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Just announced on Mike Matessino's Facebook and official site:
"1941" - Extended Edition Soundtrack Upgrade
Next Tuesday, October 14, 2014, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment is releasing “The Steven Spielberg Director’s Collection” on Blu-Ray and DVD. For the first time, the director’s 1979 comedy “1941” will be available in Hi-Definition in both its original theatrical version and the “extended edition” which was previously released on Laserdisc and DVD. Both have been remastered from original film elements and look better than ever… but fans of the movie may notice that the soundtrack for the “extended edition” has been subtly improved.
After completing work on La-La Land Records’ 2-CD limited edition soundtrack of John Williams’s score for “1941,” I proposed that the hi-definition release afforded an opportunity to restore the music for some of the extended sequences to how it was originally intended by the composer. I further suggested that the music in a few other sections (for which no score had been composed) might be adjusted to better suit the action and could also make use of material not otherwise heard in the picture.
Happily, the proposal was accepted and I provided the edited six-track music and supervised the remixing of six scenes, which were then approved by both Steven Spielberg and John Williams. I would like to thank everyone at Universal and at Amblin, and, especially co-story & co-screenwriter Bob Gale, for making this happen. I hope viewers will enjoy this newly polished extended edition of “1941” as much as I enjoyed working on it.
The Steven Spielberg Director's Collection is, of course, available at Blu-Ray & DVD retailers.
http://www.mikematessino.com/
You can buy the new Blu Ray on Amazon!
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LFHYX2I/jwfancom-20
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I'm still curious how the BluRay holds up. The DVD I have (a transfer from the old Laserdisc?) is rather bad and foggy, even more than Spielberg intended.
Yup - the Extended Cut was created for laserdisc, and the DVD released by Universal in 1999 was a direct (non-anamorphic!) transfer of that laserdisc master.
The theatrical cut was given a nice new 2K restoration a few years back - it's aired on Universal HD, and it's available on Amazon Instant Video:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A0T0NWQ
I believe the BD's theatrical cut is sourced from that 2K restoration, but don't quote me on that.
SO GLAD Universal thought to get the extended scenes scanned in High Def as well. Can't wait to watch this!
Cool about the isolated score track
It's not an isolated score track; The music in the mix of the extended cut's audio is different. There is no isolated score track this time around.
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No problem.
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Posted: |
Oct 9, 2014 - 8:00 PM
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By: |
jonnyquest
(Member)
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The film -- and score -- is a noisy mess from beginning to end...It's not one of Williams' strongest scores anyway, at least not on album.
Hi Thor.
Although most of us know (all too well) how you see things, it's still amazing to me how quickly you can pop my bubble (LOL) with your tendency to declare things as a given, rather than an opinion. (Although we agree on a love of Williams, and a wish for more of his unreleased material).
In the present thread, I was delighted to read that Mr. Mattesino has revised the previously choppy editing of Williams' score on the expanded edition of "1941." And then a few lines down, you step in and declare it all a mess and a weak score. Period.
Wah-wah-wah.
I don't take differing opinions personally; it's a message board. It's just a tonal thing I'm reacting to. That never-ending positioning that one is right and everyone else is wrong. It can go so far to sour the dialogue. I could mention by name several people around here who I read as religiously as my favorite authors, because no matter what they contribute, or whether or not I agree, they present their case in an engaging and provocative (in the best sense of the word) way. This often challenges me to consider (or re-consider) what I think about the topic, film or music in question.
I'm an Art/Creative Director by profession, and there's a little policy for evaluating creative concepts that no matter what the critique, one does so in a way to FURTHER the creative process, rather than shut the door on it. Perhaps that's why some of your positions disappoint me. You're one of the smartest people around here, to be sure, and we've even exchanged a few good posts. (I even once invited you to stay if you came to Louisville for last year's Williams' concert! What a story that would have made). But you've popped a lot of bubbles lately, so I guess I finally had to vent. he he he.
Anyhow, myself, and many of us, find "1941" a grand, frothy, silly spectacle in the tradition of "It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World". Not "a noisy mess". See how I put that? I'm not saying it's either. Just presenting a way to look at the film and its music in a way that might make someone consider my opinion. And a lot of folks hate "Mad Mad World" too.
I personally find Williams' score an endlessly entertaining array of themes and motifs that, by the final reels of the film, have coalesced into a wonderfully intricate, brilliantly choreographed and entwlned series of cues that combine romance, suspense, whimsy, action, bravado, slapstick, martial pastiche and brilliantly executed "mickey-mousing".
Compared, arguably, with some of today's less-inspired material (IMO), I consider "1941" (the score) to be one of several pinnacles of that era when Williams could dazzle us with his ability to provide little motifs and musical notions that later develop and combine with his prominent themes in dozens of miraculous ways. I've often posted of enjoying that wonderful sense when film and score feel inseparable from each other. I find "41" to be one of those entertainments.
Another example of this is "Empire Strikes Back," where even asteroids and hyperspace jumps have signature material that brilliantly knits into the whole and eventually resolves beautifully.
I still tingle (in "41") at that romantic, heady moment when Williams delicately introduces Donna's "flight" theme - which by the climatic dogfight sequences is nearly a battle fanfare that takes the "obsession with flight" idea to ridiculous and clever extremes. Perhaps our boy Johnny thought about that. There might be a reason for it. It's not just noise. Perhaps.
One more reason I take the position of defending "1941" is that, for some of us who were at a most impressionable age in December of 1979, "1941" recalls a glorious season where, in a single weekend at the cinema, one could enjoy Williams at his melodic best in "41", Barry's anti-mickey mousing work in "The Black Hole" (there's a pun in there somewhere) and of course Jerry's majestic "ST:TMP." Wow.
Thanks to Mr. Mattensino for his efforts on the restoration. I might wait and see if "41" gets a solo release (as I have most of the other Blu-Rays in that set), I know how much I'll enjoy both versions. And if you read this Thor, thanks for hearing me out.
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I've been waiting for 1941 to arrive on Blu-ray. I will order a stand alone release as soon as it is announced. I won't repurchase such a chunk of my Spielberg collection to get it in this set, though.
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good to see that Mike Mattessino has made such an impression with Williams and Steven that this certainly will open more doors for him ( & La La Land) in the coming years.
HEAR, HEAR!!
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Well, not to stir the pot, but I kind of think Spielberg intended 1941 to be a noisy mess. Similar to Mad Mad World. The question is whether the mess suits one's taste.
Now to the point. One of the best things about these extensive score restorations is that people like Mike M. can fix the music in extended versions of movies with talent, skill, and the right music!
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