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Posted: |
Jan 14, 2014 - 5:32 PM
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By: |
johnjohnson
(Member)
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UPDATE.
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has officially announced the Blu-ray release of William Friedkin's Sorcerer, starring Roy Scheider, Bruno Cremer, Francisco Rabal and Amidou. The cult suspense thriller that has been largely overlooked since its 1977 release, but has now been acquired and fully restored. The Blu-ray edition streets on April 22nd, and will be packaged as a 40-page Blu-ray DigiBook filled with images from the film and excerpts from the book, "The Friedkin Connection: A Memoir."
Over the years, awareness of the film has been steadily building as a result of Friedkin fan requests and newly-found praise from critics. Then last year, the director was asked to introduce Sorcerer for its screening at the Venice 70th International Film Festival where he was presented with the Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement. In a recent L.A. Times interview, prior to the Venice Film Festival, Friedkin offered some theories as to why the film may have failed to achieve commercial success when it was initially released:
"The only known actor, who was not a major star, was Roy Scheider…and people didn't really understand the significance of the title [the name of one of the trucks] -- they thought it was a film similar to The Exorcist. [But most importantly], the film came out just after Star Wars, a movie that became the template for the future of American film, which it basically still is... I have a great fondness for Sorcerer, more than any other film I've made.. Sorcerer is the one I hope to be remembered for and the one film that came closest to my vision."
The film has been remastered by Warner Bros. under Friedkin's supervision, along with colorist Bryan McMahan who has worked with the director since 1994. "The new restoration makes the film appear as if it was just made. None of the essentials -- the clothes, the hair -- are dated in any way. It looks the way it looked to me when I looked through the lens of the camera," said Friedkin. The restoration began with a 4K film resolution scan of the original 35mm camera negative.
Ned Price, Chief Preservation Officer of Warner Bros. Technical Operations, who oversees restoration projects for the studio, said, "I was amazed at the brilliance of the original photography. Up to this point, I had only seen poor quality 35mm theatrical prints made from inferior subtitled dupe negatives. Working from the 4K scan allowed us to free up all the information contained in the original negatives."
The soundtrack was restored from the original 35mm 4-track stereo masters which were in remarkably good condition and contained full dynamic range. However, WBHE has yet to detail complete technical specifications. Special features will be revealed in a future press release as well.
http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=12924
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I'm hearing some rumblings on the interwebs that Friedkin "reimagined" the score on the Blu-ray, whatever that means, and that he has played around with the sound design.
SPOILER: One review comments that a sound effect over the last shot (pardon the pun) is added that completely changes the ambiguity of the ending. Specifically, I wonder if the gunshot heard while the scene itself plays offscreen has been added to this version. Was there a gunshot in the original theatrical version of the film?
Anyone intimately familiar with the movie who can either deny or corroborate these changes?
Not having seen the film before, I watched it a couple of nights ago and thought it was intense, beautifully-rendered, and a great never-saw purchase. I would, however, be a little peeved if Friedkin tweaked his own ending and the use of the TD score.
It's also a bit of a head-scratcher that there are absolutely no extras on a Blu-ray that Friedkin has been trying to get released in a definitive home video version for many years.
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Thanks, Mutant. And Francis, does that mean the gun shot was there in the original theatrical version but just missing from the previous home video version?
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Sorry, Nuts, but it's definitely there - muted, but there. I've never seen the film before and had nothing to compare it to.
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