One Million Years BC-Shorter Cut? (1 Viewer)

[Jay E]

Just cancelled my order and will order the UK DVD of this film.

 

[PhilipG]

IIRC the UK DVD is 4:3.

(And it will suffer from PAL speedup.)

Fox really dropped the ball on this one. I'm 50-50 on it at the mo.

 

[Jay E]

It's not full screen, it's 1:1.85. It also contains 20 minutes of interviews with both Raquel Welch & Ray Harryhausen. I don't mind the PAL speed-up as I don't notice it. I held off buying the UK DVD before as I knew that Fox was releasing a region 1 edition. My now getting the UK DVD is a no-brainer.

Here is a review of the UK DVD:

http://www.kultuk.btinternet.co.uk/r...D/wb_omybc.htm

 

[Eric Paddon]

I think for Fox to have lavished so much attention on "Myra Breckenridge" which is a film that even a Raquel fan like me has no desire to see ever with supplements galore, while treating the movie that made Raquel famous and an icon in such a cheap fashion is the real insult.

 

[JeffMc]

Situations like this really make you wonder what kind of baboons (meant with all due respect - I do like monkeys) work in these companies. They have the uncut print, but decide to "restore" the cut version and think everyone will be happy about it. What a travesty. Is anyone awake out there?

 

[Peter M Fitzgerald]

Though Fox has released many fine DVDs that I'm proud to own (and several more on the horizon), this is a major disappointment, especially after the long wait. Looks like I'll be skipping this DVD and stick with my un-cut LD, unless Fox comes to its senses and revisits this R1 release.

A cinematic train wreck like MYRA BRECKINRIDGE gets the red carpet treatment, while the silly-but-enduringly-popular ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. gets the fuzzy end of the lollipop. I'm dumbfounded. :frowning:

 

[JeffMc]

For anyone who can take a minute, it may be a good idea to send Fox your thoughts on this royal screw-up - if nothing else, just to let them know what a stupid mistake they made on this release. Even though they probably don't give a sh*t, it sure made me feel better to get it off my chest. If enough of us complain, maybe they'll realize how stupid they were and prevent something like this from happening again. And I'd leave out that part I mentioned earlier about baboons. It's best to be nice, even to monkeys.

You can e-mail them here: [email protected]

 

[Jeffrey]

While I totally agree with everyone's dissappointment on this situation, Fox has always impressed me by being consumer friendly in cases like this; wouldn't surprise me at all if they did a recall or offered a replacement pressing at some point in the future if they get enough feedback.

Hey, it happened for "Cleopatra" (missing exit music), so don't lose faith.

 

[Eric Paddon]

I sent my feedback in too. I will agree that in the past, Fox answered complaints on the "Cleopatra" exit music and also withdrew "Star" from pending release to do the supplements there. I'm not so sure this time though.

 

[Brandon Gantt]

Reading the review at DVD Drive-In:
it appears as if the 100 minute version may no longer exist on film. I'm not trying to defend FOX, but just offer a possible reason for the cut DVD. Studios, of course, go back to the original elements to create "true" anamorphic transfers.

If that 9 extra minutes doesn't exist on film the only way that it could be presented in the main feature would be to cull it from a previous video master, and do an anamorphic "blow-up". The quality of this would certainly be below the restored true anamorphic transfer.

This may be why Studio Canal's Region 2 disc is non-anamorphic. It certainly looks like it was taken from a pre-2000 composite video master. The 100 minute cut might only be preserved as a 1996 video master.

 

[Eric Paddon]

"The quality of this would certainly be below the restored true anamorphic transfer."

And if that were the only way of doing it to get a full version of the film, they should have done it. If we can endure "A Star Is Born" with photos and audio for missing segments, we can certainly handle nine minutes looking slightly less than stellar than the other 91.

As was the case with "1776" on DVD, I do not find the idea of a beautiful picture with less of the film to be better than the whole enchilida in the most up to date format.

 

[Mark_TS]

Glenn of DVDSAVANT is usually pretty knowlegeable- I hope he's right here:
---------
Mark-
Rejoice ... the word is that the Box is wrongly written, and it is the 100
minute version. I'll have it tomorrow or the next day and will be able to check
for sure!

Glenn
------
In a message dated 3/1/04 11:00:04 AM, Mark_TS writes:

>Glenn
>Have you heard the bad (apparently confirmed) news?
>FOX is putting out OMBC in the 92 minute- shorter USA version.
>Since they were able to put out the International version on the Laserdisc
>previously, can you think of the reason why?
>
>
>Keep up the great work
>Mark

 

[Eric Paddon]

Except how could this film have been reviewed by someone who watched it and explicitly states it's the cut version?

 

[Jay E]

Either DVD Savant or DVD Drive-in are wrong, I hope it's DVD Drive-in (although I'd be as baffled as Eric).

 

[MartEvans]

It also seems that the R2 is not anamorphic either...

 

[Jay E]

I'd rather have the full version non-anamorphic than the shorter version anamorphic.

 

[soop.spoon]

eagerly awaiting Savant's reply.... :frowning:

 

[Dick]

Would be nice if Mr. Staddon dropped in briefly to explain the situation. Seems to me that would eliminate an awful lot of Fox-bashing and misunderstanding.

 

[Randy A Salas]

I have the DVD. I have not watched the entire movie, but for the purposes of this thread, I skipped to the end credits and looked at the timing as the credits fade.

From the opening to the end of the final chord (which plays a few seconds after the screen goes black), the film is exactly 91 minutes and 41 seconds long.

I have no idea what DVD Savant is referring to, but the DVD very clearly indicates that the 92-minute version of the film has been used and that there is no mistake on the back cover (well, it does say 91 minutes).

Here is the final image of the film, just before it fades to black. Note the timing on the control panel of the player:

http://home.comcast.net/~rasalas/million.JPG

 

[Eric Paddon]

I don't need to look at the image. Like the "1776" travesty before, this one will remain sight unseen until it gets done right on DVD.