Your top ten US/British feature films on blu-ray

Hi

I've just got my first plasma TV (many thanks for all your advice) and an Oppo 3D blu-ray player.
Hooked them up the other day and tested it with The Searchers. I must admit I'd been slightly sceptical -- would it really be that much of an improvement over DVD?
Well, I was blown away! How could a film that old look so good - I even had to check whether they'd somehow converted 2D into fake 3D -- it looked that realistic and so beautiful.

And that got me thinking - what are your 10 finest-looking feature films, American or British or both, made prior to 1970 (silents included), on blu-ray?

 

BDP93 ?
Also, what plasma did you get ?

 

Yes it was the 93 and the Panasonic VT 3D plasma.

Just watched Great Expectations from 1946 - again stunning picture and sound quality for a 60+ year old film.

 

Ten pre-1970 film transfers that looked really impressive on blu-ray to me:

-Modern Times
-Night Of The Hunter
-City Girl (Masters of Cinema)
-The Red Shoes
-The Seventh Seal
-Bambi
-Fantasia (the vintage Disney films are great on blu)
-Treasure Of The Sierra Madre
-Bigger Than Life
-Sunrise

 

VT3D 50" inch ?

 

It's impossible to pick 10. I haven't got one that doesn't look or sound better than it's DVD counterpart. This is a great resource:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1168342

 

Guy's already got the link to my favorite Blu Ray site, Blu-Ray.com...

Easy Rider
Twister (British)
Pulp Fiction (Polish)
Jackie Brown (Dutch)
Band Of Brothers
Heat
Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival 2010
The Godfather I, II, & III

 

Thanks - I have Modern Times, Red Shoes and Seventh Seal but haven't watched them yet. And I aim to get the other ones you've mentioned.
It's interesting what you say about the Disney classics - I was wondering if they're worth upgrading from DVD.

Any other suggestions for pre-1970 US/British films, anyone?

(It was a 50" plasma, by the way - and that plus the blu-ray player has just reignited my enthusiasm for classic and foreign films).

 

Some other titles: The Ten Commandments (incredible restoration), The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, The Third Man (criterion/oop but worth it), Paths of Glory, The Day the Earth Stood Still, check out some of the James Bond titles (like Goldfinger), North By Northwest, Big Country, The Searchers, so many more.

 

If those cowboys cranked your tractor, dare to go older, The Adventures Of Robin Hood seems appropriate. Try a music title like either of Jeff Beck's. Wanna blow up dams? Get The Dambusters. Wanna try a twisted, comic noir about Hollywood, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Try the original True Grit if ya wanna see a film with that ole time colour palate. You'll see too much of the Teal & Orange in the latest films.

Have fun with that new set. I got my eyes on a 60" specimen.

 

Don't hestitate! and many thanks for the suggestions - keep them coming!

 

Kubrick's 2001 looks amazing (especially due to being filmed on 70mm!)

Dr Strangelove is also a great improvement over the old DVDs

 

The Italian Job (Original) Blu Ray is great. The movie has never looked better

 

I think so. You can get an idea of the upgrade from DVDBeaver, but the differences are even more apparent in motion: http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/dvdcompare9/bambi_.htm In addition to the visual differences the Disney movies tend to have video commentaries on the blu-ray versions, so they show a lot of rough footage, sketches, vintage interviews and other rare material.

 

The OP is asking for films made before 1970.

The OP mentioned watching David Lean's Great Expectations. Lean's The Bridge on the River Kwai and Doctor Zhivago look great on Blu-ray. (As a side note, Lean's A Passage To India from the 1980s looks great on Blu-ray too.)

The OP mentioned watching The Searchers. For Westerns, I think Sergio Leone's epic Once Upon a Time in the West looks terrific on Blu-ray. Better looking than Leone's The Good, The Bad and The Ugly on Blu-ray.

How The West Was Won is a great looking film on Blu-ray, but it's an extremely skinny 2.89:1 aspect ratio. It was originally filmed for Cinerama, a large curved screen that surrounds the audience. The 2-disc Digibook version comes with an additional disc that shows the film in "Smilebox" format -- a curvy version meant to approximate the wrap-around-the-audience experience of Cinerama. The straightfoward letterbox version of this film looks distorted, because the film was meant to be shown in Cinerama. I think the "Smilebox" format works on a large tv (60" or larger), but weird on a smaller tv (50" or smaller). Check out the screenshots on blu-ray.com of the "Smilebox" format of this film.

Stanley Kubrick's 2001 looks great on Blu-ray. Unfortunately, Spartacus has drawn heavy criticism for its color on Blu-ray.

I like the Blu-rays for Sand Pebbles and The Sound of Music, both Robert Wise films. His West Side Story comes out in November, which I hope will look as good.

Other classic films which were restored well for Blu-ray are A Star Is Born (with Judy Garland), The Ten Commandments, and Gone With the Wind.

 

I looked through the list of Criterion titles on Blu-ray. I think my favorite pre-1970 film on Criterion Blu-ray that I have seen, for looks and eye candy, is Visconti's The Leopard.

The OP is in New Zealand, and I believe Criterion's Blu-ray titles are generally locked for Region A (North America).

 

One of the best Blu-rays I've seen in terms of PQ is Pre-1970: "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World" - Currently avilable only through Wal-Mart. Absolutely stunning...

Other greats include "Psycho", "North by Northwest", "The Searchers", and
"2001"

 

These are all great suggestions - some of them I've already got, but not watched yet.

I deliberately got a region-free player so I could watch Criterion films for example. Watched my first one this evening - Stagecoach - and despite the original negative being lost (I think), the picture and sound quality was truly remarkable.

And it's these classic older pictures I'm really interested in which is why I asked for suggestions for films made before 1970.

Maybe we should soon do separate threads for the best-looking silent, 1930s and 1940s films on blu-rays at some point?

Thanks again for the suggestions!