DNR on "Once Upon a Time in the West" Blu-Ray

DVDBeaver just released some screencaps of the new Blu-Ray:

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/dvdcompare/onceuponatimeinthewest.htm

It looks like some BAD DNR to me. The grain is still "visible," but it's been softened into moosh. Look at the wrinkles in their faces and even the hairs, especially in Henry Fonda's sideburns. The more I look at this, the more I think they f***ed up.

 

Those screencaps don't do the BD transfer justice. It's a winner, imo.

 

Italian version 171 minutes.

 

I hope that's the case. BTW, do you know what the deal is with the Film Foundation cut vs. Leone's "intended" theatrical cut vs. the "restored" edition that was on the last DVD? I'm not that familiar with the film's history and I keep hearing conflicting stories and different opinions on which cut is the proper version.

 

Unfortunately not. I know that a longer italian cut exists as alexpop mentioned above. The theatrical version on the blu is the 165-minute cut and the restored version is about 30 seconds longer.

 

A lot of people don't seem to think much of DVDb's screencaps.

Over at AVS, based on screenshots taken by someone else, the usual gloom-and-doom naysayers are already pronouncing this a DNR disaster without having seen the actual Blu-Ray. Classic.

John K.

 

I think I've read a statement from some Leone expert that the 171 min cut was never released officially, that it was fan made or something, I might be wrong though... But a longer Italian cut does exist.

I think the BD looks good, even though I liked the high contrast look of the DVD, but this is probably more accurate. Stupid cover though, especially since almost every frame of the movie is cover-worthy... BTW, I see that the 'restored' version has Cheyenne's shout-out with the sheriff's men, I haven't seen it yet, but I think his introduction in the shorter version is just perfect...

 

The digital bits are quite happy.

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/reviewshd/bdreviews051811.html#onc

 

I have my pre-order in at Amazon for $15.99 and it ships either tonight or tomorrow! Looking forward to seeing it.

 

Hmm looking just at those caps the only instance that makes the BD image an improvement over the later DVD versions is the numbers on the money.

Some of the DVD shots seem to have as much detail and sharpness as the BD.

I'm sure the BD looks fab though.

 

Once Upon a Time in the West, like many of Leone's westerns, was shot in 2-perf Techniscope. This is inherently an incredibly grainy format that looks really bad for home video -- a postage-stamp-sized frame roughly the same height as 16mm. It looked even worse in the theater, because of the optical blow-ups and anamorphic conversion involved. It's never gonna be super-sharp, because the frame size is so small, plus it's a 45-year-old movie.

Paramount owns this film, so it's up to them as to how high to crank the de-graining tools. (DVNR is only one of about a dozen different possible methods to reduce or eliminate film grain.) If they had put it out with no de-graining at all in HD, people would've screamed bloody murder. The question is, "how much noise reduction is too much," and that's a matter of opinion.

I'd reserve judgement until I see the pictures move. NR artifacts really show up worse as motion artifacts, not still frames.

 

The bluray.com caps looks better than the dvdbeaver ones. It's a relatively cheap bluray disc and since it's the only place to get the original "u.s." theatrical version, which is really the international theatrical version, I may spring for it anyway.

fwiw, from what I can tell, that version is one to get according to this guy:


No, no, the 165m international theatrical cut is the tightest version of the film (the final director's cut) not the 166m 'restored cut', which didn't exist until a couple of years ago and should more accurately be called 'the Scorsese cut'. Meanwhile, the AV Forums Review is blindly clinging onto the idea that the Italian Cut (the only version with longer end credits) is the preferred version just because it's longer (clearly they haven't seen it, as they seem to think it contains Italian-only dialogue scenes, which it doesn't), whilst The Digital Bits are just on another planet altogether... Do e-mail [Leone expert] Frayling if you wish, I have no doubt he'll confirm.

I think a lot of the confusion arises out of Paramounts failure to indicate that it is the international theatrical cut included on the disc, not the original US theatrical cut (although the 165m international cut WAS later released theatrically in the States too, just to confuse things a little more )

http://criterionforum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2698&start=75

 

I got mine on Saturday and it looks terrific all things considered.

There's only so much you can do with the source material.

 

I believe the AV Forums review is actually referring to the currently available DVD release of the Italian Cut only feature the Italian audio and not much use to people not fluent in Italian.

http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=4219

 

My copy from Amazon is on the way! Should arrive tomorrow.

 

I watched about 30 minutes of the blu-ray, which arrived today.

Yes, I regularly read the blu-ray threads at avsforum, and am aware of the opinions offered there.

I wanted to watch it on my 104" Panasonic plasma, but since I have never owned one, I decided instead to watch it on my 50" Panasonic G series plasma.

I think the movie looks great. Seriously, I am not the least bit disappointed. No, I didn't take my DVD and view them back to back, and start counting the grain particles.

But I am really impressed with the transfer. Hey, I'm the one who had to buy the French blu-ray of Michael Clayton, just because blu-ray.com said it beat the socks off the U.S. issue. But that's another topic.

 

Got mine today.

 

I'm confused, Amazon lists two different blu-ray versions of the film; a single disc and a two disc. It looks like the two disc is 1.85 and the one disc is 2.35?? Can anybody confirm this? I'd hate to pick up the wrong one.

 

Both have the same aspect ratio, ie 2.35:1. Amazon are notoriously bad at giving correct specs on their product descriptions.

 

That's what I suspected. So what then is the difference between the one and two disc blu-ray versions? Or IS there even a two-disc blu-ray version (and they are just confusing it with the DVD)? Here are the two listings:

http://www.amazon.com/Once-Upon-Time-West-Blu-ray/dp/B004T0XYM8/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1360279211&sr=8-3&keywords=once upon a time in the west

http://www.amazon.com/Once-Upon-Tim...tmm_blu_title_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1360279211&sr=8-3

 

Ok I think I figured this out. This is a result of the fairly recent deal that has Warner re-releasing a bunch of titles from Paramount. So it's just a straight up re-issue of the Paramount Blu-ray. The Warner re-issue is identical (even the cover) and half the price. So several of the descriptions on Amazon are incorrect, including number of discs and aspect ratios, but they did get the releasing studios correct.

 

I did get to see Once Upon a Time in the West during a Sergio Leone film festival in college, but we could only show 16mm. Not great quality, but it was a pretty big screen. Great film.

 

Once Upon a Time in the West bluray is too sharp. Contrast is also boosted and there's too much of red. Everyone's face looks very reddish. Not a good release at all. However, noise reduction isn't overdone.

 

I disagree, I think it's a very nice looking disc. There is actually less contrast and sharpness compared to the DVD. See for yourself: http://caps-a-holic.com/hd_vergleiche/multi_comparison.php?disc1=3716&disc2=3717&hd_multiID=1543