The Long Good Friday - Any Reviews

[Mythos]

I believe the disc is out now ?

Any insight to the PQ, Region ?


With thanks.

[Matt865]

PQ was very good imo, 4/5 maybe. I've never seen the film before on any format, but can't imagine it's looked better than this. Colours are all very nice and there was plenty of detail in the picture.

I can't give you any detail on region locking, there's nothing on the case or the disc and I don't have a BD drive in my computer.

[Moonlight Shadow]

Does it have english subtitles by any chance?

[Matt865]

No, no subtitles.

[bygberbrown]

I actually cancelled my preorder; was scared off by a review that mentioned the lack of subs and said the accents are so thick subs would were needed to interpret most of it.

[Bruce Morrison]

Originally Posted by bygberbrown

I actually cancelled my preorder; was scared off by a review that mentioned the lack of subs and said the accents are so thick subs would were needed to interpret most of it.

It's strange how British accents vary so much more than American ones. I'm a Brit and I can sympathise with Americans and other English-speaking people around the world who find certain regional British accents simply incomprehensible. I can assure you that even we Brits have the same problem on occasions.

However, I never seem to have any problem understanding accents in different parts of the US. I can generally recognise a Southern US accent but, other than that, they all sound pretty much the same to my uneducated ear. Certainly, they can all be easily understood anyway!

[Moonlight Shadow]

I'm from Germany and if there are very heavy accents in an english-language movie I prefer to have english or german subtitles.
So I will skip this release :-(

Thanks for checking, Matt.

[Mythos]

Much thanks for the input. Hopefully it's not Region B Locked as I'll grab it immediately if not.

Personally, I love some o the dialog in he movie and it's an important part of the story's character.

[Adam_ME]

Well some good news and some very bad news. First, no there are no subtitles. But this is Anchor Bay. They've historically never had subtitles.

The good news is it IS region free. I have a Region A PS3 and it plays fine.

Here's the bad news. I A-B'd the Anchor Bay DVD and Blu-ray to see how much better the transfer looked. And the picture is cleaner, no doubt. But what I couldn't believe is that some genius at Anchor Bay decided to crop and zoom the frame in order to make the aspect ratio 1.66:1 on the Blu-ray as opposed to the 1.77:1 ratio of the DVD. You would think 1.66:1 would mean a little more information on the top and bottom, but they did the opposite. They cut a bunch of information out from all sides. It reminded me a lot of the Manhunter Director's Cut Anchor Bay did back in 2000.

So in conclusion, I seriously recommend NOT buying this Blu-ray. Stick with the DVD. It may have inferior picture quality, but at least you're seeing the entire picture.

[Cheese]

This is going for 5 quid at amazon uk atm, might have to score it, cropped or not, still a bargain.

[The Driver]

Cropped or badly/incorrectly cropped? Virtually every film is cropped somewhere sometime.


I have the Blu-ray of this and it looks great to me.

It is odd nobody's given a review.

Some info:




No subtitles.

Old reviews of the DVDs http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDRev...dvd_review.htm

If you don't like grain you must avoid this. It looks wonderful! Gritty

£4.99 @ Play.com too http://www.play.com/DVD/Blu-ray/4-/8...y/Product.html

[John Hodson]

First things first; the transfer isn't without problems, yes, it's cropped, and there's some occasional jitter, but cropping aside, this is by far the best the film has looked on home video.

Anchor Bay themselves have apparently said:

"It is true that the aspect ratio for the DVD and the Blu Ray release are different, this is due to the source materials we were able to purchase from the Production Company who own the film, Handmade Films.

The DVD release in standard definition was 1.77 however when it came to gaining a High Definition version of the film the only masters available to us were in 1.66

We did consider arc'ing the feature into 1.77 but this would have removed even more of the picture so we left it in 1.66 to give the viewer the maximum amount of picture as possible.

I understand this is disappointing but a High Definition version of this feature in 1.77 simply does not exist. The only way to create one would be to go back to an original film print and telecine a new master which is extremely costly and would be down to Handmade Films who own the picture to decide to do.

As this is the only High Definition master, the only way to release this title on Blu Ray was to release as 1.66 or to not release it at all. The packaging was clearly marked to show that the aspect ratio was indeed different so as consumers can make the choice whether they want to purchase the disc or not."

1.66:1 would have been fine had the film been properly cropped to that ratio and not, as appears to have been the case, 'zoomed' to that ratio. However, it doesn't do fatal damage to the framing, which is probably the important point.

Finally, I notice that the BD boasts a new soundtrack; on my previous DVD, there is at least one scene (at the pool) where Hoskins post dubs himself in order to slip in some dialogue that they probably felt would be more familiar to US audiences - so, for instance, 'Glasshouse' became 'Slammer', and, bizarrely, 'Wireless' was transformed to 'bazooka'. This new soundtrack ditches that, thankfully.

Be very interesting to see what Image come up with for the US BD release.

[Mooseteets]

Originally Posted by John Hodson

1.66:1 would have been fine had the film been properly cropped to that ratio and not, as appears to have been the case, 'zoomed' to that ratio. However, it doesn't do fatal damage to the framing, which is probably the important point.

the film is 1.66 with black bars at the side, watching it back without the machine/tv zooming it in there should be a black bar on each side, that is the proper AR and not zoomed on the disc.

screenshot example >

1080 shots from bluray

http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/546...1609h54m54.jpg

http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/8...1609h55m12.jpg


720 shot from my media center (its actually 1220x720 removing black bars) >
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/379...1609h59m45.jpg

i find the only flaw with the movie is the outside shots on the yacht and the amount of jitter, the light balance seems to be off which makes it very flickery.

example gif of the flickery outdoor problem (i only noticed it in this scene) >

[John Hodson]

Compared to previous home video releases, the BD is cropped on all four sides. The aspect ratio of the BD is 1.66:1, but it's not cropped properly as such.

Here's an example (using a frame of the R1 DVD), the lighter area marks the extent of the picture info on the BD:



It just hasn't been matted correctly. As I said, not fatal to the frame.

[Mooseteets]

Originally Posted by John Hodson

Compared to previous home video releases, the BD is cropped on all four sides. The aspect ratio of the BD is 1.66:1, but it's not cropped properly as such.

Here's an example (using a frame of the R1 DVD), the lighter area marks the extent of the picture info on the BD:



It just hasn't been matted correctly. As I said, not fatal to the frame.

i think thats more to do with the 1.66 master than the bluray, as said earlier in the anchor bay quote thats all they could find that was in HD so if it was precropped theres nothing they could do.

[The Driver]

Incidentally, the Blu-ray release has excised the excellent 30min+ interview below. It was also missing from the 25th Anniversary Edition I believe (although wrongly advertised on the box as included).

If you want that documentary then the exact release is this one:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000067NQM

Be aware that Anchor Bay/Starz have released at least 5 versions of this and that's the one to get. I got mine off a Seller there for £1.73inc. No complaints and I popped the disc in with the Blu-ray. Still plenty there for less than £1.

Press Interview Richard Jobson interviews John Mackenzie and Bob Hoskins in front of an audience at the NFT. As it turns out, Bob was in Mackenzie's sights early on, despite his limited film career at that point. The project was originally entitled "The Paddy Factor", and contrary to stories otherwise, Mackenzie confirms that the film was never planned as a TV project. Bob's most vivid memory seems to come from working with the real gangsters who appeared in the film. They quietly assured him that he didn't have to shout so much, an instruction he quickly observed!


Cropping

I'm always fairly relaxed about cropping -as I said- as there's so many opinions. People can always revert to the Criterion edition for what I'm sure matches -more closely- the original formatted screen or at least what the former Criterion employees decided for us. Or whomever they employed to do the matting/scanning/formatting/resizing -I suppose it all just a type of pan and scan but with limited panning and scanning. We'd need to get the opinion from the cinematographer and the weird bloke you used to see up the high street who worked in the local cinema as the projectionist.

The Blu-ray knocks the socks of any of the DVD releases. That's the main point.

[SymbioticFunction]

Good stuff on this thread. Have found these posts very useful. I shall wait to see how a US release looks before considering buying this classic on the UK bd.

[The Driver]

Just a little update on my comments about the apparently missing interview on the 25th Anniversary Edition.

I was roaming aorund my local carboot today and found a 25th edition (sealed no less!) for the grand sum of £1.50. Comes in a very nice metal tin with an Amaray style case. The 2 disc was -oddly- actually a 3 disc with the 3rd disc being a full OST soundtrack. No mention of that on the box. A bit shoddy actually because there was space for a 4th disc and it's left blank. I shall put the disc from the cheap version on Amazon in there. How convenient is that?

Anyway, the interview (27' 49") is definitely missing from the -as advertised as being included- 25th (and of course the Blu-ray).


Some pictures:






So, less than 10 English Queen Pounds got me the definitive version of The Long Good Friday. And just before the VAT rise too

[sigill]

Originally Posted by The Driver

Just a little update on my comments about the apparently missing interview on the 25th Anniversary Edition.

I was roaming aorund my local carboot today and found a 25th edition (sealed no less!) for the grand sum of £1.50. Comes in a very nice metal tin with an Amaray style case. The 2 disc was -oddly- actually a 3 disc with the 3rd disc being a full OST soundtrack. No mention of that on the box. A bit shoddy actually because there was space for a 4th disc and it's left blank. I shall put the disc from the cheap version on Amazon in there. How convenient is that?

Anyway, the interview (27' 49") is definitely missing from the -as advertised as being included- 25th (and of course the Blu-ray).


Some pictures:






So, less than 10 English Queen Pounds got me the definitive version of The Long Good Friday. And just before the VAT rise too

Nice pick up! I got rid of my DVD once i got the blu. I felt the PQ was far superior and the cropping issues didn't bother me.

[Mooseteets]

im sure ive seen that interview on my dvd, but i thought it had bob hoskins in it as well.

ive got the original dvd that came out when the dvd was first released.