Yesterday’s “They Just Knew” post began with Fred Zinnemann‘s story about the August 6, 1953 opening of From Here to Eternity. 15 months ago I ran an update about Sony Home Video’s long-delayed Eternity Bluray. The high-def restoration was done in the summer of ’09 by Grover Crisp. A print was shown at the Academy in the fall of ’09 and then at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. In May 2010 I reported that Sony intended to release the Eternity Bluray in late 2011, but that’s been pushed back to sometime in 2012.

Or, you know, whenever somebody finally says “okay, let’s put it out there, for eff’s sake. Three years of collecting dust on a shelf is enough.”

I have a suggestion that Sony execs will appreciate, I’m sure, because it’ll save them a lot of money. Never release the From Here To Eternity Bluray. Just forget about it. Just put it aside and keep it aside. This 1953 film never existed, the eight Oscars it won weren’t really deserved…just forget the whole thing and license it for high-def streaming on Hulu and Netflix and concentrate on releasing 21st Century Blurays that’ll make more money anyway.

Where did this idea about movies acting as shared-memory experiences, aesthetic-worship rituals and/or opportunities for spiritual nourishment come from anyway? You’re running a business, Sony Home Video, and that’s how you need to play your cards. If a Bluray isn’t likely to bring in a healthy profit that will impress Sony stockholders, fuhgedaboutit.