DVD Newsletter‘s Doug Pratt has joined DVD Beaver‘s Gary Tooze in calling the transfer on the new Deliverance deluxe edition DVD a problem. (That’s two-to-one against DVD Savant‘s Glenn Erickson, who gave the transfer a total thumbs-up.)

“Although the presentation looks passable if you have nothing to compare it with,” Pratt writes, “the transfer on the deluxe edition is problematic. In his commentary, Boorman claims that he wanted to subdue the verdancy of the wilderness, but what comes out of the transfer is a little too soft and a little too olive to be very appealing.

“Warner’s initial release was slightly windowboxed-thereby conveying the illusion of a wider image than the standard letterboxing on the new release, which has an aspect ratio of about 2.35:1 and an accommodation for enhanced 16:9 playback-and was sharply focused, perhaps to a fault, with slightly pinkish fleshtones but otherwise brightly defined hues. The older version may have left room for improvement, but the deluxe edition swings too far in the opposite direction, and when you place them side by side, you want only to watch the older one and avert your eyes from the other.”