Anouk Aimée as the evil ruler
There's a Blu-ray disc of SODOM AND GOMORRAH (1962) from Japan. I bought it and got it in a few days (now that's service). Audio only in Italian with optional Japanese subtitles. I have to say that the movie never looked better. If there's one thing I disliked from the many versions I have was the image quality, even from TV broadcasts, was always meh: flat, washed out, uninspiring. Well, the colors from this release are gorgeous. Many scenes pop out now. You can see the careful attention to the look of the movie. The runtime is 117 minutes. I just got it today and watched half of it, in Italian, and I loved it. It moves at a quicker pace. I'll have more on this in a future post. Needless to say, this release is much better than the HERCULES / HERCULES UNCHAINED Japanese BDs.
The full running time for Sodom and Gomorrah is 154 minutes so this is severely cut. The forthcoming German Blu-ray is full length. I had seen the 20th Century-Fox prints theatrically on several occasions and thought the color was not what it should have been. I finally saw a J. Arthur Rank Technicolor print of the British release and it looked spectacular...like I always hoped it would. Fingers crossed for the
ReplyDeleteGerman Blu-ray.
I thought there was a Blu ray version being released in North America?
ReplyDeleteI never heard of a North American HD release of this movie.
ReplyDeleteYes, the runtime is shorter but this is the first release in HD of the movie anywhere. I'm glad I bought it. I will buy the German one once it's finally release (it was scheduled for this past spring...). The colors and details are so much better on this BD. I'll make a comparison soon.
The German Blu-ray now has a December 9 release date. There are two media book Blu-ray versions and a standard box DVD. It is up on Amazon Germany for pre-order.
ReplyDelete