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June 05, 2009
Dr Stangelove on Blu-Ray
When WB put out their Kubrick 5-pack of Blu-rays last year, the most popular film in the Kubrick collection was missing... Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb. Why? Because Sony owns the rights to that one.
So, now it has arrived. And it extends the discussion about reformatting the great, older films. Like The French Connection, it looks grainier than many will remember it.
But the same thing happens to be true for a modern title like Ghostbusters. It seemed so much glossier when it was in theaters. Conversely, the colors seem even richer than I remember seeing them on film or on cable/satellite over the years.
This all takes me back to the conversation Aaron Aradillas had with Friedkin about the French Connection conversion controversy... as we go through this conversion process, decisions will be made and the success of the results will be a matter of personal taste. Film prints, film projection, and human memory vary dramatically.
Back to Strangelove, one of the great films in history and a great watch in Blu-ray as it was on 16mm when I saw it in a classroom at NYU, I am thrilled to see it on Blu-Ray. Extras are limited, as you would expect from Kubrick. But it looks great. And it looks gritty, which unlike French Connection, is not a director's choice... since the director is dead. But it is probably the best we will ever see it, given that the original negative is gone. (There was also this discussion of it, in connection to a new print made a few years ago.) So to come up with a "cleaner" version of the film in Blu-ray, they would have to manipulate the image with computers. Would that be better? Doubtful.
In one online forum discussion, it is pointed out that Miami Vice was shot in HD and still has a lot of grain. Director's choice.
It will be interesting to see what materials they have to work with in converting Barry Lyndon and what the results will look like. A little scary, really. Even if you don't LOVE the movie, you have to acknowledge that the cinematography was a historic moment in cinema.
P.S. Ghostbusters has a lot more, in terms of extras, than Strangelove. But the movie is the movie is the movie. It's good to see the widescreen version of the film, in proper format, though it is always funny to see a blu-ray movie with letterboxing.
Ivan Reitman, as a director, was never much of a stylist. But he does a nice job filling the frame with his actors, and that is what you watch a movie like this for. When Venkman gets slimed for the first time, you don't even see it! But it's still funny as hell. Imagine what Michael Bay could do with that same scene now... or would choose to do? Would it be any funnier?
There is an element to all this looking back through the eyes of new technology that is exactly like looking at old Super 8 film of the family. It's not exactly what we remember. Good or bad? It probably depends whether you are comforted by those memories or are more excited by the truth of it. Complicating it further are all the cheap Blu-rays being made that don't spend the time, money, or good intentions to make the film look the best it can in the format.
I expect this debate to go on for a long, long time.
Posted by dpoland at June 5, 2009 12:15 PM
Comments
I don't know specifically what Mann did on Miami Vice but isn't "grain" kind of a misnomer for a movie shot digitally? Grain is an artifact of physical materials that are not present in an HD camera. Are we talking about "noise?" (And there's probably an even better term for it than that which I'm not aware of.)
Posted by: Eric ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/nav-commenters.gif)
at June 5, 2009 02:13 PM
Kubrick might not be alive, but certainly there are representatives like Leon Vitali who usually oversee or consult on transfers. I don't know if he was involved with the new Strangelove, but I saw the Film Forum print and it was gorgeous.
Posted by: mutinyco at June 5, 2009 02:47 PM
Blu-Ray discs are presumably region-specific, otherwise we'd send a batch of "Dr. Strangelove" to the top brass at Newcastle United football club.
Posted by: Chucky in Jersey at June 5, 2009 05:17 PM
I don't think Michael Bay could do anything funnier in any way from any scene in Ghostbusters, ever. The dude is not funny.
I remember seeing Eyes Wide SHut and being amazing in the theater by how grainy it was. Kubrick liked using existing light, and that usually means pushing the exposure. Hell, in The Shining they even had scenes mixing indoor light bulbs and real daylight, so the color temperatures were all over the place.
Posted by: The Big Perm at June 5, 2009 05:40 PM
I liked the grainy look of EWS in theaters, and was annoyed that some transfer jockey stripped it so squeaky clean and shiny for the DVD. Seems like someone said they restored a little of that grain for the more recent release, but I never got around to buying it.
Speaking of Kubrick, Strangelove, and The Shining: I know a lot of people clamor for the PIE FIGHT scene in DS as an extra...
But will we ever, ever, ever, even a .0000001% as a special feature 20 discs down the road see that "final scene" of THE SHINING that got trimmed a week into its release, with Ullman and Duvall in the hospital? Surely that HAS to be out there somewhere if it made it into theatrical showings.... Could Kubrick really have burned every existing copy of the scene?
Posted by: LexG at June 5, 2009 05:55 PM
The European cut of The Shining is roughly 30 minutes shorter. Kubrick cut the end scene from the American version after its premiere, then, during the lag between the US and international release, he cut another half hour from the movie.
There are actually two different legitimate versions of the movie in release on video. You can get the international cut if you have an all-region DVD player. But the later cut has never been made officially available in the US.
Posted by: mutinyco at June 5, 2009 06:40 PM
While the original negative of STRANGELOVE is gone, I would be shocked if Kubrick did preserve the negative of BARRY LYNDON. I predict it'll be a landmark Blu-ray when it eventually comes out. I also predict Wells will complain about the grain.
Here's a link to my interview with Friedkin that DP mentioned:
[url]http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Back-By-Midnight/2009/03/03/William-Friedkin-In-His-Own-Words[/url]
Posted by: Jimmy the Gent at June 6, 2009 02:57 AM
Just FYI, Sony doesn't region-code their Blu-rays. Neither does WB, so anyone curious about the international cut of The Shining can import one of the non-U.S. BD editions (although I prefer the original).
Eric: Yes, "noise" is the correct term for video -- although I don't like it much, since "noise" generally refers to something unwanted and what Mann did on Vice (and much of Collateral as well) was by design.
And re: Eyes Wide Shut and underexposure -- Kubrick didn't just use limited light for EWS, he underexposed it by two stops so it would look even grainier. None of the home video releases really preserve this well -- the first DVD was hobbled by the encoders of the era (which didn't handle heavy grain well and either smudged it or reduced it to video noise), the Blu-ray and "special edition" DVD has the half-assed semi-DNR that Warner applies to most of their catalog titles these days (light enough that it still looks like film, heavy enough that everything still looks a bit too waxy).
Posted by: Bob Violence at June 6, 2009 05:28 AM
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