Well, dear readers, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, Mr. Stephen Spielberg teamed up with his pal Mr. George Lucas to pay homage to the serials they loved when growing up. That homage was entitled Raiders of the Lost Ark, the very title of which conjured up those magical chapterplays of old. When I was a week sprig of a twig of a tad of a lad of a youth they were still showing serials at the Saturday matinee, at least at the Picfair Theater. They were certainly in their waning days, but I saw Radar Men from the Moon (Commando Cody, my favorite), Captain America, and several others. I loved how you’d have to come back to see how each week’s cliffhanger would end. Raiders was one of the first movies I saw at the Director’s Guild theater – I’d just joined when I was directing The Creature Wasn’t Nice. I found it a splendid evocation of the serial, with wonderful action set pieces, cliffhangers every few minutes, and colorful heroes and villains along with a fetching leading lady who could hold her own with hero and villain, and frequently best them. The screenplay was fun, had catchy dialogue, and the direction was fast-paced, but also knew when to give the audience a breather. And it was perfectly cast straight down the line. It was a blockbuster, a box-office smash and yielded, ultimately, three sequels, none of which was nearly as good as Raiders, for the simple reason that Raiders was simple. As always with sequels, it was let’s top this, bigger, better, louder, faster. Some stuff was fine, some was silly. This week all the Indiana Jones movies came out on Blu-ray in a box set. A week ago, screen caps started appearing and the outcry was loud and long. The color was revisionist, it wasn’t like the DVD or the VHS or the laserdisc or even the HD broadcast they’ve been showing. People swore up and down it was not faithful to the original look of the film, even as they admitted they hadn’t actually seen the film back when it came out. But even those who had were saying it didn’t look right. And from the screen caps posted there was certainly cause for worry, because they looked green, washed out, and not too attractive, with turquoise skies. But knowing my hatred for screen caps and despite the few who always show up to loudly proclaim that screen caps are an accurate way to tell how the Blu-ray will look, I refused to even think about it until I actually saw the disc. That seems like a radical thing, you know, to actually wait until you see the thing. Then a couple of reviews appeared, and suddenly we were hearing it was a fabulous transfer and that the caps didn’t really resemble what was on the disc – big surprise. Robert Harris briefly chimed in when the complaints began coming in that he’d seen a bit of it and was very impressed. The usual suspects, the ones who usually cry DNR and EE over and over again, whether true or not, have a new slogan that they are now abusing daily – they had to have read it somewhere because these slogans don’t just appear out of nowhere – they adopt them because they’ve read them somewhere – this new slogan is “teal and orange” – they spout this over and over again about any number of transfers. “They turned on the teal and orange button,” they scream.
Well, last night I ran a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled Raiders of the Lost Ark. The film still plays beautifully and hasn’t dated at all, partially because it’s a period film and partially because it’s just so damnably entertaining. The score by John Williams is one of his greats and really propels the film. So, ready for the worst, imagine my surprise to be greeted by a top-notch transfer with color that looked nothing like the screen caps. I looked in vain for the turquoise skies – there weren’t any. They skies were, as they should be, blue. One person was complaining about too much “teal” in the Paramount logo – yes, this is how nutty it gets. First of all, the Paramount logo color is perfect – and I don’t know, call me crazy, but I call the color blue not teal. Blue. Blue. It’s blue. I can’t call it teal because a) teal is an extremely silly-sounding word, and b) it’s BLUE. There was a lot of talk about an “orange push” with everything looking way too orange. Part of the problem here is these people have watched repeated viewings of the film (some have never seen it projected) on every format, and that’s what’s burned into their brains. But that doesn’t mean those transfers were correct or perfect. The only times I noticed any extreme color on faces was when the source lighting dictated that was what it should be, that that was the intended look and lighting. Sun beating down on a face, Indiana Jones standing before the golden statue at the beginning, with his face suffused in a yellow golden light – it’s bold and it’s right. But when you get to the marketplace scene in bright daylight, there’s no “orange push” – there is perfect color – a bleached look that is very appropriate to the sequence, but with bold swatches of color on doorways and walls and costumes. The detail is incredible, and yet one guy who always cried DNR has said the transfer has it. No, it doesn’t. Can’t have that detail with DNR. And for grain lovers, the scenes that should have it have it. Of course I’m not watching on a 120-inch screen sitting two feet away, but I hate to tell these people that if you sat that close to a 35mm print you’d see plenty of anomalies. If you love the film, I think you’ll be very pleased by the transfer. And make no mistake – Mr. Spielberg is known to be very hands on these days about transfers and there is no way that Paramount would have released this without his approval. And he, above all, should know what the look of his film is, not some guys on a chat board who have no real expertise in film or transfers. I’ll be watching the rest of the films over the next few days, but I certainly recommend the first film – it looks and sounds great.
I also watched the first forty minutes of the new region B Blu and Ray of The Trial, a film of Orson Welles. It’s a film I really love and I saw it many times when it was first released, and many times subsequent to that – I’ve owned 16mm and 35mm prints. I’ve owned two DVD versions, one of which was superb in quality for DVD. But nothing prepared me for how great this Blu-ray transfer is. It is, in short, a miracle. It’s sharp, it’s detailed, the contrast is exactly right and I was actually bowled over by it. Naturally, I went to a few websites to read the rave reviews and guess what – the first one I read said it looked okay, better than the DVD and the public domain releases. What a great disservice this “reviewer” does to a transfer like this. He obviously knows nothing of the film or its low-budget history, and just as obviously knows nothing of the way it should look. The fact is, The Trial has never looked as good as this Blu-ray. I’ll have more to say after I’ve finished, but right now it gets my highest recommendation.
What am I, a critic all of a sudden? No, just a guy who watches movies the way they should be watched, from a reasonable distance on a wonderful display and without freeze-framing the image, blowing it up, or scouring it for reasons that I’d rather not know anything about.
Prior to all that, I had a day that alternated between fun and irritating, with fun slightly winning out, which is fun. I got up at 8:45, but fell back asleep thirty minutes later and slept until eleven, which was just what I needed. Then I answered e-mails, a couple of which were irritating, but not nearly as irritating as last week’s e-mails. I had a sandwich and no fries, then came home and the helper came by and picked up invoices. Then I printed out all the sheet music for the October Kritzerland show, and sent the singers everything they needed, so I think we’re all set now. I looked at a potential new location for the Outside The Box episodes – a different rehearsal hall, but I wasn’t crazy about it. The gal who usually choreographs these is out of town so I asked Kay Cole to do it and she happily said yes. Then dear reader Jose posted a photograph of two donuts, so I immediately had to go get two donuts, which were quite yummilicious. Then I watched the movies and that was that.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must try and get another good night’s beauty sleep.
Today, I have some errands and whatnot to do, I shall hopefully pick up some packages, I shall eat, I shall have a short rehearsal with Juliana and then I will spend the evening comping vocals.
Tomorrow, it’s a morning rehearsal, then I’m seeing The Master at the Cinerama Dome. Friday is very busy and so is the weekend, and then we have our intensive week of Juliana rehearsals.
Let’s all put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, let’s all break out the cheese slices and the ham chunks, let’s all dance the Hora or the old-fashioned waltz because today is the birthday of our very own beloved and occasionally cantankerous elmore. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to our very own beloved and occasionally cantankerous elmore. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO OUR VERY OWN BELOVED AND OCCASIONALLY CANTANKEROUS ELMORE!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do errands and whatnot, hopefully pick up packages, eat, rehearse, and comp vocals. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall dream in beautiful color with no orange push and no teal.