Howard Hawks on Blu-ray

[rockinrick]

One Of My Top Five Directors Along With John Sturges, Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford and Brian DePalma and the rest of the Top Ten Martin Scorsese, Michael Mann, John Carpenter, Steven Spielberg and Ridley & Tony Scott.

[rockinrick]

Originally Posted by rockinrick

One Of My Top Five Directors Along With John Sturges, Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford and Brian DePalma and the rest of the Top Ten: Martin Scorsese, Michael Mann, John Carpenter, Steven Spielberg and Ridley & Tony Scott.

The rest of my top 20 favorite directors : Raoul Walsh, Francis Ford Coppola, Frank Capra, Stanley Kubrick, George Lucas, Dario Argento, Michael Curtiz, George Cukor, Otto Preminger and Antoine Fuqua.

[bonehica]

Originally Posted by rockinrick

The rest of my top 20 favorite directors : Raoul Walsh, Francis Ford Coppola, Frank Capra, Stanley Kubrick, George Lucas, Dario Argento, Michael Curtiz, George Cukor, Otto Preminger and Antoine Fuqua.

Top 20 would be difficult for me. I have too much affinity for soo many of them. My Top 5 is actually easier. Well...Top 4 and a tie.

1. Kubrick
2. Fuller
3. Sirk
4. Kurosawa
5. Wyler/Hawks - I can't pick one over the other.

[TheSandman83]

Hawks is in the bottom 5 of my top 10 but among strong company with Ford, Wilder, Lean and Hitchcock.

[hanshotfirst1138]

Why on Earth isn’t Bringing Up Baby available on Blu in the US? Vudu has an HD master.

[CinemaScope]

I saw a nice HD transfer of Howard Hawks, Air Force (1943) on TV the other week. As it was made during the war it had a strong element of propaganda, & wasn't always politically correct when talking about the Japanese, understandable, seeing as America was at war with them at the time. Great movie, I'd love to buy a Blu-ray of it.

[bonehica]

Originally Posted by hanshotfirst1138

Why on Earth isn’t Bringing Up Baby available on Blu in the US? Vudu has an HD master.

Almost certainly with Criterion, but they seem to be dragging their feet on it. Who knows why...

Originally Posted by CinemaScope

I saw a nice HD transfer of Howard Hawks, Air Force (1943) on TV the other week. As it was made during the war it had a strong element of propaganda, & wasn't always politically correct when talking about the Japanese, understandable, seeing as America was at war with them at the time. Great movie, I'd love to buy a Blu-ray of it.

Gimme any Hawks from the 30's and 40's and I will do the happy dance!

[Chase540]

Originally Posted by TheSandman83

This is really high on my wish list:

Loved this film! I saw it for the first time on the Criterion Channel about a month or two ago. It looked pretty rough, though, so I figure a blu-ray is far into the future.

[BamaDullard]

Originally Posted by Chase540

Loved this film! I saw it for the first time on the Criterion Channel about a month or two ago. It looked pretty rough, though, so I figure a blu-ray is far into the future.

You never know. Blood on the Moon and Dodsworth were streaming in pretty rough prints very recently. Then both got an outstanding blu-ray.

[Chase540]

Originally Posted by BamaDullard

You never know. Blood on the Moon and Dodsworth were streaming in pretty rough prints very recently. Then both got an outstanding blu-ray.

Better to keep my expectations low and be pleasantly surprised.

[TheSandman83]

I just watched A Song is Born (1948), a remake of Ball of Fire made just 7 years after, on Amazon Prime Video:



To me, it's an inferior movie in almost every way. There were too many familiar scenes but in unsaturated Technicolor that felt like cheap B&W colorization. The plot device is the same but instead of studying slangs, the professors were researching contemporary music so Jazz and swing musical bits dominated the new scenes. This was interesting enough but it's mostly confined to the first act.

For die hard Hawks fans who haven't seen it, I'll recommend it as a free watch if you have Amazon prime while y'all are waiting for Ball of Fire on Blu-ray!

[Jason Rietman4k]

I mean, I know it will benefit from a fresh 4K scan, but what is so bad about the current disc for Rio Bravo?

[CinemaScope]

Originally Posted by Jason Rietman4k

I mean, I know it will benefit from a fresh 4K scan, but what is so bad about the current disc for Rio Bravo?

Oh I think it's horrible. The picture looks overcooked, too much grain, too much colour, it's hard to describe really. But will Warner redo it? I'm not holding my breath.

[happydood]

Originally Posted by Jason Rietman4k

I mean, I know it will benefit from a fresh 4K scan, but what is so bad about the current disc for Rio Bravo?

It doesn't look nearly as good as some other restorations of the period look, but yeah, I was expecting the worst when I bought it and am mostly happy with it as a result. It's just so uneven- and I know this is likely to do with the original photography so I forgive a lot- but I can imagine the softness in places can be pretty jarring for some folks. I've kinda reconciled myself to the idea that this is the best we're gonna get...

[Dailyan]

Originally Posted by Jason Rietman4k

I mean, I know it will benefit from a fresh 4K scan, but what is so bad about the current disc for Rio Bravo?

Same master as the DVD and just an HD-DVD port shoved on a Blu (an issue with the majority of early Warner Blus).

[Jason Rietman4k]

Originally Posted by CinemaScope

Oh I think it's horrible. The picture looks overcooked, too much grain, too much colour, it's hard to describe really. But will Warner redo it? I'm not holding my breath.

Wow dude. 2020 and you're saying grain is a negative.

[CinemaScope]

Originally Posted by Jason Rietman4k

Wow dude. 2020 and you're saying grain is a negative.

It's funny, it was on TV this evening, & no grain, but that overcooked colour is just not right. It's an important western, & Warner should revisit it. As for film grain, yes, you really shouldn't notice it, & if you do, somethings gone wrong, I was never aware of film grain at the cinema.

[jtchance]

My top five would be Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, John Sturges, John Ford and Michael Curtiz.

[Jason Rietman4k]

Well, you definitely should notice grain. Can't tell if you're being serious or not

[thatguamguy]

Originally Posted by TheSandman83

I just watched A Song is Born (1948), a remake of Ball of Fire made just 7 years after

I don't want to take the thread too far off-topic, but if people will indulge me on a brief DVD question, I'm wondering if anybody can tell me for sure whether or not the "Danny Kaye: The Goldwyn Years" set from Warner Archive is one of those sets where the first printing was pressed. I'm mainly interested because of "Song Is Born", but I've also gotten curious to see more Danny Kaye anyway.