The Great Raid - DVD (1 Viewer)

[Miles]

Does anyone have any comments on the quality of the DVD release? I understand not many people liked the film, but I'm a sucker for war movies.

 

[Dave Miller]

I have not read a review of this DVD, but Ebert & Roeper gave the movie two thumbs up.

Click on the audio review button here.

Looking forward to seeing this very soon.

Peace,

DM

 

[JoshB]

No one around where I am at is carrying the Widescreen version, which is a 2-disc unrated director's cut. All stores seem to have the single theatrical fullscreen cut.

 

[Andy_MT]

curiously no one is talking about this release. particularly odd since the only way to own the widescreen edition of this film is to buy the premium/expensive dvd. the single disc is fullframe. i thought everyone would be up in arms about this - apparently not. does anyone care ?

 

[Mark Seyb]

What's really weird if that according to the back of the DVD's, the director's cut is 2 minutes shorter. Stopped me from buying it right away.

 

[TravisR]

Considering it's a director's cut, isn't it safe to say that he didn't want those two minutes in the movie?

That also assumes the listed running time isn't just wrong.

I don't understand why a movie that wasn't exactly a big hit is taking such a strange approach to its DVD release. By making the two discer the only way to get the widescreen version, they're just cutting themselves off from making money that they might make. It's definitely a movie that the average guy isn't going to buy in droves and making the WS release expensive, they cut themselves off from HT and movie fans. You'd find alot more war movie fans willing to chance $15 or $20 but you're gonna find that want to risk $30 or $40 on hoping they like it.

 

[Damin J Toell]

That's likely too simplistic of an explanation (and I realize that sounds insulting when I read it, but please try to hear me saying it in some kind of non-insulting happy voice ). Miramax probably simply put together an entirely different cut of the film. If so, the differences in running time alone doesn't mean much; it's not that he didn't want those two minutes, it's that he wanted an entirely different final product. Such is the case with the recent DVD of The Yards, the director's cut of which is also two minutes shorter than the theatrical version, but it features an entirely different edit of the film than what Miramax put together.

DJ

 

[TravisR]

That may be too conspiracy oriented of an explanation.

EDIT: I just re-read what you said and now I understand what you originally meant.

 

[Damin J Toell]

But also one that plays out a few times, at least, each year at Miramax. As Dave Kehr said in his review of the DVD of The Yards in the NY Times last week:

"Often what passes for a ''director's cut'' on a DVD release is simply a version with a few cuss words and exposed body parts restored -- the bits the producers sliced out to get the rating they wanted. But the new version of ''The Yards'' that comes out today from Miramax Home Entertainment is actually, as the director James Gray puts it in his voice-over commentary, ''the cut of the movie as I had wanted it -- my ideal version.'' As it turns out, Mr. Gray's ideal version is two minutes shorter than the film Miramax released to mixed reviews in 2000. It is also a much more coherent, tightly structured work that returns a sense of scale and balance to a wide-ranging narrative that, in the studio cut, seemed to be without a central conflict."

Just because I'm paranoid, it doesn't mean they're not out to get me. And, hey, I'm not jumping to conclusions at all, just putting an additional possibility on the table. Knowing the studios and seeing the running time difference, however, it is a fairly reasonable possibility.

DJ

 

[TravisR]

So what you're saying is that the movie might not be missing two minutes of a specific scene but it could be just an entirely different edit of the movie that runs two minutes shorter? Or to be more accurate, the version of the film that's labelled as a 'director's cut' is the version that the director wants people to see.

I was thinking the same thing but (admittedly) didn't really articulate that in my first post.

 

[Damin J Toell]

Exactly.

DJ

 

[CraigF]

Does anyone know if the U.S. 2-disc release has dts sound? Thanks.

 

[Harminder]

From what I've been reading on its specs, the R1 release is Dolby 5.1 only. The R3 (Hong Kong) however, is DTS-ES.

 

[Don Solosan]

While watching the deleted scenes on the DVD, I noticed at least two featuring Margaret that I had seen in the theater. They were the scenes where Margaret goes to make some kind of drug purchase and has to escape in a truck, and then later, when she's on the lam waiting for transportation and uses some jewelry to pay the way for herself, another woman and her child.

Since I saw the movie at an advance screening, I assumed that they had been cut for the theatrical run. It didn't really occur to me that the director's cut would have stuff cut out; that's not the norm. In the commentary, director John Dahl talks about removing those scenes to pick up the movie's pace. Which is too bad because I liked the character, and her constant danger really affected me.

Other than that, I think the director's cut is pretty much the same as the theatrical one -- but don't quote me on that, because I didn't notice those scenes missing while watching the DVD... I suppose the good news (for me) is that this director's cut still works. Great stuff.

 

[David_Blackwell]

I just received my copy of the DC from BVHE today. I'm going to check it out tomorrow night.

 

[Miles]

Eventually found one at Walmart last night, but had to go see Kong instead of watching TGR

 

[Ben Rockwell]

I've been eager to see this since reading "Ghost Soldiers". I'm assuming this movie is based on the book "The Great Raid", but the two are about the same event.

Regardless, I'm eager to see this, and I hope the film itself holds true to the feeling of the book.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

No DTS - DD 5.1 only!

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Officially, it's based on two books. One of them is Ghost Soldiers, but I forget whether the other one is The Great Raid or something else.

 

[Garrett Adams]

Might have been one of the books dealing with the Alamo Scouts who participated in the raid along with the Rangers.