I have seen this movie on VHS and want to purchase the DVD.

I would like to hear from you, if you have watched this movie on DVD. Any comment wrt picture quality? sound quality?


Thanks for your input.

[This message has been edited by attfield (edited September 12, 2000).]

Bought this DVD last year (seen the movie on vhs but sight unseen on dvd) expecting a beautiful transfer of the film. If there was an example of what not to do with a dvd transfer of a film it would be The Last Emperor. First, the quality of the film doesn't match the quality of the story. There's a lot of motion artifacts, compression breakup, shimmering and pixelation on the film. Also, the print shows a bit of wear with scratches and dirts scattered throughout the film. If your expecting reference material here - look elsewhere. As for the audio, the film is present on 2.0 Dobly Surround(no 5.1 ch http://talk.dvdtalk.com/ubb/frown.gif). Extras on the discs are sparse - one trailer(full frame), production notes and Cast & Crew information.

I recommend waiting for a rerelease of this film with a new transfer in anamorphic widescreen, Dobly Digital 5.1 & 2.0 and other featurettes.

I'm with jbdomain on this one. I got it because it's a great film, but I was very disappointed in the dvd.

Thanks guys, based on your review, I will wait for the new release version.

Agree with the above comments. Another point not mentioned is the additional footage; I found many of the extra scenes unnecessary and slowed the pacing of the move.

I agree with the above on quality. However I strongly disagree about the merits of the longer version. I think it makes the film even better by filling in gaps and smoothing over some rough transitions in the theatrical cut. And it's hard to go wrong with more Peter O'Toole. Because of that the DVD was worth it to me.

There was also a Japanese laserdisc of the director's cut. Of course, there are Japanese subtitles. I don't know about its quality.

movielib, as I replied to you in another post, I have the Japanese LD.

Quality of the Japanese LD is top-notch. I've heard it's a better transfer than the shorter US widescreen LD, but I can't compare the two. The subtitles stay below in the letterbox and are smaller and less distracting than the ones on Episode One. Light years beyond the crappy DVD in any case.

I agree this film needs to be remastered. Great film, second-rate transfer. Same goes for Kurosawa's RAN!

And Columbia, please, give us a RSDL disk of your excellent release of DAS BOOT like you have in the rest of the world. Thank you http://talk.dvdtalk.com/ubb/smile.gif

Now this is a movie that should get the Criterion treatment! I hope it does soon.

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