I haven't posting a thing since Ray's passing in 2013. There is finally something to get excited about, though, and I can't support this enough. Warner's has released "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms" on Blu-ray. For fans like myself, who love to pour over every scale and wrinkle in Ray's arguably most inspired creation, this release is an opportunity to do so with unparalleled detail. For better, or for worse, (depending on your point of view), you can analyze every nook and cranny, detect previously invisible matte lines, and well...to quote a friend, "You feel you could touch & smell the rubber itself."
There is a review of the release that can be found here,
http://www.doblu.com/2015/11/04/beast-20000-fathoms-blu-ray-review/
The review is by Matt Paprocki and is worth the read. It also has some wonderful screen grabs demonstrate the quality of the Blu-ray. Here are a few from his review:
So far, I have NO O'Brien/Harryhausen movies on blu: but I wonder:
ReplyDelete---does the improved picture make the foreground models look wholly seperate to the rear-projected live-action plates?
"wholly separate"? I think in some cases, absolutely. The wide shot standing in front of Steamship Company sign is a good example of that. Other shots don't seem so bad to me. Maybe that's just one more hurdle among many to the suspension of disbelief, but there have always been anomalies in 'Dynamation' set-ups. For instance, hot-spots, compounded grain, lack of motion blur, (in the case of later films, color shifts). I don't know if the extra sharpness is enough to take me out of the film any more than those quirks. I do welcome, though, the chance to get in closer to the puppet. To me it's like looking over Ray's shoulder while he works.
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