Battle of Britain and A Bridge Too Far - June 3

[dialog_gvf]

MGM Bumps 'Battle of Britain,' 'Bridge Too Far' Blu-ray Releases


Looks like Fox/MGM was too aggressive.

The two classic war flicks had been due to hit Blu-ray next Tuesday November 6, but today the studio confirmed earlier retailer reports that both titles had been yanked, citing "marketing decisions."

Though MGM has not yet announced new dates for either title, the studio did tell us that 'Battle of Britain' and 'Bridge Too Far' are now expected to arrive "sometime around Father's Day 2008...

Ugh

[Manco]

Ugh 2.0

EDIT: At least I'll have something nice to look forward to for Father's Day instead of another tie!

[HumanMedia]

Both these titles have a new release date - June 3, 2008. ;-)

[GregBlu5]

Originally Posted by HumanMedia

Both these titles have a new release date - June 3, 2008. ;-)

They were supposed to release with THE LONGEST DAY and THE SAND PEBBLES; however, even though those two titles are available for pre-order on amazon, BRIDGE and BRITAIN are not.

I'm not prepared to count on that release date at this point.

[GJN]

Originally Posted by GJN
Bill,
Any word from MGM about Battle of Britain and Bridge Too Far. Both had release dates set TWICE and both were postponed TWICE. The latest promised date was around Father's Day. And what about Dances with Wolves and Princess Bride also promised and postponed. Are all these films being delayed because expected sale projections are too low? What would be the sales breakeven point on such films. My impression has been that classic films sell consistently over their shelf lifetime while drek (e.g. Daddy Day Care or Norbit) sell a few at the beginning and then disappear forever.

Bill's response:
Don't know about the others, but I do believe Battle and Bridge are coming this year sometime. I'm sure the others will follow. A lot of it has to do with assessing the work that needs to be done on the master, or whether or not it need to be redone (which is often the case).
__________________
Bill Hunt, Editor
The Digital Bits
http://www.thedigitalbits.com
billhunt@thedigitalbits.com.

This was Bill Hunt's answer to my question re these two films a few days ago on another thread

[HumanMedia]

Originally Posted by GregBlu5

They were supposed to release with THE LONGEST DAY and THE SAND PEBBLES; however, even though those two titles are available for pre-order on amazon, BRIDGE and BRITAIN are not.

Yeah yeah, I know all of that, and I'd given up hope on them, but new information this week indicates that they will be back for release on the same date.

Here are some specs:

Battle of Britain

Format: AC-3, Colour, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
Language English
Subtitles: French, Spanish
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Number of discs: 1
Classification: G
Studio: MGM
DVD Release Date: 3 Jun 2008
Run Time: 133 minutes


A Bridge Too Far

Format: AC-3, Colour, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
Language English
Subtitles: Cantonese Chinese, French, Korean, Spanish
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Number of discs: 1
Classification: PG
Studio: MGM
DVD Release Date: 3 Jun 2008
Run Time: 176 minutes



And a placeholder with cover art and limited specs has just appeared at Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/product/dp/B000WC39SG

A placeholder usually means nothing, but when it has limited specs which match the ones I have from another source, it starts to look more and more credible...

[GJN]

They're now available for pre-order at DVD Empire

[Drewza89]

The Man Room has them both listed for June 3rd.

Link: http://dvd.themanroom.com/news/Blu-r..._Classics/2379

[kenga236]

Battle of Britain, A Bridge Too Far Listed on HDD for June 3rd release

http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/releasedates.html

Also Step into Liquid on June 24th.

[RUR]

Originally Posted by kenga236

Battle of Britain, A Bridge Too Far Listed on HDD for June 3rd release.

Cautious optimism, but I don't want to be hurt again.

[ethanrom]

awesome! Bridge Too Far is a great one, now lets just hope they give us BoB soon!

[alexdg1]

I have A Bridge Too Far; it's one of my favorite "war epics" even though the ending is a downer.

The film looks/sounds great on HD and a nice home theater setup. That being said, Fox and MGM really screwed the pooch by not giving us any extras.

[Breather]

Originally Posted by alexdg1

I have A Bridge Too Far; it's one of my favorite "war epics" even though the ending is a downer.

The film looks/sounds great on HD and a nice home theater setup. That being said, Fox and MGM really screwed the pooch by not giving us any extras.

Obviously, it's just DVD, but "A Bridge Too Far" and "Battle Of Britain" both had 2-disc Collector's Editions on DVD for anyone that's interested. Both had commentaries, featurettes, small docs, trailers, booklets, etc. This isn't EPK garbage on these discs.

It's a shame these things didn't carry over. With BD in its infancy and the ending format war, maybe Fox was unsure BD would really take off, so they put the BDs out for the minimum investment. Who knows? Too bad though.

I bought both of these cheap on Ebay sometime back and ended up converting the BDs into 3-disc sets. Here are two links to DVD Compare showing what's on them in case anyone's interested.

I realize this is one ancient thread so maybe nobody is interested anymore...

If you're in the US, just click "Uncheck/Hide All", then check the R1 MGM Collector's Edition box, and click "Apply Filter" so you don't have to scroll through every edition.

A Bridge Too Far

http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=883


Battle of Britain

http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=5069

[alexdg1]

Originally Posted by Breather

Obviously, it's just DVD, but "A Bridge Too Far" and "Battle Of Britain" both had 2-disc Collector's Editions on DVD for anyone that's interested. Both had commentaries, featurettes, small docs, trailers, booklets, etc. This isn't EPK garbage on these discs.

It's a shame these things didn't carry over. With BD in its infancy and the ending format war, maybe Fox was unsure BD would really take off, so they put the BDs out for the minimum investment. Who knows? Too bad though.

I bought both of these cheap on Ebay sometime back and ended up converting the BDs into 3-disc sets. Here are two links to DVD Compare showing what's on them in case anyone's interested.

I realize this is one ancient thread so maybe nobody is interested anymore...

If you're in the US, just click "Uncheck/Hide All", then check the R1 MGM Collector's Edition box, and click "Apply Filter" so you don't have to scroll through every edition.

A Bridge Too Far

http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=883


Battle of Britain

http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=5069

I have the Special Collectors' Set for "ABTF" on DVD.

Perhaps 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment didn't want to invest a lot of money into either adding the 2nd DVD (in that format) to the Blu-ray edition of A Bridge Too Far (something it did with The Longest Day, which is the direct precursor to ABTF). After all, the film is not that popular in the U.S. outside of the war movie fandom, and it wasn't a Fox-produced film.

Whatever the reason, it was a lousy decision.

[alexdg1]

Originally Posted by alexdg1

I have the Special Collectors' Set for "ABTF" on DVD.

Perhaps 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment didn't want to invest a lot of money into either adding the 2nd DVD (in that format) to the Blu-ray edition of A Bridge Too Far (something it did with The Longest Day, which is the direct precursor to ABTF). After all, the film is not that popular in the U.S. outside of the war movie fandom, and it wasn't a Fox-produced film.

Whatever the reason, it was a lousy decision.

I agree! Fox (which is now a division of The Walt Disney Company and is now known as 20th Century Films) should have given ABTF better extras for the BD release.

[DavidRoylance]

A Bridge Too Far desperately needs restoration and a special edition. It's MGM/UA so I don't know how likely this is to happen. Hopefully Kino, with their new MGM deal may have an eye on it.

I have the Fox BD and it is pretty weak, picture wise.

[Darthbooth1978]

Could Bridge be picked up by Kino? Would love to see this with a 4K remaster. Definitely deserves it.

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by Darthbooth1978

Could Bridge be picked up by Kino? Would love to see this with a 4K remaster. Definitely deserves it.

It and Battle of Britain certainly need it. I'm still waiting on a release for 633 Squadron as well.

[David McMinn]

I already have "A Bridge Too Far" and "Battle Of Britain" on blu-ray. I'm expecting the complete score to "A Bridge Too Far" sometime soon which is available for order at Screen Archives Entertainment. "Battle Of Britain" has a great march "Aces High" which is a really moving high spirited piece. Not sure I'll reorder these two; but, we'll see.

[Darthbooth1978]

Although Bridge is a flawed movie it is my favourite war movie of all time. It’s one of the last great war movies of that era, very epic in its scale.

Is the Blu worth picking up? I only ever had the DVD.