The prices are not as bad as I expected, but they're a complete slap in the face to the people who paid nearly double for them when supporting the campaign! Why is it that Arrow are the only label who seem to realise you're supposed to reward people for putting their money up front, not rip them off?!
kidc85 wrote:I have to admit to also being tempted by that Humphrey Jennings set. As superb as I'm sure the BFI's releases are, I'm never going to buy 3 blu-rays of the stuff, so one mid-priced release of his major work (including the longer FIRE cut) is... more up my alley.
Who knows what the image quality is like on these discs though? They surely can't be from materials as good as what the BFI used. In fact, my impression is that these discs are using the same old masters that David Shepard prepared for the Image DVDs. In the case of the Humphrey Jennings films, that makes them at least 13 years old. So there is a likelihood that these discs are going to look very outdated by today's standards. The BFIs, for the record, look invariably spectacular.
I've seen everything on the first two volumes so far and wouldn't say there's a single film not worth seeing. I also see no indication that the longer cut of
Fire's Were Started is even included on the FA disc, so I'm not sure I understand your comment, but rest assured both cuts of the film are included in the BFI set (and Volume 2 includes
The Silent Village, which by itself is worth the price of admission, whilst it does not appear on the FA disc). And whilst you'll obviously pay more for all three volumes from the BFI, they're so cheap now that you're hardly going to feel you've wasted your money!
