Even though I saw it in 2015, I reviewed 45 Years early this year, and it still stands as one of the best of the year.

Interesting choice for the cover art, as that part was left to the imagination in the movie, and it is NOT how I imagined it.

What are the chances Do The Right Thing gets a Criterion Blu-ray release? I might jump on the Blu-ray + digital copy version instead.

I have no idea what the chances are, but I would certainly welcome a Criterion edition *if* they fix the color issue that has prevented me from upgrading to the Universal 20th Anniversary Edition.

Fight The Power!

One of the few titles I have refused to upgrade to BD despite there being a better transfer available (other than the color issue).

If Criterion were given the opportunity to release a BD, I think they'd probably use the same transfer. Per Spike Lee, it was Ernest Dickerson's choice to remove the filter for the BD release.

^Count me in as another that would buy it 'if' they went back to the original colour. Otherwise, I'll stick with the DVD.

Regarding it being Ernest Dickerson's choice, wouldn't Spike have the final say? Sounds like he's just passing the buck.

Don't really care who made the decision, the color of that movie is a big part of it all. Would rather watch the Criterion DVD (which is a great looking transfer) over the changed BD despite the uptick in picture quality.

Spike Lee is a master of passing the buck.

A lot of (most?) directors defer to their cinematographers regarding color timing decisions.

That is the same deal with the Criterion "His Girl Friday". There must be some sort of cost involved for using certain commentaries from previous DVDs.

I could see that, initially, but at this stage it seems odd to allow such a drastic change. It's been talked about, quite a bit, that the color timing really helped to convey the heat of the day.

Is anyone aware of any other films that had this level of (intentional) change from the original? I suppose, other than Star Wars.

Nothing wrong with that. What does seem wrong, unless explained satisfactorily, is why there would be such a dramatic change "preferred" so long after the fact.

And then of course, it's up to each buyer of media to decide if they feel they are cool with the change. For me Do The Right Thing isn't the same movie with the colors changed that dramatically and I'll stick to the quality copy I already have. I've already chose to skip out on the current BD despite it being less than $5 on a regular basis.

The changes made to Do the Right Thing are nothing compared to the purple-tinted French Connection fiasco.

These sort of revisionist color timing changes happen all the time. Halloween, Bram Stoker's Dracula, any older movie that's been recolored into the modern teal-and-orange fad, etc.

The problem is that when you ask these filmmakers who made a movie 20, 30 years ago to supervise a new transfer for it, they look at the movie with their current sensibilities and grade it how they think it should look today, not how it originally looked when it was made.

Not even Terence Malick is immune.

Warner dvd (top)
Criterion blu (bottom)

And a lot of DVD transfers featured a magenta-push and contrast boosting. It's not wise too look at a DVD era master and assume that is the correct version of how a film should look. They weren't concerned with theatrical accuracy back then, but making disks pop in show rooms.

to what DaveyJoe said.

I was late to DVD, generally speaking (got my first player in 2000), but I remember the re-release of Seven (or Se7en) was a big deal in the way Fincher made changes to the color timing (and framing) of a lot of the film. I doubt that was the first...

As a generic statement, I totally agree. But what does it have to do with the about Do The Right Thing? I have no reason to believe this is true with the Criterion DVD, or any other version of the movie pout there there prior to the current BD.

I haven't watched my Do The Right Thing Criterion DVD for a while, but I thought I recalled the colour timing being discussed in the commentary? I'll have to revisit that, sometime, as I'd be interested to see what they say. Then again, I could be mistaken.

I think there's probably a lot to that. These guys work with color-timing constantly, and films from the 70s and 80s are going to look wrong to their eyes when compared to modern films. The Terminator is going to be too colorful, so it's going to need blue tints.

Though it doesn't explain how anyone would think The French Connection or Bram Stoker's Dracula would have looked good. Atrocities in any era. Or fucking up the colors on the extended Fellowship of the Ring with that hideous green tint.

I also think that hardcore movie fans care more about the color-timing of classic films than the people who actually made them.

Buy a gift certificate before the end of the year at Criterion's web site and you'll get double the points.

Best Criterion of 2016, when considering contend, video, extras all together? I'd have to say New World.

Pan's Labyrinth

..i agree pan's labyrinth is a masterpiece..

The best Criterion of 2016 is The Dekalog.

The movie, sure, but the Criterion edition wasn't some huge leap over the previous blu. Slightly better video and a couple more extras - nothing too huge. Whereas New World had 3 cuts of the movie, loaded with new extras and a cool package with some great artwork in it's booklet.

A lot of work went into Dekalog too, especially the video, but again there's not too much extra there.

I don't mean just the movie, but the entire package and the work put into it.