(From the review) "The usual reaction to such a release is to call for a boycott until it's reissued and "done right", but in this case I think that would counter-productive. Hen's Tooth Video is a tiny operation, not a multi-media conglomerate, and it has made an admirable effort to bring this neglected gem to the home video market when no one else was willing to do so. High Road isn't going to be reissued anytime soon, and boycotting it will simply discourage future efforts by such independent distributors. The more productive route is to rent or buy the disc and write Hen's Tooth a polite (polite!) letter emphasizing what they should do better next time. This is only their third outing as Blu-ray publishers, and if the experts here don't tell them, who will? That's as close as I can come to a recommendation of the disc. The film is terrific."
If the Blu-ray can be had cheap enough, I may spring for it.
Just one more in that long line of John Barry-scored films that are not in the hands of the major studios. Ironically, Warner Bros. distributed the film theatrically in the U.S., but they obviously did not retain video rights.
If the Blu-ray can be had cheap enough, I may spring for it.
Unfortunately the Hens Tooth titles barely move an inch from their MSRP -- neither their Blu-Rays (PRIVATE EYES is still $27 over 18 months since its release) nor their DVDs (which are all still $20 on Amazon for the most part). Probably because they don't press that many copies, they can't afford to offer deep discounts on them.
Their DVD release of the NBC TV movie SOONER OR LATER, for instance, is still $20 -- nearly 10 years since it came out!
I'd like to try HIGH ROAD also but paying over $20 for what sounds like a sketchy transfer? Guess I'm going to have to pass.
I'm not going to pass. In fact, I already ordered this baby. The screen captures look fine. Besides, what's the alternative? Even though HIGH ROAD has been issued on dvd in Europe and Australia, those dvds don't look any better. This film, like so many others from that era, had an inherently grainy and somewhat washed-out look to begin with. And as the reviewer points out, HIGH ROAD will more than likely never be reissued again, at least on region 1. So...ORDERED!
If the Blu-ray can be had cheap enough, I may spring for it.
Unfortunately the Hens Tooth titles barely move an inch from their MSRP -- neither their Blu-Rays (PRIVATE EYES is still $27 over 18 months since its release) nor their DVDs (which are all still $20 on Amazon for the most part). Probably because they don't press that many copies, they can't afford to offer deep discounts on them.
Their DVD release of the NBC TV movie SOONER OR LATER, for instance, is still $20 -- nearly 10 years since it came out!
I'd like to try HIGH ROAD also but paying over $20 for what sounds like a sketchy transfer? Guess I'm going to have to pass.
This is largely true, but it could potentially be had for cheaper during one of Deep Discount's annual 25% off sales. I'll be keeping an eye out for it.
I'm not surprised that its a bad transfer. But I doubt HIGHLY its an original transfer, more likely from the best 35 mm print they could find.
This film is still available on Laserdisc and I have it. Its bright and colorful for the film stock of that time. No its not the best film stock, but lets be honest what was in the mid 80s? Even Raiders of the Lost Ark looked like crap till the last transfer they did and they probably spent 500k or more to restore those 3 movies.
The warner bros release I have is fine and all the foley sounds are present. Unlike some of the bootlegs from Europe that obviously are not accurate with the sound track.
Original film was shot in Mono, normal for the time for drama. But stereo of the soundtrack has been released and could have been knitted back in on a new Dolby mono mix. I'm hoping this will be revisited in the future.
They should have tried to get a commentary review with Bess Armstrong and Tom Selleck and the remaining crew for their thoughts. I have the film promotion magazine from the time and it looks like they had a lot of fun and there were lots of stunts in the film. I realize organizing that would be difficult, but if you give the actors a cut it would be easier.
Certainly it is a romantic movie and that moron that reviewed it for avforums doesn't know much about people falling in love obviously.
