MovieChat Forums > The Trap Discussion > How is the Italy DVD?

How is the Italy DVD?

posted 10 years ago by MovieMatters
3 replies | jump to latest

I've just noticed it came out in 2014- who has it?! Is it a good'n?

[–] Werner-Schubert 8 years ago

I own it and just watched it for the second time. It's the correct aspect ratio 2,35:1 but in 4:3, so the picture is not brillant but very watchable. Runtime is 102 min PAL (25fps), which should be uncut. The DVD also has english soundtrack (quite good), but no english subtitles. I love this movie and would like to have a blu-ray of it, but the italian is the only release I know of.

Greetings from Thailand, Werner

[–] TM-2 8 years ago

I just got it. Not great quality but if, like me, you want to see the movie it is all that's out there unless you go to youtube where someone has uploaded it in three parts.

The Italian disc is PAL not NTSC so you need to have the equipment to play it of convert it to a playable file format. This may be the biggest hurdle for most in the US but maybe not.

The Italian disk is widescreen but NOT anamorphic which makes the image low quality Its a 4:3 image with the center portion having the image. It does play with wide black bars on ALL sides of the image on a 16:9 screen. You can magnify it if your TV allows this but you get a bigger fuzzier image. Watching on an iPad works mostly because of the size and aspect ratio. On the plus side it is widescreen so you see the whole movie.

Second, the colors are very dull and drab. I do not recall it quite like that and the youtube version is brighter, and more colorful but slightly fuzzier. In this forum someone states that they tweaked the colors and brightness which are better in my opinion.

The sound quality is stereo and I found sharp, crisp and of good quality. It was very easy to understand the spoken word. The music and sound effects had some very nice base and complimented the movie very well. This is where the disc shines in my opinion.

The movie is a true classic with two of Britain's greatest stars. Rita Tushingham and Oliver Reed are great in this action adventure that has no real equal. That this movie isn't available on BluRay is almost criminal.

In summary, if you need to see this movie, this is your only option except for bootleg copies.

Pros:
Great sound
Widescreen
Original English soundtrack

Cons:
Non anamorphic
Dull / drab color scheme
Sharpness lacking

[–] rjd0309 8 years ago

In addition to the Italian dvd, there is also a German version. Check the Amazon Germany website. You'll find a couple versions of a German dvd. I have a copy of one of the releases. Unfortunately, it is also in 4:3 aspect ratio (letterboxed).

The first German release, in 2009, was 4:3 and received a lot of negative reviews on Amazon. That dvd company later released a 'remastered' version, although I couldn't see any difference (maybe they sharpened it a little), but it was still 4:3.

Addressing the aspect-ratio complaint would have meant performing a new anamorphic scan of an original film print. The dvd company probably didn't want to spend the money to do that.

There is a brand-new German release (May 2016), but I'm waiting for someone to review it and tell me whether it is 4:3 or 16:9.

The Youtube version is based on a true anamorphic film scan, and as you say, the colors have been tweaked for a more pleasing picture.