Boris Kachka‘s New York piece about our Oscar blogging demimonde, “For Their Consideration”, will be online Tuesday morning around 8 am Eastern. It’s now available via New York‘s iPad app and also at L.A. newsstands. I bought a copy this morning around 7 am. I have my arguments with this and that portion but it’s a relatively fair-minded, well-honed, smoothly written piece. Kachka is a very good writer. He quoted me honestly. It says that a lot of people on my side of the fence have put me down, but in my mind these people are odious, tip-toeing one-eyed jacks. I basically come off as a sober but eccentric sui generis transparent sort with some minor but tolerable flaws. Boris didn’t give me credit for being a relentless workhorse but I guess that speaks for itself. Kachka says that in early 2013 I “predicted glory for Saving Mr. Banks on the basis of a leaked script alone”; in fact the title of that piece was “If Saving Mr. Banks Is As Good As The Script” — the operative term was “if.” The New York proofreader failed to correct the spelling of Hennessy cognac — the print edition of the article spells it “Hennessey” but that’ll be fixed online and on the iPad version soon. David Poland, Steve Pond and Kris Tapley are mentioned once and that’s all; I’m not recalling that Indiewire‘s Anne Thompson is mentioned at all. It’s basically about Sasha Stone, Tom O’Neil, Scott Feinberg, Pete Hammond and myself. Nikki Finke is quoted and she sounds like a snitty, sour-attitude type. I’ll post a more thorough response tomorrow morning or very late tonight.
Until this morning I’d never laid eyes upon a photo of Stanley Kubrick and Marlon Brando together. Kubrick was signed to direct One-Eyed Jacks for Paramount Pictures in early ’59, which is presumably when this shot was taken. A year or so earlier Brando’s Pennebaker Productions had paid $40 grand for the rights to Charles Neider‘s “The Authentic Death of Hendry Jones.” Rod Serling‘s adapation was rejected, and then Sam Peckinpah wrote a version that was turned on 5.6.59. Brando fired Peckinpah and hired Calder Willingham to rewrite, and then Willingham and Kubrick were eventually let go. Guy Trosper (Birdman of Alcatraz, The Spy Who Came in From The Cold) became the new screenwriter and wound up with the chief screenwriting credit.
Brnado with French director Jacques Tati on the set of One-Eyed Jacks.
I don’t have to tell you Pompeii is bad. Everybody knows Pompeii is bad. It’s ludicrous, and that’s because mythical popcorn movies have all devolved into the same mindless, effects-driven gruel that even the schlockmeisters of the past (Dino De Laurentiis, Sir Lew Grade, Carlo Ponti) would refuse to touch if they were time-machined forward. Epic, escapist, large-scaled cinema has been engulfed and poisoned by the ComicCon virus (video-game and comic-book mythology, physics-defying fantasies), and submentals the world over are submitting to the historical visions of pulp-loving low-lifes like Zack Snyder (whose 300 I hated) and Steven DeKnight (the Spartacus series) and Pompeii‘s Paul W.S. Anderson (the poor man’s Snyder). Some of the “fans” (i.e., the ones who watch this crap ironically) obviously know that the video-game vistas and blatantly fake-looking CG compositions are unfit to watch and that the cliched, braindead dialogue is unfit to listen to, and yet everyone is nodding out and munching away in the multiplexes as if that’s the way it’s supposed to be. We all know things are bad — worse than bad. They’re crazy. It’s like everything everywhere is going crazy.
Speaking as a lifelong worshipper of Michelangelo Antonioni‘s alienation trilogy of the early ’60s, I’ve always felt closer to L’Avventura or L’eclisse than La Notte. But I’m willing to give the latter a fresh try when the Masters of Cinema Bluray arrives in late April. The claim about “previously censored sequences restored for the first time” on the Bluray might be bogus. A Criterion forum guy says the restored footage was on the earlier MOC DVD.
But seriously….orange? Orange on a golf course? How could a color that says traffic cones and prison jump suits blend with a sublime classic that oozes black-and-white European perversity? The same fanatic who designed that Masters of Cinema Touch of Evil Bluray with that awful emphasis on orange is at it again. Before the orange vogue kicked in four or five years ago, the only person who was totally down for this color was Frank Sinatra.
I feel a slight tingle of pleasure whenever a new Bluray of a ’50s or ’60s film is released in 1.66. The 1.85 fascists will insist otherwise so as to appear moderate and reasonable, but I know that deep down they wince inside every time they see the term “1.66.” They’re a bunch of One-Eyed Jacks. I’ve seen the other side of their face.
I was dumb enough to recently buy the non-restored, public-domain One-Eyed Jacks Bluray the other day. I had this idea that it might look a tiny bit better than the version sitting on YouTube. Or perhaps in the realm of the laser disc version I owned in the ’90s, which was tolerable. Well, the Bluray is awful — positively the cruddiest-looking film I’ve ever seen on any home-video format, including broadcast TV.
YouTube capture #1
It’s just tragic. The elements of this, Paramount’s last VistaVision film, are, I’ve been told, in good or very good shape, and it could look like a jewel on a remastered Bluray if the copyright issue could be somehow resolved. It’s been a public doman title for several years.
The only film directed by Marlon Brando, One-Eyed Jacks “has been hailed by Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino,” Jeremy Richey wrote in early ’08, “one that signaled the rise of a more violent and cynical cinema, but for some reason it’s never really gotten its due.
“The main reason for its continuing dismissal in some circles is that it remains a compromised film. After a gruelling six months worth of shooting Brando either ran out of steam while editing, or the film was finally just taken away from him or most likely, both.
YouTube capture #2
“It is known for sure that Brando’s original five hour cut was whittled down to the 141 minutes we have now, and the incredibly bleak ending (Pina Pellicer being shot and killed by Karl Malden during the final gun battle) was changed.
“Even in it’s compromised state One-Eyed Jacks remains a visionary film and a totally unique one. It’s impact can be felt in the American Westerns that followed by Sam Peckinpah, Monte Hellman and Arthur Penn; and also in the European westerns that would gain prominence just a few years later.
“One-Eyed Jacks seems like a clear precursor not only to Sergio Leone but to a breed of mystical European Westerns like Sergio Corbucci‘s The Grand Silence and Enzo Castellari‘s Keoma.”
YouTube capture #3
This forthcoming German Bluray of Marlon Brando‘s One-Eyed Jacks might look a little better than the various public-domain DVDs out there, but otherwise it’s a visual sham of a mockery of a mockery of a visual sham.
The basic core elements are in good shape, I’m told, but until complete legal ownership can be re-established by Paramount, this 1961 semi-classic will look mildly shitty. (The Brando family failed to renew the copyright about 10 or 12 years ago, so blame them.) Here’s an appreciation that I wrote in ’08.
Yesterday I posted a fairly glum assessment of the fate of classic films on Bluray, but you can’t get too down-hearted about this stuff. So here’s a list of 30 films made (and for the most part released) in the 1950s — most of them large-format, nearly all in color — that need to be properly spiffed up and Bluray-ed. They certainly need looking after element-wise, particularly those released in the mid to late ’50s up until ’60 due to fading among those shot on “safety” stock.
Danny Kaye in The Court Jester
It doesn’t matter if decent-looking DVDs of these films exist — they could all look much better and need to be re-done to satisfy the Movie Godz. If these films were properly restored and remastered for Bluray release we’d all be living fuller, happier lives.
One guy who helped me put this list together is Bruce Kimmel, former director (The First Nudie Musical), a motion-picture soundtrack record producer and a rabid film aficionado.
I need to mention the VistaVision problem before starting. Paramount shot and released over 100 VistaVision films in the ’50s, and so far we’ve only seen two of them properly transferred to Bluray — The Ten Commandments and White Christmas. It would be ecstasy if the original VistaVision version of Marlon Brando‘s One-Eyed Jacks (’60), a beautifully-shot western that’s has been mired in public-domain hell for several years, could be released on Bluray.
With three or four exceptions I’ve included large-format films that should play by today’s standards, and have avoided those that probably certainly wouldn’t work on Bluray due to being mediocre or awful by any measure.
1. William Wyler‘s The Big Country (’58…shot on SuperTechnirama, a horizontal 8-perf VistaVision-like format that renders a horizontally-squeezed image that came out un-squeezed at a 2.35-to-1 Scope ratio when projected anamorphically). The DVD of this Gregory Peck-starring western is so-so, nothing special, close to mediocre — a properly-rendered Bluray would be stunning.
2. Alfred Hitchcock‘s The Man Who Knew Too Much (’56…shot in VistaVivision). “The original negative has faded, and the two Universal Home Video DVDs so far have been blah-level. “It could and should be gorgeous…perfect,” says an east-coast source.
The Man Who Knew Too Much
3. Melvin Frank and Norman Panama‘s The Court Jester (56…shot in Vista Vision.). I’ve never even seen this film, mainly because I have an aversion to Danny Kaye. (Horrific images of Kaye coupling with Laurence Oliver flood my brain, etc.) A medieval spoof, gorgeously photographed. “The one Danny Kaye film that never dates,” says Kimmel.
4. Michael Todd‘s Around the World in 80 Days (’56…one of two films shot in 30-frame Todd-AO). A close-to-ghastly film that needs work, research, restoration. A film shot in 65mm 30 fps has to be saved, no matter how bad! Compared to what it should look like, given the exceptional elements, the DVD looks awful, bordering on out-of-focus. And yet the fact that it won the 1956 Best Picture Oscar (i.e., handed out in ’57) is perhaps the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ greatest embarassment.
5. John Wayne‘s The Alamo (’60…shot in 70 mm Todd-AO).
6. John Huston‘s Moulin Rouge (’52). Shot by dp Oswald Morris in reddish rosey tones as a kind of visual experiment meant to complement the color in the paintings of Toulouse Lautrec. Allegedly never rendered on DVD befitting Morris and Huston’s precise intentions.
7. John Huston‘s Moby Dick (’56). Shot and processed by Morris in washed-out color and rendered in release prints that were printed with a “gray” negative which gave the color a certain black-and-white tonality meant to resemble Currier & Ives etchings. This special color experiment has been simulated on the Moby Dick DVD, but it’s not the real thing, of course. I happened to see a single reel of a ’56 black-and-white release print at the Academy back in the ’80s — riveting.
8. William Wyler‘s Roman Holiday (’53). Lowry Digital’s John Lowry delivered a grain-free DVD in 2002. “It was a low resolution DVD made from the wrong elements,” a source remarks. “It was the same thing with Sunset Boulevard…they couldn’t find the original negatives or the original fine-grain on either one…it didn’t look filmish…it looked like a ‘kinny'” — i.e, a kinescope.
Moulin Rouge
9. Billy Wilder‘s Sunset Boulevard (’50). See Roman Holiday.
10. Billy Wilder‘s Stalag 17 (’53).
11. Vincent Minnelli‘s Gigi (’58). “They did everything they could [when they mastered the Bluray] but they were dealing with a faded original negative and bad color.”
12. John Ford‘s The Searchers (’56). “Needs to be re-done,” says Kimmel. “The Bluray is sharp but the color is wrong…they put too much yellow into it. Everything is wrong….Monument Valley sand is wrong….the sky is faintly greenish when it should blue….the clarity is fantastic but the adobe bricks in the opening credits are supposed to be gray but they’re blondish gold.”
13. George Stevens‘ Shane (’53). “It could be done like they did The African Queen and The Red Shoes, a beautiful Bluray done by Bob Gitt. They have a three-strip Technicolor negative…they just don’t have a clean HD master so how are they going to bring it out on Bluay?…it’s not a huge undertaking…but they just need to buckle down and go in that direction.”
14. Fred Zinneman‘s Oklahoma! (’55, shot in 65mm Todd AO 30 frame and also in 35mm 24-frame — two different versions). Kimmel, like me, saw Oklahoma! projected in 30-frame Todd-AO at the old DGA theatre back in the mid ’80s. “It was beautiful…you felt as if you could walk right into that picture,” he says. A laser disc that delivered the Todd AO version was sharp and handsome but for whatever reason the same version looks atrocious on the DVD. Kimmel says that Fox Home Video restoration maestro Schawn Belston believes that “the image compression screwed it up” and that the Todd AO version is salvagable.
15. Otto Preminger‘s Exodus (’60). A mediocre film shot in 70 mm that looked awesome when it was projected in first-run engagements some 51 years ago. “The DVD is the worst thing ever made and it’s a 4 x 3 transfer,” Kimmel remarks. “That’s one I’d love to see done right.” (Even if the film itself is quite difficult to sit through, he could have added.)
Moby Dick
16. The three James Dean movies — Elia Kazan‘s East of Eden (’55, 35mm CinemaScope), Nicholas Ray‘s Rebel Without a Cause (’55, 35mm CinemaScope) and George Stevens‘ Giant (’56). “Giant is the worst of the three…the wrong process for the wrong film…they took the original Eastman negative and created a dye transfer print, which exacerbated all the problems….so they could say it was in Technicolor.”
17. Alfred Hitchcock‘s To Catch a Thief (’55, VistaVision). Paramount’s Centennial edition DVD, released in 2009, is the best-looking version of all, but just imagine how this exceptionally colorful thriller would look in Bluray.
18. Vincent Minnelli‘s Lust for Life (’56). Shot on Ansco, purportedly to get rid of the stock at hand.
19. Henry King‘s Carousel (’56), shot in CinemaScope 55mm, an eight-perforation process involving a slight horizontal blowup, the same process used on The King and I.
20. Edward Dmytryk‘s Raintree County (’57, shot in Camera 65mm, the process also used for Ben-Hur).
21. Joshua Logan‘s Sayonara (’57).
22. Stanley Donen‘s Funny Face (’57).
23. Morton DaCosta‘s Auntie Mame (’58, shot in Technirama — 35 mm anamorphic).
24. Richard Brooks‘ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (’58, 35 mm).
25. Fred Zinneman‘s The Nun’s Story (’59, 35 mm).
26. Otto Preminger‘s Porgy and Bess (’58, Todd AO 65mm, 24 frame).
27. Fred Zinneman‘s The Sundowners (’60, 35mm).
28. Richard Brooks‘ Elmer Gantry (’60).
Nearly eight months ago I wrote about Paramount Home Video’s failure to even state an intention to put out a Shane Bluray. George Stevens‘ 1953 classic is one of the jewels in the Paramount crown, and they’re reluctant to Bluray it, I’m told, because it’ll cost too much to upgrade the materials, etc. How admirable.
A Shane Buray nonetheless sits at the top of my 2011 wish list, however unlikely this may be. Second-ranked is a Bluray of Fred Zinneman‘s From Here to Eternity, which was remastered by Sony’s Grover Crisp in late ’09 (and shown in Cannes last May) in preparation for a Sony Home Video Bluray…which has been on the back burner ever since. Third and fourth are Ben-Hur and Barry Lyndon Blurays from Warner Home Video, which I understand are definitely in the pipeline.
Divorced from reality as this may sound, I’d also love to see a Bluray of The Bridges at Toko-Ri (’54) because of Loyal Griggs‘ exquisite, extra-ripe color photography.
Two years ago I wished for Paramount Home Video Blurays of To Catch A Thief and The Ten Commandments (both shot in VistaVision) and one of George Pal’s War of the Worlds (’53). And I’m still craving a Bluray of Marlon Brando‘s One-Eyed Jacks (also in VistaVision, obviously requiring a restoration and a strategy that will remove it from public domain). Paramount’s absentee landlord reputation, of course, makes this unlikely.
My other 2011 Bluray hopes/expectations: Sweet Smell of Success, The Empire Strikes Back, The Birds, Taxi Driver, Chinatown, Citizen Kane, Lolita, Blow Up, Red River, Pulp Fiction. It’s been reported over and over that Lawrence of Arabia won’t come out until 2012. Here’s an Amazon wish list.
I’ve only just now noticed a 3.25 q & a between Inception director Chris Nolan and Collider‘s Steve Weintraub about the formats used to shoot his 7.16 Warner Bros. release.
The stand-outs for me are Nolan stating (a) that he’s not all that down with shooting for 3D because “you have to shoot on video [to do that], which I’m not a fan of…I like to shoot on film,” and (b) that one of the formats used for Inception was VistaVision, the side-to-side 1.66 to 1 aspect ratio process hatched in 1954.
Of all the 2010 films in the pipeline, the one that seems the most ideally suited for genuine Avatar-level 3-D would be Inception, and yet Nolan, ironically, just wasn’t interested. Think of that already-famous shot of an entire section of Paris bending up and onto the sky in 3-D — it could be the most stunning 3-D sequence ever seen. But it’ll never happen, or at least not in proper 3-D.
“We shot the film with a mixture of mostly the predominant bulk of the film is anamorphic 35mm, which is the best quality sort of practical format to shoot on by far,” Nolan says. “We shot key sequences on 65mm, 5 perf not 15 perf, and we shot VistaVision on certain other sequences.”
Nolan is referring to special effects sequences, of course. As VV’s Wikipedia page states, “Although the last American VistaVision picture was 1961’s One-Eyed Jacks, VistaVision’s high resolution [has made] it attractive for some special effects work within some later feature films.”
Inception therefore “has a negative — a set of negative — that’s of the highest possible quality except IMAX,” Nolan explains. “We didn’t feel that we were going to be able to shoot in IMAX because of the size of the cameras because this film given that it deals with a potentially surreal area, the nature of dreams and so forth, I wanted it to be as realistic as possible. Not be bound by the scale of those IMAX cameras, even though I love the format dearly. So we went to the next best thing which was 65mm.
“So we have the highest quality image of any film that’s being made and that allows us to reformat the film for any distribution form that we’d like to put it in. We’re definitely going to do an IMAX release. We’re excited about doing that and using our original negative 65mm photography to maximize the effect of that release.
“3D, I think, is an interesting development in movies, or the resurgence of 3D. It’s something we’re looking at and watching. There are certain limitations of shooting in 3D. You have to shoot on video, which I’m not a fan of. I like shooting on film. And so then you’re looking at post-conversion processes which are moving forward in very exciting ways.”
“Exciting”? How about embarassing? Especially after the Clash of the Titans debacle.
“So really, for me, production of a large-scale film is all about recording the best, highest quality image possible so that you can then put it in any theatre in the best way possible. And 65mm film, IMAX film, VistaVision, 35mm — that’s the way you do that.”
I wish Michael Mann would give up on digital photography — it was a phase, let it go — and follow Nolan’s lead.
I caught a screening last night of Paramount’s finely restored version of John Huston‘s The African Queen (1951), which will be issued on DVD and Blu-ray on 3.23. I was happy to see it, happy to see a short doc that explains how the restoration came about, and happy to meet Paramount’s vp of restoration Ron Smith — the guy who saw the project through from start to finish.
How much better looking is this new Queen than the version that gets shown on Turner Classic Movies now and then? A lot better, I’d say. Some of it looks amazing — sharper focus, smoother textures, no blotchy colors. There are portions that look only slightly or somewhat better because they were matte shots or African location footage to begin with, and therefore were never as clean and well lighted as the sound stage work Huston shot in London, but they still look better than they ever have. And the sound has been nicely enhanced (i.e., the usual scratches, hisses and pops removed).
And Katharine Hepburn looks a bit prettier or glammier, even, than she has before in this film. (Her cheekbones were quite amazing.) And Humphrey Bogart‘s beard looks more specifically scruffy, his facial color is more tanned, and the stains on his shirt and pants and grubby little hat are more noticable.
Nobody has to be sold on The African Queen being a must-own classic, except that it obviously hasn’t been ownable until now. It looks as good as it’s ever going to look, or significantly richer and fresher than before…however you want to put it.
The screening happened at Viacom screening room at Broadway and 44th. Some Came Running‘s Glenn Kenny and New York Post critic Lou Lumenick also attended. Delicious cupcakes and other things that are quite bad for you were served after the screening.
Paramount’s restoration vp Ron Smith prior to last evening’s screening — Thursday, 3.4, 5:55 pm.
I spoke to Smith about the restoration particulars, and about other large-format (i.e., mostly VistaVision) films in the Paramount library that he’s been remastering for high-definition broadcast and eventual Blu-ray. (Like The Ten Commandments, To Catch A Thief, etc.) I was particularly interested in the fate of Marlon Brando‘s One-Eyed Jacks, for which the copyright expired in 1988 and which is now a public domain title. The bottom line is that Paramount has all the primary materials, but unless they can arrange to protect some portion of the copyright (like the literary rights, let’s say) there’s nothing to legally prevent other companies from ripping off their upgrade and putting out their own version.
Smith arranged to get access to The African Queen‘s original three-strip Technicolor negative in England, and then had it scanned and sent via a high-end server to Motion Picture Imaging in Burbank to be restored and recombined. Smith has noted that “this was probably the first restoration [in which] we never touched or even saw the actual film.”
Smith’s restoration produced an unfortunate by-product. An actor was hired to double for Robert Morley during African location footage, and he appears in two shots — one in which Morley’s minister character is leading the natives in the singing of a choir, and another in which he’s gardneing. In both shots you can now tell that this guy — his features looking much sharper — doesn’t look a bit like Morley. Not even like his cousin, I mean. It’s a little embarassing. If I’d been in Smith’s shoes I would have CG-pasted Morley’s face on top of the stand-in’s.
I couldn’t help but snicker at Bogart’s line about his “boys” — a pair of ebony-skinned African natives — “moanin’ and rollin’ their eyes” when they sensed danger from the sounds of the oncoming German army. I’m sorry but this description sounds only a step or two removed from one of the boys saying “feets, don’t fail me now!”
Yesterday I re-read a nearly six year-old piece I wrote on the day after Marlon Brando died (i.e., 7.2.04), and I really enjoyed some of it so I’m re-posting apropos of nothing. Well, something. I was researching yesterday’s Oscar death-tribute item that touched upon a decision not to to run a special tribute to Brando during the February ’05 telecast, and I happened upon it.
“We all knew death wasn’t too far off for Marlon Brando, what with his age (80) and his weight issues and all, but the news of his passing on Thursday night carries more than just sadness,” I wrote. “A guy I used to really and truly love is gone, and all kinds of backwash is starting to pour in.
“It’s hardly unique to say that my feelings about Brando will always be split between what he didn’t do when he got older along with the glories achieved during his phenomenal prime. Almost everything I’ve ever heard about the guy testified to his having been a tangle and never a day at the beach, but his obstinacies always seemed to pale when measured against the his once undeniable genius.
“The transcendent beauty of his acting in On The Waterfront, Viva Zapata, Julius Ceasar (his delivery of Marc Antony’s “cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war” speech is jolting, electrifying), A Streectar Named Desire, The Men…and then that brief one-two in the early ’70s with The Godfather and Last Tango in Paris…no one will ever forget his greatness. It will always burn through.
“Since starting this column in ’98 I’ve written more than once about how Brando had become a sad paragon of rot, ruin and failed potential. He became this (or gave in to the syndrome) over the last 25 years or so. In my mind, the beginning of the sag started with Guys and Dolls. The deeper degeneration period kicked in with Superman in ’78. When I think of the metaphor of that white wig he wore…
“Marlon should have tried harder, gone back to the theatre, eaten a lot less ice cream, directed more films (I’ve always loved One-Eyed Jacks, and I’ve always regretted that a remnant of the much longer and more experimental Jacks he originally shot had been saved somewhere), avoided being a recluse, hung with more people, gone back to school, worked out more, been a better dad….the things he seemed to do wrong! Endless!
“He got rolling as a New York actor in ’44 and had a ten-year run (until ’54) when he could do no wrong… then he got caught in the muck of Hollywood and was in and out (mostly out) for the next 16 or 17 years. He restored himself with The Godfather and Last Tango, and then he began to spiral down again. He never again caught serious heat or wind.
“In short, he was in a state of becoming for his first 20 years, an absolute God for 10 years, and a guy grappling with more than his share of disappointments, frustrations and pain for most of the other 50.
“I remember reading somewhere that his using the word ‘wow’ in On The Waterfront was one of the most revolutionary improvs ever spoken in the 1950s. Up to that point ‘wow’ was something you said when you sat on a blanket and watched the 4th of July fireworks. But Brando’s ‘wow,’ spoken to Rod Steiger‘s Charlie character after he pulls out a gun and threatens Brando’s Terry Malloy, his brother, was all about sadness… a stunned and wounded lament.
“There’s also that moment when Charlie urges Terry to join him inside a bar, and Terry, wanting to be alone with his feelings of grief for a friend named Joey who’s just been killed for squealing to the authorities about the waterfront rackets, begs off. I don’t know how Malloy’s reply actually reads in Budd Schulberg‘s script, but all Brando says to Steiger is, ‘Well, I’ll be around….’ and then the rest trails off. The acting is in the incompletion. It’s masterful.”
In two posts over the last six days the Digital Bits guys have listed several titles (some new, some classic) being prepared for 2010 Bluray release: Fox’s Alien Anthology, Collateral, the Indiana Jones trilogy (please…not Crystal Skull!), The Maltese Falcon, a Dr. Zhivago 40th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition, Spielberg’s War of the Worlds and Saving Private Ryan, a bunch of Clint Eastwood movies (Where Eagles Dare, etc.) and three titles that aren’t necessarily 2010-ers but may be released the following year or in 2012: Ben-Hur, The African Queen, Lawrence of Arabia.
My personal requests focus on (a) large-format films of the ’50s and ’60s, (b) Technicolor films known for their lush and intense palette, and (c) especially crisp and handsome black-and-white classics. I could go on and on but a Paramount Home Video Bluray of To Catch A Thief, shot in VistaVision, would be dellightful; ditto The Ten Commandments (VistaVision) from the same folks. I wouldn’t mind a nice Criterion Bluray of Spartacus (70mm Technirama), for that matter.
Plus Marlon Brando‘s One-Eyed Jacks (VistaVision, obviously requiring a restoration) and Mutiny on the Bounty (Ultra Panavision 70), Oklahoma and Around the World in 80 Days (30-frame Todd-AO), Cleopatra (24-frame 70mm Todd-AO…a nearly unwatchable film and yet beautifully photographed), My Fair Lady (70mm), Funny Girl (ditto)…actually I could live if they let the Funny Girl Bluray go. I could survive, I mean. It wouldn’t kill me.
I’m especially interested in seeing a Bluray of the 1953 War of the Worlds, but with those awful Martian space-ship wires digitally erased (like WHV did with those Wizard of Oz wires). The too-vibrant colors in this film look fake, of course, but exquisitely so. ’50s movies with poster-paint colors provide to film buffs what a Nancy Meyers movie delivers for women of a certain age — total bullshit fantasy that soothes and satisifies.
I’d also like to see Blurays of any and all Gregg Toland movies shot in the late ’30s and ’40s — Citizen Kane, obviously, along with Wuthering Heights, The Best Years of Our Lives, Ball of Fire and John Ford‘s The Grapes of Wrath. As well as Ford’s How Green Was My Valley, My Darling Clementine and The Quiet Man. And a Bluray of Fred Zinneman‘s From Here To Eternity, which I presume is in the works based on a restored version of this 1953 classic having recently screened at the Academy.
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