Romero's Night of the Living Dead, Again (1 Viewer)

[dana martin]

well the Weinstein Company plans on releasing this again, and not sure if i would be willing to double dip, considering the great elite disc that is already out, what i would like for them to do is release grindhouse, the theatrical cut, SE, but the disc coverart is more inline with the grindhoues look.

 

[Ockeghem]

Dana,

I own the two-VHS tape release. I love the film (1968 version); as such, I'd like to purchase either the Elite disc or the Weinstein disc you mention here. Are there any benefits of one disc over another? I doubt very much I will be purchasing both. Thanks.

 

[dana martin]

Night of the Living Dead

better than trying to explain, look for yourself

 

[Ed Moroughan]

New Night of the Living Dead. Some extras are dropped but it claims to be "restored and re-mastered."

 

[mike kaminski]

"Restored and remastered" makes me excited. This film has been long, long overdue for a thorough cleanup.

 

[dana martin]

well i have the elite disc, and it was far superior to all the other PD releases, so i wonder how much better, it could be, maybe Romero, went in all George Lucas himself and fixed the worst jump cut of all time.
now the other question is , is the Weinstein Company saving this from PD hell? or is this just their version of what is in the PD?

 

[Jerome Grate]

Not a horror film fan, but this one is the exception for me. I would love to own this one.

 

[Tony J Case]

Wait - how much more cleaning up needs doing? The Laserdisc version I had looked DAMN sweet and the DVD looked just as good too.

 

[mike kaminski]

Well, as good as the Elite version is, if you want to be picky there is more that could be done. There is a lot of dirt and scratches on the print, and the transfer on the R1 Elite disk could be a bit more detailed and have better contrast (from the looks of things the Elite R0 made these improvements). But there is still print damage and things of that nature. I'm fine with the film as it is, but if a "Restored and remastered" version can improve upon these flaws then so much the better.

 

[Richard--W]

The Elite DVD is the definitive edition of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. It has commentaries by the director, cast and crew and is stacked with supplements. It is also authorized and endorsed by George Romero who allowed Elite to work from the original negatives. It's a superb print.

There is a huge drop in quality in the public domain editions. Stick with the Elite.

Now I will read the links.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

The Elite is all I want or need (and I'm referring to the first one).

 

[Richard--W]

Restored and re-mastered how? So this isn't the rescue by Elite licensed out to another company? I admit the new documentary and the new discovered material on Duane Jones is tempting, but I would like to know more about the transfer. I would caution Genius Entertainment and the Weinstein Company to not over-digitize NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. It was filmed under adverse conditions, and its imperfections endow the cinema-verite / quasi-documentary style with a grittiness and authenticity that would be injurious to lose, and should not be corrected.
The first one? You mean the single disc edition with the girl on the cover?

 

[Ockeghem]

It looks like the Elite edition is the one I will be getting. Thanks to all for the useful feedback.

That's very well said. That quasi-documentary style ought not to be fooled with, IMO.

Edited. That link is quite informative. I like being able to see the comparisons between the different transfers.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

Yes. I even had the Millenium Edition briefly, but I noticed the layer change where there wasn't one in the first version. Not a big deal, but I eventually sold off the ME and kept the first.

 

[WadeM]

Don May Jr was recently working with Dimension on redoing one of the movies he's already done, so I wonder if this is it...

 

[Lord Dalek]

Well the current Elite Millenium is 480i not 480p, suffers from all sorts of cross coloration/luminence problems, and the restoration/transfer was done back in 1994. Thats more than enough to say it needs a new Romero supervised hi-def cleanup.

Bottom line - if you plan to watch it on anything other that a tube don't bother.

 

[James 'Tiger' Lee]

Yes, the Elite has a "video" look to it, noticebly blurring in places.

 

[GuruAskew]

 

[Joe Karlosi]

I'm in the camp that believes NOTLD actually benefits from not being "pristine and totally flawless".

 

[James 'Tiger' Lee]

I don't think Night gains or disgains (is that an actual word?) from how the print looks. Its use of black and white is so well done it can be frightening in a snowy broadcast or a pristine HD or 35mm source. To suggest a film is reliant on the lack of quality of its source suggests the film is lacking something in the first place