NoirFan

From this L.A. Times article (page 2): Presumably this will be identical to the UK release of 10/17.

The Monkees

Awesome!

PerryD

Sound of Music, West Side Story.... how about Mary Poppins next?

davidh777

Giles

why would it not be.

someone this go around seriousily needs to produce a commentary track for this classic film musical

Superdaddy

Details from blu-ray.com:

"20th Century Fox Home Entertainment has announced that they will give the 1961 musical West Side Story its Blu-ray debut in a 50th Anniversary Edition on November 15th. The studio is claiming that the film, which won 10 Academy Awards including Best Picture, has undergone hundreds of hours of restoration and will feature a 2:20:1 aspect ratio with 7.1 HD-DTS Master Audio.

"Fans of the film will have two options when picking this one up on Blu-ray. A four-disc Limited Edition giftset will include the film and special features on two BD discs, a DVD version, a tribute CD, and a full color book alongside numerous lobby card reprints. A second version will simply feature the two Blu-ray discs in digibook packaging.

"Special features for this release include plenty of material that breaks down the film's songs and choreographed dance sequences, as well as a good assortment of the film's theatrical trailers. This 50th Anniversary Edition also brings over the bonus content from the 2003 Special Edition DVD set."

The complete list is as follows:

Pow! The Dances of West Side Story: All new featurette in which cast members, contemporary filmmakers, dancers and choreographers analyze and illuminate the film's famous dance sequences.
Prologue
Dance at the Gym
Tony and Maria's Cha Cha
America
The Rumble
Maria's Roof Dance
Cool

A Place for Us: West Side Story's Legacy: All new featurette that takes a look back at West Side Story and the impact it has had all over the world.
Creation and Innovation
A Timeless Vision

Song Specific Commentary by Lyricist Stephen Sondheim:
Prologue
The Jet Song
Something's Coming
Dance at the Gym
Maria
America
Tonight
Gee, Officer Krupke
I Feel Pretty
One Hand, One Heart
Quintet
Somewhere
Cool
A Boy Like That / I Have a Love

West Side Memories: One-hour retrospective documentary.

Music Machine: Allows viewers to go straight to their favorite musical numbers

Storyboard to Film Comparison Montage

Trailers:
Original Theatrical Trailer
Original Issue Trailer
Reissue Trailer
Animated Trailer

Link:
http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=6826

Rypro 525

not to be a dick, but can they release the dvd version separate? Even though i have the 2 disc version, the quality still leaves alot to be desired and there are a ton of scratches/print marks

Giles

hoooly shit!

7.1 sound AND a Sondheim commentary ...

andicus

I was hoping it would have the documentary of the re-recording conducted by Bernstein in 1984.

Still, a lot of good stuff. I'll definitely be picking this up.

Sondheim

Of course, Sondheim is rather critical of some of his lyrics for the show, so here's hoping that he does a little more than just tear apart his own work.

But yeah, that commentary just put this into must own territory for me, even though I've mostly stopped upgrading titles I already own on DVD.

NoirFan

I'm not a huge enough fan of the film to shell out for the LE pictured below, but I'll certainly pick up the 2-disc digibook.

MTRodaba2468

I'll certainly look toward picking up one of the releases...

JOE29

[QUOTE=NoirFan;10846712]I'm not a huge enough fan of the film to shell out for the LE pictured below, but I'll certainly pick up the 2-disc digibook.

Yes I agree. i didn't buy this before in Standard Version, all though i was alway's interested. But I may bite on the 2- disc. But I don't need that whole huge package deal that you showed.

davidh777

I'll see your and raise you a

NoirFan

DVD Beaver sneak preview

darkhawk

I'm in for the 2-disc set

The Lizard King

I saw the 2-disc set out early at my local BB this morning. I thought to myself, "When was THIS released?" It turns out that it hasn't been (yet).

TLK

Giles

Robert A. Harris gave his thoughts over on Home Theater Forum and it isn't pretty:

With discussions on line regarding West Side Story, I was able to get a UK copy, and will comment on that until my domestic arrives. Hopefully, there will be differences, but somehow I have a feeling it is what it is.

West Side Story has not be a lucky film on home video in the past few years. The last major DVD release was unviewable as a duet
was so far out of sync, it seemed as if Maria was singing Tony's lines.

Now we have the Blu-ray, supposedly with 300 hours of restoration, whatever that means.

First the bad...

Huge problems from the beginning, as has been noted on the web.

The final dissolve from Mr. Bass' brilliant linear skyline pattern to the Main Title has somehow been turned into a fade out / fade in.

I'm not at all sure how this can occur, as any serious release should be prepped with both a continuity as well as reference. Apparently, neither were necessary for West Side Story.

This is inexcusable.

Once we get past the Main Title, we hit helicopter shots of Manhattan, which now have a slight jitter to them that I don't recall in the past. This is something I can live with.

The first sound heard in the film are whistles, which should come from the side rears, a mix of channels 1 & 6, and 5 & 6, bringing the sound just forward of rear. This doesn't seem to be occurring. I can also live with this.

But far worse, we have faded opticals, which for whatever reason (cost?) no one felt should be fixed. Flesh tones are nonexistent, contrast blooms. Just bad, especially when one compares it to the good.

And good there is:

With the exception of the points noted above, the scan (which I've heard was performed by HTV, the company behind the restoration of Patton).

Here, their work seems very nice. There's a stability to the image, reasonable grain and good color. Overall a decent scan. I have no complaints.

Color also is nicely handled, with the exception of the dupes, which once transparent to the original, are now abominable.

While I don't understand why there was no return to the original (recently preserved) 6-track 70mm mix, the audio is very good. I had occasional problems, but nothing that would be disturbing to the casual viewer.

Once there is a recall -- and a recall is an absolute necessity, as this is no longer the Best Picture of 1961, but rather, some oddly adapted version -- and the dupe problems are dealt with, I'll be pleased to give this a very high rating.

My advice would be to pull the Blu-ray from distribution before it ships to consumers domestically, go back in and do the various necessary fixes, and then come back out -- in a few months -- with a viable product.

As it is...

What we have is basically, garbage in, garbage out.

At this point in time, Not Recommended.

RAH

~~

NoirFan

I've never seen the film before, so I don't know how much a brief dissolve being changed to a fade would bother me. That's a pity about the flesh tones, but I highly doubt that Fox will do a recall. I'm sure I can live with the image as it currently looks.

Kory

Pretty sure they've already mentioned plans of an exchange and to fix further pressings. At least according to the news on Blu-ray.com.

NoirFan

Good to hear, I'll wait for the corrected version then.

TheBang

I hope they get it right. This classic deserves no less than the best.

Brian T

Wal-Mart Canada had these out tonight (early, I presume?), and their version appears to be a 2-disc Blu-ray + DVD combo-pack. Is that some kind of exclusive up here (it's on Amazon.ca as well) or is the U.S. 2-disc people have seen actually a 3-disc? Amazon's U.S. listing says "3 discs" but the image doesn't have any text on the blue bar across the top.

Giles

the fact that Fox/MGM didn't even use the 70mm 6-track mag sound is another beef I have with this release.

NoirFan

Any further news on corrected discs?