El Cid (1961)

[fredworld]

Originally Posted by Elvis_Tangerium

Just picked up the Rimini El Cid. Packaging says Region B, but disc started right up on my regular NA player, no region warnings.

Interesting. Thank you. If you don't mind, would you pls state what player you have?

[Elvis_Tangerium]

Originally Posted by fredworld

Interesting. Thank you. If you don't mind, would you pls state what player you have?

Panasonic. Normally, to get a region B disc to play, you have to do the Stop / Top Menu trick after the message.

[fredworld]

Originally Posted by Elvis_Tangerium

Panasonic. Normally, to get a region B disc to play, you have to do the Stop / Top Menu trick after the message.

Thanks. I'm familiar with that hack. I have the Panny 820 and 420. But did I understand your post correctly, that the discs played without the hack?

[RangerofJacurutu]

Can anyone tell me if the umbrella entertainment blu ray of El Cid will play in region A players or not (or if the stop/ main menu trick works)? I know it says region B on the cover, but I was told by someone that it plays in region A players and wanted to see if anyone can confirm this for me.

Thanks in advance

[iaragorn1]

Originally Posted by RangerofJacurutu

Can anyone tell me if the umbrella entertainment blu ray of El Cid will play in region A players or not (or if the stop/ main menu trick works)? I know it says region B on the cover, but I was told by someone that it plays in region A players and wanted to see if anyone can confirm this for me.

Thanks in advance

If you read the last few posts literally right above yours, Elvis says it plays without any hacks

[fredworld]

Originally Posted by RangerofJacurutu

Can anyone tell me if the umbrella entertainment blu ray of El Cid will play in region A players or not (or if the stop/ main menu trick works)? I know it says region B on the cover, but I was told by someone that it plays in region A players and wanted to see if anyone can confirm this for me.

Thanks in advance

I'm not sure if the Umbrella edition is the same as the Rimini that Elvis was referring to but the Rimini is advertised as Region A, B, C here.

[fredworld]

FWIW, I just measured my standard definition DVD Miriam Collection version. The aspect ratio is 2.25:1. It doesn't appear to be cropped down from a 2.35 print as one might expect if a 70mm negative wasn't available for mastering the DVD. Perhaps the packaging information on the Blu-rays mentioned in earlier posts are incorrect regarding a 2.35 AR, as is the case with my 55 Days at Peking.

[fredworld]

I ordered the Rimini edition of El Cid today. I'll report my impressions after viewing it.

[fredworld]

The Rimini edition of El Cid is beautifully packaged and includes one HD Blu-ray of El Cid and 2 standard definition DVDs: one DVD of the film and the other of supplemental materials. There’s also a glossy 90+ page booklet about the production with many color photos. The verbiage is all in French. The DVDs were not playable in any of my North American disc players (Panasonic, Sony and Denon) but the region free Blu-ray played flawlessly. The Blu-ray menu option easily allows selecting the original English but one must deactivate the French subtitles once the film begins. The DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack remains active. There’s a selection for a French soundtrack but in mono.

As for video quality of the film itself, it’s head and shoulders above my Miriam edition DVD set, which itself was a noticeable improvement over my old letterboxed Laserdisc. The film is presented in 2.35:1 aspect ratio with Overture, Intermission and Exit music. Depth of field focus is very good, not modern UHD-like, but considering the age of the film there are very few distractions. One noticeable anomaly is around 49:30 when broad swords are driven into the ground by squires. The upper corners of the frame have a flickering effect. I’m sure it’s source related because it appears on both my projection system and 49” UHD TV.

Color is well saturated and fabrics have a realistic look. Contrast levels aren’t always consistent but are mostly acceptable except for some black crush in black costumes and in dark backgrounds, otherwise it’s fairly easy to discern details throughout the film. For a 60+ year old film, it’s nearly gorgeous. Film grain is apparent and not distracting.
The DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack renders Miklos Rozsa’s score suitably expansive. Sound effects sound like they’re mostly from a stock 1960’s studio library with little subwoofer activity. There’s some distortion with sudden load voice exclamations. But overall, nothing about the soundtrack prevented me from enjoying the film this umpteenth time.

I’ll keep my Miriam Edition DVD set for its plethora of supplemental material but it’ll be the Rimini edition for rewatching this cinema classic which more closely restores my recollection of El Cid’s theatrical runs.

[drush9999]

I too watched the Rimini mediabook edition of El Cid recently. Fantastic film which I haven't seen in a few decades, my dad loves it. Pretty good PQ.

Have to laugh at how many films with sieges Charlton Heston is in:
El Cid
55 Days at Peking
The War Lord
Khartoum

Any more I missed?

[fredworld]

The Warlord
The Buccaneer

And I'd add The Naked Jungle to the list if one includes being on a plantation under siege by a host of ants.

[84lion]

Currently, on Ebay, two BR versions of El Cid available from Rarewaves are the Soul Media (Scandinavian) release and the Spirit Media (German) release. Are either of these versions equivalent to the Koch Media release? Which has better picture quality?

[Douglas R]

Originally Posted by 84lion

Currently, on Ebay, two BR versions of El Cid available from Rarewaves are the Soul Media (Scandinavian) release and the Spirit Media (German) release. Are either of these versions equivalent to the Koch Media release? Which has better picture quality?

Every Blu-ray of EL CID now on sale is from the same poor quality master.

[Maggot]

Originally Posted by Douglas R

Every Blu-ray of EL CID now on sale is from the same poor quality master.

Yeah........I don't know what the situation is with whatever "best quality" elements are still out there, but this REALLY needs a complete modern-day restoration. Since Martin Scorsese admires the film and was involved in work and release back in the Miriam Collection DVD days, he should be sounding the alarm to get this up to the best it can look for 4K. Last thing I ever read, and this was a long time ago, was that there were better elements found after the restoration work used for the DVD release. From what I understand, what you see on the Blu-rays out there are just more recent scans for 1080 releases of the same old outdated work. We don't even have a Blu-ray release here in the States, which is criminal.

[iaragorn1]

Originally Posted by Maggot

Yeah........I don't know what the situation is with whatever "best quality" elements are still out there, but this REALLY needs a complete modern-day restoration. Since Martin Scorsese admires the film and was involved in work and release back in the Miriam Collection DVD days, he should be sounding the alarm to get this up to the best it can look for 4K. Last thing I ever read, and this was a long time ago, was that there were better elements found after the restoration work used for the DVD release. From what I understand, what you see on the Blu-rays out there are just more recent scans for 1080 releases of the same old outdated work. We don't even have a Blu-ray release here in the States, which is criminal.

Weinstein presumably has the best elements in a vault somewhere.

Martin Scorsese helped restore the film which played at the Cinerema Dome and in Westwood where I saw it in 1993.

They added something like 16 minutes to the film. I'm pretty sure I had a lobby card from this showing and if I ever find it, I will post it.

I'm probably one of a few people who has actually seen it on the big screen (At least that restoration).

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-...511-story.html

https://variety.com/1993/film/news/m...el-cid-105980/

[Egbert Souse]

Warner Bros. might have the rights to the four Samuel Bronston classics - El Cid, 55 Days at Peking, Circus World, and The Fall of the Roman Empire. They put up a clip from 55 Days at Peking earlier this year on the Warner Classics YouTube channel.

From what I can find online with copyrights, these four films seem to have been kept together in a package over the decades and I doubt WB would go through the trouble to only license one film. Would be great, especially since they have the resources to handle the large format negatives.