badlieut

Looks like they will be issuing a replacement for Eraserhead.


EDIT: Replacement info shown here:
http://welcometotwinpeaks.com/news/c...c-replacement/

Josh Z

Was this in an email or is it posted somewhere?

slop101

Goddammit. Feels like every other Criterion I buy ends up having some issue.

E Unit

That's what I was thinking, but just about every issue they've had in the past was audio related. A picture issue like this is something I haven't seen happen before from them.

Coral

Wouldn't that be something they'd notice by simply watching it before getting it pressed to disc?

hdnmickey

Really makes you wonder what's the point of having the director approve the transfer, huh?

In reality it often means as much as the "professional" reviewers that base their review on screenshots or watching only 10% of the film. The kind will be all all over the great quality, or major issues with a transfer, only to have to retract it all when many purchasers prove the reviewer couldn't be more wrong.

badlieut

It was posted somewhere. There is a big discussion on another board about the changes in the new transfer.

Josh Z

Listen, I've seen Eraserhead dozens of times. I can recite the dialogue as it plays. I watched the disc in full and scrupulously compared the Criterion Blu-ray to import copies from the UK and Japan to determine that Criterion had done a brand new film scan. Yet I did not catch this issue until it was pointed out to me. The problem only lasts a couple of seconds, and it's part of a scene that's strangely edited anyway, more than an hour into the film (on a disc with no chapter stops). It's very easy to miss, even for a fan.

A reviewer who is only casually familiar with the film or is watching it for the first time would have no way of knowing that anything was wrong with the disc.

Josh Z

I'm talking about Criterion's announcement of a disc replacement. Was that publicly posted by the company, or just something they're emailing to people who purchased the disc through their web site?

Coral

I'll cut the reviewer some slack - especially for a 5 second scene playing out the way it did. Just don't think this should've been overlooked when it's supposed to be "Director Approved". This isn't the first time a "Director Approved" release from Criterion had something messed up.

hdnmickey

Cutting a casual reviewer, that barely know the film, some slack makes sense. But one does have to wonder how an "expert" on the film could miss something a casual fan didn't miss. Wouldn't be the first time an "expert" was caught being full of shit with their reviewer pants down. And then you have the whole "director approved" issue...

Josh Z

The director made the film 37 years ago. He's directed 9 feature films, produced 4 TV series, and made a lot of other miscellaneous stuff (commercials, short films, art exhibits, etc.) in the meantime. Sometimes, the details slip away. The Criterion transfer was scanned from the original camera negative. Lynch probably assumed that the OCN was complete, didn't realize this scene was missing an element, and didn't notice the five-second problem when rewatching the master.

Shit happens. There's no conspiracy here. It sounds like Criterion is going to make a good-faith effort to correct the problem and offer replacements. I don't see any point in bitching about this.

Had the studio denied there was any problem and told fans who pointed it out to go screw themselves (as, for example, Shout Factory did with the upconverted Bruce Lee Collection box set), then we'd have a legitimate reason to complain.

Josh Z

The person who first noticed this was not a "casual fan." You have to be intimately familiar with the movie frame-by-frame to pick up on it. This isn't a case where the disc glitches and stops playing, or the whole picture breaks up into obvious artifacts that anyone watching would immediately notice. It was already a strangely-edited scene, and five seconds of footage are now edited slightly differently than they used to be while the soundtrack plays through normally. It does not stand out as being "wrong" unless you've memorized the movie shot-for-shot, which one obsessed fan apparently has.

I thank him for catching this and bringing it to everyone's attention, but the rest of you are applying impossible standards both to a product that's very high quality overall and to disc reviewers who cannot realistically be expected to memorize every single frame of film ever shot in the history of cinema, as you demand that they do.

You're being ridiculous. If you hadn't been told about this, you absolutely never would have noticed it yourself.

hdnmickey

I would If it was one of the films I would consider myself an "expert" on. I've certianly noticed subtle things like this error on new releases of different films on home video.

Josh Z

Let's be be very clear here. Who are you talking about?

badlieut

As of now, it doesn't appear to be publicly acknowledged.

Coral

No one said there's a conspiracy... and no-one's bitching about it (I don't even want the film)... it's a discussion on how some of us don't really fall for the "Director Approved" selling point that Criterion has.

Ringmaster

Why would someone not "fall for it"? It's not like Lynch had his sleeves rolled up at the factory personally pressing the discs.

Coral

It's not the quality control of the pressing that's in question - it's the stuff that happened before that... the stuff that Lynch apparently approved that Criterion advertises.

Josh Z

You're being ridiculous. Lynch didn't catch a tiny error in a film he made longer ago than you've probably been alive. Now that it's been brought to his and Criterion's attention, they're already working to correct it. That's good service from people who care about their product, and all you can do is whine. Grow up.

hdnmickey

Bingo. And I don't even believe it's the first time. Certainly not the first time for other studios that put out similar claims.

And again, we often see also this same thing with "professional" and "expert" disc reviewers. So it's not just an issue with these directors personally "approving" releases. And often it's issues nobody could miss if the actually watched and listened to the disc they were supposedly reviewing. In some cases it's a wonder they are even allowed to review another disc for the same site.

Coral

Holy shit... whine? Grow up? Really? Have you even read what I typed?
Where am I whining or complaining? I commend Criterion for replacing the disc - they do good work. I just find the whole "Director Approved" thing to be misleading and not much of a selling point when issues like this don't get noticed. That's all the discussion was about. Seriously, you come across as a Criterion fanboy or something. Seriously, sit back and relax - everything will be fine. With your response, maybe it's YOU who should grow up.

Josh Z

Would you rather that that director not participate at all if he can't achieve 100% perfection? Have you given any thought to how many issues Lynch actually did catch that nobody else would have noticed had he not been there?

Seriously, what's the alternative? Think about what you're complaining about here.

Josh Z

Mickey, stop beating around the bush. Who are you talking about? Name names. Cite articles. Provide examples.

PhantomStranger

The problem is that superfans don't realize a reviewer isn't an expert on every single film they cover. For many films I've reviewed, I have no prior experience with them other than the marketing blurb. This sounds like a small edit that could easily get missed, even with a serious viewing. Now it is on the reviewer to keep up with fan communities after a release, if missed issues come to light.