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RobertAltman wrote:Good to know they have Altman's That Cold Day in the Park!

Terrific news! I'm sure it'll come out after the UCLA Film & Television Archive's restoration debuts next year. Maybe this means they'll be releasing COME BACK TO THE 5 AND DIME, too.

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Can I get someone's opinion on Robert Harris' assessment of the High Noon BD? He really tears it a new one, even though most of the other reviewers, even the really picky ones, gave it high marks. Invasion of the Body Snatchers was also downsized by him

Leviathan wrote:http://www.hometheaterforum.com/t/32...oon-in-blu-ray

Can I get someone's opinion on Robert Harris' assessment of the High Noon BD? He really tears it a new one, even though most of the other reviewers, even the really picky ones, gave it high marks. Invasion of the Body Snatchers was also downsized by him

I appreciate Mr. Harris' opinion as part of a whole, but his standards are REALLY high, and frankly he seems a bit biased against smaller labels. Leaning on his review as the sole word on all matters home theater has its own weaknesses, and in this particular case he's definitely in the minority of review opinions. That doesn't mean he's correct or incorrect, but just that he's so far the only true naysayer out there on this release.

He says rather plainly in that thread that a mere $150,000 would allow for a new 4k scan of the film elements. As if a licensee like Olive has $150k lying around. It seems that unless every release is handled with a multi-thousand dollar "new image harvest" he rarely recommends it. (Frankly I'm growing weary of the term "image harvest", too). And we know that Paramount only sees the Republic Library as merely an asset to be listed on their books and not as a true film heritage to treat wonderfully.

Sometimes, context helps shape ones expectation.

Blu-ray.com interview with head of Olive Films mentions future releases, neglects discussing burned-in subs.

I'm happy about the Aldrich news, but that really sheds some interesting light on the company.

Unfortunately, the implied answer to most of our complaints -- "Why don't you you take free extras from Tag Gallagher?" and "Why don't you include English subtitles" and my hobby horse of removable subs on foreign releases -- seems to be that they don't feel they have the time or the manpower to prep and proof these features.

I think Frank Tarzi's reply is pretty straightforward - they're a small company, and adding special features would require more manpower. They can't be compared to Criterion, because they're operating under very different business models. Criterion has a larger staff, but they only put out a handful of releases every month. Olive has decided to focus their energies instead on putting out more titles per month, while still preparing good quality transfers. That's not a bad thing! Personally I'm happy with the idea that all those great Paramount and Republic back catalog titles are finally receiving quality DVD and Blu-ray releases. Republic in particular is getting a lot more love now than it ever did under Artisan/Lionsgate. I mean, Olive is putting out LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN! And MACBETH! And JOHNNY GUITAR!

I agree it would be great if they included English HOH subtitles, but as he points out, even major studios don't do that for many titles. The burned-in subs on foreign-language titles is another issue, and I don't have a good defense for that. They may be contractually obligated to deliver forced English subtitles in some cases, but I don't understand the burned-in thing.

I have mixed feelings- for my part, if a supplement or subtitles or whatever would be cheap but take a long time to put n the disc, I'd rather wait a few months and have a better release. Olive's insane rate of output is neat and all, but it's not as though I can afford to buy everything right away in any case- and a fantastic disc six months from now is better than a good disc right away.

I mean, look at MoC- that's an even smaller company (isn't it like three fulltime employees?) and they still have supplements that really do compete with Criterion, without skimping on the pq or anything. Sure, their output is slower, but I still own far more MoC releases than Olives, even just counting the last couple of years.

MOC might not be the best example anymore as they've been reducing the number of extras to basically extra films recently. A better example might be Second Run who always manage at least an interview.

Well, a lot of the recent MoCs have been reasonably well stacked Universals, so they just reproduced the extant extras- which Olive doesn't bother to do- but they have great interviews with Callow on the Laughton releases, the Rayns commentary on Accatone, and a really great set for Matthew, just within the past couple of months- and their consistently killer books on absolutely everything. They don't always pile extras on, but even Criterion puts out barebones stuff sometimes- to me, it's more a matter of whether they bother to put stuff on when it presents itself.

I will never buy anything from them unless there is English subtitles. I know I'm not the only one. There is thousands of languages out there and everyone cannot master spoken English. Thinking otherwise is kinda imperialistic act.

Kauno wrote:I will never buy anything from them unless there is English subtitles. I know I'm not the only one. There is thousands of languages out there and everyone cannot master spoken English. Thinking otherwise is kinda imperialistic act.

They are releasing these films in the US, not internationally. While it may be unfair to the hard of hearing, this is not an attempt to rule the world.

Zot! wrote:They are releasing these films in the US, not internationally.

That's a little disingenuous. Olive releases are available through e-tailers like Amazon, which means anyone with an internet connection and a credit card or Paypal account can purchase them. And even if it were only the HOH who are getting stiffed, Tarzi's attitude in his response is loathesome. He feels bad, does he? Well, bless his widdle, cheap, short-sighted heart.

He's stiffing the largest age cohort out there and a demographic that's likely to keep buying his product (for as long as we're around ) more consistently than younger generations who are watching films on their mobile devices (see this thread's recent discussions). It's clear from his response that he's more concerned with the volume of product he can get on the market than the quality of that product. It's irrelevant whether other labels are doing the same. It shows a callous disregard for what could be a significant portion of his customer base. As far as his plaintive wail about the time involved goes, no one else is beating him to the US market with these films. Olive has the rights. Another month or so to add computer-generated SDH and check them is too much? Bullshit!

The lack of subs is the biggest issue for me. I watch a lot of my films with my best friend, for whom English is his (very fluent) second language. Still, it's difficult for him to get the nuances of a film without subs.

High frequency hearing loss becomes more and more common as we age. So this is a real problem in older folks (and may well affect the Walkman/iPod demographic at an even younger age).

Subs can also be invaluable to native speakers who live in thin-walled apartments, dorm rooms, or condos who are forced to maintain the audio at lower levels. I often find details in the subs that would've been inaudible to me at "reasonable" audio levels.

One excuse doesn't jibe with me: If adding subs to all releases takes additional time, it simply shifts the release dates for all the discs equally; after a short delay to catch up, it shouldn't affect their release schedule at all.

Clearly Olive's business model is high volume, quick turnover, and low overhead. I admire their ability to crank out a large volume of desirable titles with good quality video. But the loss of English subs is a pretty high price to pay.

As much as they don't touch upon some of the issues that people would like them to, they make Twilight Time's frequent protestations look utterly absurd.

Classicflix has posted a list of Republic titles that Olive plans to release on DVD/Blu-ray.

There are many titles of interest here, and much to look forward to.

I am insanely happy that they're planning on finally getting those Betty Boop cartoons released. This has been a dream day one since they started unpacking.

The biggest standouts for me are The Sun Shines Bright and One of Our Aircraft is Missing, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't going to buy Fire Maidens from Outer Space.

matrixschmatrix wrote:The biggest standouts for me are The Sun Shines Bright and One of Our Aircraft is Missing

Those two plus The Quiet Man and The Bullfighter and the Lady are the remaining big boys for me, but also looking forward to (and kind of dumbfounded by the possibility of) Blus of Ramrod, Dark Command, Caught, China Gate, and Champion amongst others.

Have any of you McCarey fanboys seen Good Sam?

A couple of Republic titles conspicuously absent from that list are Don Siegel's Riot in Cell Block 11, and Frank Borzage's Moonrise. There are dozens of other Republics that Olive didn't pick up, but those surprise me. Paramount claims ownership of them. I wonder what the issues are. I assume Robert Altman's That Cold Day in the Park doesn't appear on that list because it's not "classic" according to the Classicflix definition.

Looks like that Classicflix list drops everything after 1962. ( I guess a film must be 50 years old to be considered a classic.) Our dear friend Mr. Lime posted a complete list over at the Home Theater Forum

dwk wrote:Looks like that Classicflix list drops everything after 1962. ( I guess a film must be 50 years old to be considered a classic.) Our dear friend Mr. Lime posted a complete list over at the Home Theater Forum

Yep. Those titles are:

The Bamboo Saucer (1968)
Bang! Bang! You're Dead! (1966)
Breakthrough (1979)
Cadence (1990)
Cauldron of Blood (1970) AKA Blind Man's Bluff
Cujo (1983)
Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965)
The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1969)
Hanger 18 (1980)
Highlander II (1991) (Both Versions)
Ironweed (1987)
Irreconcilable Differences (1984)
Julius Caesar (1970)
The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams (1974)
Live Nude Girls (1995)
Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962)
The Magic Christian (1969)
The Monster Squad (1987)
Night of the Demons 2 (1994)
Night of the Scarecrow (1995)
The Pawnbroker (1964)
Reuben, Reuben (1983)
The Running Man (1987)
Shark! (1969)
Tam Lin (1970) aka The Devil's Widow & The Ballad of Tam Lin
That Cold Day in the Park (1969)
Ticks (1993)
Trust (1990)
Witchboard 2 (1993)

Hah, since when isn't The Pawnbroker a classic?

Wait, is that 'Trust' the Hal Hartley?

dwk wrote:Looks like that Classicflix list drops everything after 1962. ( I guess a film must be 50 years old to be considered a classic.)

ClassicFlix FAQ wrote:What titles are considered “Classic”?
We carry TV shows that began in 1969 and before & theatrical releases that were released prior to 1960. We do carry hundreds of movies from the 1960’s, but our inventory for those years is not exhaustive.

Their inventory for the '50s and prior isn't quite exhaustive either (for instance, where are Lonesome or any number of classic foreign titles outside of obvious stuff like Seven Samurai?) though at least they're a good source for MOD discs. However, I find their slogan ("If we don't carry it, it's not a classic!") rather disingenuous.

RodneyOz wrote:Wait, is that 'Trust' the Hal Hartley?

Yep.

perkizitore wrote:Hah, since when isn't The Pawnbroker a classic?

I had forgotten about that one. What a great set of films this is.