Battle of the Bulge - Very Impressed

[blindcat87]

Now I'm going to have to bump this one up on my wish list. BTW, is there a list available somewhere of films shot in this format?

Chris

Originally Posted by Deciazulado

Movies shot in anamorphic 70mm (UltraPanavision 2.75) like Bulge should look great on High Definiton . Little grain from large format elements. One thing I found interesting when watching it reminded me of this fomat war, specially the German soldiers trained to pass as US soldiers mingling among them till the right moments to divert and sabotage the efforts of our side to win the war. But they ran out of time. And gas.

[Deciazulado]

Probably in the Widescreen Museum site. Off the top of my head, Ben Hur, It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World, The Greatest Story Ever Told, Khartoum, Raintree County, Mutiny On The Bounty I think

[spire_walk]

My biggest problem is that the tank battle looks like it was shot in a desert in Spain, rather than the French/German border during one of the worst snow storms in history.

[Kirsty_Mc]

Impressive PQ and brave to put it out in a quite extreme letterbox... a worthwhile title for any collection.

... Worthwhile even if you only want to count all the inaccuracies, which are numerous indeed .

[Tns49]

Originally Posted by Knight-Errant

Well I love it and it's a really good transfer. The sound is awesome.

I'll leave it to someone more technically minded to talk about the encoding but it was a great experience for this movie lover.

Seriously what's not to like about this film? Great cast, amazing battles, beautiful direction.

Picture quality is okay, and considering it was ultra panavision, not necessarily a surprise. But the Audio is only a dolby digital version and quite mediocre.

[UseY0ur1llusi0n]

Originally Posted by Tns49

Picture quality is okay, and considering it was ultra panavision, not necessarily a surprise. But the Audio is only a dolby digital version and quite mediocre.

Wow! Nice bump. A good 7 years ! You beat my personal record

[Tns49]

Originally Posted by UseY0ur1llusi0n

Wow! Nice bump. A good 7 years ! You beat my personal record

I had been ignoring it because of reviews and it not being one of favorite movies. Just bought it because I got it for less than $5. I was surprised because at least some said good things about the audio on this THE OFFICIAL thread for the movie.


Blu-ray since 2006. Its been a really rare DVD that I bought since then.

[Early Memphis]

Has anyone heard of any issues with these discs? I bought a copy on eBay which had taken a hard blow to the back leaving some very slight scratches on the disc. It skipped a few times and then somewhere about the 1:20 mark it just froze and wouldn't go another second. The thing is, the marks just don't look that severe. I got a full refund, but before I put this back on the buy list (great PQ despite the weak AQ), I thought I'd check in case this is more than just these tiny marks.

[pmil]

Originally Posted by Early Memphis

Has anyone heard of any issues with these discs? I bought a copy on eBay which had taken a hard blow to the back leaving some very slight scratches on the disc. It skipped a few times and then somewhere about the 1:20 mark it just froze and wouldn't go another second. The thing is, the marks just don't look that severe. I got a full refund, but before I put this back on the buy list (great PQ despite the weak AQ), I thought I'd check in case this is more than just these tiny marks.

My disc ended up being fine but these flimsy cases with cut outs often lead to scratched discs. I replace the cases with Vortex cases.

As for the video quality of the Battle of the Bugle, I'm disappointed. Clearly some noise reduction was used so fine detail is not as good as it could be. A real shame because everything else about the video quality is absolutely gorgeous.

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by pmil

My disc ended up being fine but these flimsy cases with cut outs often lead to scratched discs. I replace the cases with Vortex cases.

As for the video quality of the Battle of the Bugle, I'm disappointed. Clearly some noise reduction was used so fine detail is not as good as it could be. A real shame because everything else about the video quality is absolutely gorgeous.

The PQ is not horrendously bad. The worst part is the lossy DD 5.1 640 kbps.

[pmil]

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

The PQ is not horrendously bad. The worst part is the lossy DD 5.1 640 kbps.

I'm probably going to sell it. It's not as good as I remember it.

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by pmil

I'm probably going to sell it. It's not as good as I remember it.

Well, the worst problems with the film are American tanks playing German tanks and the lack of blood. Then there's the problem that the American tanks are M24 Chaffees when they should be M4 Shermans.

[AgentOrange]

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

The PQ is not horrendously bad. The worst part is the lossy DD 5.1 640 kbps.

Keep in mind this was shot on Ultra Panavision 70. It's probably like the first DNR smeared Patton, in that the actual picture can still look pretty great because of the large format cameras. But it's still a far cry compared to what it could look like from a modern scan/restoration. This film could easily be reference quality like Ben Hur or Lawrence of Arabia IMO, but the existing blu-ray is not even close. I'm sure that was a DVD master, they didn't even bother upgrading the audio.

This is one of the top catalog films I hope gets "fixed" with an UHD release. Just because it probably has one of the largest margins of potential improvement from the old disc (of course there is plenty of improvement a new blu-ray could bring too, but at this point any 4K or better restorations might as well be UHD imo).

[pmil]

Originally Posted by AgentOrange

Keep in mind this was shot on Ultra Panavision 70. It's probably like the first DNR smeared Patton, in that the actual picture can still look pretty great because of the large format cameras. But it's still a far cry compared to what it could look like from a modern scan/restoration. This film could easily be reference quality like Ben Hur or Lawrence of Arabia IMO, but the existing blu-ray is not even close. I'm sure that was a DVD master, they didn't even bother upgrading the audio.

This is one of the top catalog films I hope gets "fixed" with an UHD release. Just because it probably has one of the largest margins of potential improvement from the old disc (of course there is plenty of improvement a new blu-ray could bring too, but at this point any 4K or better restorations might as well be UHD imo).

I think Patton (second remastered version) has better quality (more detail) than Ben Hur. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang does too. All 70mm movies. That said, Ben Hur looks amazing, except for some soft scenes common in older movies. It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is another impressive 70mm movie, though I need to turn down the sharpness for that one.

[pmil]

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

Well, the worst problems with the film are American tanks playing German tanks and the lack of blood. Then there's the problem that the American tanks are M24 Chaffees when they should be M4 Shermans.

That doesn't bother me. Older movies can be like that. Imdon'tI need to see blood. The movie simply didn't keep my interest.

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by pmil

That doesn't bother me. Older movies can be like that. Imdon'tI need to see blood. The movie simply didn't keep my interest.

It just bothered me that people were getting shot left and right and there was no blood.

[CinemaScope]

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

It just bothered me that people were getting shot left and right and there was no blood.

Ha, that's also every western up to the mid-sixties It's okay, but it does give the impression that once the oil dump was blown-up the battle was over, pure cobblers, but then they weren't that bothered about historical accuracy in those days (The Great Escape film is mostly pure fantasy). It probably looked fantastic a few years ago, not so much now (I have it, but haven't looked at it in ages). It would look amazing with a new scan from the OCN, the same with the Brando, Mutiny On The Bounty...& Where Eagles Dare really does need a new scan!

[pmil]

Originally Posted by CinemaScope

Ha, that's also every western up to the mid-sixties It's okay, but it does give the impression that once the oil dump was blown-up the battle was over, pure cobblers, but then they weren't that bothered about historical accuracy in those days (The Great Escape film is mostly pure fantasy). It probably looked fantastic a few years ago, not so much now (I have it, but haven't looked at it in ages). It would look amazing with a new scan from the OCN, the same with the Brando, Mutiny On The Bounty...& Where Eagles Dare really does need a new scan!

The Great Escaoe is really a sore spot for you Brits, huh?

The only part of the film that was claimed to be accurate in the Great Escape was the actually escape method and related aspects of it. Just be grateful that actual British actors were used in that American film.

[mdonovan]

the great escape always looked crappy on blu ... there was a flame war over it being the original optical elements that caused the crappiness when it was released.

it's still an entertaining film.

[pmil]

Originally Posted by mdonovan

the great escape always looked crappy on blu ... there was a flame war over it being the original optical elements that caused the crappiness when it was released.

it's still an entertaining film.

Oh I definitely on video quality; it's very disappointing. No doubt a remaster is coming. I look forward to it. I don't think it had anything to do with the lenses used during filming. That's just silly. Even the central parts of the image look poor.

Agree that it's a fun film. One of my favorites as a child. I also liked the way the functional parts of it were done. It's what helped most to make it fun.