UNIVERSAL - Please, a Collector's Edition of NAPOLEON!! (1 Viewer)

[Dick]

You've released no silent films at all to DVD. NAPOLEON should be an exception to this policy, if it is a policy. It deserves as good a release as any of your collector's editions. Please do the right thing!

 

[Patrick McCart]

Universal owns few silent films...they destroyed the negatives in the 1930's to make room for new productions. Many (like Phantom of the Opera and Hunchback of Notre Dame) have fallen into the public domain, so most videos are horrible. At least Universal is a very good leader in film preservation now...but the damage is done.

Happy thought, eh?

Well, many of the EXISTING Universal silents have either been restored by David Shepard or Kevin Brownlow. (or both...I think they both worked on a restored version of Phantom of the Opera.)

Kino and Blackhawk Films have released several of these that still exist in one way or another.

As for Napoleon:

Universal only distributes the VHS and the AMERICAN theatrical release...I think (if anyone can correct any of this, please do so.)

- The Carmine Coppola score is great, but the Carl Davis score for the Europeon version might be better for the film (I love his score for Hollywood and Ben-Hur!)

- The Zoetrope version seems to be a little fast on the frames per second speed.

- The 1981 version is only 4 hours long...the newer Brownlow version (recently "finished") is nearly 5 1/2 hours long and has a lot of the 8mm/9.5mm/16mm footage in the 1981 version replaced with 35mm.

Also, the trypich ending is compressed and cropped to 3:1 instead of the proper 4:1 on home video.

With DVD resoultion (and perhaps 16x9 enhancment) the DVD could actually have the full 4:1 aspect ratio. Some 4:1 clips of the ending is in Kevin Brownlow's Cinema Europe documentary and although the letterboxing is extremely severe, DVD could show it correctly without fault.

I'd like to see Criterion get their hands on this movie...I'd like to see a 3-disc set with the following:

- Brand-new digital transfer

- 16x9 tryptich ending

- Commentary by Kevin Brownlow and Robert A. Harris

- Both the Carmine Coppola score AND Carl Davis score

- Script

- photo gallery

- Cinema Europe segments on Napoleon

- Trailers

- Movie spread accross 2 discs, 3rd disc for extras

- behind-the-scenes footage (There actually is a LOT of footage filmed of the production!)

- Alternate ending (a 1-strip ending was made basically by re-editing the 3 strips of the triptich)

This movie deserves a GIGANTIC DVD with all the bells and whistles...I'd pay 100 bucks to get it without a doubt!

 

[Rain]

Patrick, are you posting for the visually impaired now?
Alright, I'm just going to add my name to the list of those who would purchase something like what Patrick suggested in a heartbeat.
However, for me to shell out the dollars required, it would have to be the restoration which comes closest to the original concept of the film, that being Brownlow's.
(Not to knock any work Robert Harris has done on this film with Zoetrope, but he's already discussed the limitations of this endeavour in another thread.)
Bring it on!

 

[Jaime_Weinman]

If this film is released, it must include some version of the original 1927 score composed for the movie by Arthur Honegger. Compared to Honegger, who wrote some excellent symphonies and choral works in addition to his film work, Carmine Coppola is a bad joke, and it's still one of the great scandals of movie music that Coppola let his father write a dopey new score. Carl Davis isn't much better. Honegger is the real deal.

 

[Larry Sutliff]

I would buy this in a heartbeat. Count me in.

 

[BrentPollard]

You can add me to the list as well

 

[Patrick McCart]

The original score is lost, hence why a new one had to be composed by Davis and also Coppola.

I can only imagine how sweeping it was...

Carl Davis's score is probably the best way to go. His scores for Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ and Hollywood are fantastic. His re-recording of City Lights is also wonderful. (And strikingly accurate to the original's manuscript!)

 

[Brian Lawrence]

Count me in. I finally watched this film a few weeks ago on TCM and I was blown away. I really really want this on dvd. The 5 1/2 hour version I was not aware of until now. I must see that cut!!!

 

[Donald W]

I just rented this over the weekend and all I can say is WOW...I have a 60 inch big screen tv and it still can't hold the power of what this film would look and sound like in a theatre..count me in also for this DVD but I think that Criterion is the only company that could do a SE the right way for this DVD....