Sam Peckinpah Westerns Collection is Here, But! See Post #81 (1 Viewer)

[Mark Anthony]

Guys, I think you'll find the preview cut (or '88 turner)has been presented warts 'n' all with a minimum of clean-up, as it represents the director's workprint before he got a chance to fine-tune it, and never did as it was taken out of his hand's to produce the original theatrical release. Even at the time of the '88 cut's release on LaserDisc, Roger Spottiswoode said that version had a couple of bits missing that Sam would have wanted put in, had they have been able to find the trims...

The 2005 edition is what the Peckinpah historian's think the finished product would have looked like had Sam have had a chance to fine-tune it in '73, and it therefore has better quality music source's, better edits of some material etc etc You may not agree with their editorial choices, but I don't think anybody is better placed than them to second-guess what he may or may not have done.

You may not like it, but Warner's are trying to do the right thing here by giving us the literal '73 workprint version and a re-edited fine cut...any one who wishes they'd also included the theatrical release may regret that statement on seeing it, it certainly was a bastard step-child of a film as far as Peckinpah was concerned!

M

 

[Robert Crawford]

I couldn't agree with you more.






Crawdaddy

 

[Eric Peterson]

My box arrived from Amazon today, and I am having similar problems with the Wild Bunch extras disc as several others are having.

I put it in my main player (Yamaha XXXX), and it would not load. I think it would have spun until the motor gave out. I took it out and put it in my Toshiba DVR/Tivo unit, and the disc did load, but immediately launched into the documentary "Sam Peckinpah's West". I returned to the menu and tried to launch the documentary "An Album in Montage", and everything pixelated and obscene noises were generated. I quickly quit out of there, but everything else seemed to work. This is frustrating. I'll contact Amazon tomorrow, but I certainly don't want to return the whole box, and if I'm going to get a second bad disc I would rather wait and deal directly with WB.

 

[John Hodson]

Yes, I agree that it was; nevertheless it would have been fascinating to have the evolution of the film laid out in one collection, a la Criterion's Brazil. As for your argument with the quality of the '88 version, that's the rationale I've been using to comfort myself, but it is the version that I'm most familiar and comfortable with and it would have been nice to have it pristine.

Hell, with Blu-ray, we could have a set with the theatrical cut, a scabby '88 'workprint', a cleaned up '88 version and the new '05 cut...

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

Bloody hell, glitchy pressings galore! There's nothing worse in the world of DVD than a gorgeous, anamorphic OAR, hi-def, progressive, high bitrate tranfer that suddenly goes poqwefj2ki6wen8iow2e!mfpo and breaks up. It's like marrying a beautiful, kind and wonderful woman who, on your wedding night, tell you that she is a Michael Bolton fanatic. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

 

[Jay Gregory]

I suspect that the obscene pixelations were the "Never-Before-Seen Outtakes" rather than "An Album In Montage."

The Never-Before-Seen Outtakes menu selection probably takes you 0:55 into "An Album in Montage." You should be able to fast rewind from there to get to the beginning of that Oscar winning documentary.

It appears that these Amazon Wild Bunch disk 2 quirks are more-or-less repeatable between defective disks on a wide variety of players.

 

[CraigF]

Re the problem amazon TWB disc 2: I did notify amazon yesterday. Mainly because, unless it's very new, WB doesn't really have a customer service line/person in Canada. I'm sure if something comes up re a disc exchange I'll hear about it here first... In the meantime I'll just enjoy the vast majority of the set, will try that problem disc again to see if I can sorta make it play like some got it to.

[Since I'm in Canada, amazon.com doesn't ask me to return discs. Apparently. This is the first time I've ever got bad discs from them, actually two in the last shipment (one physically damaged). They are sending a whole new Peckinpah set and said to keep the "bad" set (as best I can figure out, it was a complicated e-mail). Can't just send a new TWB. Last month they double-shipped a large order, told me to keep the "bad" (extra) shipment, too expensive to return. Actually, they told me to "discard" the bad shipment...naturally I destroyed all the superfluous discs. In this case I fear the new TWB disc 2 will be similarly problematical, and don't want them to send more discs for no reason. Hopefully, if enough people mention this to them, they'll somehow make sure their sets are "good" ones before blindly replacing.]

Edit: too late for me, my "blind" replacement has already shipped. I tried to do what I could to make it clear it seemed a widespread problem with their stock, but amazon is like a steamroller once their shipping procedure is underway...

 

[Todd B]

I received my Wild Bunch discs from Amazon yesterday. I didn't have time to watch the movie but I did want to make certain that I didn't have a problem with the Bonus Features disc. My 3 year old Sony DVD player had no problem loading the disc. The player went straight to the menu after displaying the copyright warning.

Todd

 

[Mark Zimmer]

That's exactly the behavior I got from my Toshiba DVR/Tivo unit. There was no ability to rewind, however, as another poster suggests. I couldn't tell exactly what it was, it was so pixelated.

Interestingly, the time counter showing the total time of the program indicated it was only 10 seconds in length. It locked up at 2 seconds in, then spit back out to the menu.

 

[Jay Gregory]

Ultimately it's probably irrelevant since the bottom line is that several people got messed up disks. So far that problem appears to be isolated to box sets sold by Amazon, but I can't leave well enough alone.

Todd states:


Did you try the Never-Before-Seen Outtakes menu selection? It is the last one listed on the screen. All three of my players take you to 0:55 into "An Album in Montage," and if you fast rewind from that point, you can get to the beginning of that documentary (playing my disk, on my three players.)

On my disk, selecting the An Album in Montage menu selection (the first one listed) will take you to the "Never-Before-Seen Outtakes. Only my Pioneer player will actually play this featurette; on my other players it is a garbled mess.

I don't know if this information benefits anyone, but I'm hoping that Warner or Amazon can isolate the issue so that replacement copies aren't also defective.

 

[Todd B]

Jay writes:


I receieved the Wild Bunch individual two disk release, not the box set.

Todd

 

[Jefferson Morris]

True, but those audio/video "warts" I mentioned above are not present in the laserdisc of the '88 cut. Why are they present here? I don't mind a print scratch or two, but those problems in the final reel are quite distracting, not to mention needless (the skipped frames/audio are not skipped in the '05 cut).

Okay, I could fairly be accused of looking a gift horse in the mouth, but the '88 cut is the version I "grew up with", so to speak, and it could have been presented a little better.

--Jefferson Morris

 

[Ken Groulx]

I received my boxed set from Columbia House Canada, and disc two of The Wild Bunch works fine on all my players.

 

[CraigF]

Has anyone got a normal-working Wild Bunch extras disc *in the box set* from amazon.com?

Odd that it appears to just be limited to them...do they get their own batches of discs run or something? When amazon.ca starts shipping this next week might see them show up there too.

It would be cheaper for amazon if they figured this problem out and just mailed a working disc 2 to everybody who purchased the set, instead of replacing sets. Are they thinking most people won't care about an extras disc so few will notice? I think they should look at it like everybody who buys the set is an enthusiast and will watch everything, so they'll notice. Or maybe somehow WB reimburses them for replacement costs, I don't know, but looks like they have some "deal" at least at the manufacturing end.

 

[Jeremy Brupaste]

Mine *seems* to be fine and it's from Amazon.com...I've only watched the Peckinpah documentary so far, but the rest of the features start up normally.

 

[Eric Peterson]

Jeremy,

Was yours from the boxset?

This seems to be the pattern. I'm guessing that the boxsets came from a different pressing facility, and possibly a facility that shipped product primarily to Amazon.

Also, which player(s) are you using?

 

[Jeremy Brupaste]

I'm using an old Toshiba (model escapes me right now). Well, it's about three years old, and yes, it's from the box set. Who knows, though - I may go home tonight and find the rest of the features don't work at all...

 

[Mark Zimmer]

I got my replacement copy of the Peckinpah box from Amazon yesterday, spun up disc 2 of The Wild Bunch, and mercifully it plays just fine. Woo Hoo! Here's hoping it's now safe to order from them and they've burned through the bad batch.

 

[CraigF]

^ Well, that's at least a good sign, I'm hopeful my replacement will be the same.

I tried the problem disc again and it honestly sounds like it's trashing my DVD player, I've never heard it make such loud awful noises. I think I'll give the disc to somebody I don't like...

 

[Eric Peterson]

Amazon gave me two options when I contacted them.

1. Return the whole set for a refund or replacement.

2. Buy a second set at with a $9 discount to cover for the bad disc.

Frustrating, because I did not want to return the whole box and wait a month for the replacement.:frowning:

I'm returning the set with the hope that my replacement will also be functional.

I tried to look for help on WB's site, but the only thing that I could find mentioned something about contacting them after the second copy is confirmed bad. If my second copy is bad, I think that I will take this route.

I managed to sneak a viewing of "Ride the High Country", but I'll have to wait a month for the rest.