DVDBeaver

[denti alligator]

Fine, but he could.

[Michael Kerpan]

I haven't seen any deletion of links to DVD Beaver reviews....

[swo17]

Fine, but he could.

I was just about to say that he would have to log in to know what we're saying about him here, but if he suddenly stopped following that account on Twitter...

[denti alligator]

Fine, but he could.

I was just about to say that he would have to log in to know what we're saying about him here, but if he suddenly stopped following that account on Twitter...

You don't have to log in to see this discussion, do you?

[swo17]

I guess not. I thought it would be a natural thing to log in when you visit the site if you have an account, but who knows?

[spectre]

as the exchange between JTS and swo shows, there’s actually quite a lot at stake in how we respond to cases like this

I'm not sure I even understand what happened here. In my view, JTS was expressing unrealistic if not outright dangerous opinions, I attempted (perhaps poorly) to turn his own argument against him, and suddenly everyone was backing away. I don't find, say, fdm's subsequent eyeroll post to be very helpful because I legitimately don't know to which side it's directed. I should have thought it went without saying that my last comment was in no way defending white nationalism, but here I am clarifying just to make sure.

I hope it didn't seem that I was implying anything like that – by 'as the exchange shows', I meant something like 'as the fundamentally distinct approaches suggested by each posters' positions show', i.e. whether to respond to white nationalism through aggression and ostracisation or through critical engagement and reaching out (for what it's worth, I support your responses to JTS 100%). Otherwise, I take it as a given that all posters commenting here are opposed to white supremacist politics and see it as something that needs to be resisted (certainly, there haven't been any posts in this thread suggesting otherwise).

[tenia]

I guess not. I thought it would be a natural thing to log in when you visit the site if you have an account, but who knows?

I'm often disconnected from my account here for whatever reason, and end up reading most of it unlogged unless / until I post something.

[JabbaTheSlut]

as the exchange between JTS and swo shows, there’s actually quite a lot at stake in how we respond to cases like this

I'm not sure I even understand what happened here. In my view, JTS was expressing unrealistic if not outright dangerous opinions, I attempted (perhaps poorly) to turn his own argument against him, and suddenly everyone was backing away. I don't find, say, fdm's subsequent eyeroll post to be very helpful because I legitimately don't know to which side it's directed. I should have thought it went without saying that my last comment was in no way defending white nationalism, but here I am clarifying just to make sure.

I got it too. But I would’ve sunken in the world of endless analogies, cancer and body organs, house and fire la-di-da. But, as I’ve read this thread, it’s filled with reasonable people in a calm discussion about this matter, I get my coat and go punching my nazis elsewhere.

[DeprongMori]

Anyone trying to split this into a binary of either “Gary is a Nazi” or “there is no problem” is doing a disservice to the conversation. The “white nationalism” problem exists along a spectrum and is unfortunately getting worse domestically and globally.

What was once Randian “makers vs takers” rhetoric during the 2012 Romney campaign became “immigrants are parasites” and “You/Jews shall not replace us!” by the time of the 2016 Trump campaign. People (like Tooze) who bought into the whole Ayn Rand thing early on and who watch Fox News regularly (especially Lou Dobbs and Tucker Carlson) are getting fed white nationalism and white supremacy through mainstream channels. It’s insidious. I’m not surprised at all that Tooze ended up following a “ProWhitesUnite” Twitter account given the “mainstream” right-wing Twitter accounts he follows. He probably didn’t even give it much thought as to how he got there versus where he (presumably) began. I hope he sees this conversation and takes a hard look at that journey. I’m guessing he is still reachable, but I don’t know who has enough of his trust to reach him.

”Ex–white nationalist Derek Black said in a recent interview that his family "watches Tucker Carlson show once and then watches it on the replay because they feel that he is making the white nationalist talking points better than they have and they’re trying to get some tips on how to advance it." And as long as he commands such a large and devoted audience, it's unlikely that Fox News will drop Carlson anytime soon.”

Anyone who boarded the “conservative” train some years back and doesn’t have a lot of introspection is at risk of just being carried on down the road to Charlottesville.

[dcsmith]

Hi,

I've just started a new podcast called Living in the Future. It's on iTunes and at www.livinginthefuture.rocks . In the first episode I've recorded an Interview with Gary from DVDBeaver. It's a super interesting conversation about film, the site, and his process.

[domino harvey]

Am I missing something or isn't the Blu-ray release of Hud reviewed and screencapped here just an up-rez of the SD? It doesn't look HD at all

[Finch]

Tooze seems to have scaled back his own reviews. The vast majority of recent postings are by Colin Zavitz who seems to at least spell-check his stuff and can string a coherent sentence together.

[tenia]

Am I missing something or isn't the Blu-ray release of Hud reviewed and screencapped here just an up-rez of the SD? It doesn't look HD at all

Wow, it indeed doesn't look HD at all.

[How rude!]

Tooze seems to have scaled back his own reviews. The vast majority of recent postings are by Colin Zavitz who seems to at least spell-check his stuff and can string a coherent sentence together.

That is harsh. If you still buy dvd and blu-ray, or have done so over the last couple of decades, Dvdbeaver has been the go to site for an idea of quality of the the releases. I have viewed this criterionforum.com since the beginning, and there was a moment when a former Eureka staff member had a public argument with the site over the approach to screen captures (which should have been a private correspondence). A vocal group of followers here started a long-running 'Tooze' witchhunt, which continues to this day. Some of the same people are now trawling his social media sites, looking for new ways to criticise the man. If you don't like his politics, don't follow him. It is very easy. don't visit Dvdbeaver. Buy physical media using the images from blu-ray.com, et al.

The pack mentality is dispiriting. This used to be a vibrant site. There is enough shit to wade through online. This site needs to rise above this. At it's best, criterionforum provides some of the very best film criticism online. Dvdbeaver provides an unparalleled database of physical fim media. In the end, our own eyes make a judgement.

Make criterionforum great again!

[tenia]

It's not really a pack mentality. Beaver caps are not reliable, and the text reviews are most often quite superficial when they're not plainly wrong.

While Beaver offers LOTS of reviews and include Scan discs and extra features exact runtime, their technical sections have always been vastly lacking in exactness and thoroughness, which should be basic grounds for questioning its usefulness.

Which we do.

[Finch]

I don't care about Gary's politics, for what it's worth, and if you scroll through the last few pages, I never got involved in the Patreon etc debate. I've said before though that Gary should proof-read his reviews more: spelling mistakes I can live with, but several of his reviews include sentences that don't make sense. He's gone on record that he doesn't care about typos. Fine, it's his site and he can do whatever he wants with it, but when you read a sentence of his and are left thinking, what's he even meaning with that?, then that goes beyond spelling mistakes. One could also touch on the fact that he often just copies and pastes data across even if it leads to contradictions regarding a disc's region code, and that he often only picks screengrabs from a film's first 20 or so minutes. I mean, I get it, it's timeconsuming to grab all those images and then upload them etc, and he may feel that the screengrabs and his review in itself matters more than grammar and coherent sentences but then I think he's fair game for criticism regarding the latter.

And for all the gripes I have, I still much prefer Beaver over Blu-Ray.com and the likes of Svet Atanasov. Gary may be sloppy with the detail and writing but he's not arrogant and self-deluded about his actual expertise. I'm glad Beaver exists but I think it's fair to say that Gary could still exert a bit more attention to detail. I'll offer a mea culpa and say that I could have commented in a less snide manner and I'll try to do better going forward.

[tenia]

Looks like Jeffrey went full Gary when selecting some Under The Silver Lake's caps.

[domino harvey]

What happens when the new Blu-ray you're reviewing somehow looks worse than the nearly fifteen-year-old non-anamorphic DVD? Well, you make this rather tortured argument:

In what is certainly a rare occurrence for DVDBeaver, I'm going to say that the image quality here is beside the point, for even if certain moments looked crisper on the DVD, they now have an almost ethereal, shot-on-video-and-projected glow. The film utilizes a mixture of media (Video, 16mm, Super-8 in either black & white or color) in its presentation, and I believe that this is a realistic presentation of Jarman's original intentions although it shows less information in the frame than the DVD (notably the right edge) and the BD visuals can look horizontally stretched. For those looking for a crisp glossy image - well, this film was never meant to look that way. The expansion to 1080P does create artifacts and some edge-enhancement. We would like to compare this to the BFI Blu-ray one day.

[tenia]

"It's worse, but for once, we don't care because worse might actually be more faithful, despite the 15yo DVD obviously showing details are available on whatever original elements were used then".
Joke aside, I do wonder what happened here. The BD looks like a mis-aligned 3-strip Technicolor movie, despite having been marketed as a "NEW 2K REMASTER OVERSEEN BY PRODUCER JAMES MACKAY".
However, I checked my BFI Jarman Vol. 2 set and The Garden is (with Glitterbug) the only movie not to have any technical details in the included book, and the movie definitely looks equivalent to those Zeitgeist Beaver caps.

Note also that Gary is wrongly attributing the disc to Kino.

[Michael Kerpan]

What on earth went wrong here!

[swo17]

the movie definitely looks equivalent to those Zeitgeist Beaver caps.

Note also that Gary is wrongly attributing the disc to Kino.

Kino distributes Zeitgeist titles now. And you're saying the BFI transfer looks just as bad?

[jsteffe]

I arranged for a 35mm print screening in Atlanta a while back, and the film had an inherently inconsistent quality because of the mix of smaller formats and SD video footage. There were also lots of effects with some kind of rear screen projection combining video and film, with *very* apparent seams around the actors and the scenes behind them. You can see examples of that in Gary's screencaps. The old DVD version looks "cleaner" and the color is punched up, but I find the new Blu-ray more faithful to what I saw on the big screen. Gary is right in this case about the superiority of the Blu-ray, for the reasons he states.

[RitrovataBlue]

I can’t speak for the DVD, but the film is a mix of SD video and 8mm film, not high res formats by any stretch of the imagination. I like the misaligned Technicolor comparison - that’s a fairly accurate descriptor for the film’s aesthetic. It’s the closest Jarman came to a Guy Maddin film.

[John Cope]

It's funny that this comes up now as there's a whole discussion about it as part of the box set over on Amazon back in March.

[tenia]

It's funny that this comes up now as there's a whole discussion about it as part of the box set over on Amazon back in March.

Here you go. Thanks for that.