Spartacus (1960) (Restored Edition)

[Doctor Jack]

Originally Posted by igloop

What exactly do the 12 extra minutes encompass or add? Were they meant to be in the film & previously censored?

I've seen an older version including the 'snails or oysters' scene. Which I appreciated being included & as I recall Kubrick approved of the work being done, even though he personally wasn't involved. What is considered official? is the consensus that the additional 12 minutes belong or do they not? While I understand this transfer is considered definitive, even reference quality; i wonder about the cut.

Because having more scenes, is not always better. I am hoping these are scenes always intended to be there, which for some poor reason were lost or removed?

They are intended to be there. Censors cut a bunch of it. They make the movie better. This isn't just throwing scenes in for the sake of it.

[igloop]

Originally Posted by Doctor Jack

They are intended to be there. Censors cut a bunch of it. They make the movie better. This isn't just throwing scenes in for the sake of it.

Happy to hear it
hopefully pick this up soon

what are these 12 minutes in question though?
an older transfer i watched already included some of the censored material. Is the 12 minutes mentioned on the back cover not present in the old Criterion DVD? Was it just extended dialogue & combat peppered throughout, one singular scene?

[BNex99]

Originally Posted by igloop

Happy to hear it
hopefully pick this up soon

what are these 12 minutes in question though?
an older transfer i watched already included some of the censored material. Is the 12 minutes mentioned on the back cover not present in the old Criterion DVD? Was it just extended dialogue & combat peppered throughout, one singular scene?

As far as I know, the cut of the film on the Blu-ray is the same as what we've had since the 1991 restoration. The notation is a bit odd, I guess, and also misleading, because I think the overture, entr' acte, and exit music are included in those 12 minutes.

As far as footage goes, I believe it's the oysters and snails scene, some more violent shots during the final battle sequence, and maybe a few other odds and ends. They were part of the premiere version, but were cut shortly after. According to the Criterion commentary, there were a few other short bits that were in the premiere version which couldn't be located for the '91 restoration, and are presumably lost.

[Jobla]

The 1991 restoration restored the gorier death of Draba (Woody Strode).

[tAldo]

Originally Posted by alexf187

From what I've been reading over at mundodvd, Spanish Blu-ray and DVD forum, the Spanish amaray blu-ray release is the new restored edition, so I'd say its not Universal Europe but Universal Germany and Universal Italy that messed up.

Steelbook in Italian are the two new extra
then the new version is Steelbook Italian 55th remastered
Probable Universal has put in error discs of the Germans in the Italian Steelbook
He wanted to **** Italian instead ****ing Germans are angry
the back cover Steelbook Italian does not show the two new extra while the disc contains
http://it.tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2...8#.Vi4hYCufJYd

[Geoff D]

Hello peeps. I thought I'd do a comparison of the 4K (4096x3112) captures that RAH put up over at the HTF to the final Blu-ray because the framing looked a lil' different, and so it's proved: the Blu-ray is cinched in a little tighter on all sides. (The 4K caps have been sized to 1.78 dimensions, given the correct video levels, downsampled to HD and saved a few times over so forget the compression, detail etc in any of those shots, they're purely to show the framing differences and yes, they're the exact same frames.) http://screenshotcomparison.com/comp...9266/picture:0

Penton mentioned something about how My Fair Lady was properly pixel mapped when converting from 4K to UHD and I'd wager that the same thing has happened to Spartacus which is partly what's enabled the quality to stay so insanely high on the Blu-ray, because cropping the UHD (3840x2160) out of the 4K original (4096 horizontal) will give you better quality, albeit at the expense of losing a slight amount of picture information (then it's child's play to downconvert the UHD to HD for Blu-ray etc because the dimensions are EXACTLY proportional).

While such a thing would normally get people foaming at the mouth (forgetting that most probably have overscan enabled on their sets anyway and don't know it) there's always a bit of leeway built into the framing to account for projection shenanigans so it doesn't harm the composition one little bit IMO, and I'd much prefer getting the highest quality end result on Blu-ray than have any shimmering or aliasing resulting from a poor 4K to UHD downscale.

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Hello peeps. I thought I'd do a comparison of the 4K (4096x3112) captures that RAH put up over at the HTF to the final Blu-ray because the framing looked a lil' different, and so it's proved: the Blu-ray is cinched in a little tighter on all sides. (The 4K caps have been sized to 1.78 dimensions, given the correct video levels, downsampled to HD and saved a few times over so forget the compression, detail etc in any of those shots, they're purely to show the framing differences and yes, they're the exact same frames.) http://screenshotcomparison.com/comp...9266/picture:0

Penton mentioned something about how My Fair Lady was properly pixel mapped when converting from 4K to UHD and I'd wager that the same thing has happened to Spartacus which is partly what's enabled the quality to stay so insanely high on the Blu-ray, because cropping the UHD (3840x2160) out of the 4K original (4096 horizontal) will give you better quality, albeit at the expense of losing a slight amount of picture information (then it's child's play to downconvert the UHD to HD for Blu-ray etc because the dimensions are EXACTLY proportional).

While such a thing would normally get people foaming at the mouth (forgetting that most probably have overscan enabled on their sets anyway and don't know it) there's always a bit of leeway built into the framing to account for projection shenanigans so it doesn't harm the composition one little bit IMO, and I'd much prefer getting the highest quality end result on Blu-ray than have any shimmering or aliasing resulting from a poor 4K to UHD downscale.

Great post.

Cropping is a good thing.

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

While such a thing would normally get people foaming at the mouth (forgetting that most probably have overscan enabled on their sets anyway and don't know it) there's always a bit of leeway built into the framing to account for projection shenanigans so it doesn't harm the composition one little bit IMO, and I'd much prefer getting the highest quality end result on Blu-ray than have any shimmering or aliasing resulting from a poor 4K to UHD downscale.

Not to mention with Technirama there's extra info to play with. The tiny amount of cropping doesn't mess with the composition in any way.

[Narcissus]

Is anyone else finding this insanely hard to find?

[sartana]

Originally Posted by Narcissus

Is anyone else finding this insanely hard to find?

I have not seen this anywhere but online.

[Page14]

Originally Posted by Narcissus

Is anyone else finding this insanely hard to find?

Other than online, I saw 1 on the shelf at my local-est Barnes & Noble, but it didn't have a slip case (if that's a big deal to anybody).

[Jobla]

The Silver Platters chain in the Seattle area has carried it.

[Narcissus]

Originally Posted by Jobla

The Silver Platters chain in the Seattle area has carried it.

They were actually out of stock when I looked. I hadn't thought to do so, but I live about 2 miles from Scarecrow Video in Seattle's U-District. They had 4 copies in stock @ 17.99, now they only have 3.

[Paulo Elias]

I got my copy yesterday, one day after the disc was released in my country.

After being exposed to the excellent new edition of My Fair Lady I thought I wouldn't be much more surprised. I was wrong!

The picture is outstanding and the new sound envelops the listener in an unprecedented way.

Highly recommended!

[Blu-rayNut51]

Originally Posted by sartana

I have not seen this anywhere but online.

On the day that the Spartacus Restoration Blu-ray was officially released, (Tuesday Oct 6th) my wife dragged me to our nearest BJ's Wholesale Club, here in northeast Ohio.
Did not expect to see Spartacus at BJ's, but there were 5 copies of the new restoration BD in the store's small DVD/Blu-ray section, and I bought one. Incredibly, when we returned to BJ's on November 8th, all 4 of the Spartacus Blu-rays that had remained after I bought my copy, were still there, in plain sight, just where I'd last seen them.

BTW, you need not be a BJ's member to pick up Spartacus for that store's price of $12.99. BJ's will give anyone a 1-day shopping pass to have a chance to experience the store's prices which might encourage someone new to BJ's, to invest in a membership.

But, since our local BJ's is the only one of the company's stores that serves Summit county, and its more than a half million people, it's not very encouraging to a film collector, like yours truly, that a landmark restoration of a classic like Spartacus has only sold 1 copy in more than a month. And if I had not purchased that copy the store would have experienced zero interest in that release. Of course, Spartacus has already had a number of home video releases, including a substandard Blu-ray, so maybe those releases exhausted the interest in the film in the minds of the vast majority of potential customers, who are not likely to be aware of the new restoration's greatly improved quality, anyway. But what a great release this restoration is, and at that price, it's a real shame that more movie lovers simply don't know about what a terrific value that they're passing right by.

[Arch Stanton]

It's not really incredible. People are becoming less and less interested with physical media, and older releases will have even less attention.

[Ray_Rogers]

Originally Posted by Arch Stanton

It's not really incredible. People are becoming less and less interested with physical media, and older releases will have even less attention.

I don't know about you but I've always have and will be interested in physical media. Streaming still has a long time to take off due to the infrastructure required and to be honest, I'm never getting streaming.
That said I still love this film and will buy the single disc OST CD.

[Show spoiler]Yes, I do in fact consider itunes to be highly intrusive malware. Main reason why I have the prices even greater whenever a Digital Copy Ultraviolet I'm selling also uses it.

[ScarredLungs]

Originally Posted by sartana

I have not seen this anywhere but online.

Same here

[Arch Stanton]

Originally Posted by Ray_Rogers

I don't know about you but I've always have and will be interested in physical media. Streaming still has a long time to take off due to the infrastructure required and to be honest, I'm never getting streaming.
That said I still love this film and will buy the single disc OST CD.

[Show spoiler]Yes, I do in fact consider itunes to be highly intrusive malware. Main reason why I have the prices even greater whenever a Digital Copy Ultraviolet I'm selling also uses it.

Oh I'm totally with you. I'll never migrate to streaming for a variety of reasons.

Most people don't feel this way though, and in the case of Spartacus it's even more of a niche thing.

[Jobla]

I'm another who won't be steaming.