Texas Chainsaw Massacre 1974 version? (1 Viewer)

[Daryl L]

Has there been an Anamorphic version announced yet?

 

[Henry Gale]

I am not the person that can answer that question Daryl....but I have one of my own.
Does Anamorphic matter much when a movie has been filmed in 16mm?

 

[Daryl L]

Better than having to zoom in to fill the screen reducing picture quality I'm guessing.

 

[Scott Temple]

No, and it's really unfortunate because TCM'74 is one of the most popular horror films of all-time. I still can't believe Pioneer simply repackaged their 1998 disc (with its botched and non-anamorphic transfer) for release last fall. They need to get off their lazy asses and totally remaster this film in 16:9 or pass it onto another studio that will. I'd also love to have that "Shocking Truth" documentary included. It doesn't look like I'm ever going to get to see that.

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

Just because a movie was originally shot on 16mm, it doesn't mean it will look distictly worse than 35mm. TCM actually looks great for a 16mm color guerilla movie from 1974! Seriously.

A new hi-def transfer was made this year for HBO's hi-def channel, I believe, but Pioneer cannot access this mastertape.

A new 1.66:1 anamorphic transfer is bound to show up in the near future.

 

[JeremySt]

1. Youre right, youre not the person to answer!
2. Absolutly it matters. Sounds like you need to familiarize yourself with the process of anamorphic (enhanced for 16x9) DVDs. The film was not shot anamorphically, but it was shown widescreen theatrically, which means the best DVD presentation would utilize an anamorphic transfer.

 

[Henry Gale]

JeremySt,
Careful readers will note that Scott answered Daryl's question.
Thankyou for so graciously responding to my ignorance.

 

[JeremySt]

I did notice that Daryl's question was answered by Scott, but careful readers will notice I was addressing you, not Daryl.

Sorry to steer the thread away...

 

[Damin J Toell]

I don't want to put words in Mr. Gale's mouth, but it doesn't sound to me that he was confused over the use of the word "anamorphic." Rather, it sounded as if he was concerned with whether a 16mm film such as TCM has additional resolution available that would make an anamorphic transfer worthwhile. And the answer is: yes. The new HD transfer would, in turn, show more resolution than an anamorphic SD transfer. Whether there is any additional available resolution in 16mm beyond that is probably up for experts to quibble over.

DJ

 

[Anthony Thorne]

Don May Jr. from Synapse Films supervised the new Hi-Def remaster of the 1974 TCM for the Voom satellite service by going back to the 16mm A/B rolls and using state-of-the-art telecine technology to undertake the new transfer. Likewise, Don was the same guy that undertook the original non-anamorphic transfer (first released on Elite Entertainment's LD Special Edition, then re-released on the Pioneer DVD), and even without the benefit of a 16x9 transfer Don has mentioned that contemporary telecine technology is now "..much, much better.." than what he had to work with back around the mid-90's. Don recently supervised the fix of 5 minutes or so of the HD master and mentioned on the MHVF forum that the final results now look even better than the version playing on Voom. The new transfer is mean to be a major improvement.

There's a new 35mm print touring some areas (released by Dinsdale Releasing on behalf of MPI Media), but it apparently has nothing to do with the new restoration. Don and MPI reportedly did some HD to film test transfers which were better than the current release prints, but haven't yet gone any further because of the expense of that process.

Without elaborating further, Don has mentioned that there are plans to release the new 16x9 transfer on DVD, and to maybe also release it in Microsoft Windows Media 9 HD format. You'd hope that MPI would see the logic of putting the new transfer out on regular DVD sometime over the next 14 months, prior to the Christmas 2005 release of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. Then they could double-dip the release in Hi-Def for 2006-2007.

 

[Daryl L]

Thx all. I sure hope an anamorphic version comes soon. The reason I asked the question was because I just noticed the price on the 1974 version "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Special Edition" 2003 release has dropped at a few places. So I figured something might be up that I hadn't heard/read about yet.

I'm just tired of waiting. At the reduced price I'll just get it and doubledip on a future anamophic release later. I'll be watching for it on HBO's HD channel.

The new 2003 remake with Jennifer Beil that I have, although entertaining just had to many changes to the script that just don't have the joy factor of the 1974 original.

 

[Greg Black]

Yeah, even though my first go through the movie was not very enjoyable (I thought it was kind of boring), I still bought a copy from DeepDiscountDVD.com for 7 bucks.