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Just not really crazy about their decision to upsample the audio, like a lot of Hong Kong releases have been doing since the DVD days.
Are they just going to upscale the picture quality as well?

Each available in individual digibooks as well

It's tempting. I really don't like Giant, though. Except for Dean's performance (that is, before they aged his character), I've never been a fan. But the first two I'll definitely get, especially Rebel Without a Cause.

Is there any other actor in film history who's approached the same stature with a film career comprising of just three lead performances?

Maria Falconetti with one?

Depends what you mean by "stature", but John Cazale's small CV is unbelievable - The Godfather, The Conversation, The Godfather Part II, Dog Day Afternoon, The Deer Hunter.

They've come up with some pretty hideous artwork for the digibooks. I really don't understand what's wrong with using the old dvd covers.

hearthesilence wrote:It's tempting. I really don't like Giant, though. Except for Dean's performance (that is, before they aged his character), I've never been a fan. But the first two I'll definitely get, especially Rebel Without a Cause.

Is there any other actor in film history who's approached the same stature with a film career comprising of just three lead performances?

I guess I'll be the asshole and say he had one good performance and even then it's more because of how Ray works Dean's horrible acting into the film which makes the masterpiece a performance than anything from Dean's mumbled hee-hawing. Outside of that he manages to be the worst part of some not terribly great films.

Gotta love Warner Brothers and their "Ultimate Collector's Editions" ](*,)

swo17 wrote:Maria Falconetti with one?

Man, I actually didn't know she had done just one.

hearthesilence wrote:

swo17 wrote:Maria Falconetti with one?

Man, I actually didn't know she had done just one.

Falconetti did at least one other film, but I think it's lost.

IMDb credits her for three films, but only one as the lead.

knives wrote:

hearthesilence wrote:It's tempting. I really don't like Giant, though. Except for Dean's performance (that is, before they aged his character), I've never been a fan. But the first two I'll definitely get, especially Rebel Without a Cause.
Is there any other actor in film history who's approached the same stature with a film career comprising of just three lead performances?

I guess I'll be the asshole and say he had one good performance and even then it's more because of how Ray works Dean's horrible acting into the film which makes the masterpiece a performance than anything from Dean's mumbled hee-hawing. Outside of that he manages to be the worst part of some not terribly great films.

That's kinda how I feel about Brando. A least Dean's mumbled hee-hawing had a lighter touch. I like East of Eden well enough, and consider Rebel the definitive Ray masterpiece (with all due respect to In A Lonely Place and Johnny Guitar). Giant is awful, though - the most irritating qualities of George Stevens in a bloated, messy package.

willoneill wrote:Falconetti did at least one other film, but I think it's lost.

Apparently she plays a smaller role in La Comtesse de Somerive (1917), but that film appears to survive. FIAF's Treasures from Film Archives lists holdings at the Cinémathèque Française and Bois d'Arcy.

kingofthejungle wrote:Giant is awful, though - the most irritating qualities of George Stevens in a bloated, messy package.

I couldn't agree more. Despite its elephantine length, it feels like an endless series of trailers or outtakes for a film that was never actually completed. I sense no engagement from Stevens with the story or characters. It often feels like he's trying to apply the same detachment or light touch that worked so well in his early comedies to what essentially is, or should be, a melodrama.

I've had the old DVD of Giant and never got around to watching it since the picture quality was supposedly pretty bad and it was also non-anamorphic and on a flipper disc.

Looking at the above picture, it seems this will be a 7-disc set? I'm guessing all the 2-disc edition bonus features will be on separate DVDs, most likely just repressings of the old discs. Not a problem really, but I wonder if there will be any new digital extras.

manicsounds wrote:Looking at the above picture, it seems this will be a 7-disc set? I'm guessing all the 2-disc edition bonus features will be on separate DVDs, most likely just repressings of the old discs. Not a problem really, but I wonder if there will be any new digital extras.

I only count six discs -- one Blu-ray each for the three films (each presumably replicating the content of the old two-disc DVDs), plus George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey, James Dean: Forever Young, and James Dean: Sense Memories (American Masters) each on their own DVD. Those three new docs were all previously released individually by Warner on DVD, and it looks like the original pressings of those discs are just being included as an exclusive bonus for this set.

The picture shows 7 discs, so I'm assuming there will be two discs for Giant (it seems so by the font on the discs).

There are 7 discs pictured, 3 are blu, 4 are DVD (I think, it's pixely when zoomed)
I see the 3 main films as BDs, the 3 documentaries as separate DVDs., but the 7th disc I can't make out.

manicsounds wrote:There are 7 discs pictured, 3 are blu, 4 are DVD (I think, it's pixely when zoomed)
I see the 3 main films as BDs, the 3 documentaries as separate DVDs., but the 7th disc I can't make out.

7th disc is special features for Giant. The film itself is over 200 minutes long. Good to see they are not overcompressing it to fit everything on one disc.

UK version of the James Dean set: only 6 discs pictured, October 7th release date.

Looks like George Stevens documentary DVD is missing but it's only 21 pounds on Amazon. Less than half the price of the US release!

The UK James Dean set also appears to have the more conventional packaging - unlike the US supersize box which will not fit anywhere on my shelf.

Isn't it weird that it seems to have the same content (albeit one less disc) and yet it'd fit in a much smaller box?

I think it's just a Photoshop trick. The books are undoubtedly the same in each box, and the book appears to be the same size as the box in each photo. The trick is that the discs appear much larger in the UK photo. But then again, if they've messed with the proportions of each element in the photo, who knows exactly how big anything (but the discs) actually is?

Another jumbo box fulla crap for you: JFK Ultimate Collector's Edition Blu-ray