541 The Night of the Hunter

[foofighters7]

True it is long, but it is also included on the 2-disc DVD release. A Blu-Ray can hold a boat load of data, and I have a feeling that this could all be on one blu disc without any real compression issues.

Maybe I am wrong, but usually when you see a 2-disc blu-ray, the dvd release is a 3-disc, simply because of data storage.

Dunno.

edit- this might not be an issue of a 2nd disc as much as a higher price point in general. The dvd release has an MSRP of 39.95 and is a 2 disc set.

The Blu-Ray is also a 2-disc set but the MSRP is 49.95.

Most of the 2-disc dvd sets are 29.95 on the coming soon, so this is a bit odd. Perhaps the inclusion of the Laughton Directs pushed the price up.

[HistoryProf]

I'm feeling especially prescient, but Criterion has surpassed even my wildest expectations. Easily one of the best supplement packages they've ever assembled. It's perfect.

Considering this is among my most favorite films ever I can not contain my excitement for how pimped out this one is...exceeded my grandest hopes that they'd really go to town and make this definitive...it's like the opposite of the Crumb and Paths of Glory discs. Bra-fucking-vo!

2-Disc Blus are ten bucks more, I don't think anyone waiting for this release minds being milked a bit

wait...I didn't notice that. I mind. dammit.

The Blu-Ray is also a 2-disc set but the MSRP is 49.95.

Most of the 2-disc dvd sets are 29.95 on the coming soon, so this is a bit odd. Perhaps the inclusion of the Laughton Directs pushed the price up.

i'm going to go ahead and guess they had to pay out their ear for this one and all the extra stuff. it's only a 93 minute film though so the price is a bit of a shock.

[Jeff]

There is going to end up being nearly four hours of video supplements which will probably fill the second Blu-ray and give the feature plenty of breathing room on disc one. I imagine that on DVD there will be a few supplements on each disc to make it all fit. They simply didn't see the need to go to three DVDs, or it would be $50 too. I think it's fine.

[flyonthewall2983]

Despite not having seen the film, I'm very interested in this release. Of all the actors of that era, something about Mitchum intrigues me, someone who's taste in film starts in the mid-to-late 60's.

[Tribe]

Despite not having seen the film, I'm very interested in this release. Of all the actors of that era, something about Mitchum intrigues me, someone who's taste in film starts in the mid-to-late 60's.

Then you are in for a treat...Mitchum is fantastic in this. The last quarter or so of the movie hasn't held up well for me (particularly when Lillian Gish appears), it always seemed to me that the movie descends into melodrama and leaves its noirish styling behind (and I do understand that film noir has always shared elements of melodrama) and detracts from the thrill and suspense of the first three quarters of the movie.

Still, notwithstanding my quibbles, it's superb film...I first saw it as a kid in the sixties on late night tv and it left a profound impression on me then.

[knives]

You'll adore it, as long as you have the ability to adore movies. It is, for me, the best American movie of all time and has that essential sort of Americanism to it (funny it was directed by a brit than). Imagine the Grimm brothers making a German expressionist noir with a subversion in the moral more powerful than anything else Hollywood has ever let itself produce. Mitchum alone makes this film a frightening spectacle of presence. He never really does anything, and in fact at the end has one of the campiest most hilarious moments in a serious movie I have ever seen, but just him standing there and occasionally sneering is enough to paint one's perception of the man forever. It's no wonder why he was never allowed to play the sort of characters he did at RKO again.
He's not even the most frightening aspect though. The stuff that truly was in Laughton's hands is where you'll be completely unnerved. The production design and lighting while never being called to (again just sort of there) is something out of Caligiri's nightmares. The first time I watched the movie when i was finally able to sleep I had a nightmare of triangles attempting to kill me. Every part works so well.
It's not just the horror aspects that work either. The odd sort of morality play that goes on, especially when we finally meet Gish, works like I said earlier as a Grimm fairy tale, but with teeth against its own origin. Nothing truly fantastical goes down and the heroes essentially lose (but not really). It tries, I assume in an attempt to please the censors, to shown itself as a simple tale of good triumphing over evil, but like in Mitchum's famous monolougue that's only a put upon to disguise what should be considered the opposite.
I could probably rant a bit longer, and the film deserves it, but I'm not doing the film justice.

[foofighters7]

There is going to end up being nearly four hours of video supplements which will probably fill the second Blu-ray and give the feature plenty of breathing room on disc one. I imagine that on DVD there will be a few supplements on each disc to make it all fit. They simply didn't see the need to go to three DVDs, or it would be $50 too. I think it's fine.

I'm guessing that is what they are going to do, but I still think that 2 blu's for this is too much. 'Night of the Hunter' could fit on a Blu without any compression issues several times over.

Look at 'The Last Emperor' and everything on that disc.

I guess they have their reasons but just doesn't quite make sense to me.

Still a great film and sounds like a very solid release.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Nothing on the Last Emperor Blu was HD except the 165-minute feature. Hunter and the Laughton documentary are around 240 minutes altogether (dunno the exact run time of the doc) and we can assume that any newly prepared extras will be HD as well. I wouldn't be surprised to see around 300 minutes of HD content and there is no way Criterion should attempt to cram all that on one disc.

[Highway 61]

Look at 'The Last Emperor' and everything on that disc.

Have you watched the disc lately? The Last Emperor is one of their weaker Blu-ray transfers, and I don't mean the aspect ratio issue. Jeff is right. We're looking at four hours of video supplements. With BD, you can easily see the difference when the feature takes up 40 to 50 gigs. There's just no way Criterion could do the transfer justice with this many extras.

[foofighters7]

IF the extras are HD including the Laughton Directs, then I can see it being 2 disc.

[Person]

Phenomenal extras for one of the greatest films ever made. I'll gladly pay $40.

[Michael]

Looking for David Ehrenstein on the extras, I thought he was supposed to contribute. Where did I read that?

[Doctor Sunshine]

He already did in 1988.

[Tom Hagen]

I think he wrote the LD essay back in the '80s.

[eerik]

Beaver

[knives]

Is it just me or does the crit seem excessively dark. I'm thinking specifically of the shot of Gish in the chair with the gun. The other captures have this great halo around her, but it's soft and blends into the background on the crit.

[jojo]

Is it just me or does the crit seem excessively dark. I'm thinking specifically of the shot of Gish in the chair with the gun. The other captures have this great halo around her, but it's soft and blends into the background on the crit.

Indeed. In fact, I'm quite surprised how well the barebones MGM R1 holds up compared to the others.

[Finch]

I always thought the MGM image was too bright (especially noticeable in the first cap compared to the other versions) so, to me, the Criterion looks absolutely fine. The halo effect in the shot of Gish, to me, is more subtle in the Crit whereas on the MGM it's far too pronounced. Add to that that the Crit Blu is inherently sharper, with finer grain AND in the correct aspect ratio: I'm glad I held off buying the MGMs in all those years!

[Alphonse Doinel]

Can't wait to see that grain in motion. Looks superb. Probably release of the year for me.

I am surprised at how good the 10 year old MGM disc looks though. I'm sure plenty of people will be complaining that it looks better (aka. sharper) than the blu.

[MitchPerrywinkle]

I think the shot of Mitchum driving is miles better in the Criterion edition than in the MGM DVD.

I was initially going to hold out on the hope that I'd get this for Christmas, but I'm so tempted to get it. Must... show... restraint... :-#

[knives]

Right now it is as cheap as it will ever get.

[hearthesilence]

About 5 or 6 years ago, MGM archivist John Kirk presented a new print of Ingmar Bergman's Persona at Block Cinema at Northwestern University - as luck would have it, the restoration The Night of the Hunter was set to be screened a few days later.

Kirk told me and a bunch of other students that MGM was preparing the DVD for The Night of the Hunter the same time they were finishing up the restoration. To our massive disappointment, he explained that the home video department and the archival department rarely talked to each other (at least at the time), and instead of using the restoration, they took an older print and transferred that for the DVD.

With that in mind, I'm sure the Criterion disc will look a thousand times better than the DVD - not just a better transfer, but better source materials as well.

edit: The first page of this thread actually includes my original post on this, from FIVE years ago. Man, time flies...

[stwrt]

About 5 or 6 years ago, MGM archivist John Kirk presented a new print of Ingmar Bergman's Persona at Block Cinema at Northwestern University - as luck would have it, the restoration The Night of the Hunter was set to be screened a few days later.

Kirk told me and a bunch of other students that MGM was preparing the DVD for The Night of the Hunter the same time they were finishing up the restoration. To our massive disappointment, he explained that the home video department and the archival department rarely talked to each other (at least at the time), and instead of using the restoration, they took an older print and transferred that for the DVD.

With that in mind, I'm sure the Criterion disc will look a thousand times better than the DVD - not just a better transfer, but better source materials as well.

That DVD never saw the light of day, so you have to wonder if the Criterion Blu-Ray disc is taken from that older DVD print or the supposed restoration. Anyone know ?

[Jonathan S]

Just received my copy (but only on DVD, so nobody here will care ). Well done, Movietyme! I dumped Criterion's horrible figure-eight Scanavo case immediately - not only do I find these inconvenient for getting to the lower disc, but the upper one is held so tightly that it's hard to remove without really bending it - also the same protruding hub has left an indentation in the booklet. Both discs are slightly scratched on the playing surface - first time that's ever happened to me with a new Criterion but maybe I've been lucky. The case was factory sealed.

[Jeff]

Kirk told me and a bunch of other students that MGM was preparing the DVD for The Night of the Hunter the same time they were finishing up the restoration. To our massive disappointment, he explained that the home video department and the archival department rarely talked to each other (at least at the time), and instead of using the restoration, they took an older print and transferred that for the DVD.

That DVD never saw the light of day, so you have to wonder if the Criterion Blu-Ray disc is taken from that older DVD print or the supposed restoration. Anyone know ?

I believe that John Kirk was actually referring to MGM's featureless DVD that has been available for several years. MGM home video released that disc while Kirk and Robert Gitt at UCLA were working on the restoration, which would then tour theatrically. The much later special-edition disc which MGM was working on before funding was cut would have used the restoration, and I'm sure the Criterion disc does too.