Ben-Hur Ultimate Collector's Edition Blu-ray - Review up

[sfmarine]

Ben-Hur Blu-ray

Ben-Hur Blu-ray Review




Ben-Hur Blu-ray w/ Figurine




Ben-Hur Blu-ray Combo



Ben-Hur: Fiftieth Anniversary Blu-ray


Ben Hur: The Making of an Epic article by Robert Siegel


Anyone know when the contents will be revealed for Ben Hur?

[ewsjr]

Originally Posted by sfmarine

Anyone know when the contents will be revealed for Ben Hur?

Here is some info:
http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=6414

[sfmarine]

Thanks. I'm guessing it will release in the Fall.

[Arkadin]

sure wish Warner would give us the silent Ben-Hur in 1080p.
Please warner, make it so.

[rondanto]

With the soon to be released "Ben Hur" the MGM trinity of epics ,
"Quo Vadis" "King of Kings" and "Ben Hur" , all composed by Miklos Rozsa, will finally be available.

[schweezie]

Ben-Hur Blu-ray

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=6414


This looks absolutely fantastic!!!!!!!!! I can't wait to check this out on Blu-ray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[sfmarine]

I'm just waiting for Amazon to enable the pre-order option for it..

[RipleyLV426]

Amazon.uk now has Ben Hur up for pre-order, and it is listed as region free and is an option for those who don't want all the swag. Plus it's £12.59 right now... Just FYI for all!

[The Duke]

Originally Posted by RipleyLV426

Amazon.uk now has Ben Hur up for pre-order, and it is listed as region free and is an option for those who don't want all the swag. Plus it's £12.59 right now... Just FYI for all!

Ah, it got a release date & price. I looked at the placeholder and clicked to be notified when it became available, but Amazon didn't email me yet. There's also a placeholder for Citizen Kane, but no price or date yet. I plan to get both of these from Amazon UK, nice simple movie only versions.

[garyrc]

Originally Posted by waderice

In reading the March 11, 2011 interview with the Sony Restoration boss (re. Taxi Driver), there are additional challenges to overcome (he was not specific) when movies originally filmed at 65-mm. are transferred/scanned, and it is better that they be scanned at 8k resolution as opposed to 4k. He cited Lawrence of Arabia as a case in point. Based on this assertion, I can appreciate where he is coming from, particularly when it comes to such high-resolution movies like Ben-Hur (which was filmed in MGM Camera 65).

Whatever they did in scanning a restored Ben-Hur, I hope they captured the incredible resolution and acutance of the PQ. I realize it may not quite show through in Blu-ray, since BD is not as good -- on paper -- as the very best (and quite unusual) 70mm theatrical prints, but after seeing the incredible job they did with The Ten Commandments from a large area VistaVision OCN, I know BD can come close (in fact, the BD of TTC had better PQ than the particular 35 mm theatrical prints I saw). Ben-Hur in 70mm --in the theater in 1959/60 and also in 1968 (a 70mm re-release) -- had PQ that seemed to my film buff and photography friends and me to be sharper and more detailed than any 70mm print before, and for several years after. I am advised that this may have been because something other than Camera-65 itself, because it really was no better than Super Panavision 70 (despite the bragging about rare-earth lenses) or the other processes that followed ... so it might have reflected the quality of the lighting that Surtees and Wyler used, or some special printing technique or care by Technicolor, or the (new) optics used in the first theater we saw it in (which would mean that the second theater, equipped for the re-release in 1968, had caught up). Whatever the reason, the PQ was amazing, so here's hoping ...

[HonestJohn]

Wow! Outstanding boxset, one of my favorite movies of all time. Probably out of my budget though and I'd also have to clear my kids pictures from the top of my storage unit to display it. Hummmm.....

[oaguirre]

Release date: september 5
I´m just waiting to pre-order it from Amazon.com!!

[rondanto]

September 5th is the release date from amazon uk not u.s

[rickah88]

Originally Posted by oaguirre

Release date: september 5
I´m just waiting to pre-order it from Amazon.com!!

For the US release? PLease provide a source.
The best I could find was http://www.dvdaf.com had it scheduled for 9/27/2011:

http://www.dvdaf.com/releases.html?w...t_form=med_0_B

I do know this...it will be a great day when this is finally in my possession

[Musicguy]

QUOTE: Ben-Hur in 70mm --in the theater in 1959/60 and also in 1968 (a 70mm re-release) -- had PQ that seemed to my film buff and photography friends and me to be sharper and more detailed than any 70mm print before, and for several years after.



Well, in 1959, when "Ben Hur" first opened, there had been only a few - very few 70MM films. There were the Three Panel Cinerama films, and then the The TODD-AO productions and then there was "South Pacific" with color filters

"Ben Hur" came in 1959 in 70MM and played through 1960

Late in 1961 we got "West Side Story" and by 1962 we got "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Mutiny on the Bounty"

So, yeah, it should have seemed sharper than any other 70MM print in the late 50's early 60's. Eps since it was probably the first 70MM print you ever saw.

[Dubstar]

Originally Posted by Musicguy

QUOTE: Ben-Hur in 70mm --in the theater in 1959/60 and also in 1968 (a 70mm re-release) -- had PQ that seemed to my film buff and photography friends and me to be sharper and more detailed than any 70mm print before, and for several years after.



Well, in 1959, when "Ben Hur" first opened, there had been only a few - very few 70MM films. There were the Three Panel Cinerama films, and then the The TODD-AO productions and then there was "South Pacific" with color filters

"Ben Hur" came in 1959 in 70MM and played through 1960

Late in 1961 we got "West Side Story" and by 1962 we got "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Mutiny on the Bounty"

So, yeah, it should have seemed sharper than any other 70MM print in the late 50's early 60's. Eps since it was probably the first 70MM print you ever saw.

another Warner HD-DVD release yet to be ported over to blu-ray ... come on what are you waiting for ???

went ahead and pre-ordered the UK release, since it sounds like it will be cheaper than the US edition.

[garyrc]

Originally Posted by Musicguy

QUOTE:
So, yeah, it should have seemed sharper than any other 70MM print in the late 50's early 60's. Eps since it was probably the first 70MM print you ever saw.

Actually, I saw all of the previous 70 mm films of the 1950s as they came out, starting when I was 13, and a photo buff. At least I think I caught them all:

• The Miracle of Todd-AO, 1955, a modestly named short demonstrating the process, in 70 mm, naturally

• Oklahoma! 1955, 70 mm Todd-AO, walk-into-it-clear.
• Around the World in 80 Days, 1956, lots of the illusion of depth, and also walk-into-it-clear
  • South Pacific, 1958, requiring new theaters to be equipped for 70 mm Todd-AO, since Around the World in 80 Days was running well into its second year, occupying the original 70 mm theaters
• Disney's Sleeping Beauty, 1959, Technirama negative running sideways, and Super Technirama 70 mm print running vertically ... extraordinary color saturation
• Porgy and Bess, 1959, 70 mm Todd-AO ... a bit murky compared to the rest, but still good.

All of these were quite good, and all were unusually sharp, but none had the detail of Ben-Hur

[RBBrittain]

Originally Posted by The Duke

Ah, it got a release date & price. I looked at the placeholder and clicked to be notified when it became available, but Amazon didn't email me yet. There's also a placeholder for Citizen Kane, but no price or date yet. I plan to get both of these from Amazon UK, nice simple movie only versions.

Already ordered Ben-Hur from Amazon UK; they've labeled it "Ultimate Collector's Edition" even though they say it's 1-disc, so I have a feeling the UK will get both BDs without the swag. But you're *NOT* likely to get Citizen Kane there as its UK rights belong to Universal, not WB. (WB has only U.S. & Canadian rights to the RKO library; they own the pre-1986 MGM library worldwide.)

[RBBrittain]

Originally Posted by Arkadin

sure wish Warner would give us the silent Ben-Hur in 1080p.
Please warner, make it so.

We'll get the silent alright, but with only two BDs (one of which will be strictly for the 1959 version), I doubt the 1925 version will be 1080p. It may not be possible without upconversion as the current restoration was done by Thames Television in the UK many years ago; that edition may not even exist at greater than PAL resolution. (Since WB masters nearly all movie discs to U.S. standards, even the UK edition would likely carry it in NTSC or 480p.)

[AeroK]

This is gonna to be a costly year for boxsets....Already been hit with the Ten Commandments and now I got Ben Hur, Citizen Kane, and Star Wars to look forward to. This is in my top 10 favorite movies of all time. Seeing the chariot race in HD is worth the purchase for me...I'm so glad I didn't purchase the DVD. I can't remember if anyone or any animals died in the 1959 version, I saw a documentary about Yakima Canutt a long time ago and I think I remember them mentioning the number of deaths from the race in the silent film. It's just amazing to me the grand scale of the race itself in a day when CGI didn't exist.