seven samurai DVD shock!

Yesterday I was given a Criterion Seven Samurai DVD. Given the fact the I never watched the film before and never had a Criterion DVD either (remember I was wondering about what's so special about Criterion DVDs recently?) I had HUGE expectations. However I was simply shocked! The DVD is simply unwatchable. I tried to watch for the first 10 minutes or something (up to the moment when the samurai shaves his head) and had to stop the playback. 20 minutes on my eyes still hurt. The picture is glimmering all the time (I hope I use the right word in English) and this problem is so bad that's simply painful to watch. How can anyone sit thru the entire movie (and i have no doubts that it's a great one) is above my understanding. First I thought their something wrong with my plasma or DVD player but then I played a couple of old b/w films and ther were OK. Maybe my DVD is damaged or something?

 

Hmm. I've got the original Criterion release of this (with the resto doc.) and have watched it a few times. I've never been bothered by the picture.

John K.

 

Could be you have the wrong regionally coded DVD....don't remember what Russia's number would be, but sounds to me as if the disc isn't compatible with your system. That, or it's a bad clone of a Criterion DVD, because mine looks pretty good!

 

That disc has been out for years. I suspect it's either system-related or you've got a bad copy (or dupe).

 

Have a look at the screenshots here and compare it to your copy:

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCompare2/sevensamurai.htm

and here:

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/dvdcompare/7sam/7samurai.jpg

I have the region 4 PAL edition and it looks fine to me, for its age.

 

...maybe one of the Russian Bootlegs? I'm surprised at what your describing. My copy looks fine.

 

ED, The Criterion's usually have region "0" on their foreign film DVD's.

 

Michael, I think the "ordered by pain of death by Toho" reissues of 'Seven Samurai' are region "1". The first pressing is region "0".

Todd

 

My player is multiregional (not a single problem with any DVD so far) and this one is original Criterion DVD, not a pirate one...

 

I've owned both Criterions and they both looked great to me. I've owned videos, taped it off of TV and seen it on the big screen and the Criterion is as good as I've ever seen it. It's not perfect, but it shouldn't be (50 years old).

 

If the rumors are correct then Criterion will be revisiting this title at some point in the future. There's a better print in circulation now they could work from.