The Far Country

Discuss releases from Arrow and the films on them.

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Flapper
Joined: Fri Apr 17, 2020 4:45 pm

Re: The Far Country

#26 Post by Flapper » Sat May 30, 2020 1:26 am

Indeed, it's a real thing, and plagued a lot of Warnercolor opticals from the 50s:

https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=2&x=69 ... 1&i=5&go=1

Notice the difference?

Unfortunately, I've seen the same effect get erroneously lumped together with the halos in Criterion's "Days of Heaven" - an obvious deviation from the source, of an old sharpened/edge-enhanced master.

'Geoff D' has done an excellent job at differentiating the two here.

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Rayon Vert
Green is the Rayest Color
Joined: Wed Jan 08, 2014 10:52 pm
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Re: The Far Country

#27 Post by Rayon Vert » Sun Jun 28, 2020 2:55 pm

domino harvey wrote:
Fri Aug 16, 2019 12:33 pm
can’t imagine why anyone would want Universal’s much-loathed 2:1 if you can get the 1.85 instead, but whatevs
Why is the 2:1 loathed?

And which version should I watch? A response in 15 minutes would be appreciated because that's when I'm going to start! :lol:

shaky
Joined: Mon Jul 29, 2013 2:52 pm

Re: The Far Country

#28 Post by shaky » Sun Jun 28, 2020 3:21 pm

1.85 for sure

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hearthesilence
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
Location: NYC

Re: The Far Country

#29 Post by hearthesilence » Fri Apr 16, 2021 8:12 pm

I just got this, and the PQ sure fluctuates a lot. The opticals look like ass (or more accurately, like bad dupes), but when it cuts to a clean shot it's a major improvement. If this is the OCN (and I doubt they'd lie about that), I have to say they generally did the best they could with it because the color isn't bad and the grain looks more than fine. I've definitely seen 4K scans of 35mm look better than this, but only if the image capture has the potential to be better. If the physical aspects of the film itself look good (not the image capture, just the texture inherent in the medium), it suggests that we're pretty close to the ceiling. I guess the opticals could look "better" but not in a way that can ever be considered "good" - it does look like edge enhancement in a lot of spots, but I'll take Flapper's word that it's Mackie lines.

More importantly, great film. There's maybe one Stewart/Mann Western that I haven't seen (I have to check), but pretty much every single one I have is more or less a masterpiece. Either The Naked Spur or Winchester '73 (when are they getting a BD???) would probably be the best of them in my book - tough to compare when I saw them years apart, but who cares, I'd love to see them again on something better than a DVD or TV broadcast.

nitin
Joined: Sat Nov 08, 2014 6:49 am

Re: The Far Country

#30 Post by nitin » Fri Apr 16, 2021 10:06 pm

Naked Spur apparently needs an expensive-ish restoration (by Warner). Winchester 73 has been restored by Universal and is with Criterion.

Bend of the River is probably the weakest of the Mann/Stewart western collabs but still has a lot to like IMHO.

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Maltic
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2020 1:36 am

Re: The Far Country

#31 Post by Maltic » Mon Apr 19, 2021 11:39 am

Last time I pondered the question, I reached the conclusion that The Man From Laramie is the weakest, although it has two of the most striking pictorial representations of all that post-war Stewart-suffering:
SpoilerShow
When he's dragged through the bonfire and shot in the hand, respectively.
Anyway, one is as good as the other, as with the Ranown cycle.

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