The Big Parade Blu-ray Trailer?

[Gagman 66]

So is there one? TCM is running a brief segment in Movie News,that mentions the release and a 64 page booklet that comes with it, but so far I have seen no pre-release trailer like Paramount put out out for WINGS. The extra's are also rather a mystery and we are only a couple weeks away from the release. TCM seems to have just added the notes on THE BIG PARADE to it's September Entertainment News Update in the past few days. It hasn't been included all month. I trust we will see the not so new restoration for the first time tomorrow night on TCM in Prime-time.

[Christopher Jacobs]

So is there one? TCM is running a brief segment in Movie News,that mentions the release and a 64 page booklet that comes with it, but so far I have seen no pre-release trailer like Paramount put out out for WINGS. The extra's are also rather a mystery and we are only a couple weeks away from the release. TCM seems to have just added the notes on THE BIG PARADE to it's September Entertainment News Update in the past few days. It hasn't been included all month. I trust we will see the not so new restoration for the first time tomorrow night on TCM in Prime-time.

Be sure to tell us what it looks and sounds like. I will be waiting to see the film again until I get the Blu-ray "Digibook" edition (with Kevin Brownlow's notes) and can project it four feet tall by five and a half feet wide in full-HD with a stereo surround orchestra score (at least I hope it's stereo surround -- they haven't yet revealed the audio specs). I'm also looking forward to the Jeffrey Vance audio commentary. I do hope the 1925 studio tour is also in HD, but I won't hold my breath, and I doubt if they've done a new HD scan of the King Vidor episode of "The Men Who Made the Movies" either, but they'll still be convenient to have on the disc. The extras were announced back on June 3rd on Blu-ray.com.

[SilentsPlease]

The extra's are also rather a mystery and we are only a couple weeks away from the release.

It has been reported in Blu-ray sites that the special features, other than the 64-page booklet, will be:
- Audio Commentary by Historian Jeffrey Vance with director King Vidor
- Documentary: The Men Who Made the Movies: King Vidor
- Vintage Short: 1925 Studio Tour (this is probably the same short that TCM has shown at least 100 times)

Be sure to tell us what it looks and sounds like. I will be waiting to see the film again until I get the Blu-ray "Digibook" edition (with Kevin Brownlow's notes) and can project it four feet tall by five and a half feet wide in full-HD with a stereo surround orchestra score (at least I hope it's stereo surround -- they haven't yet revealed the audio specs). I'm also looking forward to the Jeffrey Vance audio commentary. I do hope the 1925 studio tour is also in HD, but I won't hold my breath, and I doubt if they've done a new HD scan of the King Vidor episode of "The Men Who Made the Movies" either, but they'll still be convenient to have on the disc. The extras were announced back on June 3rd on Blu-ray.com.

Last night's broadcast was indeed the restored version (I saw the unrestored version a while back as well), and it looked magnificent even in upconverted HD. I have great hopes of the Blu-ray looking great as well. Specifically, I saw nice contrast, brightness, sharpness, steady frames with little flicker. It's across-the-board great picture quality.

As to whether the special features will be in HD, they probably won't be since the main film is almost 2 1/2 hours long and the Blu-ray comes in 1 disc only.

[Gagman 66]

Christopher,

How did it look and sound? Well, in a word, S-L-O-W. Overall picture quality was excellent, but the video encoding I'm not so sure about? Maybe the actual DVD or Blu-ray won't appear that way. Sure hope not.

Only about 45% maybe is Tinted. The majority of the print is still Black and White. The tints are what I would describe as rather pronounced. Much more so then with WINGS. I wrote a whole bunch about this elsewhere, but have been hesitant to post it here. On the plus side, so far I am the only one who has mentioned this anyplace as far as I can tell. Should note that this is not exactly thee Carl Davis score, but a Carl Davis score. Hobart Bosworth's character theme as Gilbert's Dad, has been replaced, and is completely different. There are some other minor changes in the scoring as well.

Apart from that, a few frames here and there are either shorter or longer then in the old Thames version. For instance Renee glancing down at the shoe in her hand momentarily that Jimmy has just tossed to her, all teary eyed is missing entirely! I wish it were still there. It is a poignant image. But this is a different print source and so it is not. Some of the horrific battle scene towards the end, also appears to be minus a few shots. That really threw me. Another thing I noticed were a small handful of title-cards not in the older Thames Silents print at all. These cards must have been missing from surviving materials before the lost camera negatives were uncovered.

The broadcast must have gotten good viewership based on reaction on the TCM Forum, and it's the number 1 search title in the TCM Movie Data Base Top 10. That was the case the last couple times TCM aired the older transfer too. Many people remarked on how lovely and sharp the print was.

[All Darc]

My only critic to 4K restoration The Big Parede (1925):





http://cdn.blu-raydefinition.com/wordpr ... -BD_17.png" target="_blank


The recreated painted red cross looks quite digital, with anoying aliasing...



For more 1080p captures:

http://www.blu-raydefinition.com/review ... eview.html" target="_blank

[Danny Burk]

I watched the full film last night - it looks really superb - and also watched the trailer. It contains a few frames of the original main title card, which was the first time I've seen it; the full feature has 1931 reissue titles.