DVD Day

UPS stopped by work just after I left–it wouldn’t have made a difference, last night was First Blood in the theater. The new Warner releases of The Man with the Golden Arm and The Bridges of Madison County arrived.

I just opened them up, though there’s little point–all the information was on the back (or on Madison County’s slipcase) and there are no inserts (the ad in Golden Arm for Sinatra stuff doesn’t count).

The Man with the Golden Arm is, as far as I know, the first OAR video release. Since it’s in the public domain, I’d pretty much figured it’d never have a “real” DVD release. Warner released a laserdisc (pan and scan) years ago, but there weren’t PD laserdisc companies. At least, not ones who put out a bunch of crap. I’m thinking about watching it this weekend, maybe Sunday, then throwing in my UK Special Edition–from Ken Barnes’s Laureate Films (restored special editions of PD material for the most part)–for the commentary. My biggest complaint about the Warner disc?

Warner has all that beautiful cover art on their classic releases, the old posters, wonderfully presented. Except for the Sinatra collection, which is a picture of Frank with a little Photoshop filtering. Even on the disc art.

As for The Bridges of Madison County, the biggest boon is the commentary from Malpaso posse members Joel Cox (editor) and Jack N. Green (cinematographer). For completion, I wish they’d gotten Lennie Niehaus in on it–wow, Henry Bumstead didn’t proddy-d Bridges. But I never even read about the commentary, so yippee.

Now, for my technical gripe. The back says “First-Time Widescreen Video Release.” Well, sort of. I mean, yes, it’s the first anamorphic widescreen release. The laserdisc was only released letterboxed–beautifully so–as was the Japanese DVD, which I also have. The Japanese disc is a terrible, terrible transfer (from the laserdisc master and poorly adjusted). But, still… Warner’s has been calling letterboxed releases “Widescreen” for years. Maybe even on the 1989 Batman laserdisc.

 

Tags: Batman, First Blood, Frank Sinatra, Henry Bumstead, Jack N. Green, Joel Cox, Ken Barnes, Laureate Films, Lennie Niehaus, Malpaso, Photoshop, The Bridges of Madison County, The Man with the Golden Arm, UPS, Warner Bros.