When is the R1 DVD of this movie expected to be released? There is already a special edition DVD out in France, with interviews with Hawks and Douglas, and commentary and liner notes from Todd McCarthy. Surely it wouldn't be hard to release this DVD in the US soon.
Check out the French DVD here:
http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005Q2TJ/qid=1057973057/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3_3/171-8572186-7305049
Yeah, and it wouldn't bother me to see this colorized, either.
shareI have the VHS version of this film, and it is colorized....*poorly*. Now I don't know if it was an early effort in the first years of the colorization process, but the overall effect of the process is very, *very* bad...not unlike the colorized version of Bette Davis' Jezebel.
And I'm not bashing the colorization process, I have the colorized version of the Absent Minded Professor, and overall that was a decent effort. So I'm not sure if the colorized version of the Big Sky was done in the early days of colorization, but it is nothing short of *appalling*.
I'm surprised looking over this thread (where no one's posted in nearly a year) at how many people seem to like or at least indulge colorization. It is an artistic crime, as one poster put it, but that's the case whether or not it's done by the original filmmaker.
That aside, re Ben Thayer's post, the colorized BIG SKY came out c. 1990, after the original b&w VHS version. I saw the colorized film on TV and it is indeed junk, like ALL colorization. But as you seem to think the colorized ABSENT-MINDED PROFESSOR is "decent", let me point out a couple of early flaws that may help you see just how bad that one is too: right after the opening credits, there's a shot of Nancy Olsen driving her station wagon down the street and turning into a driveway. Look carefully down the street and you'll see that the people and objects farther away aren't even colorized, the far backgrounds are still b&w. Then, as the car turns into the driveway, look at the leaves on the trees through the windows of the car -- instead of being the smeared green that the colorizers try to pass off as natural, the leaves seen through the car windows as it passes in front of them suddenly turn back into black & white, while the leaves above the car stay phony green. They were so sloppy and so contemptuous of the film that they didn't even bother to keep all the leaves colorized in the background! (I don't remember precisely, because I saw this only once and found it infuriating, but I think Nancy Olsen in the car was also black & white, though her face may have been smeared some pastel color. But I do recall the seats and interior of the car were black & white!)
That's a main problem with colorization. Apart from the fact that you don't know what color something actually was, and that b&w movies were designed specifically for b&w photography, and so by their nature don't lend themselves to coloring, the people who did this crap were so lazy or incompetent and ignorant of what they were doing -- to them it's just a way of scamming a paycheck -- that they didn't give a damn how bad or incomplete their work was. I remember reading an article when this heinous process first began in which some moron colorizer in Canada said "You have to get the color of Elizabeth's Taylor's eyes just right. You can't fake that." Too stupid to realize (or too much of a professional liar) that that was of course precisely what he was doing -- FAKING IT!
Oh well...perhaps I spoke too soon when I said The Absent Minded Professor was a decent effort. Just my attempt to be diplomatic, y'know...
I suppose I was comparing it to the colorized Jezebel, which was nothing short of a *crime*. Next time I watch tAMP I'll look for those examples.
In truth I would've much rather had the B&W version, but that's the only thing that was available at the time at my retail outlet (I hadn't started buying online then). And, it wasn't indicated on the cover of the VHS that the film was colorized, so I was surprised when I watched it. Heh heh...VHS...that was a while ago, huh?
So...don't mislabel me as a "supporter" (or indulger) of colorization. And I believe we all agree that some things should *never* be meddled with, especially properties such as Casablanca, The 3 Stooges, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, Sgt. York, Gaslight, etc.
You're forgiven! An innocent dupe of the colorizers.
Nothing should ever be meddled with, no way, no how. Leave 'em alone, we like them as they are!
SO agree with you about not meddling, hobnob53; most certainly when it comes to film. I actually winced when I saw on someone's film shelves a VHS label PROUDLY announcing "King Kong IN COLOR!" I refer of course to the original 1933 version. Eeeek!
I can't even be very fair-minded about the whole thing because I now deliberately avoid 'colorized' movies, never having seen any examples of excellence in the technique; indeed, what I have ALWAYS noticed, and dislike, is the unnatural quality of the colors: garish and without tonalities. Anyone seen an example that they liked? Would be interested to know.
Thanks, bozsi-1. Been in a lot of fights with pro-colorizers on several boards around here. Some argue the process is "better" now than 15 or 20 years ago, and it is probably less egregiously bad or ineptly done, but it's a matter of degree only. Still awful. Glad to see there are still others out there who appreciate that films should remain sancrosanct and left untouched in any manner, colorization or anything else.
A lot of people have been touting the recently colorized version of "20 Million Miles to Earth", especially since its colorization has been sanctioned and supervised by Ray Harrryhausen, who should be ashamed of himself. But I read a review and saw a clip of this version by one on-line reviewer, who said if you liked the look of a painted plastic model from a 1960s monster kit, you'd probably like the look of this adulterated (my word) version of the film. His description of what the Ymir in that film looked like colorized was very apt, and he strongly recommends sticking with the original b&w.
I don't see amything wrong with colorization. A lot of younger people won't watch anything in BW but will watch the movie after it's been colorized. Plus they have come a long way since the inital colorization process. I feel that anything that will push a person to watch is worth doing. TO me the smart thing to do is offer both the BW and the colorized version. That way everyones happy.
shareWell, what would you do if "young people" don't like the musical score on a film? Delete the music track and substitute a "modern" one? Or cut out scenes someone doesn't like? Where do you draw the line on tampering?
And you can't experience a film in the way it was meant to be shown if you colorize it. Colorizing changes the nature of the movie (apart from its phoniness and unreality) -- it is NOT the same as just watching the same film in the original b&w. Otherwise, why color it?
Nope, colorization is a plague, no matter how technically "better" they make the process. The colors are guesswork, as they almost never know what something's actual color was, and in any case the color itself can never match reality. And, most important -- who decides what kind of tampering, and the form it takes, with each film? Who gave anybody the right to change a movie to suit their own whims and prejudices?
If people can't endure watching a movie in its original b&w, then that's too damn bad. It isn't the same watching it colorized -- that's the whole point of colorization -- to make it "different", or that phony excuse, "accessible". Yeah, right.
So fundamentally you’re advocating the equivalent of dumbing-down a great art form for the motivationally challenged youth of today? It’s like turning Hamlet into a comic strip, when it would be better to teach a child how to read instead.
I don’t have the time to hold a class in the finer points of b&w photography here, but as much as the telling of the story itself, there is an art to producing an appealing b&w film or photo. Among quite a few other items, there is lighting, filter selection and use, and even the selection of the color or shade of costume, that need to be considered to create a pleasing b&w effect for a public which is used to seeing their world in color. An image, film or still, is often greater than the sum of its parts, and I strongly recommend to anyone who loves film that they consider learning a bit about the technical aspects and challenges of photography in general, and film making in particular. It will add worlds of enjoyment to films that would otherwise pass unseen and unexperienced. It would also lead to understanding that by colorizing a film, you are, for all intents and purposes, trivializing the hard work and efforts of many of the folks who worked so hard to create something beautiful within their chosen format.
I would not judge that hard on colorization. For exemple the colorized version of "It's a wonderful life" is done very carefully and the result is better than the black-and-white version with it's poor contrasts.
shareI don't know where you get the idea that the colorization of It's a Wonderful Life was done "carefully". It certainly was not. Frank Capra hated it. As is by definition always the case with colorization, the colors, besides being fake, are inaccurate. Most things in the picture are different colors from what they actually were, apart from being unnatural and without the depth or variety of actual colors. Colorization cannot replicate reality. It's never "better".
The b&w version has good contrasts and is excellently photographed. If you think otherwise you must be watching a poor print of the kind that used to circulate widely when the film was in the public domain. In fact, the contrasts in a colorized print have to be washed out in order to add phony color to the print. It's colorized films that have poor contrasts.
The colorized version of The Big Sky suffered from the same problems.
Hi! There is also a portuguese (R2) DVD. With no forced subtitles.
share[deleted]
Olá!
The distributor's site is http://www.costacastelo.pt - I don't know if they sell online. You can also try www.fnac.pt. The portuguese title of the movie is «Céu Aberto».
Um abraço,
Luís
An online review of the French release says that the quality is fair for the long version (the disc contains both), so it probably looks like TCM's print. The 18 minutes or so of restored footage that we currently see were taken from a 16mm print, as the film was edited down to 122 mins. from its original 140 after the premiere to allow for more showings (!). Apparently the 35mm footage was discarded. I'm afraid that's the best quality available for those segments. Still, a digital restoration could greatly improve it for a DVD release.
share05/04/06 1205hrs. check e-bay now
share