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Statement concerning THE LAST EMPEROR (Criterion Collection) (1 Viewer)

rob kilbride

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Rob Kilbride
"My recollections of Jackson's comments on this (from the EE commentaries? not sure) is that the theatrical cuts were what he thought worked best for general audiences who may or may not be familiar with the books, while the EEs were his "gift" for hard-core fans of the books. So he considers them both "director's cuts."

I'm pretty sure Jackson referred to the theatrical cuts as "better film making."
 

Jari K

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I´m quite late into this thread, but did I get this right: "Criterion"-version is now in 2.00:1 (basically cropped) vs the OAR 2.35:1?

Storaro did the same with "Apocalypse Now - The Complete Dossier" (from original 2.35:1 to 2.00:1). Someone should really stop the guy, dammit. I want the OAR 2.35:1, you don´t just "change your mind" suddenly and re-frame the Oscar-winning ("Best Cinematography") film..

I have huge respect of Storaro as an artist, but he has lost the ball with these DVD-releases..
 

Matt Hough

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Yes, the Blu-ray review copy came today, and the aspect ratio is identical to the SD-DVD. I won't actually get to watch the entire set until Saturday, but naturally I was curious if anything had changed. Sadly, it hasn't.
 

Vern Dias

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Theodore V Dias
Joel, I got over it just fine. And as a result it's a no sale for me on BD and one less BD copy sold for Criterion. Two many other OAR BD titles to buy and not enough money to go around. IMHO Storaro obviously doesn't understand the capabilites of BD and has apparently never heard of CIH projection.

Vern
 

pacomartini

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paul martin
i read somewhere bertoluci has said the original shorter release we all saw in theatres IS the directors cut. the one being marketed as the director's cut is actually a four hour long TV version which bertaluci agreed to do b4 production. he actually prefers the original theatrical releas and is "peplexed" about the so called director's cut calling the tv version basically the same...just more boring...lol. i very much want to have a copy of the original as this version is the one the academy chose as best picture in 1987....but in HD and with it's original aspect ratio...anyone know where to get one....i find the descriptions displayed on amazon.con confusing and incomplte.
 

pacomartini

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paul martin
strange u feel that way...to me its like taking a famous painting like the mona lisa and changing her into a blond. the original version of this film IS the director's cut. the one now being marketed as the director's cut is actually a re-edited version which contains footage that was intended for a 4 hour long tv version. i find it disturbing that dvd distributers do this frequently. how has this happened to this film...when i saw the "director's cut" it felt like a completely different film...and bertaluci said that version is just more "boring"
 

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