NitrateVille.com

Hi,

I DVR'ed The Wind recently to watch it for the third time. It is becoming one of my favorites. So, I was going to buy the DVD. Nothing on Amazon, Kino, Flicker Alley, Deep Discount, etc. Thought I must be searching wrong. I did find a review of a 2013 release by a company called Bach Films, but that appears to be out of print and not sure what the quality would be. I believe I also saw a thread on this site that The Wind was released on Laserdisc but not on DVD. So, maybe it is really not available on DVD, but it just seems incredible that it would not be and wanted to double-check with you ladies and gentlemen that I am not missing something.

Thanks,
Matthew

I'm not an expert on this, but I know that an Italian-American company called "NoShame" released the film on DVD years ago. It has some extras and stuffs but the quality is not really that good.

There's also a Spanish DVD (I found it available on Amazon.es and.it) but it says it's Region 2 so you'd need a Region 2 player and one that plays PAL format. No idea about the quality. I see they also have a release of GREED that looks to be low quality.

Warners has said that they were going to release the big MGM silents but they were in some cases waiting for new transfers when the DVD business went belly up. Since that time they did release The Big Parade, which they did an excellent job. I don't think it sold well enough to justify releasing the others. I think they will eventually be released, just not sure when.

Thanks everyone.

Looks like I better hold onto my DVR recording.

Both of the DVDs mentioned above are low quality bootlegs.

I had an official VHS of The Wind from the "90s, but never saw a DVD of it.

The Wind is pretty famous for being a classic that has never had a legit DVD release.

Brent refers to the available DVDs as bootlegs, but when they're the only game in town ...

It is not officially available. In fact it is on my list of silents that I really want to see, but have no way to, even though they survive in high quality materials. Others on the list include Greed, and The Crowd.

robertelee wrote:It is not officially available. In fact it is on my list of silents that I really want to see, but have no way to, even though they survive in high quality materials. Others on the list include Greed, and The Crowd.

All of these films have been shown on Turner Classic Movies in the past couple of years, so your DVR is your best bet if you have access to that channel. Maybe TCM keeps a few of the hard-to-find classics out of physical circulation to help keep viewers watching. Probably not, but who knows.

They have also been shown at film festivals, and are available for arts cinemas and university programs. Let the programmers know, and support your local film venues.

I've seen both The Wind and Greed at MoMA in New York, though granted a long time ago. I imagine they still have both available. I've seen The Crowd also, but that might have been on TCM.

I believe I have read that Paramount is not proactive in releasing the silent films from their library. Does The Wind, Greed, and The Crowd, have the same rights holder that is just not particularly good at releasing silents to home video?

mwalls wrote:I believe I have read that Paramount is not proactive in releasing the silent films from their library. Does The Wind, Greed, and The Crowd, have the same rights holder that is just not particularly good at releasing silents to home video?

No, they're all owned by Warners, the best of the major studios - by far - at releasing silent material. Years ago, they commented that they were waiting to release the afore-mentioned important titles until they could do the best presentations of them, but so much time has elapsed since then that I think most would welcome them as ordinary "Archive" releases.

The Wind and many other MGM silents were released on Laserdisc in good quality (much better than VHS). They can be dubbed to DVD if you have the gear. There is no copy protection on Laserdiscs, and the DVD copy will look just as good as the laserdisc. However you must actually own the Laserdisc, and the gear to do it (cheap nowadays for used Laserdisc players). Copyright may still stand, but its OK to do this from within your home for personal consumption.

Phototone wrote:The Wind and many other MGM silents were released on Laserdisc in good quality (much better than VHS). They can be dubbed to DVD if you have the gear. There is no copy protection on Laserdiscs, and the DVD copy will look just as good as the laserdisc. However you must actually own the Laserdisc, and the gear to do it (cheap nowadays for used Laserdisc players). Copyright may still stand, but its OK to do this from within your home for personal consumption.

THE WIND and THE CROWD laser discs are excellent transfers and will stand up well to modern DVD's for quality. The Carl Davis soundtracks are superb. THE WIND has a little softer image but both have excellent contrast and smooth flowing image, little damage and sympathetic frame rates for pacing.

mwalls wrote:I believe I have read that Paramount is not proactive in releasing the silent films from their library. Does The Wind, Greed, and The Crowd, have the same rights holder that is just not particularly good at releasing silents to home video?

From what I understand, Paramount are wary of doing further restorations as they were disappointed by sales of Wings (1927) a few years back. I think they set themselves some unrealistic sales goals, as the restoration itself was very expensive and would have had to do much better business than the average silent release to recoup its costs.

Have you a source for the Wings sales info, Camille? The economics of silents/early talkies restoration, redistribution and DVD/Blu-ray production is a subject that fascinates me and one I'd like to write about in future. Yours is a brilliant Tumblr account, by the way; one of the best I've seen. Everyone here should take a look!

As for seeing The Wind: I'm fortunate enough to have watched Photoplay's 35mm restoration with its pre-recorded Carl Davis score and Mr Brownlow in attendance. It looks and sounds brilliant and why anyone would want to pay for some crappy VHS rip on a pirated DVD is beyond me. They're certainly not doing the film - or themselves - justice. Of course, in an ideal world every extant film would be easily accessible but it simply isn't. Do as Rodney says and arrange, request or at least support an actual screening. In the long term that's far more likely to lead to a legitimate release than encouraging pirates and bootleggers, which is guaranteed to do the opposite.

Brent, The Wife and I were blessed to see the film for the first time at Radio City. 35mm, and Davis and orchestra LIVE.

A fitting presentation of an excellent film, and a taste of what a big-city playdate for its original release would have been like. The storm scene, with the great horse in the sky and the literal storm of music from the pit, was electrifying.

Happy new year,
-Craig

Brent, The Wife and I were blessed to see the film for the first time at Radio City. 35mm, and Davis and orchestra LIVE.

A premium presentation of an excellent film, and a taste of what a big-city playdate for its original release would have been like. The storm scene, with the great horse in the sky and the literal storm of music from the pit, was electrifying.

But for those not similarly blessed, and/or who live far from such potential venues, the film is too good to ignore. If the only way to see it is by broadcast or DVD-from-laser, then that is obviously better than being wholly deprived of the experience.

Happy new year,
-Craig

wich2 wrote:...But for those not similarly blessed, and/or who live far from such potential venues...
-Craig

Probably only about three-quarters of potential viewers...

I've got the double laserdisc of The Wind & The Crowd, and the non-extended version of Greed, both very fine releases from a bit later in the laserdisc game, when the standards for mastering and manufacturing had improved.

I'm frequently surprised by how good some laserdiscs look now, when watched with eyes that are used to DVD and blu-ray. Perhaps not HD quality, but better than standard cable, often sounding better than their DVD counterparts due to uncompressed audio.