Warner Archives announced that "THE BIG SKY will be available from WAC early next year...the full length version running nearly 140 min....(138:22) to be exact. Indeed, here is a case where 16mm footage was used to restore the scenes cut after initial release.:
"'Nature,' Mr. Allnut, is what we are put here to rrrrrriiiiise above!"
Great news. I'd wondered whether WA might bring out TBS. My only concern is the quality of the restored 16mm segments. Those portions are in pretty bad shape, both picture and sound, on the print shown on TCM. In fact, a bit of the original soundtrack (in the scene where Jim fords the river) is lost, and a piece of previous music has been inserted in its place -- just a few seconds, but it's badly done and very noticeable. I hope this has been repaired.
On the hopeful side, TCM still runs a print of The Thing From Another World, where the restored scenes are in very poor shape, but the DVD -- and even its predecessor VHS -- of the restored film is in pristine shape. Go figure.
I have an R2 version (from France) of the 122-minute print, which is of excellent quality, and can be watched in the original English-language version, without dubbing or subtitles.
Welcome to 2012, and replying to myself from a year and a day ago, The Big Sky did not come out on DVD in the US, from Warner Archives or as a standard disc. Too bad. Let's hope for something in 2012. This film needs to be on Region 1 DVD.
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