MovieChat Forums > Matewan (1987) Discussion > The movie was good, but the DVD was horr...

The movie was good, but the DVD was horrible

posted 17 years ago by Eric-1226
9 replies | jump to latest

This movie was beautifully filmed, yet the DVD version was in full-screen format, which I believe cheated the viewer out of the cinematographer's panoramic (wide-screen) view intent.

The DVD lacked subtitles feature, which was a bummer because much of the dialogue was not only in "regional dialect," but was thick with regional accent. IOW, it was hard to hear and decipher what they were saying!!. Sure, it had Closed Captioning (CC), but that's not the same thing as DVD subtitles. CC only works for TV's that are equipped to display closed captioning. As for my TV, to get the CC to work, I had to press the mute button, and then the closed captions appeared. This is not a favorable way to watch a movie!

***
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"Thank you, I just had it stuffed."

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[–] liberalmedia 17 years ago

I've read on several boards that the DVD is disappointing, and I was surprised because I had seen the movie on a Netflix rental and was quite pleased with it. Then again, I don't recall whether it was widescreen or full screen, and frankly I often tune those features out when I'm engrossed in a movie (and believe me, Matewan was utterly enthralling).

But at any rate, I suspect John Sayles needs a proper boxed set of his top titles, with excellent widescreen transfers and special features galore.

First rule of movie-going: never confuse the actor with his role.

[–] jobla 16 years ago

The US Artisan DVD is a disappointment, but the Canadian DVD, which may also be from Artisan, is properly letterboxed at approx. 1:85-1. I'm not certain if it's anamorphic, but it's much better overall than the US DVD. I'd love to see a superior US product, perhaps from Criterion?

[–] wbrucher 15 years ago

The Canadian DVD is anamorphic. It was released by Seville Pictures. The picture and sound quality of the Canadian version is much better than the U.S. DVD. However, there aren't any special features or commentary tracks on the Canadian DVD. I bought mine from Amazon Canada five years ago. I believe it is out of print, but used copies may be available.

[–] podwilliams 15 years ago

Can you provide a link for the Seville edition? Thanks.

The lion and the calf shall lie down together, but the calf won't get much sleep.

[–] cjr3559 16 years ago

Try watching it from a used 15-20 year old VHS tape from the public library. UGH. Talk about impossible to hear AND see.

[–] CaptMal 16 years ago

I totally agree. Terrible transfer.

--The Artist Formerly Known as UnpluggedCrazy Before My Account Got Hacked--

[–] MovieMan1975 16 years ago

I was lucky enough to watch the film on HDnet today. the HD transfer is MAJESTIC!!!

[–] mobocracy 16 years ago

That means a new release on DVD soon, which would be nice. My copy, which I got from Netflix, had *horrible* audio -- it sounded like it was transferred from VHS in mono (hell, the picture probably WAS transferred from VHS in mono). My stereo said "Dolby Digital, 2 CH" but I'm guessing that was just an encoding choice for the disc. I ended up listening on headphones to decipher the fuzzy dialog.

I've found that catalog titles that turn up on HD channels or in letterbox format almost always turn up being re-released on DVD soon after in an improved format from previous releases. A recent example would be "The Panic in Needle Park" -- I'm not even sure it made it on VHS, even, but it turned up in letterbox format on some cable channel and within a couple of months there was a DVD release.

It wouldn't make sense for any cable channel to pay to do a pristine HD transfer themselves without the same transfer being used to make a new DVD. I suspect that the owners of the film catalogs are more or less methodically plowing through the back releases and creating HD transfers for their archives and future re-use, and we get the good fortune to see frogotten classics re-released.

[–] repete66211 15 years ago

Still nothing in the way of DVD or Blu-ray. I've asked Criterion to release this movie so many times they've probably blocked my email address. I encourage others to take up the call.

http://www.criterion.com/contact_us