review wanted: Seven Samurai: Criterion
 

I watched the film for the first time last night on tcm. the print imo was in pretty bad shape, lots of scratches, a few pops, ect. I am guessing that the print from last night was the laserdisc and the dvd is restored? btw, an excellent movie, and also, this was my first kurwasawa movie.

Well its decent for an older movie but this is the best its gonna get. My first Kirosawa and my first criterion. I recommend it.

Yeah get it. It has been the basis for lots of movies and hence one of the mroe important films in film history. One movie actually worthy of the Criterion label.

Something must have been wrong with my copy. It only showed up in black and white.

MIne too...and FULLSCREEN. WHUH?

Actually, the rumor going around is that Criterion will re-release 'Seven Samurai' at some point. I don't know if they'll be doing any more restoration on the print, but I know they commissioned new subtitles. Although it'll never look as good as other movies of that era, I think you'll see a better version eventually.

Great film, transfer is not too bad for its age. The commentry wasn't too bad either.

It has been linked to in the forum before, here is a graphic that compares screen grabs from Criterion's version to the Toho R2 version. I believe that this was one of Criterion's first DVDs (if not THE first), so Toho may have done some more work on the available film elements since then. A number of consumers have noted compression artifacts on the Criterion disc ... at about 200 minutes, this might be too much material for a single DVD-9, even if it is in b&w.

The commentary is very good on this disk. It really started me thinking about the art of movie making. The picture quality is decent but not great. I've heard that the R2 version is better. The film made the rounds in art-house cinemas about 6 months ago with an improved transfer. It isn't out of the question that Criterion may rerelease it but nothing has been announced. I'd say go for it.

You're right, I believe this was Criterion's first DVD. Although it shows a spine number of '2', I'm pretty sure it was released first (before spine #1, Grand Illusion). Either way, I know they can do a better job on the movie, hopefully by going the 2-disc route at least.