Bram Stoker's Dracula Blu-ray

[EvilAshLives]

Originally Posted by Zen_Amako

I sold my copy of the Blu-ray and kept the Superbit DVD. I still really like the movie. Coppola put in a lot of references to other films like Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast and of course Nosferatu.

I kept the blu-ray for the extras, but when I watch the film it's always the Superbit DVD.

EvilAshLives

[vidjunkie]

I thought the super bit DVD was to bright? obviously the BD is really dark, but wouldn't it be better to have it set somewhere in between? also is there anywhere online that has comparison shots between the 2? I need to find my super bit DVD.

Thanks

[EvilAshLives]

Originally Posted by vidjunkie

I thought the super bit DVD was to bright? obviously the BD is really dark, but wouldn't it be better to have it set somewhere in between? also is there anywhere online that has comparison shots between the 2? I need to find my super bit DVD.

Thanks

Caps-a-holic has comparison shots between the blu-ray and the Superbit. To my eyes, the Superbit simply looks more like what I remember seeing in the theater (and I saw it several times).

http://www.caps-a-holic.com/hd_vergl...mage=0#auswahl

EvilAshLives

[vidjunkie]

Originally Posted by EvilAshLives

Caps-a-holic has comparison shots between the blu-ray and the Superbit. To my eyes, the Superbit simply looks more like what I remember seeing in the theater (and I saw it several times).

http://www.caps-a-holic.com/hd_vergl...mage=0#auswahl

EvilAshLives

I agree, and I saw it several times as well and I actually think I have 2 LD releases of this, 1 being Criterion, might have to retime the BD.

[billyearle]

Would there be any reason to try any of the international releases? I'm not sure how Sony titles work, are they the exactly the same everywhere regarding PQ? It's been too long since I saw this in the theatre, but I remember being really impressed visually. The US BD doesn't look bad to me, but there's always room for improvement.

[FrankV]

Originally Posted by billyearle

Would there be any reason to try any of the international releases? I'm not sure how Sony titles work, are they the exactly the same everywhere regarding PQ? It's been too long since I saw this in the theatre, but I remember being really impressed visually. The US BD doesn't look bad to me, but there's always room for improvement.

Yes, they are exactly the same everywhere regarding PQ.

[lateralspin]

I would like a steelbook of this excellent movie with the original poster artwork, pretty please. (Not the horrible current artwork of an old person covering his face!!)

[cesarbox]

Originally Posted by KubrickFan

I have to agree with you on Keanu, but the rest? How is a lack of realistic approach a bad thing, when the director isn't going for a realistic approach? Also, the effects in Dracula would've been impossible to do in CG in 1992, and I think it's great that Coppola made sure that most effects were actually done in camera. It made special effects actually seem special.

I absolutely agree with you. The interesting thing is the use of special effects done in camera as in old times. It was a choice, not a need...

[bcmlt91]

Terminator 2 Judgdement Day had excellent Special Effects with CG (It was released a year earlier than Bram Stoker's Dracula), so the technology was there, but yet again, if they wanted to do Dracula with CG effects, they would have brought in James Cameron and his team instead of Coppola, but yet again, the Dracula movie couldn't have been better than this one.

My fav. of all Dracula releases and the best and closest interpretation of the original Dracula story.

[lateralspin]

For shame, the contrast and brightness in the blu-ray release are so low that in one scene where there is text on the screen, you can't read the text because it is too dark. Someone failed to check that scene.

[bhampton]

Originally Posted by bcmlt91

My fav. of all Dracula releases and the best and closest interpretation of the original Dracula story.

I read the book. I was hoping to get more from the movie having read the book.

I don't think the movie is very similar to the book but maybe none of the movie versions are.

Most of what I got from the book was sympathy for Dracula… esp as they hunted him down.

[#Darren]

Originally Posted by bhampton

I read the book. I was hoping to get more from the movie having read the book.

I don't think the movie is very similar to the book but maybe none of the movie versions are.

Most of what I got from the book was sympathy for Dracula… esp as they hunted him down.

My memory of the book is that Dracula is depicted simply as pure evil, with no sympathy.

[Ben_R]

IIRC this was released back in 2007 so surely this is due for a new transfer

[OI8T12]

Originally Posted by Ben_R

IIRC this was released back in 2007 so surely this is due for a new transfer

My thoughts exactly. This is why I probably will wait for a new release.

[tylerdurden10]

Originally Posted by OI8T12

My thoughts exactly. This is why I probably will wait for a new release.

I've been waiting years for a re-release, unfortunately I just don't see it happening any time soon.

Although, Sony DID do a 4k scan re-release of Godzilla, so anything is possible!

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by bcmlt91

My fav. of all Dracula releases and the best and closest interpretation of the original Dracula story.

Not at all. In fact, my main grouse with the film is its title. It is NOT the Dracula that Stoker created. The closest I have seen is the BBC 1977 TV version (Count Dracula) with Louis Jourdan. Obviously, it's nowhere as visually spectacular, but the characters are a good deal closer to the source - Renfield especially is fantastic in that one.

[Rizor]

Originally Posted by ravenus

Not at all. In fact, my main grouse with the film is its title. It is NOT the Dracula that Stoker created. The closest I have seen is the BBC 1977 TV version (Count Dracula) with Louis Jourdan. Obviously, it's nowhere as visually spectacular, but the characters are a good deal closer to the source - Renfield especially is fantastic in that one.

I agree that the BBC version with Louis Jordan is likely the closest adaptation of the novel. It's suffers from the cheap video look and some silly psychedelic effects and music.

As for film versions, Bram Stoker's Dracula is still probably the closest. It retains all of the characters and the plot of the novel. It does, however, make the HUGE changes of inserting the Vlad the Impaler backstory and the Mina reincarnation love story.

The Frank Langella film and the Bela Legosi film are both based on a stage play adaptation rather than the novel itself. My favorite overall Dracula film, Werner Herzog's Nosferatu, is of course, based on F.W. Murnau's version which made changes because they didn't have the rights to Dracula.

I'd still love to see a big budget film version that was truer to the novel, which is one of my favorite books.

[slimdude]

Originally Posted by Ben_R

IIRC this was released back in 2007 so surely this is due for a new transfer

That's the way the movie was filmed intentionally. Dracula was not meant to look pristine.

[bhampton]

A good thing is the book is FREE now. that's fun. You can download it from wherever because it's gone to public domain.

Frankenstien too... That was a good read.

[kurtis21]

Unfortunately...I believe that I read somewhere before that Coppola actually "surpervised" the blu-ray treatment and that he wanted it to look like an old film. So going by that....I doubt there will be a new release with better PQ unless the studio puts one out themselves without Coppola's input...