It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
I have the 1988 CBS/FOX VHS, and a few pages ago I posted screencaps of the Afghan sunrise showing that the Lowry coloring turned out to be closer to the VHS and LaserDisc in that dark amber filter, whereas the SE DVD had a more golden hue.
I wasn't planning on making anymore caps of the VHS beyond that sunrise, but I decided to give it another look just to see how it looked compared to the other screencaps I took. And MOST interesting, is the shot of Bond aiming for Kara with his night vision sniper scope... except it's not in night vision at all! The shot of Kara is lacking the highly exposed green filter of all the later releases, only showing a red dot in the middle. I currently don't have a DVD Recorder to capture the footage for screenshot (I always avoid taking pics of monitors).
I was just wondering if any other Bondphiles like @ToTheRight noticed this?
Quite interesting. Been a few years since I owned a copy of the 1988 VHS edition. I could be mistaken, but I think I first noticed that green filter on the 1992 MGM/UA Home video "remastered" VHS. Those tapes tampered with the colors quite a bit, especially the DR NO titles. The red circles became green and so forth, particularly the "starring Sean Connery" title card.
From what I remember the color timing on the CBS/FOX edition of TLD was pretty close to the theatrical prints.
I believe there's a forum member on here, who posted his reviews of the various laser discs for the Bonds awhile back. I'm pretty sure he mentioned the CBS/FOX laser being pretty close to the film version, in spite of the pan and scan.
You are better placed to comment than me as I won't see any of them till after Christmas Day.
I was just mentioning what I 'd seen mostly on Blu-ray.com.
Having watched the VHS, I'll say it largely looks like the LD transfer, aside from the sniper scope (when I get around to it I'll try to get screengrabs of that moment). The SE DVD is an oddity in that it looks close to the LD and 4K transfers at different parts, and then there's the Afghan sunrise which looks nothing like before or after. Same with the shot of the Aston Martin looking warmer than before and after. The coloring on that must have originated from somewhere, because it also appears that way on the 25th Anniversary Bond special (and from memory, it appears like that in the 1999 VHS 007 Collection). Most of the Tangier and Afghanistan daylight scenes have a warmer temperature color on the Lowry UE DVD and Blu-ray, MGM's 4K pretty much followed suit. On the 1988 VHS and 1992 LD it had a much cooler temperature color. And as has been the case on all previous comparisons the skin tones no longer have that magenta that persisted on blu-ray, looking more natural on 4K.
One thing I never noticed about the title sequence on the SE DVD was that it was slightly squeezed, with black black bars on the sides (you can see the barrel of the gun looking more oval). That was undone with Lowry's remaster (though they themselves were guilty of squeezing the titles for TSWLM and MR).
1990 MGM LD
2000 SE DVD
2012 FOX BD
2017 iTunes 4K
1990 MGM LD
2000 SE DVD
2012 FOX BD
2017 iTunes 4K
1990 MGM LD
2000 SE DVD
2012 FOX BD
2017 iTunes 4K
1990 MGM LD
2000 SE DVD
2012 FOX BD
2017 iTunes 4K
1990 MGM LD
2000 SE DVD
2012 FOX BD
2017 iTunes 4K
1990 MGM LD
2000 SE DVD
2012 FOX BD
2017 iTunes 4K
1990 MGM LD
2000 SE DVD
2012 FOX BD
2017 iTunes 4K
1990 MGM LD
2000 SE DVD
2012 FOX BD
2017 iTunes 4K
1990 MGM LD
2000 SE DVD
2012 FOX BD
2017 iTunes 4K
1990 MGM LD
2000 SE DVD
2012 FOX BD
2017 iTunes 4K
1990 MGM LD
2000 SE DVD
2012 FOX BD
2017 iTunes 4K
1990 MGM LD
2000 SE DVD
2012 FOX BD
2017 iTunes 4K
1990 MGM LD
2000 SE DVD
2012 FOX BD
2017 iTunes 4K
1990 MGM LD
2000 SE DVD
2012 FOX BD
2017 iTunes 4K
1990 MGM LD
2000 SE DVD
2012 FOX BD
2017 iTunes 4K
1990 MGM LD
2000 SE DVD
2012 FOX BD
2017 iTunes 4K
And I´m impressed as always by Dalton´s intensity! What a crime htat they didn´t make more movies with him!
This is such a fascinating thread!
@MakeshiftPython, I truly hope you have copies of this thread hidden in a save place in case of nuclear war or an EMP attack on the internet. Your contribution for mankind is invaluable.
I think the cinematic prints were somewhere between the LD and the new 4K version for the most part.
The title card shot did lean more towards the blue/purple hue rather than the later greenish version. I'm curious what that looked like on the 1988 VHS.
I distinctly remember Dalton's turban head wrap thingy being more dark blue than the greenish black of the Blu-ray.
Of these shots my least favorite is by far the Blu-ray. Certain shots look too dark and muted to me, the first shot of Dalton, and that shot of Robert Brown.
One thing I'm curious about that Lowry had changed: in the original prints as Bond and Kara taken to the jail, there was a boom mike waved in front of Dalton, clear as day, in full view. Lowry zoomed in on that shot to crop out the mike. I wonder if the 4K version restores the boom mike or is also cropped? Every VHS copy prior to Lowry as well as the SE DVD included the boom mike.
It came out much later than the other LD titles so by then there were improvements in home video quality. TLD’s came out in ‘92 whereas the bull of the earlier films came out in ‘89 and ‘90. For example all the previous films had no chapters to skip.
Thanks!
It’s definitely more blue on the VHS copy.
Yeah combined with the magenta skin tones it looks pretty bad.
I’ll look into that eventually!
Man, I've got TLD on VHS, DVD and Blu-ray and never noticed the boom mike. I'll have to check that out. Then again, I thought Dolly had braces ...
Ha! So did I! You’d think the filmmakers would have thought to give Jaws’ girlfriend braces, but no, only in our imaginations.
It's when Bond and Kara exit the aircraft in cuffs and Koskov introduces them to his hero, Col Feyador. Right before they're whisked away the microphone is in the lower part of the frame.
As well as the guard that was holding Bond.
1992 MGM LD
2000 MGM SE DVD
2012 FOX BD
2017 iTunes 4K
I like seeing the wires on Goldfinger's plane for instance. Lowry omitted those as well.
Surprisingly, they're only in 1080p/HDX currently. The word around some forums has been that they "might" be upgraded to 4K eventually and it'd be wise to not redeem them just yet, just in case, but the code slip does state that it's possible they won't ever redeem in 4K. First time I've ever purchased a film set that essentially came with two separate HDX codes. Very annoying.
I have a ton of titles on iTunes that were originally redeemed only for HD, but once a 4K copy was available for purchase all my digital copies were automatically upgraded to 4K. I would hope Vudu would do something as courteous as that.
I'm sure they will, but I suppose it doesn't hurt to not redeem them either, just in case. Not sure that's ever happened before, though, but you never know.
Yes. Every VHS edition and SE DVD showed the wires along with the cinematic prints. It was occasionally mentioned in some of the early Bond reference books. I think Raymond Benson notes it in his BEDSIDE COMPANION.
Also there were wires present when the plane Paul Stassino hijacks lands in the sea in TB. Lowry removed those for the UE DVD.
I just checked my Vudu account. CASINO (1995) was automatically upgraded to 4K on iTunes once it was available, but it appears that on my Vudu library it remains at HDX, even though they currently offer it in 4K. This goes the same for all the Universal titles I have in my library right now.
So yeah, holding off on redeeming the codes is probably for best. It's too bad MGM doesn't have a deal with Movies Anywhere, so you'd have access to 4K on other sites like Amazon.
North American Theatrical Trailer
1988 FOX/CBS VHS
1992 MGM LD
2000 MGM SE DVD
2012 FOX BD
2017 iTunes 4K
Do we know for definite that it was presented without the green filter in theaters? The fact it's not there in the trailer doesn't mean it wasn't there in the theatrical prints of the film itself.
The first time I noticed the green was in the '92 VHS remastered edition.
Those '92 remastered tapes really changed the colors on many of the films.
The 1988 VHS and laser-disc I believe were the truest to the cinematic prints for color timing.
The CBS/Fox version also had the original MGM/UA logos that accompanied the film.
The completist in me now wants to track down an old VHS copy.
From what I read the blue UA logo that zooms in is the original logo for the UK release prints, as it served as a placeholder before the CGI animated logo was unveiled for the US release. It was also originally silent, as later home video releases starting with the DVD simply made an error in including the "swoosh" sound and synth note of the animated logo. At least according to this site, TLD was the only UA film to feature this variation of the logo.
http://www.closinglogos.com/page/United+Artists
EDIT: Someone uploaded the logos from the original UK print! And the UA logo is indeed silent.
That logo was pretty cool. Looks like it was a direct transfer from film. The gunbarrel was excellent.
Here's a the U.S. version of the logo from that period featured on DAYLIGHTS:
The CBS/Fox tape I had used a widescreen version. Apparently some copies of that tape included a disclaimer as well. Mine didn't.
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/007-The-Daniel-Craig-Collection-4K-Blu-ray/249271/#Review
Here's the verdict:
1994 MGM LD
1999 MGM SE DVD
2009 FOX BD
2017 iTunes 4K
While not faithful to the source, that blue hue in the SE DVD actually does look pretty cool.