Friendly Persuasion (1956) coming from Warner Archive

[whiteberry]

Coming to Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection on April 30th!

New 1080p HD master from 4K Scan of the Original Camera Negative

FRIENDLY PERSUASION (1956)
BD-50
COLOR
Running Time-137 Minutes
Aspect Ratio 16x9 1.85:1
Audio Format: DTS HD MA 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH

Special Features: Excerpt for "Wide Wide World" television series on the making of the film, Original Theatrical Trailer

Cast: Gary Cooper, Dorothy McGuire, Anthony Perkins

For two years the Civil War has been elsewhere. Now Confederate forces are nearby, looting and burning. It’s time to fight back, Jess Birdwell’s neighbors insist. Yet Birdwell, a Quaker, know there must be a better way to settle things. In a role ideally suiting his stalwart persona, Gary Cooper plays Jess in William Wyler’s beloved and acclaimed film of Jessamyn West’s novel Friendly Persuasion. The film earned six Academy Award nominations including Best Picture. Leading lady Dorothy McGuire was named Best Actress by the National Board of Review for her outstanding performance as Eliza Birdwell, and 24 year-old Anthony Perkins became a rising star, giving his first major film appearance in the integral role of the Birdwell’s son Josh. Friendly Persuasion is a timeless classic, and a testament to the great artistry of all those involved in creating this masterful film.

Trailer:

Friendly Persuasion Trailer - YouTube

[BluPat]

Awesome! Anthony Perkins is wonderful in this.

[Geode]

The earliest film that I know I saw in the cinema in its initial release, this began my admiration for Dorothy McGuire who I think had the finest female voice ever to grace a movie.

[bonehica]

Any Wyler will be mine.

[SpookyDollhouse]

Originally Posted by bonehica

Any Wyler will be mine.

Wyler is one of those directors where I'll collect them all too. Can't wait for this one even if its considered a "lesser" of his works.

[SpookyDollhouse]

Originally Posted by Cooper67

A lesser of his works? It was nominated for best picture. I guess only his films than won best picture are not lesser works. Its usually ranked in the top 10 of his best films. I always felt lesser works were ranked in the 30's for a director.

I meant that in terms of how much its brought up, talked about, shown, dissected VS his others. If you were taking a film class is this the Wyler you're all discussing? I doubt it. I wasn't trying to slight the movie at all, it's a great one.

[Gunsnroses092789]

Originally Posted by SpookyDollhouse

I meant that in terms of how much its brought up, talked about, shown, dissected VS his others. If you were taking a film class is this the Wyler you're all discussing? I doubt it. I wasn't trying to slight the movie at all, it's a great one.

I agree with you on this one. Wyler is an absolute favorite director of mine - and I've seen every extant film of his with the exception of a few silent Westerns that are held exclusively at different archives - and this film, while great, is certainly in the bottom half of his filmography. Having said that, Wyler's "lesser" films are better than 99% of other filmmaker's best films.

I very much look forward to this release.

[Shane Rollins]

Originally Posted by Gunsnroses092789

I agree with you on this one. Wyler is an absolute favorite director of mine - and I've seen every extant film of his with the exception of a few silent Westerns that are held exclusively at different archives - and this film, while great, is certainly in the bottom half of his filmography. Having said that, Wyler's "lesser" films are better than 99% of other filmmaker's best films.

I very much look forward to this release.

As much as I love his movies, The Collector is just sad and depressing and crushing. That was definitely one of those "once is once too many" kind of movies, at least to me.

[Twilight62]

Been waiting for this one to come out for a long time. Day one for me!

[jeangreyforever]

This is a personal favorite of mine and I believe Dorothy McGuire's best performance (alongside The Enchanted Cottage). Was very happy she won the National Board of Review Best Actress for this film. What a shame she wasn't even nominated for the Oscar. Strangely, even Anthony Perkins got an Oscar nomination for his performance which was well-done but not nearly as moving as Ms. McGuire's.

The digital copy of this film is very badly restored so this physical restoration was much needed.

[DaViD Boulet]

I attended a Quaker meeting while I was in college and this movie has always been extra-special to me. Thrilled to get it on blu-ray.

[Randy Miller III]

Surprised at how quiet the thread is for such a great film.

In any case, the site review is live with plenty of screenshots -- it's a great Blu-ray, as expected. Enjoy!

Friendly Persuasion Blu-ray Review

[Todd Tomorrow]

I watched this last night and can't say it pleasured me in a hundred ways. Still enjoyed the movie but the PQ is just about passable. No way does this look like a new 4K scan from the original negative and the PQ certainly isn't worthy of 5 stars. I have enough recent 4K restorations of movies from the 50s on BD to know that they shouldn't look like this. 15 years ago this would have been state of the art but not now.

[Gunsnroses092789]

Originally Posted by Todd Tomorrow

I watched this last night and can't say it pleasured me in a hundred ways. Still enjoyed the movie but the PQ is just about passable. No way does this look like a new 4K scan from the original negative and the PQ certainly isn't worthy of 5 stars. I have enough recent 4K restorations of movies from the 50s on BD to know that they shouldn't look like this. 15 years ago this would have been state of the art but not now.

It's because the disc is encoded poorly, unfortunately, just like The Nun's Story. Tons of macro-blocking throughout. If it was encoded like WAC used to do for their releases, this would look absolutely top-notch. It's a real shame too, because they won't re-do it and this is it for a while.

[ilenewoodsfan99]

Originally Posted by Gunsnroses092789

It's because the disc is encoded poorly, unfortunately, just like The Nun's Story. Tons of macro-blocking throughout. If it was encoded like WAC used to do for their releases, this would look absolutely top-notch. It's a real shame too, because they won't re-do it and this is it for a while.

That's really unfortunate, because this is an excellent movie.

[jeangreyforever]

Originally Posted by Todd Tomorrow

I watched this last night and can't say it pleasured me in a hundred ways. Still enjoyed the movie but the PQ is just about passable. No way does this look like a new 4K scan from the original negative and the PQ certainly isn't worthy of 5 stars. I have enough recent 4K restorations of movies from the 50s on BD to know that they shouldn't look like this. 15 years ago this would have been state of the art but not now.

That's such a shame to hear. This film deserved more and I wonder why they even bother if they're not going to make it look its utmost best.

[DaViD Boulet]

Originally Posted by Todd Tomorrow

I watched this last night and can't say it pleasured me in a hundred ways. Still enjoyed the movie but the PQ is just about passable. No way does this look like a new 4K scan from the original negative and the PQ certainly isn't worthy of 5 stars. I have enough recent 4K restorations of movies from the 50s on BD to know that they shouldn't look like this. 15 years ago this would have been state of the art but not now.

Agreed.

And count me among those who understand and appreciate the history, art, and craft of chemical film and the characteristics/artifacts endemic to it.

But in this case, "passable" was just barely achieved on my 4K (JVC NZ8) projector on my 140" 2.35 screen (which ends up being about a 110" diagonal 1.85 image for a film like this). I suspect the blu-ray reviewer was watching with a narrow-field-of-vision as one would typically in a "TV" scenario. But when viewed at a theater-like viewing angle, the image was clearly sub-par in comparison to other films of this age: it was blurry, some color fringing at times, and lacking in fine detail. It didn't appear to have been "scrubbed" via DNR (thankfully) as there was still grain. But it was so unsatisfying an image I kept thinking "what's wrong?" and it was hard to immerse into the film. The appearance looked more like a transfer from a release print (not even interpositive) and nothing like what we'd normally expect from a true 4K scan of the OCN assets. Having said that I don't disbelieve the statements of the restoration process: things happen and different film stocks and camera lenses can create a wide variability in how things look even when scanned with the best possible care. It's just that sadly, for whatever reason, if you're watching at a wide viewing angle as in a front projection home theater system, the image quality left you wanting more (a great deal more).

[Rayjg]

The lack of quality control has become so extreme I’m about to hang up on physical media. It really is getting bad. Poor compression, AI abominations, scratched discs and that doesn’t even include packaging damage. What’s the point if it looks no better than a poorly compressed stream? These things are too damn expensive to tolerate all these issues.

[Todd Tomorrow]

If I'm not the only one who thinks that this (and The Nun's Story) look poor, then what is the use of a review site like this? It should be a reliable source for customers, staffed by reviewers who are knowledgable about AV, especially now that physical media has become a lot more expensive.

It cost me nearly $70 to import these two discs from the US under the understanding that this is a state of the art 4K restauration but both discs look no better than streaming a dated transfer. Had the PQ for these titles not gotten stellar reviews here, than I would have saved myself the money.

[Cremildo]

Originally Posted by Rayjg

The lack of quality control has become so extreme I’m about to hang up on physical media. It really is getting bad. Poor compression, AI abominations, scratched discs and that doesn’t even include packaging damage. What’s the point if it looks no better than a poorly compressed stream? These things are too damn expensive to tolerate all these issues.

The conspiracy nut in me wonders if it's an intentional long-term ploy from the studios... A way for even dedicated collectors to go streaming-only.