Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: SPARTACUS (1960) on Blu-Ray

This is topic SPARTACUS (1960) on Blu-Ray in forum The Afterlife at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 05-27-2010, 03:45 PM:

I first saw SPARTACUS very late during it's run at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood in the early sixties and by that time, the 70mm print they were playing was replaced with a 35mm. I remember enjoying the movie very much and happy to have had an opportunity to see a movie in that very historic theatre. The theatre was very impressive and I still have very fond memories of that visit. i saw SPARTACUS again at the Cinerama Theatre in Honolulu after Robert A. Harris had fully restored the film in 1991. unfortunately, the presentation was again in 35mm and it could have been because the 70mm print of SPARTACUS might have only had a DTS time code and the Cinerama was not equipped with DTS. Because the 35mm print was made from a 65mm source from restored large format Technirama separation elements, The picture was gorgeous! The sound was flat Mono and that was a bummer!

In 2001, Criterion, under license from Universal, released a two disc special edition of the restored SPARTACUS and it was excellent. Not only was the visuals fantastic but so was the sound. For the very first time, the soundtrack of SPARTACUS was in 5.1 discreet sound.

SPARTACUS was just released on Blu-Ray this week and although Robert Harris at the Home Theatre forum did not have any nice things to say about it, another reviewer at another site, praised it. Because I disagreed with Mr, Harris when he panned the Blu-Ray of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE last Christmas, I though I might not agree with him again with the BD of SPARTACUS. Now that I have purchased SPARTACUS on Blu-Ray and scanned through it, Mr. Harris was correct. Although Robert Harris had said people who view this BD of SPARTACUS with a small display will not have any problem with the disc, he was wrong. Even with my small 1080p twenty six inch screen, the picture quality was terrible. I once complained about the picture quality of AKIRA KUROSAWa's RAN on Blu-Ray, but I was wrong when I viewed the movie during the day with lots of light in the room. when I viewed it again in a darkened room, I discovered there was nothing wrong with my BD of RAN. SPARTACUS was viewed in a darkened room along with the Criterion version of the film. After I had compared the BD of SPARTACUS with the DVD, the DVD is still a keeper. If you have the Criterion version of the movie on DVD and was considering buying the BD, save your money. If you still want to buy the BD of SPARTACUS, you can buy my copy-cheap!

-Claude

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 05-27-2010, 11:07 PM:

Have to check that BR release out against my 2 disc, Laserdisc release of the same movie ... BR prob will blow away the LD version hands down ... thx-Monte

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 05-28-2010, 12:04 AM:

Monte,

If the laserdisc was Robert Harris's restored version, it might have a better picture than the BD. I used to buy all of the major titles when they were released on laserdiscs so I probably still have the laserdisc in my collection but I no longer play them after I had disconnected my player. Trust me when I say, the BD is bad compared to the Criterion DVD. In actuality, the picture quality of the SPARTACUS Blu-Ray look like VHS but only sharper. The Criterion DVD of the movie look like Blu-Ray and gorgeous but the picture is not as sharp as BD.

-Claude

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 05-28-2010, 09:07 PM:

quote: Claude S. Ayakawa
the presentation was again in 35mm and it could have been because the 70mm print of SPARTACUS might have only had a DTS time code and the Cinerama was not equipped with DTS

I ran one of the new 70mm prints of the restored version in the early 90's...it had mag tracks.

Posted by Joe Tommassello (Member # 4632) on 06-11-2010, 11:11 AM:

I have the HD-DVD disc of "Spartacus" and it gets a critical bashing for it's image too - though I think I'd rather have it a little too sharp than the image "smeared".