rendering the picturesque pink and orange beauty of the original colouring a dirty, dull navy blue throughout. Awful.


And the sound mixing leaves a lot to be desired in places, too. The Gumbold safe-breaking sequence is now a joke.

There are (unconfirmed) reports that certain sound effects have been replaced and redubbed for this new mix, too.

If the colour for the beach sequence hadn't been fiddled with and the mono mix had been included, this would have been very much an "Ultimate" version. As it is, it's about as frustrating as many of the others, and for much the same reasons. I'm also unsure as to why the trailer included on the VHS release many years ago has STILL not appeared on DVD format. It contained footage unique to that trailer (alternative takes that didn't make the final cut), and, in the absence of any other deleted footage, would have been a welcome, not to say invaluable inclusion on this disc. Maybe they're holding it back for the HD release. Or maybe they just couldn't care less.

 

[Douglas R]

I don't agree. I think you are simply assuming that the colour of the previous SE was correct. I don't think it was. That beach scene from the UE looks far more accurate from what I remember of the cinema release. And regardless of a few minor changes to the sound mix, the overall sound is vastly better than the old mono track.

 

[RichardCrowther]

I think we'll have to disagree here. It depends upon how you define "better". If you mean "more enveloping" then that is hard to argue with, but if you mean "more akin to how Peter hunt wanted it back in '69", then that's pretty hard to justify. Hunt was clearly happy with the mono mix up until he passed away, otherwise I don't doubt it would have been given remix before now (as with a few of the other early films). Even if he weren't I see no evidence to support the theory that a new mix should also alter the levels the original audio track was mixed to. A surround mix can be enveloping and still be sympathetic to the source material, and the director's original intent. It does not automatically necessitate junking the original intent, in favour of a new "vision" by someone not involved in the original mixing process. If new effects have been added in places, that makes such behaviour even more unjustifiable.

I'm not sure how making something six channels automatically makes it "better" than the original mix, especially if the impact of certain scenes (the safe-cracking scene to name but one) has been severely diluted. Bigger does not necessarily mean better, it just means bigger. I'm also not entirely sure that the brass plaque should be quite that yellow at the start of the film, either. Yellow, yes, but no the extent that it also colours the wall it's stuck on the same hue.



If it had been released 1.78:1, instead of 2.35:1, then there'd have been complaints aplenty, and rightly so. I'm not sure, therefore, why it's apparently "all right" for it to be released without it's original sound mix. It's just as damaging a change.

 

[paul_austin]

damn i was hoping they had deleted scenes, especially the fabled 'rooftop chase'...this is my favorite bond film.

 

[Mark_TS]

I also bought the UK Bonds-when Amazon.uk had them 'Buy one-get one free'
And it took an astoundly short 4 days delivery.