Gabe Powers over at dvdactive says the 2-Disc Special Edition of today’s release of There Will Be Blood is not worth picking up. I’m shocked.
While he praises the movie itself quite highly, here are excerpts of some of the things he has to say about the DVD release in his review…
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…it now looks like we’ll have to wait a long while for the Blu-ray release. I guarantee that anyone now accustom to the look of hi-def will notice some problems with this standard definition transfer. [The] cinematography loses quite a bit of detailed grandeur. The grit of the sand caked plains is nearly lost, and in even slight darkness objects are completely lost. Colours are well balanced for the most part, though some skin tones are a bit red, and some of the deeper browns are muddied. The most explicit error in quality is the heavy edge enhancement. Almost any case of duelling contrast results in thick, dancing white lines. Elswit’s contrasting use of thick (oily) blacks is thankfully not lost in the vaguely unsatisfying transfer.
Extras:
You need to see this movie, and you should probably own it too, but I’m going to recommend against this rather weak, two-disc special edition. The only extras are on disc two, and don’t add up to a whole lot…all the extra material, not including the additional “Story of Petroleum” short film, is just over thirty minutes, including the trailers.
There are two deleted scenes…the first is a really interesting cut because it adds something to the characters and more importantly, the audience’s knowledge of drilling process. The scene is completely finished, with score and full Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound, and it runs a solid six minutes. [The second] is more of a series of emotional beats that were already stated through other means in the final film. It is not presented in finished 5.1.
“Dailies Gone Wild” is an alternate take on the ‘diner scene’ towards the end of the film when a drunken Daniel Plainview re-confronts one of the men from Standard Oil. The version that ended up in the film is quite a bit more menacing, and better…
“The Story of Petroleum” is a silent film made in 1923 to describe the oiling process in layman’s terms. It’s actually a very educational little documentary, complete with animated diagrams, and full on-screen descriptions of every important part of the drilling and pipelining process. …the short has been set to the sounds of Greenwood’s score.
So it looks like if you have the means, you might as well wait for the Blu-Ray version to show itself in the coming months. Otherwise maybe just pick up the standard version. Although personally, I think the special edition artwork will look mighty fine on my DVD collector’s shelf.
Movie laboratories are one of my favorite things ever. Metropolis,...
I guess I’ll wait for the the Blu-Ray release though I may pick up the DVD off the sales shelf at the local rental store just to be able to share it with others.
Haven’t gone Blu yet, players still too pricey, and I’m kinda spoiled on under $10 DVDs, no need to go back up $30 thank you very much.
Still gotta pick up that Zodiac SE while I’m at it.
Not having gone Blu Ray yet and not planning too soon, I guess I’ll just get the standard edition.
The special features are scant. However I found the research portion to be moving. The packaging is pretty cool as well. I don’t regret my purchase at all. When I finally go blu ray, I will most likely purchase it again.
I’m definitely wait for the Blu Ray.
As for price…the TWBB standard def two disc DVD is 25.99 at our local Best Buy. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; how is it that there’s so many complaints about blu ray disc prices when standard def DVD is slowly becoming obselete? As with DVD’s, if you do enough bargain hunting and figure out which stores offer the best deals, you can find blu ray movies for pretty reasonable prices. I’ve managed to find quite a few blu ray movies for 19.99 and a local place sells select titles 2 for 30! I got Black Book on blu ray for fifteen dollars…new! That’s cheaper than the standard release!
Let’s face it folks, once everything HD becomes dirt cheap, we won’t be holding on to an old technology. Everybody thought the same thing when DVD threatened the existence of the Laser Disc. Just listen to the Chasing Amy commentary, originally recorded for the special edition laser disc, which starts off with Kevin Smith giving a big fuck you to DVD. The perfect example of the man who’s collection was threatened. Heck, even I was denying the fact that DVD would take over Laser Disc. Luckily, I only had about 20 titles in my collection.
Anyways, I’m sure there’s those who are simply waiting out the blu ray price, but I can’t help but feel the opposite thing most others seem to complain about: I feel like a total sucker every time I pay more than 10 dollars for a STANDARD def DVD. Those things should be 10 dollars on their release dates now. Darjeeling Limited was 26.99! Come on! (And yes, I know you can wait it out for the used copies, but let’s keep this conversation simple and stick to new releases. Afterall, Blu Ray movies are starting to pop up used as well.) And Kurt, I’m sure both you and I can agree that we rarely see Criterion, Blue Underground, Kino, Synapse or Zeitgeist films for under 10 dollars, (hell, for under 20!) yet we still buy them.
Ugh.
(One thing worth mentioning…a few of my favourite smaller distribution companies have gone blu: Blue Underground and Plexifilm both have upcoming blu ray titles in the works, including the great doc Helvetica. Times are a changing.)
Yea, but the difference between Laser Disc to DVD and DVD to BluRay is that you need to be vertically integrated in display technology to reap the benefit. You need a 1080TV, HDMI/DVI cabling, etc. That is the major stumbling block, it’s not just the player it’s all the baggage that goes along with it.
Ouch, $26 is pretty pricey for a ‘barebones’ SE set.
Criterion discs have fallen dramatically over the last year. You were buying Criterion for the rare-movie/full-package of extras/criticalcommentary/etc, so the money was going into that, not the little silver disc. The last few Criterions I’ve picked up new were $25 or less (well before taxes anyway).
Yeah if it didn’t mean investing into a new TV-set I would have bought a Blu-Ray player now. Blu-Ray players still play regular DVDs right?
Indeed Henrik, the do, so one player fits all (excluding HDDVD of course) in this case. I don’t know how the Blu-Ray players play burned DVDs, I’m sure it is on a case by case basis how good they are, same as reglular old DVD players..
Doh, and I just payed $25 for There Will Be Blood and Zodiac Special Editions (Standard DVD). Picked up the remastered Laurence of Arabia for under $10, and what the hey, Flight of the Conchords and Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy were really cheap in the clearance section to boot.
And my lord is the packaging on the Standard Edition of THERE WILL BE BLOOD (which was a mere $2 cheaper) ever look crappy. I mean, it’s practically a cardboard backing only…
once everything HD becomes dirt cheap, we won’t be holding on to an old technology
Standard DVD’s won’t ever be cheap until BluRay is the dominant format. Considering HDTV’s won’t even be required to watch basic television here in the US for over another year it will be sometime before people actually start switching to a new format, and even at that time standard DVD’s can be upconverted and play very nicely on an HDTV. It could be 5 years or more before BluRay is the primary format, and even then prices won’t drop, just as they never have for standard DVD’s while they were the dominant format. Heck, DVD’s were more expensive then VHS even though they were exponentially cheaper to produce. You really think companies are going to drop the prices out of the goodness of their own hearts?
if the standard TWBB paper packaging bugs you, just wait it out until it goes used at Rogers or Blockbuster – they’re using plastic showboxes.
We were holding off on upgrading to HD before upgrading to Blu-Ray but having recently upgraded the TV set to full HD, I’m much more excited to jump into the market but as it stands, I very rarely buy new DVD’s anymore (unless it’s some sort of collector’s edition) so going to an HD player is not particularly high on the list of future purchases.
My main point was that people still seem to be ok with paying for SD DVD’s at prices that are in many cases comparable to HD. Don’t plan on making the jump to HD? Fine! Shouldn’t that be all the more reason to be asking why you’re still paying high prices for your old school format?
For example:
I Am Legend: SD 2 disc = $29.99
I Am Legend: Blu Ray disc = $32.99
WTF indeed.
I know there’s many cases where the blu ray is more expensive, but you see what I’m saying. How can they possibly still charge $29.99 for a new release, blockbuster standard def dvd??
The complaining about price gouging seems misdirected in my opinion.
I stopped by the HMV today and took a look at the cases for TWBB and Kurt was totally right the cases look like crap cardboard ones.
I totally agree with Jay on the DVD prices. There is isn’t an excuse to pay $25+ dollars for a DVD anymore unless there is something really special about it. At only a couple of dollars extra (if you do some searching) its hard not just wait a little while and buy the higher quality Blu-Ray disc.
Oh and if you go to Amazon.com right now Blu-Ray discs are 30% off plus its buy 2 get one free.
Here is the link for the Amazon sale
Get out of Canada if you don’t want to pay high movie prices. Duh!
The complaining about price gouging seems misdirected in my opinion.
Well you are complaining about price gouging, just that standard disc’s are the one’s gouging. But I think Kurt summed it up pretty easily in that standard DVD’s don’t have the added cost of a BluRay Player/HDTV/HDMI Cables and so on. That is a huge sunk cost tied in with the “relatively” low price of the BluRay Discs.
Toss in that the frame rates are off for the vast majority of US HDTV’s, that you need a bigger HDTV screen to reap the true benefits, and you are talking a massive amount of money. Why is their a $3 difference? Because people don’t want to pay the $3000 that it takes to upgrade.
Heck, here in the US you can get a converter box for your analog TV so you never even need to purchase an HDTV. The cost? $10.
And does Canada just not have anywhere that sells DVD’s at a discount the week they are released? Pretty much any retailer in the US will drop $10 off the price the first week to drive sales. I can’t remember the last time I ever paid full price for a DVD I wanted.
It’s funny. We go to the States every few weeks and mind you, we usually don’t get past Bellingham which has limited shopping choices, but I find the prices of DVDs much higher in the US.
As for DVDs on sale the first week here – try the first day. My experience, in Vancouver at least, is special 1 day pricing on the day of release followed by price gouging for a few weeks and then onto the 2 for $30 shelf for a while, then maybe to the 2 for $20 and then eventually into the general shelves for the average price of $14.99 to $21.99.
I’ve become a HUGE fan of previously viewed DVDs from the local video store. Rogers even has a points system that can be used towards free DVDs and for single disk releases, this is the way to go. Between my rentals and purchases, I take in 1, sometimes 2 free DVDs a month. I’m sure that once Blu-Ray is more prominent and starts taking up more shelf space, we’ll see those previously viewed items on the shelf as well.
Matt,
I’ve also gone shopping in the states for DVD’s and I’ve found that for the most part they’re pretty much similarily priced. In fact, many HD formats are more expensive.
As for this:
“The complaining about price gouging seems misdirected in my opinion.
Well you are complaining about price gouging, just that standard disc’s are the one’s gouging.”
Isn’t that exactly what i’m saying? The price gouging is mis-directed in that people should be complaining about SD, not HD.
And by the way, I just bought a new HD television for half the price it sold for a year and a half ago. It’s not the price, it’s the fact that most people don’t want to upgrade. You can get an HD television for under a grand now.
Jay’s right. We picked up a sweet 42′ getup for $1100.
Matt: Best Buy here in Canada usually drops the price on day of release only for major titles (not culty items like Paprika or Criterion discs, although they did for the ICE STORM).
Marina, We are on the same page in the used bins at the local renters, I don’t rent movies, but I visit often enough and sometimes are handsomely rewarded: Dogville $2, Pale Flower (1964), $4, Idiocracy $4, ExistenZ $4, Vertigo $5)
I’m loving the Rogers rewards program! And what I love more is the progression from $14.99 to $9.99 to $5.99 to $2.99. Gotta love it.
Two of the biggest ROGERS stores around here just folded and sold off their entire inventory. That business is going down in flames, so get the previously viewed DVDs while you can….
Jay, it’s the price. Not all of us can have the disposable income of a childless 29year old.
Henrik, please stop being an ass. Comments like that are pretty childish and frankly needlessly insulting.
Carry on.
Hey I didn’t mean to insult anyone! Sorry if it came off as putting anybody down. I was just trying to say that for me, it’s the price. I would have no problem upgrading at all, I just can’t afford it.
Text is sometimes misleading, but it is YOUR DELIVERY of certain statements that is part of your charm Henrik, I’m sure it rubs a number of folks the wrong way…
“It’s not the price, it’s the fact that most people don’t want to upgrade. You can get an HD television for under a grand now.”
I am just pulling this up to defend myself. If I had said this, you would be snapping at my throat right away as well. My response wasn’t out of line considering that statement.
I don’t see the problem with that statement, it’s (reasonably by my estimation) objective, not personal, your answer (“Jay, it’s the price. Not all of us can have the disposable income of a childless 29year old.”) above carried the air of condescension towards a person in general….
Maybe it’s a cultural thing, but I see Jay’s observation as harmless statement of fact, and yours to be some sort of personal attack or something….
Mine was meant as a harmless statement of fact as well. That’s what I meant when I said that the statements are similar, but I made one and Jay C. made the other, which apparently makes the whole difference.
“but I made one and Jay C. made the other, which apparently makes the whole difference.”
Not at all Henrik, in fact that arrogant inference makes you a bigger A-Hole, Henrik. Have a little respect. I’m trying (increasingly poorly) to keep things civil here.
is it possible for Henrik to offend someone, really? I guess if you were new I suppose, or sensitive. I work from the perspective that different people have different degrees of civility, and when you know that about a person, the seemingly offensive statements cease to be offensive… like someone with tourettes.
Those fucking tourettes assholes….they bug the shit out of me too.
So basically I am as civil as a person with tourettes? So be it I guess… Whenever you speak or in this case publish writing, you are putting yourself out there to be judged. As long as you don’t make fun of my ailment, things should run smoothly.
And let’s be honest, Jay IS a childless 29 year-old is he not?