While checking Twitter tonight, I noticed tweets about “Titanic”. A number of posters remembered the movie had to split up on different tapes in the VHS tapes. Do you remember any movies that this happened to? And was the division between tapes well timed, or not?
I remember The Deer Hunter was on more than one VHS. Unfortunately I don’t remember where the split occurred.
I remember it happening with Oliver Stone’s Nixon and Robert Altman’s Short Cuts. I can’t remember now after all these years, but I don’t remember an awkward cut.
I seem to recall that The Great Escape came on two VHS cassettes. It was pretty well-timed; one cassette ended, and the second picked up where the first ended.
Of course, if you moved straight to the second, then you had to rewind both when the second ended.
If I recall correctly, Oliver Stone’s * JFK * was on two VHS tapes, as well.
The Green Mile was definitely on two tapes when I rented it from Blockbuster in 2000 or so.
Right Stuff was two.
“Paint Your Wagon” was split onto two tapes.
michael manns heat was split on two tapes also
It’s a Mad. Mad , Mad, Mad World wad definitely on two tapes.
Kevin Costner’s Wyatt Earp was. Don’t remember where it split.
LOTR extended editions were split into two DVDs.
Gone With the Wind was a two cassette movie too.
I had the two-VHS version of Titanic, but I don’t remember exactly where the break occurred between tapes. Since then there have been multiple iterations of Titanic video releases. There were at least two DVD releases (maybe more) and of course inevitably Blu-Ray. The first DVD release was on one disc and was really disappointing because it was non-anamorphic hard letterboxed, meaning that the quality was severely limited to the number of scan lines in the narrow (2:35) physical picture area and made it a PITA for widescreen TVs and projectors – a very strange choice for a movie that was visually spectacular. The second DVD release was a sort of apology for the fuckup on the first one, and consisted of two discs with extra features, as it should have been in the first place.
And finally the Blu-Ray release, which was beautifully mastered and the video quality in 1080p is just stunning. There is also a regular and 3D version on 4-disc Blu-Ray, and a 3 disc “special edition”. A very long director’s cut has also been produced but I’m not sure if it’s available on video, and I haven’t seen a 4K version.
The first DvD of Goodfellas had to be flipped in the middle. IIRC it just cut out in the middle of a scene.
“Lawrence of Arabia” was split into 2 tapes. It was well timed because the movie itself had a built-in intermission.
“The Godfather Part II” was also split into 2 tapes. The split was “timed” with one of the jumps forward/backward between Michael/Vito.
Pretty sure The Blues Brothers was on two cassettes. I seem to recall the split was around when they were in the tunnel after sneaking out of the Palace Hotel Ballroom, just before the big car chase.
What was the limit of a commercial VHS tape anyway? Wikipedia says the running time for The Blues Brothers was 133 minutes, which seems like they could have squeezed it onto one tape, but maybe not.
I remember watching that tape all the time as a teenager. Thankfully, the original movie had an intermission so the VHS version split at that point. Tape two featured a very lengthy making-of documentary to fill out space.
Hamlet directed by Kenneth Branagh was on two tapes and I think two DVD’s as well.
I recall the family renting Schindler’s List back in the day and it was split into two tapes. I don’t remember where the division was, but I do remember that the previous renter did not rewind either tape (I’m sure there’s a joke there).
Anything over about 2 hours, and definitely 2 1/2 hours, was put on two tapes.