The Blue Max (1966) (Limited Edition) - SOLD OUT

[PowellPressburger]

Originally Posted by Rory

Also in the commentary film music historian, Jon Burlingame, gets wrong that Jerry Goldsmith wrote the score to THE BLUE MAX after he wrote the one for THE SAND PEBBLES. It was actually done after THE BLUE MAX. Burlingame states this twice. How he could make such a mistake I don't understand.

Do you think it was maybe wrong info based on what was written first or actually recorded first? As opposed to the film released theatrically first?

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by PowellPressburger

Do you think it was maybe wrong info based on what was written first or actually recorded first? As opposed to the film released theatrically first?

The Blue Max score was recorded in late March 1966. Goldsmith was hired to replace Alex North (who had a diplomatic ilness because he was unhappy with the violence in the film) on The Sand Pebbles on 31st August and the recording sessions were spread over October-December 1966.

Part of the confusion may come from Goldsmith, who often referred to The Sand Pebbles as his first 70mm six-track stereo release (both films were shot in 35mm but blown up to 70mm to accomodate a stereo soundtrack), but The Blue Max was recorded and released first.

[mr young]

In the UK The Blue Max was only released in 35mm 3 Track Magnetic sound
prints.

[Maggot]

WOW! The PQ on this is amazing. This is quite an upgrade from the DVD. This is well past what I was expecting.

[popeflick]

Originally Posted by Maggot

WOW! The PQ on this is amazing. This is quite an upgrade from the DVD. This is well past what I was expecting.

I completely went blind buy on this one, and am really looking forward to it!

[Blu Titan]

Originally Posted by Maggot

WOW! The PQ on this is amazing. This is quite an upgrade from the DVD. This is well past what I was expecting.

Sweet. I need to order this one.

[Dex Robinson]

Twilight Time owes me a substantial commission...ironic since I don't even have this disc yet (it's in transit).

I posted the link to order THE BLUE MAX on a forum inhabited by aviation buffs who build model airplanes. These are guys who would normally have NO CLUE about this release.

Within MINUTES, I was receiving messages from model airplane builders who ordered THE BLUE MAX. One guy ordered THE BLUE MAX plus two more BDs. One from Australia told me he ordered it.

I even got this post from one guy:

"You're costing me money! I just ordered the Blu Ray of "Blue Max"
I've been on the edge about buying a Blu-Ray player for some time and you pushed me over the edge. ".

So I not only sold a BD of THE BLUE MAX, I actually converted the fellow over to Blu-ray!

Just the people who replied to my post probably account for about 10 Blu-rays sold. And who knows how many others ordered but didn't post about it.


EDIT: Oh...I'm also one of those model airplane builders:

[Show spoiler]

[HyperRealist]

Originally Posted by ABaglivi

Received this morning. Very nice, sharp transfer. On the other forum, people are being dared to say that the transfer leans toward the blue (which it does).
I wonder what the consequences will be for having that opinion!

Well, dear readers, when I gave an advance peek at the new Twilight Time disc of The Blue Max, raving about the transfer and especially its color, I said let’s see how long it is before people start talking about “a teal push.” This rotten, stinking mantra for people who know nothing about color and how movies of other eras looked, has reached epic proportions – it would be hilarious if it wasn’t so bloody pathetic. Fox has been doing some superb transfers of late, and The Blue Max is up there with the best. The color has never been right on home video. Let’s examine why. In the days of VHS and DVD, with very rare exceptions, camera negatives were not used for transfers. What were used were internegatives, many of which were fading to a muddy, dreary brown. If you look at the DVD of The Blue Max or Desk Set that’s what you’ll see. For those two films on Blu-ray, Fox went back to the camera negatives and the result is beautiful in both cases. Let’s examine why the color is perfect – could it be because Fox has the original timing notes and use them? I think that might just be a good bet. Here’s the simple deal – next to Paul Newman, George Peppard had the bluest eyes ever. In the DVD of The Blue Max they are gray. In the Blu-ray they are blue. End of story. But these Internet armchair experts who think they know everything, cry “teal push” whenever a transfer has blue in it. Note to armchair experts: Movies of that era had BLUE and plenty of it. End of story. But on and on they go about this teal push, automatically assuming that the previous video releases with their faded brown color were somehow correct. No. Sorry. Afraid not.

It’s not like Fox is putting a blue WASH over everything, which is kind of what they’re saying – you can’t have the reds and greens and yellows if you’re washing blue (I don’t even know what the HELL teal has to do with anything – we’re talking about BLUE here) over everything. Doesn’t work that way. Every color is accurate in The Blue Max transfer, from the lush foliage, to the blue sky, to Mr. Peppard’s eyes, to the grays and browns and reds and yellows. Stunning and just as it should be. But on and on they go, and they can never be wrong, you know. But here’s the thing. Their ONLY experience with these films is home video. They haven’t seen these things projected in theaters and they have no clew as to what the color was like originally. Those of us who grew up back then certainly do and those of us who collected 16mm and 35mm prints certainly know even more. Of course, there would be no reference prints on The Blue Max as it was not printed in dye transfer Technicolor – but the timing notes are the timing notes. I had a dye transfer print of Desk Set in 16mm and guess what – it looked exactly like the Blu-ray, color-wise. It’s just utterly nauseating and I dearly hope that Fox knows what a great job they’re doing and that they won’t take these ridiculous, wrongheaded, inane comments seriously. If armchair experts want brown, faded color, they can just watch their DVDs of these older films and enjoy to their heart’s content. The fact that they think those transfers are in any way accurate is both laughable and depressing, but it just shows the usual lack of knowledge about film color. I’ve grown weary of responding to these “experts” – it’s just pointless. They’re on this teal push bandwagon and witch hunt and nothing will deter them short of a horrible, brown, completely wrong transfer. These people should just go away – they are doing such harm on these various Internet boards. Again, they have NO, meaning ZERO, experience or knowledge about film or color but that simply doesn’t stop them – no, they must post, they must be right, they know everything. Not. End of rant. You dear readers know who you can trust about color.

Well, that was long, wasn’t it? And speaking of long, how about that Sunday? What an unexpected day Sunday was. I was up at five for some reason not known to me, then asleep at six and then up at nine-fifteen, when the East Coast Singer called to tell me she was in LA. And then I saw an e-mail from our very own Mr. Nick Redman, in which someone was complaining about – yes – a teal push on The Blue Max. I thought my head was going to explode. I answered that e-mail then did stuff on the computer. Then I went and had a four-layer scramble. Yes, I, BK, tried something I’ve never tried before – the scramble has eggs, chili, a tiny bit of cheese, tomatoes, potatoes, sour cream and guacamole. It wasn’t the best thing I’ve ever had, but I did kind of enjoy it. Whilst I was eating, I saw I had an e-mail from Mr. Grant Geisssman and attached to it was the PDF of the designed book for Red Gold. I finished my lunch, came right home, put it on a flash drive, went to Staples and had it printed out. Then I came right back home and spent the next five hours reading it and proofing it with a fine tooth comb. It’s just shocking to me that with three proofers and me, I still found some pretty wacky mistakes. I noted all of them, a couple of which were whoppers. We’d already decided that I’d come over to Grant’s so he could enter them – that was to happen at six-thirty. By six, I’d was just starting the final three chapters. So, I rushed through those, just looking for bad breaks and hyphen problems and indent problems and found a handful of those.

http://www.haineshisway.com/

[Musicguy]

Bruce will shoot you down dead if you dare to say it looks blue (which it does) because, you know, his word is the word of God (which it's not).

The film may have been shot to look blue back in 65 and prints way back in the 70's and 80's have had a look that has been some what blue/teal. Though Fox has also pushed the teal/orange on some blu-rays last year - maybe they did on ""The Blue Max" - maybe not - but yes, the film does have a blue/teal look to it and you can't deny that aspect of the transfer either way

It's the orange faces that is sometimes questionable

[klauswhereareyou]

Got this the other day, it looks good, and it does have a blue look to it. If that's how it's suppssed to look, good for Fox. I think there are some people out there that don't get just because some discs were most definitely blued over (NOTLD 1990), there were films in the past that had a blue/teal look to them (Thief for instance).

[Page14]

Originally Posted by Dex Robinson

<snip>

EDIT: Oh...I'm also one of those model airplane builders:

[Show spoiler]

Sweet! You do such a great job with your models! Lots of care and attention to detail. Thanks for sharing.

[ABaglivi]

Thanks HyperRealist for your post. As a veteran collector of 16 and 35mm prints, specializing in IB, I am comfortable in my experience with color. Maybe the familiar phrase is applicable here: Methinks thou dost protest too much!

[Robert George]

I have owned or seen every video version of The Blue Max since VHS. It has always looked horrible.

Until now.

Bruce Haines is absolutely correct about one thing for sure. Most people on these boards frame of reference is video, and Blu-ray is the first (consumer) video format that can actually reproduce color that is close to accurate to the color of film.

I have not had the time to sit down and enjoy the new Blu-ray of The Blue Max in its entirety (thanks for the week delay SAE), but I did take a few minutes to sample the disc this past weekend and got through the first couple of reels before I had to tear myself away. Fox's new transfer is fantastic. I finally get to see a long-time favorite film the right way (excluding the theater, of course).

[Musicguy]

Originally Posted by Robert George

Bruce Haines is absolutely correct about one thing for sure. Most people on these boards frame of reference is video, and Blu-ray is the first (consumer) video format that can actually reproduce color that is close to accurate to the color of film.

I would believe everyone would agree that Mr Haines is correct about one thing

(okay there may be a few more) (sorry Bruce, couldn't resist)

[JMK]

The Blue Max Blu-ray Review

[Robert George]

Originally Posted by JMK

The Blue Max Blu-ray Review

Well done, Jeffrey. A fantastic disc and you did it justice.

[Maggot]

Yes, the PQ review got it right. It's an amazing transformation over the DVD. The screenshots actually don't do it justice. Anybody who is on the fence about this should just buy it. It's one of those Blu-ray experiences when a film has been "done right" by the format. An old classic coming alive again and feeling like a brand new experience for the viewer.

[JMK]

Most of you know I tend to stay off these forums unless there's a manifest problem. I received a message today claiming that Mr. Kimmel had stated I had parroted his opinion--I want to make it clear that I do not visit Mr. Kimmel's site and in fact had not seen his comments about The Blue Max until I posted my link to the review last night. I'd be prone to say great minds think alike, but I doubt Mr. Kimmel would want to be lumped in with me LOL. As most of you know, I have a surfeit of my own opinions and don't need to "parrot" anyone.

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by JMK

Most of you know I tend to stay off these forums unless there's a manifest problem. I received a message today claiming that Mr. Kimmel had stated I had parroted his opinion--I want to make it clear that I do not visit Mr. Kimmel's site and in fact had not seen his comments about The Blue Max until I posted my link to the review last night. I'd be prone to say great minds think alike, but I doubt Mr. Kimmel would want to be lumped in with me LOL. As most of you know, I have a surfeit of my own opinions and don't need to "parrot" anyone.

[whitesheik]

Originally Posted by JMK

Most of you know I tend to stay off these forums unless there's a manifest problem. I received a message today claiming that Mr. Kimmel had stated I had parroted his opinion--I want to make it clear that I do not visit Mr. Kimmel's site and in fact had not seen his comments about The Blue Max until I posted my link to the review last night. I'd be prone to say great minds think alike, but I doubt Mr. Kimmel would want to be lumped in with me LOL. As most of you know, I have a surfeit of my own opinions and don't need to "parrot" anyone.

Most of you know I tend to stay off these forums unless there's a manifest problem (whatever that is). I received a message today claiming that Mr. Kauffman had stated I accused him of parroting my opinion. Here is, in fact, what Mr. Kimmel wrote:

"But then their own reviewer, who is a former dear reader of this here site, wrote a review of The Blue Max, and his comments on the transfer mirror mine exactly right down to the George Peppard has blue eyes second only to Paul Newman stuff. He gave it a well deserved five stars and that seems to have shut people up about the “teal and orange” push."

I don't see any accusations in there, do you? I don't see the word "parroted" in there, do you? Nor do I see "stolen" "borrowed" or "ripped off." I see the word "mirrored" as in, we thought the same thing right down to the eyes of blue and the fact that he gave it "a well-deserved five stars." In other words, we were in agreement. Just wanted to set the record straight so we can avert another national scandal.

And here is what I wrote, not on my site, but on the HTF back on January 10, 2014:

"In a word - magnificent. The absolute best this film has ever looked, period. With color so accurate it made my little heart go pit-a-pat. I have no doubt that we'll have the usual "blue or teal push" nonsense and you can take it from li'l ol' me not to believe a word of it. The previous home video incarnations of this film were brown and awful, and that includes the German Blu-ray. This film is not brown and flat - but those who will compare the inevitable screen caps will say, well this one has a teal or blue push and they'll either just assume the completely wrong previous incarnations were correct or they'll certainly raise the specter of something being off in this new transfer. Nothing's off. The blues are glorious and perfect for a film of that era. PERFECT. And so are the lush greens and the true reds and the gray grays and every gradation of all those colors. PERFECT. Skin tones that are no longer flat brown but real. Mr. Peppard, who had blue eyes second only to Mr. Newman had gray eyes in previous transfers. Here they are as they should be - gorgeous BLUE eyes. It's breathtaking, the aerial photography looks amazing, and the score in 5.1 sound sounds fantastic - Jerry Goldsmith at his best. I still find the film slightly weird in its storytelling, but when something looks this good everything seems to work better. But for those who mistakenly found Desk Set too blue (it, too, was perfect), I'm sure the same will apply here and it will be just as mistaken.

Simply put, Fox has done an incredible job on this transfer and they need to hear that loud and clear with none of the usual teal/blue stuff getting in the way. After all, the film is called The BLUE Max. My eyes were so happy this evening I can't even tell you, although I just did "

I think I'd file that under "great minds think alike."

We now return you to Fantasyland.