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As great as the movie itself is, this is truly a movie that hasn't benefited from high resolution treatment. The awful special effects (even for 1959) stand out more on blu-ray and make the movie less enjoyable overall. The matte paintings, rear projection, and the entire Mount Rushmore sequence look laughably awful when they had been tolerable on standard DVD. And the coarse grain and generally soft focus of the film image is surprising for a VistaVision production. There is some improved detail in a few scenes (such as poatterns in fabric) but the color pallette does not appear to be appreciably more subtle than on DVD.
The last movie I saw that was actually a worse viewing experience in high definition than on standard DVD was Forbidden Planet, where the HD DVD laid bare the deficiencies of the "stunning" (for 1956) special effects. Seeing the flaws so clearly took you out of the movie.
Like a badly-produced CD that sounds more tolerable in a cheap car stereo than at home in a highly-resolving audiophile system, sometimes higher resolution in video can be less enjoyable too. Skip North By Northwest on blu-ray. Even if you don't already own the movie, buy it on standard DVD and save the cash!
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Yes, the flaws are more visible, but so is everything else, and, speaking for myself, I became aware of all sorts of wonderful details that I had overlooked in the past, such as the details on the painting on the wall in the hotel restaurant near the beginning. The Blu-ray really made me see the movie with new eyes. The sound quality is still so-so (although even here, I think it's superior to the DVD), but I found the colors superior on the Blu-ray, and to me, this is a truly fine restoration job.
nt
I don't own it, so I saw NBNW on someone else's HT Set-up, a 60"+ Panny plasma.
But I thought the BD was better in every way than the DVD, and the color was excellent. I've seen this on the big screen, and this is the closest I've gotten at home to that experience. COnsidering the source material, I think the BD is very good.
I was fine with Forbidden Planet too - you can't expect FX from 40 and 50 years ago to have the detail and realism of current CGI. I'm easily able to overlook those things for all the other advanatges we've gained in these BDs of classic film. It's simply not possible to go back and digitally redo all the great effects shots from classic movies...nor should we want to.
This film was visibly grainy in the original, and the special effects were obviously special. The best parts of the movie were the performances. Now, when does Vertigo come out on Blu-Ray> Or The Birds? Or "The Trouble With Harry"? Those I'd go for...
Haven't got/seen this one on BD yet, but...don't you think that everything you can see in the BD was also visible to the filmgoers 50 years ago? Isn't that what we want?
You're supposed to suspend disbelief. Frankly, seeing a wire or painting bothers me no more than having 50 people shooting at a modern hero and all missing, yet the hero scores with each shot. Requires the same mental "technique"...
Easier to suspend disbelief with the standard DVD. The blu-ray adds nothing in my opinion, just makes the flaws more visible. That's all I'm saying. Don't try to insinuate anything else.
I'm not insinuating anything, I'm blatantly saying it: you seem to be complaining because the BD looks more like the film does. Unless you think the BD producers inserted artifacts just for you to see...there's the insinuation you seem to be looking for.
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