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Posted: **Wed Jun 21, 2006 6:59 pm**

From DavisDVD:

The Seafarers

One of the longest running titles in our "to be announced" list has to be Stanley Kubrick's The Seafarers, the late master's 1953 industrial documentary commissioned by the Seafarers International Union of merchant mariners. Made only a few years before his impressive feature films "Killer's Kiss" and "The Killing," The Seafarers has the distinction of being Kubrick's first film in color.

Some years ago, Pietrzak Filmways, headed by Alexander Pietrzak, gained distribution rights to the documentary and a VHS edition was officially released. Work on a remastered special edition DVD of "The Seafarers" was said to have been underway, with only sporadic rumors on its progress. After a near four-year lull in news, we here at davisdvd.com decided to contact Mr. Pietrzak to find out the status of the project.

We are now happy to report that "The Seafarers" is moving forward after being shelved for budgetary reasons. According to Mr. Pietrzak, the editors of the TV show "Grey's Anatomy" are now footing the bill for getting it released.

Among the extras that will be included on the disc are commentary tracks by filmmakers and Kubrick fans Keith Gordon and Roger Avary, a text interview with one of Kubrick's daughters and more to be announced. There still is no release date unfortunately, but Mr. Pietrzak promises some more solid news for us after the editors return from their seasonal hiatus.

Posted: **Wed Jun 21, 2006 7:11 pm**

Now we just need his doc on the 1953 UN World Assembly of Youth in New York City.

Posted: **Wed Jun 21, 2006 8:36 pm**

not to mention his first two news-reels Day Of The Fight and The Flying Padre

I also hope that some day Kubrick's family allows Fear and Desire to be released (even though it's not that good).

Posted: **Thu Jun 22, 2006 12:57 am**

Seafarers is nothing to write home about. Flying Padre and Day of the Fight are much, much more interesting, though they`re not all that great either.

Posted: **Thu Jun 22, 2006 3:52 am**

I understand the appeal, because it's Kubrick, but none of these releases really interests me and I can't see myself ever buying a DVD just to get The Seafarers. It would be a much better fit if someone could put out Fear and Desire on DVD with the early shorts as extras on a second disc.

Posted: **Thu Jun 22, 2006 5:55 am**

what I really want is new restored version of the MGM titles (Killer's Kiss, The Killing and Paths of Glory)... the current releases are okay to terrible (and I believe The Killing is cropped). The Killing is one of my favorite Kubrick films and I just hope and pray that this new deal that MGM made with Fox will either allow Fox to restore the films (like their film noir series) or let Criterion handle them.

one can dream

Posted: **Thu Jun 22, 2006 7:03 am**

Special editions of The Killing and Paths of Glory would be very nice. Still, the picture quality on the current editions of Killer's Kiss, The Killing, and Paths of Glory seem very good to me and are certainly above and beyond the transfer quality of the average MGM release. I'm not aware of any cropping on the MGM DVD of The Killing. Can you elaborate?

Posted: **Thu Jun 22, 2006 7:52 pm**

Seafarers as a standalone is a bit of a ripoff. I mean, really. That's like putting Antonioni's rayon film on a DVD (particularly since no one suffering from existential ennui would be caught dead in rayon). Day of the Fight at least had some relevance to Killer's Kiss, but it's a bit silly to look for hints of future greatness in Seafarers.

Posted: **Thu Jun 22, 2006 8:28 pm**

Gregory wrote:Special editions of The Killing and Paths of Glory would be very nice. Still, the picture quality on the current editions of Killer's Kiss, The Killing, and Paths of Glory seem very good to me and are certainly above and beyond the transfer quality of the average MGM release. I'm not aware of any cropping on the MGM DVD of The Killing. Can you elaborate?

I was wrong about the cropping in The Killing, as it was filmed full-screen. I was confused because it was originally projected at 1.66:1, but they must have matted it for projection

Posted: **Fri Feb 01, 2008 5:19 pm**

Phil Hall over at Film Threat has a nice review of the film here.

Posted: **Tue Sep 16, 2008 5:38 am**

Alright guys, who can tell me anything about this? Is this legit or would buying it be a waste of time?

Posted: **Tue Sep 16, 2008 6:21 am**

I think it's legit -- Pietrzak said the DVD was being bankrolled by some Grey's Anatomy personnel (who'd have thunk it), and a search for "Indian Relay Films" turns up this profile.

Posted: **Tue Sep 16, 2008 10:18 am**

Now all we need are re-releases of Killer's Kiss, The Killing and Paths Of Glory!

Posted: **Tue Feb 10, 2009 12:18 am**

Correct, the Grey's Anatomy Editor and Alexander Pietrzak are responsible for bringing The Seafarers to DVD. There are two editor's on Grey's, the one someone had linked to is the "other" editor (Susan). Ed Ornelas is the guy though, he's also a director.

It looks really quite good. They obviously spent some money on this project.

You can see the description on Amazon, or elsewhere. It looks much better than anything you may have seen of this title, it has been digitally remastered. There's also an audio track with directors Roger Avary (Pulp Fiction screenwriter) and Keith Gordon (Dexter).

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The Seafarers (Kubrick, 1953)

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