Man of the West (1 Viewer)

Although Man of the West, a classic Gary Cooper western, has been mentioned in various threads, there was no dedicated thread for this title given it hasn't had a mainstream release in an English speaking region. I thought it was time to give it one, as it's now been released (several months ago as it turns out), in Australia. It's apparently a Region Free disc, and I picked it up for $14. For people in other countries, you can use JB Hifi online to order it here.

The transfer is very natural looking and unmolested. There's no reason to believe this is any different to the German transfer that was released a while back. It doesn't have dazzling colors or crystal clarity, but I'm not sure how much of that is a source limitation. In any case it's very pleasing to watch, and well overdue.

Below are some screencaps I took simply as a rough indication of image quality. Usual caveats apply.

That is one movie directed by Anthony Mann that made it to Blu-ray in at least decent shape.I own the German Blu-ray and can confirm that it looks a bit dated but overall it is still a satisfying viewing experience.

When I was a small boy my father took me to see a movie and we also saw the trailer for Man Of The West. It seemed like a good film to me but my father wouldn't take me to see it. (I found out why when later I caught up with the film)

Between about 35 and 25 years ago I saw the film several times in re-run theaters. Obviously I didn't see the same print every time and I noticed that the colors differed from one print to another. In none of the prints I saw did Man Of The West seem to be a visually dazzling film, unlike, for example, One-Eyed Jacks and The Wonderful Country.

Your screen caps suggest that the BRD resembles quite closely the prints I saw all those years ago.

Robin9 said:

When I was a small boy my father took me to see a movie and we also saw the trailer for Man Of The West. It seemed like a good film to me but my father wouldn't take me to see it. (I found out why when later I caught up with the film)

Between about 35 and 25 years ago I saw the film several times in re-run theaters. Obviously I didn't see the same print every time and I noticed that the colors differed from one print to another. In none of the prints I saw did Man Of The West seem to be a visually dazzling film, unlike, for example, One-Eyed Jacks and The Wonderful Country.

Your screen caps suggest that the BRD resembles quite closely the prints I saw all those years ago.

Click to expand...

Thanks for that, I've only ever seen Man of the West on DVD, so I have no idea how it's supposed to look.

Persianimmortal said:

Although Man of the West, a classic Gary Cooper western, has been mentioned in various threads, there was no dedicated thread for this title given it hasn't had a mainstream release in an English speaking region. I thought it was time to give it one, as it's now been released (several months ago as it turns out), in Australia. It's apparently a Region Free disc, and I picked it up for $14. For people in other countries, you can use JB Hifi online to order it here.

The transfer is very natural looking and unmolested. There's no reason to believe this is any different to the German transfer that was released a while back. It doesn't have dazzling colors or crystal clarity, but I'm not sure how much of that is a source limitation. In any case it's very pleasing to watch, and well overdue.

Below are some screencaps I took simply as a rough indication of image quality. Usual caveats apply.

Click to expand...

While I would love to be able to get this blu-ray, I'd like more of a definitive confirmation that it will play in region A than "apparently region free."

OliverK said:

That is one movie directed by Anthony Mann that made it to Blu-ray in at least decent shape.I own the German Blu-ray and can confirm that it looks a bit dated but overall it is still a satisfying viewing experience.

Click to expand...

Is the Koch Media release region-locked?

Mark-P said:

Is the Koch Media release region-locked?

Click to expand...

Yes.

I have this as well as two other German releases - Bandolero! and The Tall Men and the last two look very good although also region locked. Another decent looking transfer is found on Soldier Blue and lastly there is The Scalphunters with Burt Lancaster that at times reminded me of a dvd but did present solid video quality fairly often, definitely a mixed bag.

Mark-P said:

While I would love to be able to get this blu-ray, I'd like more of a definitive confirmation that it will play in region A than "apparently region free."

Click to expand...

Sorry, the reason I was being a bit vague is that I can't confirm it myself. I can set my software Blu-ray player to Region A forced and still play this disc, but that's not really 100% confirmation, because the player is rather basic and I don't trust it to actually enforce region coding. The reason I said "apparently region free" is that in this thread on that other forum, a user says "Affirmative, just checked this disc and I can confirm it is in fact Region Free."

This Ebay listing also has it marked as Region Free, which the seller says is "confirm [sic] with my personal copy".