The Big Chill (1983)

[Brad1963]

Originally Posted by oildude

I really appreciate your enthusiasm for this film. It has been many years (two decades in fact) since I last saw it, and at that time I was a generation behind the characters in the film. But it still resonated with me. I will definitely be getting this.

I do too. On another site there was endless bashing of the film and anger about it being in the Criterion Collection. (Most of these people cannot remember back when it was a Criterion Laserdisc. ) I watched it this past weekend with much enthusiasm and with a few actual tears. The film is a thing of beauty; superb in all levels and has endured so long because it is so relatable to everyone. The Q&A was fun, I loved hearing everyone’s thoughts about it 30 years later; and yeah sadly it was one of the last of its kind for Hollywood, the studios do not finance films like this anymore.

[billyearle]

Originally Posted by Filmmaker

Same exact story here (born 1972). My mom loved the film, and I adore Jeff Goldblum, but I've just never been able to work up any enthusiasm to see it. I don't know what it is. I really love EASY RIDER, the other film than defined the boomer generation (its younger self, versus THE BIG CHILL's interest in its older self), but this one just seems...I dunno...too "white people", if that's makes any sense.

I was relieved to hear a lot of wary comments about this film. Getting a Criterion blu-ray release has made me painfully curious (especially to see Meg Tilly's opening workout in HD). I've never been able to sit through the film in the past, but wanted to give it another chance. There were many things that turned me off about this movie, but I never saw more than chunks of it on cable. I was also in high school when this came out, and not only was I the "wrong" generation, I was also poor and artsy (and still am), so the whole yuppy anxst thing was not hooking me.
I'd be really curious to see if any of the wary posters check this out and hear their opinions. The Don Knotts avatar guy's pro and con comments sound about right to me.

[AnamorphicWidescreen]

Just watched The Big Chill on the Criterion Blu, and am quite impressed. This is only the second time I've seen this, and this viewing resonated much more than the first one. Obviously, excellent soundtrack; the music wasn't new as of '83 (when the film was released), but was presumably supposed to reflect what the characters had been listening to in their college years.

Appreciated the theme of friends who had drifted apart over the years coming together & reminiscing/reflecting on their collective past(s). Very nostalgic, and I think all of us in a certain age range can probably relate to this...

Did have one question about the film: I know that K. Costner played the friend Alex who had passed away - was his actual face ever seen in the film itself, or in a deleted scene? I looked for him carefully, and though his body was being prepared before the funeral, I don't remember seeing his face at all in the film; several of the deleted scenes show his friends looking down at him in the casket, but you never see him at all in these scenes either....Just wondering...

Re: the PQ, this Blu is definitely superior to the picture quality of the regular DVD. However, it's worth nothing that while many of the outdoor scenes were incredibly sharp/vivid, the indoor scenes seemed much softer... Maybe it was the lighting....

[filmmusic]

I'm just watching The Big Chill.
At exactly 13.47'' (when the organ plays and after William Hurt laughs), there is a popping sound in the 5.1 mix.
It isn't there in the mono audio.
Can anyone who have the disc please verify if he hears it too?
(This can be heard in the rear channels too)

[PowellPressburger]

I just checked my disc and I played it a few times to make sure but no pops on the 5.1 mix. Does your disc do it each time you play that? I wonder what could cause it. Maybe others will chime in. Could be some sort of compatibility issue between player / receiver etc.

[filmmusic]

Originally Posted by PowellPressburger

I just checked my disc and I played it a few times to make sure but no pops on the 5.1 mix. Does your disc do it each time you play that? I wonder what could cause it. Maybe others will chime in. Could be some sort of compatibility issue between player / receiver etc.

Thanks for checking!

Weird..
Yes, it does it at exactly the same spot every time.
It's a popping sound and more like a glitch in the mix too.
I play the Bluray on my PC with powerDVD.
I will try another software, but I believe I will have the same results. Let me check.

edit: ok, this is weirder!

I played again the Bluray with powerdvd and it does again that glitch and popping sound. It's very distracting indeed!
BUT, i played it afterwards with MPC-HD and it doesn't do it!!!
Can't understand why PowerDVD would do this!
Anyway, it seems I'm OK now, as long as I play the disc with MPC.

[lilboyblu]

Dr. Svet's review has me intrigued. I've read other great things about The Big Chill too, and am considering picking it up at the CC sale. How does it compare to Kasdan's Grand Canyon? I thought that Grand Canyon was good, but I wasn't bowled over by it. Thanks for any input.

[Tommy0807]

Originally Posted by lilboyblu

Dr. Svet's review has me intrigued. I've read other great things about The Big Chill too, and am considering picking it up at the CC sale. How does it compare to Kasdan's Grand Canyon? I thought that Grand Canyon was good, but I wasn't bowled over by it. Thanks for any input.

I like The Big Chill better than Grand Canyon, but I've only seen GC once and remember little about it. I've seen TBC a dozen or more times. Objectively, I like the film, but I also have a soft spot for it because it came out when I was in college and a group of my friends went to see it, and we tried to figure out which character would be us in 10 years. We regularly rented it and watched it time and again. I bought the DVD years ago, and though I liked it, it didn't completely hold up for me, but then when the CC Blu-ray came out, I bought it and, after not having seen the movie in a few years, it held up beautifully.

I was 10-15 years younger than the characters when the movie was released. Now I'm a good 20 years older than they are, so I see things differently, but I still enjoyed it very much. YMMV.

[PatrynXX]

just from a point of being a geek I had to look up wetgate Oxberry film scanner... Which the datasheet says only runs on Windows 2000 and XP. So in 2014 they were still using XP I guess. which when you make the perfect OS it tends to be rather reliable. Especially if you don't need to be online. But just thought to include that bit for anyone looking it up, Considering wetgate as a name I assume (right or wrong) the negative was wet when it was scanned. My negative scanner allows this but its a $60 addon for a $700 scanner.

[Cremildo]

Originally Posted by cupboy

I wanted to trade in a Blu-ray to get the price down a little and he said since it was region-free it would require the use of a region-free player. I told him all Warners Bros. Blu-rays are region free. I decided just to leave.

Why didn't you explain to him that region-free discs play in any Blu-ray player, which is precisely why they're region-free?

[trevanian]

Originally Posted by billyearle

I was relieved to hear a lot of wary comments about this film. Getting a Criterion blu-ray release has made me painfully curious (especially to see Meg Tilly's opening workout in HD). I've never been able to sit through the film in the past, but wanted to give it another chance. There were many things that turned me off about this movie, but I never saw more than chunks of it on cable. I was also in high school when this came out, and not only was I the "wrong" generation, I was also poor and artsy (and still am), so the whole yuppy anxst thing was not hooking me.
I'd be really curious to see if any of the wary posters check this out and hear their opinions. The Don Knotts avatar guy's pro and con comments sound about right to me.

For an informed dissenting opinion on this, you might try to find Harlan Ellison's 'the song the sixties sang' and how it takes 'great then - shit now' to a whole new level regarding 60s activiism. I couldn't figure out how a movie with a cast this good could be so off while i was watching it the first time, or why the only character I could root for (at least until his 'realization' at the end) was a disparaging drug dealer, but I think the Ellison passage about this film encapsulated all my bad feelings.

add-on: It's funny, I clicked on this after misreading the title, was looking for thread on THE BIG FIX (which actually does do honor to the ideals and idealists of the 70s, even while showing how the near-inevitable selling out doesn't have to be as soulless and ghoulish as it seems here.)

I have forced myself to rewatch the film twice in the 20 years, and both times I again found myself getting enraged. I was only 22 when this came out, so I wasn't part of the generation it was aimed at, and yet I have enough respect for their part in history to take umbrage at what Kasdan did here (was a big fan of his up to this, and in spite of it still managed to see SILVERADO several times in the theater.)

[SYoung1960]

Originally Posted by AnamorphicWidescreen

... Did have one question about the film: I know that K. Costner played the friend Alex who had passed away - was his actual face ever seen in the film itself, or in a deleted scene? I looked for him carefully, and though his body was being prepared before the funeral, I don't remember seeing his face at all in the film; several of the deleted scenes show his friends looking down at him in the casket, but you never see him at all in these scenes either... Just wondering...

I worked at Columbia Pictures when this film was made and sat in on an early audience screening. Kevin Costner appeared in a flashback scene at the end of the film. All of the characters were made up to look younger - different hairstyles, beards, hippie clothes, etc. It was set on Thanksgiving, and all were gathered to celebrate. The main reason the scene was cut is that no matter how hard they tried, all of the characters DID NOT look any younger. In a couple cases, their styling just looked ridiculous. The comments from the audience at that screening were scathing about that scene, so Kasdan cut it, thus also cutting Costner's only appearance in the film. In the early scenes, where the corpse is being dressed, the slit marks on the wrist covered, etc. - that's actually Kevin Costner as the corpse, but in that early audience screening his face was never seen until that terrible flashback scene at the end. I have a black & white picture of the cast (including Costner) from that cut flashback scene. I believe there's some contractual reason that this scene was never included as a Deleted Scene on any DVD or Blu Ray release. I can't remember specifics, but it had to do with payments to Costner and credits, and if memory serves correctly, the studio didn't want to pony up the additional costs to be able to put that scene back into any home media releases. Strangely, too, is that when Kasdan published the screenplay several years ago, it was an edited version of the script that had that scene completely removed. Copies of the shooting script are available online that DO have that scene intact.

[bunyboy]

I’d love to see The Big Chill again but am in the UK and it’s not available here. I’d love to get the Criterion but can’t play region A discs. I have spotted an Australian release though... does anyone have it? What’s the picture like? Does it have comparable extras?

Thanks!

[Vogler]

Hi everybody,

Does anyone know if the French 2021 edition of The Big Chill by BQHL, Les Copains d'abord, is based on the same transfer as the Criterion edition?

If not, how is the video quality compared with the Criterion BD?

Thanks!

[gates70]

RIP William Hurt

[Rick Grimes]

Never seen The Big Chill, but I do have the Aussie release (which I believe is the Criterion 4K scan).



William Hurt was a great actor and it showed in all of his work. His passing will be a great reason to watch the film, and probably revisit A History of Violence (an example of a great character actor performance in that one). RIP William Hurt.

[Dan8700]

Originally Posted by Vogler

Hi everybody,
Does anyone know if the French 2021 edition of The Big Chill by BQHL, Les Copains d'abord, is based on the same transfer as the Criterion edition?
If not, how is the video quality compared with the Criterion BD?

Thanks!

Originally Posted by bunyboy

I’d love to see The Big Chill again but am in the UK and it’s not available here. I’d love to get the Criterion but can’t play region A discs. I have spotted an Australian release though... does anyone have it? What’s the picture like? Does it have comparable extras?
Thanks!

Late reply, but, if you're still on this forum, I've just posted a comparison between the Italian Sony and the Criterion, and beside being superior PQ-wise, it's being sold at a ridiculous price. (I also tested it, and it's B-locked). Cheers.

[cdmaniac]

Any rumors about this getting a 4K?

[Brayden96]

Originally Posted by cdmaniac

Any rumors about this getting a 4K?

Bit of a surprise it hasn't given it was remastered in 4K for this release.