I just ordered El Cid on dvd

Cafe Society
1

Finally, a restored version of *El Cid *is available on dvd. I’ve suffered through the terrible Chinese version compressed with no scene selections and a pan and scan VHS version.

Someone please tell me the dvd will be excellent! During Lent, I’ve watched Ben Hur and The Ten Commandments. Wow! Blu Ray plus the new plasma makes these dvds come to life.

Next up, The Fall of the Roman Empire.

2

I’m really sorry to report that the best surviving copy of El Cid is horrible. Muddy and flat. I posted this on another film forum:
[QUOTE=lissener]
I’m a huge fan of Anthony Mann, and I work in a video store that only recently installed a big-ass widescreen highdef teevee, so I was looking forward to this release with nearly literal quivers of anticipation. Am I the only one who was disappointed in the muddy quality of the print? I know it wasn’t “remastered for highdef” like, say, The Searchers–-which, by the way? eyewatering, breathtaking, on bluray–-but it seems to me to be particularly dark. Yeah, I know, Robert Krasker and his shadows. El Cid has some lovely darknesses in it. But the resolution, the overall image quality, is terrible.
[/QUOTE]
This was the response I got:

3

Ugh, this is not what I wanted to hear. I will still keep the dvd set that I ordered since it is a legal US release and it can’t be as bad as the Chinese dvd circulating on Netflix.

4

Visual comparison between the latest Miriam Collection release, and the Tohokushinsha edition.

I seriously doubt that “all the original elements” were lost from a big-budget 1961 movie.

5

Excellent! Been waiting for years.

6

I once saw El Cid at the Tampa Theater and can recall nothing at all wrong with it. Visually, that is. Either you like Charlton Heston’s acting style or you don’t.

7

[QUOTE=Walloon]
Visual comparison between the latest Miriam Collection release, and the Tohokushinsha edition.

I seriously doubt that “all the original elements” were lost from a big-budget 1961 movie.
[/QUOTE]

Nonetheless, the reason I made the effort to find out was because the image was so noticeably muddy on the screen.