Gallipoli (1981)

[moviemaker]

Originally Posted by quirkmanly

A couple more - Aussie release is first again.

[Show spoiler]

[Show spoiler]

Yep, the US disc is def. the way to go. Glad I pre-ordered. Didn't realize Amazon just credited me some money back because I did pre-order. So in the end $13.99 which is a bargain for a film, I consider a masterpiece. At least for me, it was the first film as a kid that truly hit me on an emotional level. Been a fave of mine ever since.

"What are your legs?"
"Steel Springs"

"How fast are you gonna run?"
"Fast as a leopard"

"Then let's see you do it!"

Thank you for posting these caps m8!

[BigDmo531]

Glad to hear this is a solid release. Probably gonna grab it very soon, it's been a minute so I saw it but it's always stuck with me. I'll listen to the soundtrack pretty frequently still

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by BigDmo531

I'll listen to the soundtrack pretty frequently still

I wasn't aware a soundtrack album had ever been released. There's nothing listed at Soundtrack Collector. Where did you find it?

[James Luckard]

Ah, it looks like there's a rare Australian 45 record with two tracks of the score:

https://www.discogs.com/release/3016...arre-Gallipoli

Is that what you meant?

[moviemaker]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

Ah, it looks like there's a rare Australian 45 record with two tracks of the score:

https://www.discogs.com/release/3016...arre-Gallipoli

Is that what you meant?

I cobbled together my own version of the soundtrack using the following:

[Show spoiler]

It does the job nicely. I know I'm missing some of the other tracks but mine is part of a Peter Weir mix I made. Wish there was a proper soundtrack. I know that Weir often played music on set to help create the mood while filming.

Note: Amazon gives you the ability to digitally buy all the tracks featured and in essence make your own Gallipoli soundtrack by going here: https://ringostrack.com/en/movie/gallipoli/21724

Maybe someone will take the time to compile and upload it one day.

[Narp]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

I don't know if the 2.0 on the Aussie disc was the original mono track, or a stereo remix. Either way, the awful audio flaw on the Aussie disc, which was present on both tracks, makes the audio on the Paramount disc vastly superior.

That 2.0 track is Stereo. The 5.1 mix on the Aussie disc sounds terrible as you noted, but it's also a completely different mix and not just a straight mono upmix. It has stereo music mixed in that sounds out of place, more noise reduction, and also a decent amount of added foley. The US laserdisc w/digital mono sounds great though. I'll compare it to the US disc once my copy shows up in a few days.

You can see the difference just by looking at it. The messed up/crackling audio is visible too:
https://i.imgur.com/Rb7WUjv.png

[BigDmo531]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

I wasn't aware a soundtrack album had ever been released. There's nothing listed at Soundtrack Collector. Where did you find it?

There's Spotify playlists for it. Idk if the one I have has everything actually but it's got Jean Michel Jarre's Oxygen on it with a few others so I usually stick w that

[koberulz]

I can't for the life of me hear anything wrong with the Aussie disc. What am I supposed to be listening for?

[HD Goofnut]

I just ordered the US disc. If anyone needs caps please let me know.

[DukeTogo84]

So from what I'm seeing the US release is the better of the two when it comes to PQ? I've seen the caps, but curious to hear from those that have both.

[jonathanjao]

Originally Posted by DukeTogo84

So from what I'm seeing the US release is the better of the two when it comes to PQ? I've seen the caps, but curious to hear from those that have both.

Yes, in my view, having watched both and done brief comparisons the other night, the US release is clearly better.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by koberulz

I can't for the life of me hear anything wrong with the Aussie disc. What am I supposed to be listening for?

There's crackly static underneath every word of dialogue in certain scenes.

It's not under the entire audio track, it's only under the dialogue, the static goes silent whenever someone isn't talking.

It's in multiple scenes, I seem to remember it's in a good portion of the film, but one scene on the Aussie Fox BD that definitely has the static, on both the 5.1 and the 2.0 tracks is from around 32:50-33:25, as the two boys are walking through the desert.

It's not present on the old DVDs or laserdiscs. It seems to be a technical error that got introduced with the remixes done for the Aussie BD.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by DukeTogo84

So from what I'm seeing the US release is the better of the two when it comes to PQ? I've seen the caps, but curious to hear from those that have both.

I have both, and I'll say that, once we got the caps, it became obvious that the US disc is superior.

However, when I A/B'd the discs before there were caps, I couldn't tell which was better.

They're both ancient DVD-era HD transfers. They both look SUPER digital, not film-like at all.

In motion, taking a minute or so to switch between discs due to forced menus and such, they both looked dated and disappointing on my OLED.

That said, yep, the US disc now seems to be the superior one.

[moviemaker]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

I have both, and I'll say that, once we got the caps, it became obvious that the US disc is superior.

However, when I A/B'd the discs before there were caps, I couldn't tell which was better.

They're both ancient DVD-era HD transfers. They both look SUPER digital, not film-like at all.

In motion, taking a minute or so to switch between discs due to forced menus and such, they both looked dated and disappointing on my OLED.

That said, yep, the US disc now seems to be the superior one.

I'm assuming you've turned off all the processing (both motion and color) both on the TV and the player. It's so hard to go by anything nowadays because there are hidden menus on TVs that still process the crap out of the image. You almost need to take it to a finishing (post) house and watch it on a calibrated monitor. Which of course is just overkill.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by moviemaker

I'm assuming you've turned off all the processing (both motion and color) both on the TV and the player. It's so hard to go by anything nowadays because there are hidden menus on TVs that still process the crap out of the image. You almost need to take it to a finishing (post) house and watch it on a calibrated monitor. Which of course is just overkill.

I did my best to turn off all processing, yep. I bought my LG OLED specifically because it's one of the few 4K TVs on the market that can turn off absolutely every last drop of motion processing. Most 4K TVs have a bit baked in. I returned my first 4K TV, a Samsung, because it had a tiny bit of motion smoothing baked in. That's not relevant in comparing these two BDs, of course, I'm just explaining because you asked.

Other discs look fine, it's just these two discs, which both use years-old HD masters intended for use on DVDs, that look bad. And it's not the image on the TV that looks bad, it's clearly the source that looks weak and not film-like.

[floridaswamprat]

Review at Blu-ray Authority (the only that I could presently find).

https://blurayauthority.com/blu-ray/gallipoli-blu-ray/

[Wtdk]

Originally Posted by DukeTogo84

So from what I'm seeing the US release is the better of the two when it comes to PQ? I've seen the caps, but curious to hear from those that have both.

The U.S. is better but it is far from ideal. It’s an upgrade on the DVD and Aussie discs but a fresh scan without edge enhancement would be preferred. It has some other issues.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by Wtdk

The U.S. is better but it is far from ideal. It’s an upgrade on the DVD and Aussie discs but a fresh scan without edge enhancement would be preferred. It has some other issues.

Yep, the US BD uses the HD master created for the 2005 SE DVD. It's ancient.

That said, it's still better than the HD master used for the Aussie BD, as shown in the comparison caps on the previous page.

It also has undamaged audio, where the Aussie BD has a technical flaw with both audio tracks.

[Shane Rollins]

Are there any special features on the Australian Blu-ray, the 2005 US DVD, or any other copies that weren’t carried over to the US Blu-ray?

[KevinStriker]

Originally Posted by Shane Rollins

Are there any special features on the Australian Blu-ray, the 2005 US DVD, or any other copies that weren’t carried over to the US Blu-ray?

The Aussie Blu-ray has a bigger selection of extras which are mainly historical context aimed at Australian viewers and some interviews; the US Blu-ray carries over its own making-of documentary from the Paramount DVD.