Taras Bulba (1962)

[Arkadin]

this bd was released in Australia in January.
directed by the director of The Guns of Navarone and the original Cape Fear.
Has anyone gotten a copy, and if so, what are your impressions?
I see listings on ebay.Australia and that is where I was thinking about purchasing a copy from, as all the AUS etailers I have looked at seem very hazy about when they can actually get stock.
Seems to me that ebay would be the quickest way to acquire this particular title.
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Taras...Blu-ray/20080/
movie info-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taras_Bulba_(1962_film)
poster art-- http://www.moviegoods.com/Assets/pro...002.1020.A.jpg


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[gettodamoofies]

MoviesPlus has it in stock: http://moviesplus.com.au/ViewProduct...8-55fcd4c0150e. I don't know what they charge for international shipping but they pack well and their price is as good or better than the eBay listings from the quick search I just did.

Jump on their facebook page and ask if the staff can confirm the specs as noted on the pack. They are normally willing to check this stuff out if at all possible.

[LordCrumb]

I saw this thread and thought it might have been about a Pokemon.



I guess I was wrong.

[Arkadin]

atexpo--thanks for the info!
looks like MGM is licensing a few films for release in very specific places.
I already got the "rare" one that came out in Germany (santa vittoria), and am excited to get this one.
EDIT: ok I ordered a copy from the link atexpo supplied.
can't wait to check this bd out!

[Arkadin]

ok just got this in the mail.
I will be checking it out as soon as possible to see if it is region locked or not and how the PQ is.
package says "distributed by Hollywood Classics on behalf of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. made available in Australia exclusively through Shock dvd, a division of Shock entertainment"
so that's kind of interesting, and makes me wonder who was behind this coming out.
kind of sounds like maybe Shock dvd contacted MGM to license it.
who knows.
EDIT: ok I've watched enough of this bd now to know that it doesn't look all that great.
I never did get the dvd of this film, so unfortunately I can't do a comparison.
this title reminds me a lot of the horse soldiers bd, which I didn't think looked all that great either.
for what it's worth though, many people including RAH seemed to think the horse soldiers had a lot going for it, so maybe they'll think the same of taras bulba.
the title plays in my main player, so I'm going to assume it is indeed region free.
the audio is a weak dd 2.0 only; no lossless at all.
there is a menu screen, but it's about as barebones as it gets--only "play movie" and "scenes".
there is no set-up option whatsoever, and as far as I can tell there are no subs of any kind present.
so you get the idea of the type of effort we are talking about here.
the pq looks ok during closeups, but anything else is extremely soft, with distance shots looking fairly dvd-like in their blurriness.
now whether this is how the film looked in the theater due to camera limitations I have no idea, but there is little doubt that this bd is based on the same master utilized for the dvd. color looks fairly impressive and is one of the discs few strengths. there is plenty of grain/and or noise present, and lots of what I suspect is locked in dnr from the dvd master. the image does still look fairly filmlike, so I wouldn't say it has a overly plasticized look or anything like that, but lots of background imagery seems pretty smeary overall.
I really wish I had the dvd because I suspect this bd is still a decent advance in terms of the overall presentation of the film.
conclusion--probably for true fans of the film only imo; though if released in the US at $10 it would probably be worth it for the film alone.