ChristopherBlig
Stunt Coordinator
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2003
- Messages
- 205
I noticed on much of the upcoming news that MGM was releasing a good portion of the ABC Pictures library with even some titles that have never seen the proper light of day in any other medium. Some that are out now and some that are upcoming are good news that they're being released but the bad news is that the majority is being released in a full-frame format.
This has been apparent in the last couple of months and some have grown to greener pastures with other DVD companies only to be reverted to it's inferior rights (Straw Dogs).
The biggest bad news was the release of Charly in full frame format to DVD. Here's a movie that goes down in award history with not only a Best Actor win but a big highlight of the power that ABC Pictures had in the late sixties and seventies.
To top it off, it was filmed in Techniscope 2.35:1. Now how this can be an oversight is beyond me. I think of the whole fiasco surrounding Willy Wonka a few years ago with a big campaign over not having a wide presentation which came with positive results in the form of a wide DVD (even being filmed Spherical can make a difference).
It seems to me that most of the ABC titles (Prizzi's Honor, Lovers and Other Strangers and others) have not been improved by the MGM moniker and given a wasted treatment with nothing added to an previously released product.
I fear there will be no improvement and it will only be a matter of a long time when another company will get the rights to these films and give it the proper DVD treatment the films deserve. If only Fox got the rights back, many ABC feature films (most from the sixties to the early to mid eighties) can properly see the light of day for it collaborated in a distributing sense and could open the possibility for a few more additional materials (trailers, notes, etc.)
Even the They Shoot Horses, Don't They commentaries (which are both treasures and a prime example of a commentary being the full backstory to the entire making and result of a finished film from all points of view)that have been lingering on in laserdisc can finally be heard by cinephiles that have no time for that obsolete format to see it in the premier format of DVD.
It's never too late to recall Charly and display it the way it was meant to be seen wide. I implore MGM to do the right thing before we carry on with the full frame debacle in October.
I welcome comments on this matter from all sides.
Thank you
Christopher Bligh
This has been apparent in the last couple of months and some have grown to greener pastures with other DVD companies only to be reverted to it's inferior rights (Straw Dogs).
The biggest bad news was the release of Charly in full frame format to DVD. Here's a movie that goes down in award history with not only a Best Actor win but a big highlight of the power that ABC Pictures had in the late sixties and seventies.
To top it off, it was filmed in Techniscope 2.35:1. Now how this can be an oversight is beyond me. I think of the whole fiasco surrounding Willy Wonka a few years ago with a big campaign over not having a wide presentation which came with positive results in the form of a wide DVD (even being filmed Spherical can make a difference).
It seems to me that most of the ABC titles (Prizzi's Honor, Lovers and Other Strangers and others) have not been improved by the MGM moniker and given a wasted treatment with nothing added to an previously released product.
I fear there will be no improvement and it will only be a matter of a long time when another company will get the rights to these films and give it the proper DVD treatment the films deserve. If only Fox got the rights back, many ABC feature films (most from the sixties to the early to mid eighties) can properly see the light of day for it collaborated in a distributing sense and could open the possibility for a few more additional materials (trailers, notes, etc.)
Even the They Shoot Horses, Don't They commentaries (which are both treasures and a prime example of a commentary being the full backstory to the entire making and result of a finished film from all points of view)that have been lingering on in laserdisc can finally be heard by cinephiles that have no time for that obsolete format to see it in the premier format of DVD.
It's never too late to recall Charly and display it the way it was meant to be seen wide. I implore MGM to do the right thing before we carry on with the full frame debacle in October.
I welcome comments on this matter from all sides.
Thank you
Christopher Bligh
