Midnight Cowboy (1969)

[Fat Phil]

Originally Posted by I KEEL YOU

People have always used and will forever continue to use the "approved" label when it fits their agenda. There are several examples that show the "approved" labeling is worthless. You have a Shout Factory and Arrow's releases of The Thing that were somehow both approved by the cinematographer yet look completely different.

Would you be willing to make "this guy thinks he knows more than the director" jokes if I said that the second release of The French Connection beats the first one?

We find some common ground here. Like you, i'm a little skeptical about any 'approved/supervised' label because it could mean pretty much anything (different levels of involvement etc). What is far more important to me is provenance i.e. some mention of what has been used as a reference for colour correction. Criterion's Midnight Cowboy transfer does specify a reliable source - you just don't like the end result.

Criterion's Bull Durham looks 'off' to me. It was approved by the director but I would like to know more than just that. I really want to know how they arrived at those colours - what reference was used other than memory? I'm definitely curious to see if they've specified anything in the accompanying booklet. Time will tell.

Originally Posted by RCRochester

No, I wouldn't. Because William Friedkin outright admitted that he deliberately altered the look of The French Connection for its first blu-ray release. The second release came about because its DP, Owen Roizman, spoke about against what Friedkin did and became involved to ensure that the new release looked correct.

That video of Friedkin supervising the colour correction is unintentionally hilarious