Yesterday I watched the Cleopatra DVD and for the most part I was pleased except for the soft picture! I was expecting a much better picture by reviews from around the Internet but I should have known better then to believe them! The audio was quite nice especially the musical score. The colors and other aspects of the DVD were fine but I still was a bit disappointed by the soft picture! I would have thought they would have wanted to nail this title dead on but alas it was not done! Other titles of earlier or similar release dates were of much better video quality in regards to detail such as Ben Hur, LOA.

Even with the soft picture I would highly recommend this DVD in a heartbeat! The third extras DVD includes a 2 hour documentary about the troubles getting this film made and is quite interesting. A couple of points jump out like the cost to make this film today with the cost of inflation would put the total amount at $444 million dollars! Yes $444M! And another interesting point is the fact that Roddy McDowell was a fairly sure winner for a Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor but 20th Century Fox screwed up with a clarical error and he was put as nominated for Best Actor instead. The Studio released a public apology to Roddy McDowell for this hugely embarrassing mistake!

Hey, anybody bought this DVD ?

I would like to know more about this dvd too. Thanks !

I enjoyed this film quite a bit. It was my first time to see Cleopatra, and it was much better than I thought it would be. All of the bad press over the years had prejudiced me into thinking that I wouldn't like it. But, I did. The documentary on the third disk would almost be worth a purchase by itself. It was very informative and added greatly to the presentation of the movie. It teased the fact that they are trying to locate lost reels of film to restore it to the director's original six hour, two movie version. I would buy it all over again to see that version. Highly recommended purchase, particularly at the bargain price most places have it listed for.

How is the picture ? Is it soft like what Frank S said ?

[Edited by jeyi on 04-10-01 at 11:29 PM]

I can't believe we're talking about the same DVD. Far from being "soft", I think this is one of the most stunning transfers I've seen -- especially considering the age of the movie. The image seems unbelieveably sharp to me: details are crisp (even the backgrounds are clear) and the colors practically pop out of the screen.

I've shown several people the "Cleo's entrance into Rome" sequence and their mouths have dropped open at the sheer spectacle of it and the incredible image.

FWIW, I completely agree with the raves I've seen posted on the web about this DVD. I haven't received my order of LOA yet, but I'd rank Cleopatra's transfer well ahead of that found on Ben-Hur (though it was very nicely done).

The difference in opinions on the softness or not of the Cleopatra DVD may have to do with what type of TV it's being watched on! I viewed it on a 58" Pioneer HDTV and it can be very revealing as to any inperfections on the DVD!

I purchased the DVD a couple of days ago and watched only parts of it, but I am in complete agreement with you. I thought the transfer was indeed stunning - far from being soft.

I watched it on my 32" Sony Wega.

That's what I'm talking about! On smaller TV like the 32" you mention you will not see a lot of flaws that are evident on the 58" HDTV I view DVD's on. It's just the fact that the bigger the screen the more flasw are revealed! This is ever so noticable when viewing Satellite or cable channels!

Buy a smaller TV

Just kidding, Im just so jealous at the size of your TV, I have to make do with a 27" for the moment.

Don't get me wrong (and I'm sure johnf14 would agree with me) that the Cleopatra DVD is a very good DVD! It just suffers from a case of have a soft picture. It's not nearly bad enough to ruin the experience of this film but it is noticable!

We'll simply have to agree to disagree, because you've absolutely reversed the order from my conclusions. I also have all 3, and have compared them on my Sony 32" Wega, and I have come to the opposite conclusion. I thought, overall, Cleopatra was the best transfer of the three.

I just watched Lawrence Of Arabia tonight and I can with total honesty say that Lawrence Of Arabia has a FAR sharper/clearer picture then Cleopatra! It's not even close when compared on a larger HDTV! The backgrounds on all the Vista shots were dead on sharp as opposed to the backgrounds on Cleopatra were they were somewhat soft and unsharp.

I would ask that anyone who doesn't have a 50" + HDTV to find someone with one and review some scenes on that TV and you will see very obviously the clear differences in the picture quality.

classicman2
You mention you thought Cleopatra was the best "Overall" video transfer but what I have been talking about is strickly sharpness and clarity. Do you consider Cleopatra to be a sharper/clearer picture or just that taking all things into consideration (with sharpness/clarity as one/two elements) you consider Cleopatra the better video transfer. I will say that Cleopatra is better in that it is a cleaner video transfer but in the area of sharpness/clarity I thought it was a bit to soft.

[Edited by Frank S on 04-14-01 at 11:06 PM]