Equus (1977)

[McCrutchy]

BFI will release Sidney Lumet's Equus (1977) on 17 August 2020.

[McCrutchy]

This is now a 2 disc edition. Here are the extras:

• 2-DISC LIMITED EDITION (3,000 copies only)
• Audio commentary by Julie Kirgo and Nick Redman (2014)
• Isolated score
• Sidney Lumet Guardian Lecture (1981, 89 mins, audio only): Director Sidney Lumet talks to Derek Malcolm about US politics, the state of the film industry and how he approaches his craft in this interview recorded at the National Film Theatre
• Peter Firth in conversation with Leigh Singer (2020, 45 mins, audio): Actor Peter Firth talks to Leigh Singer about his work in both the National Theatre and Broadway productions of Peter Shaffer's play Equus and how he came to be involved in Sidney Lumet's film adaptation
• The Watchers (26 mins): Richard Foster's BFI-produced short imbues the English landscape with extra-terrestrial menace as Julie's fate is sealed in an extraordinary climax
• In From the Cold? A Portrait of Richard Burton (1988, 126 mins): Tony Palmer's feature-length documentary profiling the iconic actor is filled with insightful interviews (including several archival ones with Burton himself) and some brief but enjoyable snippets from several of his films
• Religion and the People (1940, 14 mins): Short documentary by Andrew Buchanan illustrating a time when faith lay at the very heart of the British experience
• The Farmer's Horse (1951, 17 mins): In a time of increasing mechanisation, this public information film makes the case for the sturdy and reliable farm horse
• Original theatrical trailer
• ***FIRST PRESSING ONLY*** Fully illustrated booklet with new writing on the film, director Sidney Lumet and writer Peter Shaffer and full film credits.

[Aunt Peg]

Already have the Twilight edition but very tempted to double dip.

[McCrutchy]

Originally Posted by Aunt Peg

Already have the Twilight edition but very tempted to double dip.

The BFI looks to have all the Twilight Time extras and will probably have better encoding as well, since the Twilight Time disc was encoded a bit strangely, with the upscaled 126-minute Palmer documentary taking up almost half of the single BD-50 disc and essentially forcing the 137-minute feature film into a BD-25 presentation..

Also, I'm hoping that the documentary has subtitles and chapters on this release.

[KJones77]

I'm tempted by this, but have never seen because of the horse bit. How brutal is it and how long does it take? Otherwise, this one seems right up my alley...

[Spiderwalk]

I haven't seen this before, but I'll check it out for Scooper and Jenny Agutter Prime™

...and that Welsh feller too, he's okay.

[McCrutchy]

Well, the full specs have been announced and unfortunately, despite advertising this as a "Limited Edition 2-disc Blu-ray", now "some extras are on [a PAL] DVD":

EQUUS
Directed by Sidney Lumet
Starring Richard Burton with Peter Firth, Colin Blakely, Joan Plowright, Harry Andrews, Eileen Atkins and Jenny Agutter

Limited Edition – 3,000 copies only – Blu-ray release on 17 August 2020

This Oscar® nominated* adaptation of Peter Shaffer’s Tony Award-winning play, released by the BFI on Limited Edition Blu-ray with a raft of extras including a new interview with Peter Firth, erupts on the screen with the same power and passion as the stage original. Richard Burton gives one of his best performances in this elegant and provocative tale of myth and mental turmoil.

What would drive Alan Strang (Peter Firth), a troubled adolescent stable boy, to blind the horses in his care? Psychiatrist Martin Dysart (Richard Burton) investigates this unspeakable act and delves deep into Alan’s mind, confronting the mysteries of sexual passion and psychological pain – as well as the demons buried within his own soul.

*1978 (50th) ACTOR – Richard Burton, SUPPORTING ACTOR – Peter Firth, WRITING (Screenplay – based on material from another medium) – Peter Shaffer

Special features
(NB. Some extras are on DVD)
• Feature presented in High Definition
• Audio commentary by Julie Kirgo and Nick Redman (2014)
• Isolated score
• Sidney Lumet Guardian Lecture (1981, 89 mins, audio only): director Sidney Lumet talks to Derek Malcolm in this interview recorded at the National Film Theatre
• Peter Firth in conversation with Leigh Singer (2020, 39 mins, audio over stills gallery)
• The Watchers (1969, 26 mins): BFI-produced short film directed by Richard Foster
• In From the Cold? A Portrait of Richard Burton (1988, 121 mins): Tony Palmer’s award-winning feature-length documentary profile
• Religion and the People (1940, 14 mins): documentary by Andrew Buchanan illustrating a time when faith lay at the heart of the British experience
• The Farmer’s Horse (1951, 18 mins): in a time of increasing mechanisation, this public information film makes the case for the sturdy farm horse
• Trailer
• Illustrated booklet with new writing by Sidney Lumet’s biographer Maura Spiegel and arts filmmaker John Wyver; notes on the extras and full credits

Product details
RRP: £22.99 / Cat. no. BFIB1399 / 15
USA / 1977 / colour / 138 mins / English language, with optional hard-of-hearing subtitles / original aspect ratio 1.85:1 // Disc 1: BD50, 1080p, 24fps, PCM 2.0 mono audio (48kHz/24-bit) / Disc 2: DVD9, PAL, 25fps, Dolby Digital mono audio (320kbps)

The bolding is mine.

I'm a bit pissed off about this, as I ordered the release (and posted about it here) on the understanding that I was getting a 2xBD set, not yet another BFI release where part of the package is on a DVD. I'm sure--at least now, I'm certainly hoping--that this applies to Richard Burton: In from the Cold (now down from 126 to 121 minutes, no doubt due to PAL speed), because even though Twilight Time encoded it as "1080p", I recall that it was very much not HD quality and may only exist as an SD PAL master. Still, I would have preferred to get it upscaled to 1080/50i or 1080p24, and then, who knows what, if any, other extras are also on the DVD? BFI unhelpfully doesn't specify that, either.

I'm not saying that I wouldn't have ordered this regardless, because the presentation is still likely to be an improvement on the Twilight Time disc, but BFI are now the only major UK label who consistently make these unprofessional and somewhat embarrassing last minute format changes, and it irritates me to order something under false pretenses.

I'm sorry for posting what were apparently preliminary specs (albeit from the BFI Shop site listing and still, as of now, on Amazon) and possibly leading anyone else to purchase this thinking it would be a two-disc Blu-ray release. In the future, I suppose I will have to wait until the full press release is provided to make threads about BFI releases.

[CelestialAgent]

Originally Posted by McCrutchy

Well, the full specs have been announced and unfortunately, despite advertising this as a "Limited Edition 2-disc Blu-ray", now "some extras are on [a PAL] DVD":

The bolding is mine.

I'm a bit pissed off about this, as I ordered the release (and posted about it here) on the understanding that I was getting a 2xBD set, not yet another BFI release where part of the package is on a DVD. I'm sure--at least now, I'm certainly hoping--that this applies to Richard Burton: In from the Cold (now down from 126 to 121 minutes, no doubt due to PAL speed), because even though Twilight Time encoded it as "1080p", I recall that it was very much not HD quality and may only exist as an SD PAL master. Still, I would have preferred to get it upscaled to 1080/50i or 1080p24, and then, who knows what, if any, other extras are also on the DVD? BFI unhelpfully doesn't specify that, either.

I'm not saying that I wouldn't have ordered this regardless, because the presentation is still likely to be an improvement on the Twilight Time disc, but BFI are now the only major UK label who consistently make these unprofessional and somewhat embarrassing last minute format changes, and it irritates me to order something under false pretenses.

I'm sorry for posting what were apparently preliminary specs (albeit from the BFI Shop site listing and still, as of now, on Amazon) and possibly leading anyone else to purchase this thinking it would be a two-disc Blu-ray release. In the future, I suppose I will have to wait until the full press release is provided to make threads about BFI releases.

I think it’s more annoying with something like Spetters, where the existing extras are presumably in HD. This was standard practice for the BFI at the start, albeit with dual format titles - and also with bonus discs for titles like The Killing of a Chinese Bookie. Tbh it would be a waste to put SD extras on the BD when they don’t need to go to the expense, and at least it isn’t what the German labels do where they regularly shift the HD bonus features over to a bonus disc they can take away when they do the keepcase edition.

[McCrutchy]

Originally Posted by CelestialAgent

I think it’s more annoying with something like Spetters, where the existing extras are presumably in HD. This was standard practice for the BFI at the start, albeit with dual format titles - and also with bonus discs for titles like The Killing of a Chinese Bookie. Tbh it would be a waste to put SD extras on the BD when they don’t need to go to the expense, and at least it isn’t what the German labels do where they regularly shift the HD bonus features over to a bonus disc they can take away when they do the keepcase edition.

Yes, but we still don't know if any of the extras are SD, because the press release doesn't specify what is on the DVD. Because of the run time change, we can assume that Richard Burton: In from the Cold may be on there, but if that was the only extra on the disc, you'd think that BFI would have simply said exactly that. Instead the press release says "some extras are on DVD", which of course implies more than one extra.

And I agree, Spetters is another annoying release where BFI ultimately skimped on the presentation to save a few pennies, and there I'm pretty sure they could have put everything on the one Blu-ray if they had optimized the compression of the SD and HD extras, but instead tried to incentivize buying the first edition by making the second disc a limited edition exclusive. And as I recall, initially they were quite happy to let everyone assume that Spetters was a two-disc Blu-ray before they updated the specs to explicitly state that the second disc was actually a DVD, although they weren't as misleading about it there as they have been with Equus.

[eChopper]

So long as they dedicate most of the Film to a bd 50 with excellent compression, they can put the extras on a VHS tape

After all the extras weren’t high res sources

What’s incredible about this story is that it was loosely based on true events. Burton was robbed of the academy award that year

[eChopper]

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film9/blu-r...us_blu-ray.htm

[monologuerecords]

Originally Posted by KJones77

I'm tempted by this, but have never seen because of the horse bit. How brutal is it and how long does it take? Otherwise, this one seems right up my alley...

It's very brief. Momentarily shocking, but not particularly well done technically. So more upsetting conceptually than anything. If you're already thinking about it being upsetting, it probably won't be as bad as you're expecting. But in the context of a genuinely troubling drama anchored by amazing performances, it still packs a punch emotionally.

[monologuerecords]

Originally Posted by eChopper

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film9/blu-r...us_blu-ray.htm

Gotta be honest, on the basis of the screen grabs here, I think the TT looks better. Different strokes for different folks but, if you ask me, the BFI is a teeny bit over-saturated by comparison.

Of course, I could just be twisting my own arm because I paid thorough the ying yang to import the TT to Europe...

[pferreira]

Alan: I did not do anything to that animal!

Police Officer: Is he telling the truth?

Horse: Neeeeiiiigh!

Sorry I had to.

[spatafore]

Criterion or Indicator could release this? just curious to wait.

[Aunt Peg]

Originally Posted by spatafore

Criterion or Indicator could release this? just curious to wait.

I really sort of doubt it. I love the film but it was never a big seller for Twilight Films and given the BFI are only just releasing it I doubt Indicator would be interested. A possibly Kino release in the US wouldn't be out of the question though.

[justwannaboogie]

How and why would indicator release a film just released by BFI? Already seems like a great package overall.

[Scottishguy]

Originally Posted by monologuerecords

Gotta be honest, on the basis of the screen grabs here, I think the TT looks better. Different strokes for different folks but, if you ask me, the BFI is a teeny bit over-saturated by comparison.

Of course, I could just be twisting my own arm because I paid thorough the ying yang to import the TT to Europe...

The BFI release looks less compressed to my eyes, more saturation. Will be watching it soon.

[BigNickUK]

Originally Posted by spatafore

Criterion or Indicator could release this? just curious to wait.

Trying not to be rude, this slavish worship for all things Criterion seems to be getting out of hand.
They are good but so are a lot of other labels. Just because its Criterion doesnt automatically mean it will be the best release.

[Scottishguy]

Originally Posted by BigNickUK

Trying not to be rude, this slavish worship for all things Criterion seems to be getting out of hand.
They are good but so are a lot of other labels. Just because its Criterion doesnt automatically mean it will be the best release.

Last time I checked, the BFI release of Wages Of Fear is technically superior to the Criterion release.