According to the HTF chat last March,
"[warnerbros] Indeed. Many of you have wondered...Where's THE BIG PARADE, THE WIND, THE CROWD, etc. We want to honor these films in the way they were presented by Kevin Brownlow in the Thames series of silents. To that end, we have been in discussions with Photoplay (Kevin's company) to work together to update the restorations on all those premiere silent pictures. Meanwhile, we will be releasing about 20 other silent films through WarnerArchive.com in addition to those already announced today."

It's pretty clear from their release of so many older films through the "Warner Archive" titles (which are just overpriced, bare-bones DVD-Rs) that Warner has given up on releasing old catalogue titles on real DVDs.

I don't believe we'll see any more silent DVDs from Warner.

Light of Day with Michael J Fox and Joan Jett is another unusual title to never get a DVD release.

With DVDs being so cheap to replicate and MPEG2 encoding/authoring not very expensive, I wonder why the studios don't feel they can sell these titles.

The minimum number for replication in most plants is 500-1000 copies.

The apu trilogy, slueth and maybe one more would run you over $500 on amazon. Like I said it is not unreasonable to pay $25 or less for these. There's really no reason we can't have a good release for these classic films...

And to answer the other question, I have close to 4,000 DVD's but not sure why you asked...

4000 owned DVDs = hypocrite when it comes to complaining about spending money on dvds

The Woman in Black
Gargoyles, Season 2, Part 2
SWAT Kats
Mighty Max
Pirates of Dark Water
The Reflecting Skin
The Passion of Darkly Noon
The Big Gundown
Corbucci's Companeros
Machine Gun McCain
The Villain (Richard Burton)
Day of Anger
The Stone Tape
Sholay SE
Road Warrior SE
The Crucible (1967)
More as I think of them.

And we do have a good release of the Apu Trilogy. In fact the R2 set has better transfers than the OOP Columbia discs. See for yourself. It'll cost you £29.98 from Amazon, which works out to $48.74, though the set has been heavily discounted in the past, and probably will be again.

How so? I've collected for 10 years now and I buy the majority of my DVD's used from Blockbuster or Hollywood DVD. I pay on average less than $10 for every DVD I own and I've done it over time. Just because I have a lot doesn't mean I want to burn even more money on my movie library.

Your post = ridiculous.

Thanks, but I want something with standard american artwork. They can do it.

Francis Coppola's "The Rain People"
John Huston's "The Dead"
John Cassavetes "Love Streams"
John Cassavetes "Minnie & Moskowitz" (not one thats oop 2 seconds after it was released)
Nicholas Ray's "Johnny Guitar"
several other Nick Ray films
Dennis Hopper's "Last Movie"
The Wonder Years
UFC 13-37
WEC events

http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Helena-Ca...1928963&sr=1-5

Available on DVD-R from WB as part of their Archive series.

There is a decent looking German disc, once available from Xploited, apparently also a superior Spanish edition.

It's unfortunate that the greatest American director of the 1950's gets so little respect in his own country. BFI have an excellent disc of Bigger than Life, with a Criterion edition confirmed with no release date. Hot Blood has a R2 disc, and there is a very nice MoC edition of Savage Innocents, though it is now OOP. Xploited used to carry the French disc of Party Girl (a WB DVD-R here), as well as the Spanish release of Born to Be Bad. I'm glad I was able to purchase them at a reasonable price before Xploited folded.

Released by Blue Underground

thats awesome about The Dead. mildly disappointed that it isn't criterion. but I guess I shouldn't complain after they FINALLY released Huston's Wise Blood on criterion. now all I need to do is hustle and get rid of my region free Italian vhs transfer piece of shit dvd copy of "The Dead".

I know about the dvd r release of The Rain People, and it doesn't interest me one bit. Francis Coppola has recorded commentary tracks on nearly EVERY film of his that's been released on dvd. I'd love a real dvd release of this film, a real transfer(not a video transfer) and remastering, with a Coppola commentary track, maybe an interview with Caan or Duvall and of course George Lucas's documentry "The Making of The Rain People".

Then you just care more about owning a meaningless dvd and how it looks on your shelf than you do about seeing a great movie.

If you really and truly cared for film, and these films specifically, you wouldn't give two shits about what region they come from or what packaging they have. And if you look around, price isn't too big an issue either (FWIW, I got the R-2 Apu Trilogy for $30 - that's $10 per movie, in a nice package, with much better transfers than the OOP R1s).

If you truly like these movies, then you would go R-2 without batting an eye, because you'll actually be able to seep these films. Otherwise, you're just a collector of meaningless silver discs.

I wouldn't hold my breath. Unless it's from Criterion, the market for old foreign films is abysmal here in the States (even Crietrion sells fairly low numbers for such films). Why do you think they let the Apu Trilogy go out of print? No one was buying it. Sure the discs were crap and overpriced, but even if/when they do put out an improved version, it'll be years - years you could've been watching the movie on an all-region player.

Blah, blah, blah. I own a crap load of DVD's and have a nice back log to watch. I don't need every DVD released all at once and I can wait for them to release a decent R1 version without having to jump through hoops. Your snide comments about my love for silver discs are ridiculous. You don't know me and you don't know of my passion for movies. Since I do put them on display as a hobby, sure I want them to look good at the same time. It's not too much to ask and it's not an unreasonable request.

Well, I think the point that was being made is that if the rights holders to these films don't see any profit in releasing them R1, then it is an unreasonable request. In that case, it comes down to import or don't own the movies. Most people, when they see how little real investment it is to go region free, opt to import the title.

And what hoops will you have to jump through? It's just the same hoops you would go through to order a R1 movie online. In most cases, the biggest hoop you'd have to jump through would be doing a currency conversion to check the price. Not that hard.

As for the covers, you'll find that other regions very often get better cover art than U.S. releases. So, if you really want to showcase your collection, you should check out some of the packaging in other regions.

Some people can't stand PAL. On some region free players you get PAL speedup and the sound can be out of sync on certain models. It really all depends on your home theater setup, and some people still use a Tube TV that doesn't display a PAL signal well even after PAL/NTSC conversion on certain region free players. I know I totally understand why some USA viewers would loathe the idea of buying their DVD's from overseas.

There are still films that have not gotten a R1 release that would turn in a little profit for the movie studios, I wish they would put some effort into it. Not every title has to be mass produced, they can release limited edition catalog titles.

All these posts later, and I still don't understand the math here, nor has it been addressed.

I've been region-free for nearly a decade and have never spent that kind of money on the number of titles being discussed in the posts that led to this comment.

Such comments are indicative of an ignorance of the process and cost of going region free, from someone who's more than likely just afraid to give it a try.

Clckworang's comments about the covers are spot on. If you're into decorating with your cases, you really need to shop around.


How could they loathe it if, like Keroborus, they've never tried it to know IF their particular player--if they were to actually buy one--has the speedup/sync/conversion issues. I've owned three region-free players in 10 years (two currently in active use; one used but stored for future use), and have never encountered these problems. Ever. And the things I've been able to see, boy, where do I begin . . .

Frankly, region-free players are SO thoroughly reviewed, dissected and discussed around the web that there's really no excuse for buying a dud.

I'd love such a release, but Warner seems to have abandoned catalog titles on DVD entirely. An overpriced, interlaced bare-bones DVD-R may be your only option.

I think these Region 1 DVD players vs Multi-region DVD player debates make much more sense than the Blu-Ray versus DVD debates.

Kerboras, I would also like to add that there are countless of great foreign movies that you are missing as well. A very small percentage of good foreign films don't even get released into American theaters and/or onto NTSC Region 1 DVD. If you are a fan of cinema, why limit yourself to what America chooses for you to watch? If it wasn't for the DVD covers in a different language or if imports weren't "exepensive" as you believe them to be (the only expensive DVD imports in the world are Japanese DVDs), why would you not want a multi-region DVD player? If you like buying and watching foreign films on DVD, what's stopping you from buying a multi-region DVD player?

Really?

My fault. I mean Il Mercenario.

Clockwork - I'm sure there is profit in at least a bare bones release of the nation's or world's greatest cinema. Take African Queen... As for hoops - I don't have to think about R1 player, R1 disc. Simple. Buying on amazon or ebay I have bought a LOT of misrepresented crap and buying foreign can be an adventure almost 50% of the time. Those are the hoops. As for covers, I like them to look uniform and R1. Hate the various foreign crap and warning sings and thin discs, etc. It's an aesthetic, but I just prefer it my way. No crime there.

Brian T - Drop the venom, it's not becoming and save your comments about my ignorance. My math was referring to buying out of print R1 DVD's off of amazon and ebay. The discs I want should be had for $20 or less and you shouldn't have to hunt them second hand. I'm not interested for the reasons I listed above in buying another DVD player (mine seem to break every 1-2 years) and buying foreign DVD's when in the good 'ol USA we should be getting these titles. If they make money in Korea, they should be making money in the US. I'm not decorating with my cases, and your sarcasm is lost on me. I have a library that stretches 3 walls in my office and aesthetically it looks cool. I'm sure you'd think so too, if you saw it. It's just a hobby and not a reason to give jerky comments...

Toddly - I see your point, but I have such a huge volume and such a broad interest in ALL films, I can afford to wait for them to come out in R1. There are just a few that I suppose I am impateient about...

^ im going to take kerb side on this one. im a collector of silver disks myself

but seriously, i find it hard enough to keep up with the r1 disks i want. if i opened up to all regions, i think i would go insane. as in too many options, too little time, not enough money, even more searching for bargains off the internet, etc. does that make sense to anyone else other than me?

I would say that most DVD collectors agree, but I personally think that's going for the Blockbuster Video look. Collectors confuse quantity with tasteful decorating. Aesthetically, it doesn't look good. Think of the toy/comic book collector as a comparison.

Do you think that this looks good?


Do you think that this looks good?


I'm not just saying this just to Kerboras, I'm saying it to all DVD collectors: It's not called "aesthetics" or "tasteful" - it's called "man-boy decorating." I don't want to hear the excuses of "our parents had displays for their generic book collection." Same problem, different generation. A library of books in one's house doesn't look any better as well.

I just told you that a majority of good foreign films never come to the USA no matter how long you wait. Let me buy you a multi-region DVD player. You will thank me later!