Gave you a thumbs up before even watching this video. Why? Because I know for a fact that The Damn Fool cares more about the preservation of film than Lucas.
Gotta recommend Rick Worley's video on all the changes done to the six films in the Lucas saga. Whether you think the changes are good or bad I think he provides a very in depth analysis on specifically directors going back and changing their art. Rick Worley: ua-cam.com/video/xaeTOMvf67c/v-deo.htmlsi=gWvUCdkbCfgWCShm
When you mentioned a budget movie shot at night, I instantly thought of the movie ‘Dog Soldiers’. That film was shot on 16mm and received a fabulous 4K release recently, and that was restored and put out by a boutique company. With the news of the Cameron 4K restorations, I’m starting to lose faith with the mainline studios and genuinely worry about the decision making when archiving these important films.
The Cameron 4K restorations are only Cameron and Lightstorm's fault, not the studios, not Disney and Fox. Most studio restorations range from good to great. But Cameron needs to play with his tech toys, and he has ultimate control. Cameron's restorations are not representative of the industry standard of how restorations are done. There were plenty of fantastic restorations and UHD releases this year, both from major studios and boutique labels. We even got Disney for the first time in history actually doing proper restorations of their classic animated features.
@@matheus5230 with the exception of some Paramount and Disney releases with DNR (Planes, trains … and Star Wars films spring to mind) I guess you’re right. AG is down to Lucas fiddling as he always does. I just hope we don’t see more directors using this heavy handed approach when restoring their classic film archive.
@@modestyblaise4167Paramount is the most uneven studio of them all, by far. Disney released some really bad UHDs, such as the Pirates Of Caribbean ones, but seems to have found their footing this year. The Star Wars restorations for the UHDs were actually made before Disney bought Lucasfilm if I'm not mistaken. Ultimately, I think that the extreme level of revisionism by some directors is bigger than what the actual studios would have ever done to the same films. Look at what Wong-Kar Wai did to In The Mood For Love. And a studio wouldn't have tinkered with Star Wars to the extent that Lucas did.
It is indeed, a painfully sad state of affairs when even titles that are the deepest schlock cult films and beloved simply because they are terrible get unbelievably royal treatment from small entities, trying to preserve them as best as possible. Frequently, and almost always these quality efforts outshine major studios, but it is insulting to a films legacy to have desecration like this, when a small outfit like say, vinegar syndrome would have produced some thing of archival standards
I love this guy. I love your channel and I love how you call these scumbags out. It would be great to get all the tech's names (audio and video) for all the films they ruin and call them out publicly. We need some whistleblowers.
Pretty much! I've been trying to figure out how I'm even going to cover these Cameron horror masters. They're a whole new can of digital worms we've never seen the likes of before.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader it’s a nightmare, and it doesn’t give me much hope of a faithful 4k release of “the terminator” I’ll have to be content with my existing 1080p blu ray and my old dvd copy with the original mono mix, which I tracked down thanks to one of your older videos on the topic
Thanks for doing this video. I’ve been combing through reviews of this 4K & your expertise in this area is very helpful in understanding everything that went wrong with this release.
Thank you!! That is really nice to hear. I try to be as comprehensive as I can on each video. (even when I have to be this negative) I went through a lot of reviews before picking up a copy myself and couldn't find much if any information about certain aspects especially the audio mixes.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusaderLucas has always despised the studio system, and he strongly believes in artists having ultimate control and the last word over their works. Which is noble to a great extent, but can be taken to problematic extremes. Ultimately, the problem is not the revisionism per se: I don't think Lucas is wrong in his famous quote about how the artists should be allowed to tinker with their work if they want to do so. The problem here is the suppression of the original unaltered works.
He did say he wanted the original Star Wars trilogy lost to time, its on VHS he said and hoped for the day the tapes weren't playable. He said a hundred years from now someone will watch the DVD and the picture will be perfect.
Once I saw the horrendous DNR usage on display with this release, I thankfully held off from my purchase instantly. No way was I gonna give a dime to the criminals at Disney/Lucasfilm for destroying a timeless classic.
@@Eva01-jy2qu7pu9rUltimately, the point is that it wasn’t restored by Disney's own restoration team, which has actually been pretty good recently, such as in Cinderella, Snow White, and Nightmare Before Christmas.
I grabbed my bottle of Jack Daniels and contemplated the state of the industry when you produce inferior product that actually promotes a job well done. To the many, they will see nothing wrong with the transfer, but what saddens me more, is the heartless nature studios are treating these films on physical. Are they doing this deliberately to put people off the format. Warner Archive have been consistent all the way through, but how long will that continue? I can never fault your detailed and eloquently said statement on the state of a film I've always enjoyed. Lucas was never a director I was keen on, but Graffiti was a stepping stone film for me. Now, I'll return to the bottle, and once again contemplate what could've been. Farewell Crusader, till the next time...
This is Lucasfilm's fault, not the studios, not Universal. Most studio restorations range from good to great. This UHD is not representative of the industry standard of how restorations are done. There were plenty of fantastic restorations and UHD releases this year, both from major studios and boutique labels. We even got Disney for the first time in history actually doing proper restorations of their classic animated features. Most UHDs are good to amazing. And even so-so UHDs are still more often than not an improvement, such as The Truman Show. American Graffiti's UHD is the exception, just like T2. It doesn’t taint the UHD format as a whole, especially considering how many great UHDs of major classics we have gotten. I mean, look at Universal's Hitchcock 4K sets. There are far more good than bad UHDs, both for classic movies and for more obscure ones. I would say that the UHD format is more reliable regarding great transfers than the blu-ray and DVD ever were. The standard is higher. Sadly, though, there won't come a time when no horrible releases are made, they have always existed and always will.
I have no words - this is what film preservation is coming to. I weep for the future when AI really kicks in ! I felt your passion and frustration good sir, I applaud you...
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader Gotta recommend this video really a documentary on the special editions of Star Wars. If you only watch a little the second act is what I would see! Rick Worley: ua-cam.com/video/xaeTOMvf67c/v-deo.htmlsi=oy7sM-FTK0brkW5J
Ah the frustration. George is such an enigma. A man who shaped cinema in the 1970s and 1980s cultivating a loyal following of fans and for some reason spent the rest of his life alienating them and counting money. I recently watched Project4k77 for the first time. I honestly had not watched Star Wars since the 1997 special editions because the films no longer did anything for me with all the changes. They no longer resembled Star Wars. Well, Project4k77 restored my faith in humanity! What an experience! Its amazing what they accomplished on a shoe string budget. I would gladly donate for a similar treatment of Graffitti but my understanding is that good quality privately owned prints are quite rare. Would you consider doing a review of Project 4k77?
The fan efforts have really brought back a lot of that spirit and hope in all of us who had been so burned out. It did for me all the way back in the early days when all we had were VHS and LD capture based projects before the GOUT DVDs. Personally I think of my film school as the fan preservation community and not the crummy college I wound up getting my silly degree from.
Project 4K77 and 4K83 (Star Wars and Return of the Jedi) are the only rewatches I am stick with. Fans know on how to remaster the movies (remove dirt and scratches, keep the grain and color grade to match the accurately as it's original colors as possible), while the "professionals" cannot do them right. 4K80 (The Empire Strikes Back) is still in the process (Beta 5) which does look very good. For now, the Despecialed Edition or the The Definitive Collection LaserDisc is currently the best version to watch TESB until 4K80 is ready for V1. And speaking of Lucas's butchered the remasters, there is the first three Indiana Jones LPP Theatrical Experience scans (and the regrade to match with the original colors) which is alot better than the "revisionism" 4K releases. Then again, I will stick to these instead for rewatching the movies (after rewatched the dreeded 4K discs).
Quick way is to get the THX 1996 release and be done with it for official releases. It has the skybox and is most accurate to the 1978 reissue. There is a fan restoration of the 1973 mono version, but I believe it is from a 16mm source unlike 4K77, which uses 35mm prints.
Yeah for physical media the 1996 LD is the best picture source to not have the unaltered opening shot, then the 1992 Japanese LD for the best 1978 stereo presentation and then whatever print source people can get a hold of for the theatrical version and original mono mix. 1998 Signature LD for the extras and BD for the best official picture quality, HD upgrade of the screentests and Lucas commentary. Then you're done in regards to collecting American Graffiti....
I'm surprised George didn't add laser blaster sound effects and digitally add droids and wookies to the 1960s setting. It looks like in addition to 4K77 4K80 & 4K83 we also need 4K71 & 4K73 for THX1138 and American Graffiti.
i would have no problem w/creator destroying, ugh, editing their films, IF we could still purchase the original versions. SW is a great example of this. GIVE US THE OFFICIAL THEATRICAL CUTS OF THE OT!!!!!!
There aren't strong enough expletives in any language on Earth to accurately verbalize my utter disgust at what has been done to this film (which I, fortunately, got to see before it was defaced and ruined).
Gotta recommend a video that I think will help you understand the special editions better when related back to film as an art form. It's a pretty lengthy in-depth look at Lucas touching up his work, but I found it very insightful in how I view directors and their vision. Rick Worley: ua-cam.com/video/xaeTOMvf67c/v-deo.htmlsi=vAj1w5QFKWKXCz_K
Hi Spencer- thank you for doing this and I have watched it through 3 times now. I also just ordered the non-Signature Collection “Graffiti” LD that came right before it. Again, thank you and your channel is simply fantastic with everything you post. 😊
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusaderTbh I'll just stick with the old DVD since the Blu Ray is so distractingly DNR'd that its kind of hard to watch at points lol. Not as bad as the 4K master, but its definitely riding the line sadly. At least with the DVD's lower resolution the issues aren't as bad and not as noticable as they are on the newer releases. Its not perfect but I'll take it over high resolution transfers that get worse and worse due to Lucas' insistence on revising his already perfect work
All of this is to spite Marcia Lucas. The movie would have been a complete mess without her, and he knew it, so he let his feelings about their marriage ending spill over onto the movies they made together, and we the moviegoing, TV-watching, disc-buying audience paid the price because they couldn't make it work as a married couple.
Excellent review, and I absolutely love the “DNR Around the Reels” parody song in the intro goof. I kind of want to cover the original song with those lyrics. Could I get permission to do that?
Those quotes from Lucas at the beginning... What the hell happened to that guy? It will forever boggle my mind how he simply couldn't release the unaltered, theatrical releases of the original trilogy alongside the special editions as we progressed from dvd to blu-ray, to 4k. How can he not see how disrespectful that is to all the people who worked on those original films to just throw away their work like that? I'm sure there would still be issues like what we're seeing with this American Graffiti release, but at least it would be the theatrical cuts, or closer to it then what we currently have.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader The funny thing is it's just made people hate on the special editions even more. Granted, I'm sure they would still catch some flack from a decent portion of the fanbase, but not nearly as much if he had just given the theatrical cuts their due as well. Instead, we get "Maclunkey!" which I'm pretty sure was one last middle finger to the fans before he sold it to Disney. At least it kind of gave me a good laugh, though, because of how stupid it is.
@@ChuckM0503 Gotta recommend a video that I think will help you understand the special editions better when related back to film as an art form. It's a pretty lengthy in-depth look at Lucas touching up his work, but I found it very insightful in how I view directors and their vision. Rick Worley: ua-cam.com/video/xaeTOMvf67c/v-deo.htmlsi=vAj1w5QFKWKXCz_K
Too bad they decided they are Star Wars only site. And they decided to archive the Indiana Jones scans and not release them, the same with the James Bond scans.
I watched it. Looks okay. Definitely better than True Lies and Aliens 4Ks for example. I have never had it on Blu-ray though so can't compare. I would give it 8/10 image quality
I saw all those those films behind you in their original theatrical releases. With the exception of STAR WARS, I wasn't very excited by any of those movies. AMERICAN GRAFFITI came out a year after I graduated high-school and I saw it at a movie palace theater that was capable of 70mm presentations, so it pretty much looked like a grindhouse release when I watched it on the big screen. I was indifferent and tagged it as another cutesy teen-age nostalgia trip. After it became a sleeper hit, I went and saw it at the same theater when it was re-released in an echoey Dolby Stereo version and still wasn't too impressed by it. This lead up is merely to say that I can't imagine what miracles LucasFilm thought they could apply to AMERICAN GRAFFITI when Haskell Wexler's extraordinary night-time photography in Techniscope is the chief charm of the movie, along with it's radio fidelity monaural rock-and-roll music tracks. Keep up the good work and I'll stick to my blu-ray versions of the film and it's sequel, neither of which I watch too regularly.
I finally bit the bullet and got it for 15 Euros. I can't stand DNR, and love me some beautifully fine-grained film, but I expected this to look far worse than it does. Sure, DNR seems to have been applied across the board, but in a much more sophisticated manner than those previous Universal BD "efforts". Details are still there, although never spectacular. shadow detail is much improved, colours look lovely, and contrast is far better too. The BD is very fuzzy, but also suffers from an egregious amount of EE, and DNR, so this is easily the best it's ever looked on home video. Far from perfect, as there is some distracting macroblocking in the backgrounds, some smearing in a handful of shots, and of course, all that DNR, but it's very watchable and still a joy, even at a distance of 4.2ft (130cm) from an LGC9 65inch OLED. I simply love this film, and am very glad I got the UHD, despite its shortcomings. I recommend getting it.
Just tell him to look the other way and sneak out the raw scan properly mastered on a second disc with the original audio mix properly restored and he’ll never know…
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusadernice! I had been thinking about getting a Sony. I was a little worried that they didn’t have Filmmaker Mode but apparently their Custom preset does the same thing.
@@YuenXii yes their custom mode is what you need to use and that way you can do proper setup. Sony is still the best manufacturer for film watching in terms of OLEDs. LG is a bit more geared for gaming and other stuff.
I hope someone scans a film print as was done with the Star Wars films. I do not respect the George Lucas of today. I respect the George Lucas of 1981 and prior. That Lucas no long exists. Let's not mince words. There's ONE man who is responsible for this desecration, and his name is George Lucas.
This sounds nightmarish. I understand the impulse to go back and change one's own earlier work (I sometimes read my old essays and short stories, and almost cringe to death every time), but like you, I see these films as a part of pop culture history. At the very least preserve the original in addition to "new and improved" versions. I feel much the same way about Lucas' revisionism as I do with what Charlie Chaplin did to The Gold Rush in 1942-- an older artist tinkering with the work of their younger self, when they were a different person altogether really.
It’s so true! This release is so nightmarish that if you ever see this master, it is literally heartbreaking. It’s funny you mention The Gold Rush because my local arthouse managed to get a copy and was playing it this weekend. I was going and making the special trip over there plus battling for a parking spot until I thought about it for a minute and double checked the runtime and realized it would be the 1942 version which of course it was and they didn’t advertise it as such.🙃
Great example, and perhaps the oldest I can think of is Chaplin's sound version of Gold Rush. Truly a blunder and surprising for somebody who went into sound movies kicking and screaming to begin with.
Yeah, it's a weird edit, more than just cutting out intertitles and putting in voiceover narration. He cut down on Georgia Hale's wonderful performance too and considering she's my favorite of his leading ladies... well, I wasn't too happy. I do think it's hilarious that once Chaplin started making sound movies, he could be quite verbose as well lol. But that's another topic...@@KevinStriker
Of God it will be even worse if they ever decide to revisit it. Everything would have to be redone from scratch because I don’t think anything in 2004 was done above 2K. Or it would have to be an upscale and it’s likely they might go: Oh we like those new James Cameron toys let’s use those.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader Lucas, Cameron and Jackson: forever united in the tom-foolery with new tech toys. Doctor Strangelove was restored in 4K in 2004. It's the same restoration that is used in the UHD.
@@matheus5230 It is actually restored in 2006 and this is when Blu-ray is new at that time. The first Blu-ray release is in 2009. And this is the same company who have the source masters of Spider-Man 2 (2004) in 4K digital intermediate (to be scanned, recorded and color-corrected) since it's initial release. Only the CGI is upscaled since computers are not that powerful in that year (even though it is a significant improvement to the first movie in 2002). Source: drive.google.com/file/d/1905bIQTEOetOa5ws5TpV4_qkk1K9HaR7/view
@@matheus5230 Sony first tried their major Strangelove restoration in 2004 but I think the current 4K master has long since upgraded from that. Gosh I remember seeing the new 2004 Sony 35mm print in high school!
Revisionism like this on a constant basis really does showcase that copyright laws should not be in place. If you're going to have them, don't alter the original film. Otherwise it is not the film that was given the copyright. People should have the right to gain access to tools so they can preserve Motion Picture history themselves. If they have to preserve a classic like this with its beautiful Techniscope cinematography, then so be it.
I was able to get the American Graffiti Signature Collection Laserdisc for 44.95. which i thought was decent because it usually goes for a bit more. I did get Willow THX other than in two other cases i have never seen such bad laser rot. Amazing how on physical inspection except for some weirdness in the glue between layers it looks fine but side 1 wouldn't even play and all the other sides have snow throughout and even audio dropouts. The 1996 THX disc is so soft blurry and crummy i was frankly disappointed, The 35mm telecine bootleg looks better. The one thing about the THX disc is the audio is good. Yes its been filtered and cleaned up but its not horrible. So the DVD looks the best even with the horrible DNR and cgi sunset. Maybe the Signature release on laserdisc will actual look good i'm waiting for that to arrive.
Yeah the Signature master has baked in issues of its own and the DVD iteration will be sharper. Even the CLV widescreen LD I have isn't the greatest transfer. The letterboxed LD of Willow is a notorious rotter so I've never tried a copy.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader , its actually the best looking of the releases despite the changed credits and cgi sunset. But some scenes are too bright and others too dark. The audio was noticeably more filtered than other releases though. It does not have the click and pop and lowfi of the original track it also doesn't have good fidelity.
In Rättvik Sweden, County Dalcarlia, there is an annual Classic Car Week in the summer. Very nice. I don't know if it is still the case, but 23 years ago I had the pleasure of watching American Graffiti on the big screen of an enormous pop-up screen, i.e. an outdoor temporary drive-in. I don't know what they used to project the film, but this was the summer of 2000, so the source had to of been analogue. The image was excellent, and we even had to tune in on radios to get the audio. It was all very very enjoyable. Come to think of it, I haven't watched the film since. Check it out. Maybe it is still a thing.
I have never owned American Graffiti on any format because there never been a perfect home video release of the movie. I held off buying the Blu-Ray from 2011 because of its own problems but I might as well just buy it now especially with how bad the new 4K Edition is. I think it has gotten to the point where we desperately need a label like Criterion to step in and handle American Graffiti and even The Star Wars Trilogy for Blu-Ray, DVD, and 4K Disc. Criterion would probably go out of their way to give us proper transfers with all the sound-mixes too.
Somebody needs to step in that's for sure. For specifically branded archival versions of THX, Graffiti, Star Wars and Indy trilogies plus even Willow too. Heck even the prequels have changes so those as well!
I find George Lucas to be very strange because at one point he was seriously against "Film Alteration". But then later on he alters his own movies, then goes as far as withholding the original versions from the fans and force feeding them his revised versions. It extremely unfortunate that Disney has continued that trend by not restoring the Original Versions of The Star Wars Trilogy in 4K and releasing them on Blu-Ray, DVD, and 4K Disc. The 1997 Special Editions Versions of The Star Wars Trilogy initially seemed like an honest attempt from George Lucas at creating "Alternate Versions" of the films that were closer to what he originally wanted them to be, but it became a serious problem when he kept making more changes to them for the 2004 DVD and 2011 Blu-Ray versions. I'm not a huge fan of the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy but I have watched them a good number of times and I think it is crazy that that George Lucas even made changes to them too. I think Attack of the Clones suffered the most with the changes that were made to it for the Blu-Ray version. I especially hate that editing change that was made towards the end of the climax.
You know these changes wouldn't bothercme so much if they were included alongside the original releases. Include them in a box set or separately and let the consumers decide what to get. I've said it before but Blade Runner still did it best by including all versions of the film so you can watch them all.
After seeing movie collectors video on it I was persuaded to buy the disc since I only have the discovision cav set and the universal widescreen LD. Since it has all the old features and his video recommended it saying he didn’t see what others were saying about the dnr I thought it was another lord of the rings or jaws situation were everyone is praising those discs but they are not theatrically authentic. Guess I’ll see soon enough when I get to it at the end of my pile of new buys. At least I have features I’ve never seen waiting for me 🤷🏻♀️
I looked at his video and I'm pretty sure his setup must somehow be coloring what he's seeing. This 4K master is really THAT bad and the sound has been completely redone. Thankfully the old BD is bundled so you can do your own comparisons and in about a nanosecond it's painfully obvious the old BD despite being a super old crummy master with noise, EE, DNR and a so-so version of the 1978 stereo remix is impossibly better than the horrible UHD. The extras mostly date back to the 1998 Signature LD and are great. The making of docu is a classic. The benefits of the BD for the extras is that they added a Lucas commentary and upgraded the screentests to HD sort of. Before this point I had always meant to pick up the BD but never got around to it because the master was crummy. I've had the 1996 LD for years because it was the last release before the CG opening sunset shot.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader, the old DVD master being better is insane. I read they spent a good amount of money on the 4K, boggles the mind. What is next praising Lowry? Because these new transfers are worse.
This 4K UHD transfer will be tied with True Lies 4K and Aliens 4K as the worst 4K releases. This is not a win for film preservation, instead, it's a setback for physical media.
This is more on LFC then Universal but for them to aprove this, forshame UHE forshame, aleast I got the Scarface 4K. (I dont have the BTTF 30TH 4K, just the 1080p versions of those transfers but remembered they looked good.) Update: Just got the UHDs for the BTTF trilogy.
Yeah it's definitely a LFL thing but Universal should have spoken up because it makes them look bad too. So I do at least partially include them in the blame for this master but to a much lesser degree. They've been doing so well in the past few years so it's a shame to see them put out several titles recently with issues.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader That's why I said "forshame UHE", Jaws and ET I could forgive because it the Bluray master but in full 4K (Their remasters were done in 4K but downscale 1080p for the 1st Blu-Ray, as the Psycho 4K but that has the Uncut version and give or take recalls and reissues that version came with *lossy* og mono, go to the German TURBINE MEDIEN release) NVM: ET's a new master
Steven Spielberg includes original theatrical mixes on his UHE releases despite them being lossy, must have been how Jaws was badly audiowise that made him deside that.
@@MichaelSerrano-sk1vq If schlocky shoe string budget films from the 70s and 80s can have lossless renderings of their original audio mixes, then so can bloody Jaws!! Jaws didn't won a Oscar for best sound for no reason! They do this because they don't want people to see these films in as good of a presentation as they could be.
@@CuriousEnthusiast956 Well considering how the state the mono track on that releases, no, not when it's been no noised to to death. The mono mix deserves better and I heard A and B comparisons between The mid '90s Laserdisc and the modern day Mono restorations, compared to the CD quality audio of those mid '90s copies, I'd rather be watching the film in 7.1, but that goes to show you how badly Universal has treated the audio of Jaws post 1997. ET's theatrical 2.0 is actually pretty good, could be better in places and arguably could be considered a candidate for lossless companionship. (This is coming from a man who grew up in the 00s but grew up only knowing the theatrical version, and yet did not know both cuts were widely available in earlier that decade until Universal messed that up for themselves.)
Please look at the fact! Film was shot on low Resolution lesser than 35mm and later they did a.blow up to 35mm so according to many other 4K reviewers the resolution on the 4K UHD is more than fine, this was a. independent small movie with low production cost.. Greetings from Munich Germany
With modern scanners, you’re able to scan the techniscope negative and produce beautifully detailed results without having to go through the generational loss of converting to a traditional four perf print which is how a restoration of this film would’ve had to have been done photochemically. There is absolutely NO reason this master looks the way it does. Any old degraded print of Graffiti has more detail. The old crappy home video masters have more detail even!
More American Graffiti, Twice Upon a Time, Latino, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, Willow, Tucker: The Man and His Dream, The Land Before Time, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (the 2008 movie), Red Tails and Strange Magic haven't been released on 4K UHD BD yet. Unless George Lucas disowned them or something, the "Lucasfilm Circle of Revisionism" is not complete yet.
Those somewhat fall outside the Lucasfilm parameters due to other studio ownership etc. I was primarily referring to the main Lucasfilm titles but outside of the main ones the outlier is probably RADIOLAND MURDERS which is in really poor shape on video.
Willow already had a 4K scan that was on Disney plus. I haven't seen it i can't say if the screencaps i've seen are at all representative because they had frozen grain and DNR.
People always say that these are George's films and he can do whatever he wants, but I'd say that they're just as much works of Walter Murch and Marcia Lucas. I feel so bad for them.
That’s what I always think about: the other people in the cast and crew whose hard work is manipulated or eradicated. That’s the biggest argument there is against the repeated notion of “the director can do whatever they want”.
Gotta recommend a video that I think will help you understand the special editions better when related back to film as an art form. It's a pretty lengthy in-depth look at Lucas touching up his work, but I found it very insightful in how I view directors and their vision. Rick Worley: ua-cam.com/video/xaeTOMvf67c/v-deo.htmlsi=vAj1w5QFKWKXCz_K Nerdonymous: ua-cam.com/video/olqVGz6mOVE/v-deo.htmlsi=xuUJHzZsISYm8gtJ
I'm actually shocked that Lucasfilm didn't author a new Blu-ray with how sure they were to put the 2011 Special Editions on DVDs in the 2013 BD+DVD bundles of the PT and OT. But it's all the better for it, it is sad as hell when a 4K gets wrecked by a Blu-ray. From a time when Universal was pumping out its worst discs on the format.
i'm not if you live in UK and got the 4K/blu combo for the Indiana Jones films the blu-rays weren't the new transfers. In the US the blu set released separately also wasn't new versions same old discs.
I didn't even like when Ridley Scott went back, in the late 90s/early 00s-whenever it was, and started digitally tinkering with Blade Runner, using the latest CGI at the time to cover over the "mistakes" on that film, aka when they were forced to use a stunt double when the one replicant goes crashing through the glass when being retired. It's like Scott didn't comprehend, 20 years later, movie magic is about using the slight of hand available at the time and it's relation to the audiences experience of everything else to that point.
The 2007 Final Cut definitely doesn’t fit 100% for aligning with a 1982 production which is part of the reason I quickly grew tired of it. The 4K master and 35mm 2007 prints didn’t have as much of the modern color grade push as the DVD/HDDDVD/BD master. However I must say that the Final Cut was painstakingly done to try and be as intricate as possible. If a version like this HAS to be done then that is the gold standard and they made sure to include some form of the previous versions. Unfortunately the UHD has a new remix that undoes the Final Cut mix and is full of new effects. Plus the original versions need a full new scan. My favorite version is the 1992 Director’s cut with international cut scenes reinstated.
George Lucas can do whatever he wants with and to his movies, as they are his, no matter what anyone else says. He is an independent filmmaker, and that's by design. I would love to have a faithful UHD of all his films of his cuts of the movies, but this DNR thing doesn't make sense to me. With TPM, I understand it was because it had been done for the 3-D version of the film, but this one? I would really like to know his train of thought on this one. Same with Cameron, Peter Jackson, etc.. It's like they want them too look like garbage, or their eyesight has seriously declined. I had high hopes for AG. What a pity. It's such a great film.
I get the artist argument but I think there's also a point where that line gets crossed. At the very least a proper restoration or new master should be done and THEN the person can go to town doing what they want to: but allow the public to have the option to see either version.
Was this a Reliance scan like the 2020 Special Edition for the Star Wars trilogy, which was done i 2012-13, around the same time Pacific Title did the INDY scans. Remember Reliance was formerly Lowry, then DTS Digital, then Reliance.
There's a 35mm scan of this movie floating around, not a high bitrate version though. Obscure reference, watching your videos always makes me think of Matthew Broderick playing Scott the woz pretending to be a film reviewer. (Not in a negative way but you look a bit like Broderick and your style is a bit similar to Scott)
I take it as a compliment! I enjoy Scott’s videos. Print scans are going to be the only way to salvage AG. It would definitely take a lot of work, and probably several different rare prints to go through and then do a balancing to mix and match between them and I don’t know how many dye transfer prints of the film are in existence.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusaderScott The Woz has said that he has thoughts about releasing his UA-cam material on blu-ray, but has doubts if he will ever do it, not only because of the far more niche nature of physical media nowadays, but also due to potential copyright issues. He said this in his video chat with James Rolfe.
Damn Fool, what is your take when modern day color graders try to argue that film prints (in general, not with American Graffiti) had some kind of tint to them that wasn't represented in earlier home releases, so digitally adding that tint back is the right thing to do- To me it is hogwash. Re-adding a digital color on top of the scanned film print in the majority of cases has resulted in something that just looks wrong. It's one thing to be doing it a digital remaster that they are trying to fix but adding it to a film that has had a new scan doesn't even make sense. And just to maybe give some credence to that theory, if the color bias they are claiming was there, it would be like 1/1000 of what they are actually inserting digitally.
It's a tightrope to walk. Usually if it's someone who is good at what they do and cares there's some degree of truth to that once they've actually done proper research and checked virtually everything that exists. But that RARELY ever happens and so you'll see that argument get applied to all kinds of things like the piece of filth Ritrovata Leone masters and how they were graded. Every video master is a best educated guess with equipment of the time so there's always some degree of guesswork or doing the best you can. Yet we have plenty of examples where an old Laserdisc or even earlier video masters can have more accuracy than the latest and supposedly greatest 4K master simply because they were done back then with a more hands off approach. And this is even with older format limitations!!
Never thought the day would come where I’d desperately hold onto my old Blu of the movie, but unless I’m lucky enough to get LD capabilities anytime soon, I’m going to fiend off anyone who even comes close to it. What a butchering of (imo) Lucas’ best film The only good AG news (for me) is coincidentally finding an old AAD Cd a week ago of the soundtrack, which sounds excellent. I’m going to use that to bleach my mind of this release lol
@@tinypurplefishes2903 that's good! I wish I had my $20 back...at least I got it from Gruv on sale. I've been tempted to return it as being defective...because it is...
You know this is a shitty 4K release when even the casual viewers noticed the waxfest of a "remaster" for the film. And I just simplify refused to watch one (or renting one) after all. Though this is more for Lucas butchered the film as the last straw for it. And yes, I am still one of them beg for the unaltered Star Wars original trilogy which is still rejected by Lucas himself. And a rotten luck for Universal's 4K catalog titles (such as their first time "MOD" releases of Elizabeth (1998), Promising Young Woman (which they did not include the Dolby Atmos TrueHD audio somehow on the first pressings despite mentioned on the press release), The Black Phone and Love Actually for the latter two with one of the worst encoding jobs they ever did, making the main encoding company does a better job adjusting the compression). You know this is bad when they should have done licensing to the boutique distributors like Shout! Studios/Scream Factory, Criterion, Arrow Video and Kino Lorber instead of this mess. This is what happens when Lucas, James Cameron (Terminator 2 and Titanic (1997) which I thought it was the better until found out the hard to notice DNR and AI usage on the latter; not helped with Aliens, The Abyss and True Lies as he approved those "remasters") and Peter Jackson (butchered the Middle-earth movie saga and The Beatles: Get Back) does not care about their films, other than the revisionist purposes. Hell, I rather watch the fan remasters which did the correct process of remastering the movies (removing dirts and scratches, but keep the grain) than those revisionist butcheries which does not feel right for those love even the heavy grain as a key part of keeping the filmic nature of those old titles.
I’ve heard and seen some screencaps of the Love Actually release-that one is truly bizarre. I hope this batch of screwy releases doesn’t indicate a shakeup in Universal’s good work recently (though like most their handling of audio still isn’t very good considering noise reduction and handling of catalog audio) What’s really perplexed me on Graffiti are “reviews” that claim its fine or okay or others even in this platform that say it still looks filmic at all….and no one really got into the sound being screwed with which is major!
Well, you also have to look at the technicians and engineers, and from what we know of other titles that have gone through this process sometimes they’ll make suggestions first or vice versa. It’s hard to know exactly for sure who did what since there’s never any information or credits on this stuff.
That's true but what I meant was this was I remember GL did all these scans at the same time a few years back. He made all the alterations on them then too. @@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader
@@MidnightsEdgeAfterDark yep and I’ve been wondering about the age of this work. It is very possible some if not all of it dates back a couple of years.
Blahray's detailed comparison of audio on past video releases: blah-ray.blogspot.com/2021/10/american-graffiti-1973.html
Gave you a thumbs up before even watching this video. Why? Because I know for a fact that The Damn Fool cares more about the preservation of film than Lucas.
Aw shucks, thanks!!
When even the so-called amateurs Lucas scoffs at care more than he does, that's saying something!
Gotta recommend Rick Worley's video on all the changes done to the six films in the Lucas saga. Whether you think the changes are good or bad I think he provides a very in depth analysis on specifically directors going back and changing their art.
Rick Worley: ua-cam.com/video/xaeTOMvf67c/v-deo.htmlsi=gWvUCdkbCfgWCShm
When you mentioned a budget movie shot at night, I instantly thought of the movie ‘Dog Soldiers’. That film was shot on 16mm and received a fabulous 4K release recently, and that was restored and put out by a boutique company. With the news of the Cameron 4K restorations, I’m starting to lose faith with the mainline studios and genuinely worry about the decision making when archiving these important films.
The Cameron 4K restorations are only Cameron and Lightstorm's fault, not the studios, not Disney and Fox. Most studio restorations range from good to great. But Cameron needs to play with his tech toys, and he has ultimate control. Cameron's restorations are not representative of the industry standard of how restorations are done. There were plenty of fantastic restorations and UHD releases this year, both from major studios and boutique labels. We even got Disney for the first time in history actually doing proper restorations of their classic animated features.
@@matheus5230 See TITANIC in 4K! Done great
@@matheus5230 with the exception of some Paramount and Disney releases with DNR (Planes, trains … and Star Wars films spring to mind) I guess you’re right. AG is down to Lucas fiddling as he always does. I just hope we don’t see more directors using this heavy handed approach when restoring their classic film archive.
@@modestyblaise4167Paramount is the most uneven studio of them all, by far.
Disney released some really bad UHDs, such as the Pirates Of Caribbean ones, but seems to have found their footing this year.
The Star Wars restorations for the UHDs were actually made before Disney bought Lucasfilm if I'm not mistaken.
Ultimately, I think that the extreme level of revisionism by some directors is bigger than what the actual studios would have ever done to the same films. Look at what Wong-Kar Wai did to In The Mood For Love. And a studio wouldn't have tinkered with Star Wars to the extent that Lucas did.
It is indeed, a painfully sad state of affairs when even titles that are the deepest schlock cult films and beloved simply because they are terrible get unbelievably royal treatment from small entities, trying to preserve them as best as possible. Frequently, and almost always these quality efforts outshine major studios, but it is insulting to a films legacy to have desecration like this, when a small outfit like say, vinegar syndrome would have produced some thing of archival standards
I love this guy. I love your channel and I love how you call these scumbags out. It would be great to get all the tech's names (audio and video) for all the films they ruin and call them out publicly. We need some whistleblowers.
I hope you do a review of the upcoming aliens and true lies 4k discs….although I’m afraid your head may explode like the guy in “scanners”
Pretty much! I've been trying to figure out how I'm even going to cover these Cameron horror masters. They're a whole new can of digital worms we've never seen the likes of before.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader it’s a nightmare, and it doesn’t give me much hope of a faithful 4k release of “the terminator” I’ll have to be content with my existing 1080p blu ray and my old dvd copy with the original mono mix, which I tracked down thanks to one of your older videos on the topic
Yeah, hopefully Idealistic Crusader can do the reviews. Will be entertaining… but I hope he has a barf bag close by.
Now i understand your work load...i had no idea.@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusaderWill you cover Titanic too?
This 4k release is the worst thing I have seen in years. It should be recalled and destroyed.
Pretty much. It's that unbelievably bad.
send it to me i'll put it in the food blender
Thanks for doing this video. I’ve been combing through reviews of this 4K & your expertise in this area is very helpful in understanding everything that went wrong with this release.
Thank you!! That is really nice to hear. I try to be as comprehensive as I can on each video. (even when I have to be this negative) I went through a lot of reviews before picking up a copy myself and couldn't find much if any information about certain aspects especially the audio mixes.
Here's the thing: Lucas hates revisionism, unless it's the artist doing it. He defends proper preservation only when it's convenient to him.
Yep. And even he admits that's kinda weird.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusaderLucas has always despised the studio system, and he strongly believes in artists having ultimate control and the last word over their works. Which is noble to a great extent, but can be taken to problematic extremes. Ultimately, the problem is not the revisionism per se: I don't think Lucas is wrong in his famous quote about how the artists should be allowed to tinker with their work if they want to do so. The problem here is the suppression of the original unaltered works.
He did say he wanted the original Star Wars trilogy lost to time, its on VHS he said and hoped for the day the tapes weren't playable. He said a hundred years from now someone will watch the DVD and the picture will be perfect.
@@matthewgaudet4064DVD rot is a thing.
I love your videos. You should definitely make more videos about all the various revisions of films.
Once I saw the horrendous DNR usage on display with this release, I thankfully held off from my purchase instantly. No way was I gonna give a dime to the criminals at Disney/Lucasfilm for destroying a timeless classic.
Disney is not at fault for this really. It's all Lucasfilm.
@@matheus5230 Well Disney owns Lucasfilm. So technically, they're at fault here too
@@Eva01-jy2qu7pu9rIn that sense, yeah. But Lucasfilm is still fairly independent in such matters.
@@Eva01-jy2qu7pu9rUltimately, the point is that it wasn’t restored by Disney's own restoration team, which has actually been pretty good recently, such as in Cinderella, Snow White, and Nightmare Before Christmas.
I grabbed my bottle of Jack Daniels and contemplated the state of the industry when you produce inferior product that actually promotes a job well done. To the many, they will see nothing wrong with the transfer, but what saddens me more, is the heartless nature studios are treating these films on physical. Are they doing this deliberately to put people off the format. Warner Archive have been consistent all the way through, but how long will that continue? I can never fault your detailed and eloquently said statement on the state of a film I've always enjoyed. Lucas was never a director I was keen on, but Graffiti was a stepping stone film for me. Now, I'll return to the bottle, and once again contemplate what could've been. Farewell Crusader, till the next time...
This is Lucasfilm's fault, not the studios, not Universal. Most studio restorations range from good to great. This UHD is not representative of the industry standard of how restorations are done. There were plenty of fantastic restorations and UHD releases this year, both from major studios and boutique labels. We even got Disney for the first time in history actually doing proper restorations of their classic animated features. Most UHDs are good to amazing. And even so-so UHDs are still more often than not an improvement, such as The Truman Show.
American Graffiti's UHD is the exception, just like T2. It doesn’t taint the UHD format as a whole, especially considering how many great UHDs of major classics we have gotten. I mean, look at Universal's Hitchcock 4K sets. There are far more good than bad UHDs, both for classic movies and for more obscure ones. I would say that the UHD format is more reliable regarding great transfers than the blu-ray and DVD ever were. The standard is higher. Sadly, though, there won't come a time when no horrible releases are made, they have always existed and always will.
I have no words - this is what film preservation is coming to. I weep for the future when AI really kicks in ! I felt your passion and frustration good sir, I applaud you...
Thank you!!
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader
Gotta recommend this video really a documentary on the special editions of Star Wars. If you only watch a little the second act is what I would see!
Rick Worley: ua-cam.com/video/xaeTOMvf67c/v-deo.htmlsi=oy7sM-FTK0brkW5J
Ah the frustration. George is such an enigma. A man who shaped cinema in the 1970s and 1980s cultivating a loyal following of fans and for some reason spent the rest of his life alienating them and counting money. I recently watched Project4k77 for the first time. I honestly had not watched Star Wars since the 1997 special editions because the films no longer did anything for me with all the changes. They no longer resembled Star Wars. Well, Project4k77 restored my faith in humanity! What an experience! Its amazing what they accomplished on a shoe string budget. I would gladly donate for a similar treatment of Graffitti but my understanding is that good quality privately owned prints are quite rare. Would you consider doing a review of Project 4k77?
The fan efforts have really brought back a lot of that spirit and hope in all of us who had been so burned out. It did for me all the way back in the early days when all we had were VHS and LD capture based projects before the GOUT DVDs. Personally I think of my film school as the fan preservation community and not the crummy college I wound up getting my silly degree from.
Project 4K77 and 4K83 (Star Wars and Return of the Jedi) are the only rewatches I am stick with. Fans know on how to remaster the movies (remove dirt and scratches, keep the grain and color grade to match the accurately as it's original colors as possible), while the "professionals" cannot do them right. 4K80 (The Empire Strikes Back) is still in the process (Beta 5) which does look very good. For now, the Despecialed Edition or the The Definitive Collection LaserDisc is currently the best version to watch TESB until 4K80 is ready for V1.
And speaking of Lucas's butchered the remasters, there is the first three Indiana Jones LPP Theatrical Experience scans (and the regrade to match with the original colors) which is alot better than the "revisionism" 4K releases. Then again, I will stick to these instead for rewatching the movies (after rewatched the dreeded 4K discs).
Quick way is to get the THX 1996 release and be done with it for official releases. It has the skybox and is most accurate to the 1978 reissue.
There is a fan restoration of the 1973 mono version, but I believe it is from a 16mm source unlike 4K77, which uses 35mm prints.
I know I have a copy of the THX scan but I don't recall how good it looks as I've not sat down and watched it yet.
Yeah for physical media the 1996 LD is the best picture source to not have the unaltered opening shot, then the 1992 Japanese LD for the best 1978 stereo presentation and then whatever print source people can get a hold of for the theatrical version and original mono mix.
1998 Signature LD for the extras and BD for the best official picture quality, HD upgrade of the screentests and Lucas commentary.
Then you're done in regards to collecting American Graffiti....
Hopefully someone will do a domesday preservation of the laserdisc sometime and it'll end up on that archive site.
Are these studios and filmmakers not realizing that everyone hates DNR already??
I'm surprised George didn't add laser blaster sound effects and digitally add droids and wookies to the 1960s setting. It looks like in addition to 4K77 4K80 & 4K83 we also need 4K71 & 4K73 for THX1138 and American Graffiti.
Don’t give them any ideas…🤦🏻♂️😢
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader lmao
Damn Spencer of all else fails you can start a singing career :D
Haha me and my goofy singing about video transfer issues: The Album.
i would have no problem w/creator destroying, ugh, editing their films, IF we could still purchase the original versions.
SW is a great example of this.
GIVE US THE OFFICIAL THEATRICAL CUTS OF THE OT!!!!!!
There aren't strong enough expletives in any language on Earth to accurately verbalize my utter disgust at what has been done to this film (which I, fortunately, got to see before it was defaced and ruined).
Loved the opening!
I don’t understand Lucas… why is he so contradictory??
Gotta recommend a video that I think will help you understand the special editions better when related back to film as an art form. It's a pretty lengthy in-depth look at Lucas touching up his work, but I found it very insightful in how I view directors and their vision.
Rick Worley: ua-cam.com/video/xaeTOMvf67c/v-deo.htmlsi=vAj1w5QFKWKXCz_K
Just 3 minutes in and already it's clear this video is a work of genius lol.
Hi Spencer- thank you for doing this and I have watched it through 3 times now. I also just ordered the non-Signature Collection “Graffiti” LD that came right before it. Again, thank you and your channel is simply fantastic with everything you post. 😊
Thank you!! That’s very nice to hear. Having the 1996 LD along with the Blu-ray is about the best you can do for US physical media releases.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusaderTbh I'll just stick with the old DVD since the Blu Ray is so distractingly DNR'd that its kind of hard to watch at points lol. Not as bad as the 4K master, but its definitely riding the line sadly. At least with the DVD's lower resolution the issues aren't as bad and not as noticable as they are on the newer releases. Its not perfect but I'll take it over high resolution transfers that get worse and worse due to Lucas' insistence on revising his already perfect work
Will Lucas never cease f*cking with his films? “Visual Consultant” Haskell Wexler must be spinning in his grave.
All of this is to spite Marcia Lucas. The movie would have been a complete mess without her, and he knew it, so he let his feelings about their marriage ending spill over onto the movies they made together, and we the moviegoing, TV-watching, disc-buying audience paid the price because they couldn't make it work as a married couple.
I am not sure that is entirely accurate.
Nerdonymous: ua-cam.com/video/olqVGz6mOVE/v-deo.htmlsi=AQlwrighYi5QDIQY
Excellent review, and I absolutely love the “DNR Around the Reels” parody song in the intro goof. I kind of want to cover the original song with those lyrics. Could I get permission to do that?
Those quotes from Lucas at the beginning... What the hell happened to that guy? It will forever boggle my mind how he simply couldn't release the unaltered, theatrical releases of the original trilogy alongside the special editions as we progressed from dvd to blu-ray, to 4k. How can he not see how disrespectful that is to all the people who worked on those original films to just throw away their work like that? I'm sure there would still be issues like what we're seeing with this American Graffiti release, but at least it would be the theatrical cuts, or closer to it then what we currently have.
You would think so! He’s even acknowledged his double stance before of working to preserve other films but continually mess with his own.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader The funny thing is it's just made people hate on the special editions even more. Granted, I'm sure they would still catch some flack from a decent portion of the fanbase, but not nearly as much if he had just given the theatrical cuts their due as well. Instead, we get "Maclunkey!" which I'm pretty sure was one last middle finger to the fans before he sold it to Disney. At least it kind of gave me a good laugh, though, because of how stupid it is.
@@ChuckM0503 Gotta recommend a video that I think will help you understand the special editions better when related back to film as an art form. It's a pretty lengthy in-depth look at Lucas touching up his work, but I found it very insightful in how I view directors and their vision.
Rick Worley: ua-cam.com/video/xaeTOMvf67c/v-deo.htmlsi=vAj1w5QFKWKXCz_K
Thank The Maker for Team Negative1 and Harmy. Emperor George hasn't driven the originals from us fully.
Too bad they decided they are Star Wars only site. And they decided to archive the Indiana Jones scans and not release them, the same with the James Bond scans.
I watched it. Looks okay. Definitely better than True Lies and Aliens 4Ks for example. I have never had it on Blu-ray though so can't compare. I would give it 8/10 image quality
I saw all those those films behind you in their original theatrical releases. With the exception of STAR WARS, I wasn't very excited by any of those movies. AMERICAN GRAFFITI came out a year after I graduated high-school and I saw it at a movie palace theater that was capable of 70mm presentations, so it pretty much looked like a grindhouse release when I watched it on the big screen. I was indifferent and tagged it as another cutesy teen-age nostalgia trip. After it became a sleeper hit, I went and saw it at the same theater when it was re-released in an echoey Dolby Stereo version and still wasn't too impressed by it. This lead up is merely to say that I can't imagine what miracles LucasFilm thought they could apply to AMERICAN GRAFFITI when Haskell Wexler's extraordinary night-time photography in Techniscope is the chief charm of the movie, along with it's radio fidelity monaural rock-and-roll music tracks. Keep up the good work and I'll stick to my blu-ray versions of the film and it's sequel, neither of which I watch too regularly.
I finally bit the bullet and got it for 15 Euros. I can't stand DNR, and love me some beautifully fine-grained film, but I expected this to look far worse than it does. Sure, DNR seems to have been applied across the board, but in a much more sophisticated manner than those previous Universal BD "efforts". Details are still there, although never spectacular. shadow detail is much improved, colours look lovely, and contrast is far better too. The BD is very fuzzy, but also suffers from an egregious amount of EE, and DNR, so this is easily the best it's ever looked on home video. Far from perfect, as there is some distracting macroblocking in the backgrounds, some smearing in a handful of shots, and of course, all that DNR, but it's very watchable and still a joy, even at a distance of 4.2ft (130cm) from an LGC9 65inch OLED. I simply love this film, and am very glad I got the UHD, despite its shortcomings. I recommend getting it.
Lucas tries not to alter his films challenge (impossible)
Just tell him to look the other way and sneak out the raw scan properly mastered on a second disc with the original audio mix properly restored and he’ll never know…
This release is a fucking disaster, but did we really expect otherwise? It didn't look good on blu or DVD either.
Another good video. I was curious what’s your home video setup?
Thank you! Pretty straightforward for BD and UHD. Sony A80j, Onkyo receiver, Panasonic UB820 and Klipsch speakers.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusadernice! I had been thinking about getting a Sony. I was a little worried that they didn’t have Filmmaker Mode but apparently their Custom preset does the same thing.
@@YuenXii yes their custom mode is what you need to use and that way you can do proper setup. Sony is still the best manufacturer for film watching in terms of OLEDs. LG is a bit more geared for gaming and other stuff.
I hope someone scans a film print as was done with the Star Wars films. I do not respect the George Lucas of today. I respect the George Lucas of 1981 and prior. That Lucas no long exists. Let's not mince words. There's ONE man who is responsible for this desecration, and his name is George Lucas.
This sounds nightmarish. I understand the impulse to go back and change one's own earlier work (I sometimes read my old essays and short stories, and almost cringe to death every time), but like you, I see these films as a part of pop culture history. At the very least preserve the original in addition to "new and improved" versions. I feel much the same way about Lucas' revisionism as I do with what Charlie Chaplin did to The Gold Rush in 1942-- an older artist tinkering with the work of their younger self, when they were a different person altogether really.
It’s so true! This release is so nightmarish that if you ever see this master, it is literally heartbreaking. It’s funny you mention The Gold Rush because my local arthouse managed to get a copy and was playing it this weekend. I was going and making the special trip over there plus battling for a parking spot until I thought about it for a minute and double checked the runtime and realized it would be the 1942 version which of course it was and they didn’t advertise it as such.🙃
Great example, and perhaps the oldest I can think of is Chaplin's sound version of Gold Rush.
Truly a blunder and surprising for somebody who went into sound movies kicking and screaming to begin with.
Yeah, it's a weird edit, more than just cutting out intertitles and putting in voiceover narration. He cut down on Georgia Hale's wonderful performance too and considering she's my favorite of his leading ladies... well, I wasn't too happy. I do think it's hilarious that once Chaplin started making sound movies, he could be quite verbose as well lol. But that's another topic...@@KevinStriker
The "point" of this release is to rip off the fans.
I really think Lucasfilm should stop with the revisionism business.
The special edition is the real Star Wars movie that George wanted to give us.
Complete with plugs for Shadows of the Empire!
I watched the 4K myself yesterday, and I'm surprised just how bad it looked.
God help us when George revisits THX-1138 again.
Of God it will be even worse if they ever decide to revisit it. Everything would have to be redone from scratch because I don’t think anything in 2004 was done above 2K. Or it would have to be an upscale and it’s likely they might go: Oh we like those new James Cameron toys let’s use those.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader Lucas, Cameron and Jackson: forever united in the tom-foolery with new tech toys.
Doctor Strangelove was restored in 4K in 2004. It's the same restoration that is used in the UHD.
@@matheus5230 It is actually restored in 2006 and this is when Blu-ray is new at that time. The first Blu-ray release is in 2009. And this is the same company who have the source masters of Spider-Man 2 (2004) in 4K digital intermediate (to be scanned, recorded and color-corrected) since it's initial release. Only the CGI is upscaled since computers are not that powerful in that year (even though it is a significant improvement to the first movie in 2002).
Source: drive.google.com/file/d/1905bIQTEOetOa5ws5TpV4_qkk1K9HaR7/view
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader , were those awful new cgi shots rendered in 2k or 1080P? They looked worse than the cgi in Attack of the Clones.
@@matheus5230 Sony first tried their major Strangelove restoration in 2004 but I think the current 4K master has long since upgraded from that.
Gosh I remember seeing the new 2004 Sony 35mm print in high school!
Revisionism like this on a constant basis really does showcase that copyright laws should not be in place. If you're going to have them, don't alter the original film. Otherwise it is not the film that was given the copyright. People should have the right to gain access to tools so they can preserve Motion Picture history themselves. If they have to preserve a classic like this with its beautiful Techniscope cinematography, then so be it.
I was able to get the American Graffiti Signature Collection Laserdisc for 44.95. which i thought was decent because it usually goes for a bit more. I did get Willow THX other than in two other cases i have never seen such bad laser rot. Amazing how on physical inspection except for some weirdness in the glue between layers it looks fine but side 1 wouldn't even play and all the other sides have snow throughout and even audio dropouts.
The 1996 THX disc is so soft blurry and crummy i was frankly disappointed, The 35mm telecine bootleg looks better. The one thing about the THX disc is the audio is good. Yes its been filtered and cleaned up but its not horrible. So the DVD looks the best even with the horrible DNR and cgi sunset. Maybe the Signature release on laserdisc will actual look good i'm waiting for that to arrive.
Yeah the Signature master has baked in issues of its own and the DVD iteration will be sharper. Even the CLV widescreen LD I have isn't the greatest transfer.
The letterboxed LD of Willow is a notorious rotter so I've never tried a copy.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader , its actually the best looking of the releases despite the changed credits and cgi sunset. But some scenes are too bright and others too dark. The audio was noticeably more filtered than other releases though. It does not have the click and pop and lowfi of the original track it also doesn't have good fidelity.
In Rättvik Sweden, County Dalcarlia, there is an annual Classic Car Week in the summer. Very nice. I don't know if it is still the case, but 23 years ago I had the pleasure of watching American Graffiti on the big screen of an enormous pop-up screen, i.e. an outdoor temporary drive-in. I don't know what they used to project the film, but this was the summer of 2000, so the source had to of been analogue. The image was excellent, and we even had to tune in on radios to get the audio. It was all very very enjoyable. Come to think of it, I haven't watched the film since.
Check it out. Maybe it is still a thing.
I have never owned American Graffiti on any format because there never been a perfect home video release of the movie. I held off buying the Blu-Ray from 2011 because of its own problems but I might as well just buy it now especially with how bad the new 4K Edition is.
I think it has gotten to the point where we desperately need a label like Criterion to step in and handle American Graffiti and even The Star Wars Trilogy for Blu-Ray, DVD, and 4K Disc. Criterion would probably go out of their way to give us proper transfers with all the sound-mixes too.
Somebody needs to step in that's for sure. For specifically branded archival versions of THX, Graffiti, Star Wars and Indy trilogies plus even Willow too. Heck even the prequels have changes so those as well!
I find George Lucas to be very strange because at one point he was seriously against "Film Alteration". But then later on he alters his own movies, then goes as far as withholding the original versions from the fans and force feeding them his revised versions. It extremely unfortunate that Disney has continued that trend by not restoring the Original Versions of The Star Wars Trilogy in 4K and releasing them on Blu-Ray, DVD, and 4K Disc.
The 1997 Special Editions Versions of The Star Wars Trilogy initially seemed like an honest attempt from George Lucas at creating "Alternate Versions" of the films that were closer to what he originally wanted them to be, but it became a serious problem when he kept making more changes to them for the 2004 DVD and 2011 Blu-Ray versions.
I'm not a huge fan of the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy but I have watched them a good number of times and I think it is crazy that that George Lucas even made changes to them too. I think Attack of the Clones suffered the most with the changes that were made to it for the Blu-Ray version. I especially hate that editing change that was made towards the end of the climax.
This is your best work.
You know these changes wouldn't bothercme so much if they were included alongside the original releases. Include them in a box set or separately and let the consumers decide what to get. I've said it before but Blade Runner still did it best by including all versions of the film so you can watch them all.
After seeing movie collectors video on it I was persuaded to buy the disc since I only have the discovision cav set and the universal widescreen LD.
Since it has all the old features and his video recommended it saying he didn’t see what others were saying about the dnr I thought it was another lord of the rings or jaws situation were everyone is praising those discs but they are not theatrically authentic. Guess I’ll see soon enough when I get to it at the end of my pile of new buys. At least I have features I’ve never seen waiting for me 🤷🏻♀️
I looked at his video and I'm pretty sure his setup must somehow be coloring what he's seeing. This 4K master is really THAT bad and the sound has been completely redone. Thankfully the old BD is bundled so you can do your own comparisons and in about a nanosecond it's painfully obvious the old BD despite being a super old crummy master with noise, EE, DNR and a so-so version of the 1978 stereo remix is impossibly better than the horrible UHD.
The extras mostly date back to the 1998 Signature LD and are great. The making of docu is a classic. The benefits of the BD for the extras is that they added a Lucas commentary and upgraded the screentests to HD sort of.
Before this point I had always meant to pick up the BD but never got around to it because the master was crummy. I've had the 1996 LD for years because it was the last release before the CG opening sunset shot.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader Movie Collectors must be going blind 🦯 😎 🦮
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader, the old DVD master being better is insane. I read they spent a good amount of money on the 4K, boggles the mind. What is next praising Lowry? Because these new transfers are worse.
This 4K UHD transfer will be tied with True Lies 4K and Aliens 4K as the worst 4K releases. This is not a win for film preservation, instead, it's a setback for physical media.
This is more on LFC then Universal but for them to aprove this, forshame UHE forshame, aleast I got the Scarface 4K. (I dont have the BTTF 30TH 4K, just the 1080p versions of those transfers but remembered they looked good.)
Update: Just got the UHDs for the BTTF trilogy.
Yeah it's definitely a LFL thing but Universal should have spoken up because it makes them look bad too. So I do at least partially include them in the blame for this master but to a much lesser degree. They've been doing so well in the past few years so it's a shame to see them put out several titles recently with issues.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader That's why I said "forshame UHE", Jaws and ET I could forgive because it the Bluray master but in full 4K (Their remasters were done in 4K but downscale 1080p for the 1st Blu-Ray, as the Psycho 4K but that has the Uncut version and give or take recalls and reissues that version came with *lossy* og mono, go to the German TURBINE MEDIEN release)
NVM: ET's a new master
Steven Spielberg includes original theatrical mixes on his UHE releases despite them being lossy, must have been how Jaws was badly audiowise that made him deside that.
@@MichaelSerrano-sk1vq If schlocky shoe string budget films from the 70s and 80s can have lossless renderings of their original audio mixes, then so can bloody Jaws!! Jaws didn't won a Oscar for best sound for no reason! They do this because they don't want people to see these films in as good of a presentation as they could be.
@@CuriousEnthusiast956 Well considering how the state the mono track on that releases, no, not when it's been no noised to to death. The mono mix deserves better and I heard A and B comparisons between The mid '90s Laserdisc and the modern day Mono restorations, compared to the CD quality audio of those mid '90s copies, I'd rather be watching the film in 7.1, but that goes to show you how badly Universal has treated the audio of Jaws post 1997.
ET's theatrical 2.0 is actually pretty good, could be better in places and arguably could be considered a candidate for lossless companionship. (This is coming from a man who grew up in the 00s but grew up only knowing the theatrical version, and yet did not know both cuts were widely available in earlier that decade until Universal messed that up for themselves.)
Please look at the fact! Film was shot on low Resolution lesser than 35mm and later they did a.blow up to 35mm so according to many other 4K reviewers the resolution on the 4K UHD is more than fine, this was a. independent small movie with low production cost.. Greetings from Munich Germany
With modern scanners, you’re able to scan the techniscope negative and produce beautifully detailed results without having to go through the generational loss of converting to a traditional four perf print which is how a restoration of this film would’ve had to have been done photochemically. There is absolutely NO reason this master looks the way it does. Any old degraded print of Graffiti has more detail. The old crappy home video masters have more detail even!
More American Graffiti, Twice Upon a Time, Latino, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, Willow, Tucker: The Man and His Dream, The Land Before Time, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (the 2008 movie), Red Tails and Strange Magic haven't been released on 4K UHD BD yet. Unless George Lucas disowned them or something, the "Lucasfilm Circle of Revisionism" is not complete yet.
Those somewhat fall outside the Lucasfilm parameters due to other studio ownership etc. I was primarily referring to the main Lucasfilm titles but outside of the main ones the outlier is probably RADIOLAND MURDERS which is in really poor shape on video.
Willow already had a 4K scan that was on Disney plus. I haven't seen it i can't say if the screencaps i've seen are at all representative because they had frozen grain and DNR.
People always say that these are George's films and he can do whatever he wants, but I'd say that they're just as much works of Walter Murch and Marcia Lucas. I feel so bad for them.
That’s what I always think about: the other people in the cast and crew whose hard work is manipulated or eradicated. That’s the biggest argument there is against the repeated notion of “the director can do whatever they want”.
Gotta recommend a video that I think will help you understand the special editions better when related back to film as an art form. It's a pretty lengthy in-depth look at Lucas touching up his work, but I found it very insightful in how I view directors and their vision.
Rick Worley: ua-cam.com/video/xaeTOMvf67c/v-deo.htmlsi=vAj1w5QFKWKXCz_K
Nerdonymous: ua-cam.com/video/olqVGz6mOVE/v-deo.htmlsi=xuUJHzZsISYm8gtJ
I'm actually shocked that Lucasfilm didn't author a new Blu-ray with how sure they were to put the 2011 Special Editions on DVDs in the 2013 BD+DVD bundles of the PT and OT.
But it's all the better for it, it is sad as hell when a 4K gets wrecked by a Blu-ray. From a time when Universal was pumping out its worst discs on the format.
i'm not if you live in UK and got the 4K/blu combo for the Indiana Jones films the blu-rays weren't the new transfers. In the US the blu set released separately also wasn't new versions same old discs.
There’s still a number of aspects they ignore and the films outside Star Wars will get discs recycled over and over it seems.
I didn't even like when Ridley Scott went back, in the late 90s/early 00s-whenever it was, and started digitally tinkering with Blade Runner, using the latest CGI at the time to cover over the "mistakes" on that film, aka when they were forced to use a stunt double when the one replicant goes crashing through the glass when being retired. It's like Scott didn't comprehend, 20 years later, movie magic is about using the slight of hand available at the time and it's relation to the audiences experience of everything else to that point.
The 2007 Final Cut definitely doesn’t fit 100% for aligning with a 1982 production which is part of the reason I quickly grew tired of it. The 4K master and 35mm 2007 prints didn’t have as much of the modern color grade push as the DVD/HDDDVD/BD master.
However I must say that the Final Cut was painstakingly done to try and be as intricate as possible. If a version like this HAS to be done then that is the gold standard and they made sure to include some form of the previous versions.
Unfortunately the UHD has a new remix that undoes the Final Cut mix and is full of new effects. Plus the original versions need a full new scan.
My favorite version is the 1992 Director’s cut with international cut scenes reinstated.
Even the reused audio commentary for this one wasn't very interesting.
Lucas tracks never are. Plus the BD was a video commentary version.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader I think I appreciate the Star Wars tracks more because of the compilation nature of them, they definitely help him out.
George Lucas can do whatever he wants with and to his movies, as they are his, no matter what anyone else says. He is an independent filmmaker, and that's by design. I would love to have a faithful UHD of all his films of his cuts of the movies, but this DNR thing doesn't make sense to me. With TPM, I understand it was because it had been done for the 3-D version of the film, but this one? I would really like to know his train of thought on this one. Same with Cameron, Peter Jackson, etc.. It's like they want them too look like garbage, or their eyesight has seriously declined. I had high hopes for AG. What a pity. It's such a great film.
I get the artist argument but I think there's also a point where that line gets crossed. At the very least a proper restoration or new master should be done and THEN the person can go to town doing what they want to: but allow the public to have the option to see either version.
Was this a Reliance scan like the 2020 Special Edition for the Star Wars trilogy, which was done i 2012-13, around the same time Pacific Title did the INDY scans. Remember Reliance was formerly Lowry, then DTS Digital, then Reliance.
I wish I knew. I don’t think there’s any info yet out there about who or when this was done.
There's a 35mm scan of this movie floating around, not a high bitrate version though.
Obscure reference, watching your videos always makes me think of Matthew Broderick playing Scott the woz pretending to be a film reviewer. (Not in a negative way but you look a bit like Broderick and your style is a bit similar to Scott)
I take it as a compliment! I enjoy Scott’s videos.
Print scans are going to be the only way to salvage AG. It would definitely take a lot of work, and probably several different rare prints to go through and then do a balancing to mix and match between them and I don’t know how many dye transfer prints of the film are in existence.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusaderScott The Woz has said that he has thoughts about releasing his UA-cam material on blu-ray, but has doubts if he will ever do it, not only because of the far more niche nature of physical media nowadays, but also due to potential copyright issues.
He said this in his video chat with James Rolfe.
Thank goodness I have the sound track
Very funny intro to a very sad event.
Damn Fool, what is your take when modern day color graders try to argue that film prints (in general, not with American Graffiti) had some kind of tint to them that wasn't represented in earlier home releases, so digitally adding that tint back is the right thing to do- To me it is hogwash. Re-adding a digital color on top of the scanned film print in the majority of cases has resulted in something that just looks wrong. It's one thing to be doing it a digital remaster that they are trying to fix but adding it to a film that has had a new scan doesn't even make sense. And just to maybe give some credence to that theory, if the color bias they are claiming was there, it would be like 1/1000 of what they are actually inserting digitally.
It's a tightrope to walk. Usually if it's someone who is good at what they do and cares there's some degree of truth to that once they've actually done proper research and checked virtually everything that exists. But that RARELY ever happens and so you'll see that argument get applied to all kinds of things like the piece of filth Ritrovata Leone masters and how they were graded.
Every video master is a best educated guess with equipment of the time so there's always some degree of guesswork or doing the best you can. Yet we have plenty of examples where an old Laserdisc or even earlier video masters can have more accuracy than the latest and supposedly greatest 4K master simply because they were done back then with a more hands off approach. And this is even with older format limitations!!
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader thank you - I concur!
The two 60's Dalek films with Peter Cushing were shot in Techniscope I believe.
Never thought the day would come where I’d desperately hold onto my old Blu of the movie, but unless I’m lucky enough to get LD capabilities anytime soon, I’m going to fiend off anyone who even comes close to it. What a butchering of (imo) Lucas’ best film
The only good AG news (for me) is coincidentally finding an old AAD Cd a week ago of the soundtrack, which sounds excellent. I’m going to use that to bleach my mind of this release lol
That sounds like a great plan! Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but yes the BD is the bets option still in spite of all its issues.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader eh, the silver lining to this is that you saved me $20 haha
@@tinypurplefishes2903 that's good! I wish I had my $20 back...at least I got it from Gruv on sale. I've been tempted to return it as being defective...because it is...
You know this is a shitty 4K release when even the casual viewers noticed the waxfest of a "remaster" for the film. And I just simplify refused to watch one (or renting one) after all. Though this is more for Lucas butchered the film as the last straw for it. And yes, I am still one of them beg for the unaltered Star Wars original trilogy which is still rejected by Lucas himself.
And a rotten luck for Universal's 4K catalog titles (such as their first time "MOD" releases of Elizabeth (1998), Promising Young Woman (which they did not include the Dolby Atmos TrueHD audio somehow on the first pressings despite mentioned on the press release), The Black Phone and Love Actually for the latter two with one of the worst encoding jobs they ever did, making the main encoding company does a better job adjusting the compression). You know this is bad when they should have done licensing to the boutique distributors like Shout! Studios/Scream Factory, Criterion, Arrow Video and Kino Lorber instead of this mess.
This is what happens when Lucas, James Cameron (Terminator 2 and Titanic (1997) which I thought it was the better until found out the hard to notice DNR and AI usage on the latter; not helped with Aliens, The Abyss and True Lies as he approved those "remasters") and Peter Jackson (butchered the Middle-earth movie saga and The Beatles: Get Back) does not care about their films, other than the revisionist purposes. Hell, I rather watch the fan remasters which did the correct process of remastering the movies (removing dirts and scratches, but keep the grain) than those revisionist butcheries which does not feel right for those love even the heavy grain as a key part of keeping the filmic nature of those old titles.
I’ve heard and seen some screencaps of the Love Actually release-that one is truly bizarre. I hope this batch of screwy releases doesn’t indicate a shakeup in Universal’s good work recently (though like most their handling of audio still isn’t very good considering noise reduction and handling of catalog audio)
What’s really perplexed me on Graffiti are “reviews” that claim its fine or okay or others even in this platform that say it still looks filmic at all….and no one really got into the sound being screwed with which is major!
Oh my god that intro 🤣
Glad you liked it! I kept tweaking and developing it thinking…this is supremely goofy…I wonder if anyone is going to get this…
🍿...welp here we go!
Everyone online complaining about Disney wrecking Lucasfilm, but no one has done more damage to the legacy than George Lucas himself
3:24p.m. 1/6/2024
when you say "People" I hate to break it to you that it's GL... he did these scans and tweeks
Well, you also have to look at the technicians and engineers, and from what we know of other titles that have gone through this process sometimes they’ll make suggestions first or vice versa. It’s hard to know exactly for sure who did what since there’s never any information or credits on this stuff.
That's true but what I meant was this was I remember GL did all these scans at the same time a few years back. He made all the alterations on them then too. @@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader
@@MidnightsEdgeAfterDark yep and I’ve been wondering about the age of this work. It is very possible some if not all of it dates back a couple of years.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader I'm thinking so it was during 2012/13
@@MidnightsEdgeAfterDark, a decade old like the Indiana Jones and Star Wars scans from before Lucas sold the company?