Julius Caesar (1970) R2 Italy

[Stefan Andersson]

Has anybody seen this Italian R2 DVD of Julius Caesar (Stuart Burge, 1970) with Charlton Heston? Quality? Is it letterboxed?

[Person]

The cover art looks like the 2007 Lion's Gate cover art, but with the title change (pugnali means dagger, right?).

I'd definitely get it if it has a good/great 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer as it is a really good film, though it has almost been totally forgotten, due in part to all TV, VHS, DVD, etc presentations over the last 40 years being shit.

There was an edition in Italy from Mondo Video which is 1.33:1. The link you have is for the Storm Video edition, which many Italian DVD sites as being 16:9, widescreen, etc.

I'll try and get an answer, Stefan.

[Person]

I just ordered the Storm edition. I'll report on the disc when it arrives.

[Stefan Andersson]

Thanks a lot, Person. I´ll follow this thread.

[Perkins Cobb]

Sorry, guys. It's 4:3 and looks like crap. I know this only because a friend of mine ordered it and was so disappointed he just gave it to me (and I don't want it either!).

[Person]

I jumped into that Roman DVD and landed on John McClane's bare-feet. It is indeed an old, comical 1989-ish 4:3 pan-scan job. Me Gusta.

I mean, Columbia managed to release a good transfer-encode, 4.0 stereo region 2 DVD-5 of Waterloo (also released in 1970) back in 1999 in the UK (there has never been a R1 NTSC) and I really enjoy the film (it cost $22m and made $3m) and it would be a treat to see it in 1080p from Sony - or even Criterion if the license was reasonable, which it surely would be - just as Julius Caesar. It's just so crazy to to think that expensive films of the past now end up as shitty, or even non-existent DVDs/Blu's in 2011 while clunky films made for $600,000 in 1981 get gorgeous restored-O-neg 2k transfer Blu-rays right off the bat! Weird economics.