I am NOT Spartacus comparison *PIX* - Page 4

It is not my favorite, but it is a score that I highly enjoy on its own. I have a CD release that is far from complete, but it does get a rather decent amount of listening time. This discussion does make me wonder if a more complete disc of the original recording has recently been officially (meaning, not a bootleg) released.

No, not yet. But there are lots of rumors that Varese Sarabande is working on something big, most likely the original score along with a re-recording. Mark Isham accidently posted a video on Youtube a while back confirming that he is working on the release along with Alexandre Desplat. When it does come out, I'm sure it will be part of Varese's limited club releases.

Might as well just list some of the problems with this film.

1. Dissonant brassy musical score, as stated, does not work for this classic.
2. Distracting gimmicky camera elevation movements.
3. Olivier is overacting again.
4. Huge battle scene starts well, but flops.
5. Yep, a waxy bluray.

Still, its a classic, but not like the beautifully written, framed, painted, directed inspirational work of art Quo Vadis (available on bluray).

Of course it is my opinion!
Who else's opinion would it be????

No one here has to agree with me; I am not looking for confirmation.



Dang, I wasn't aware of that.
Into my queue....

It was not uncommon to have modern dissonant scores in films and some TV shows in the late 50s through the 60s. It was an idiom that people were used to then. Andre Previn's score for Elmer Gantry the same year as Spartacus is similarly modern and dissonant.

In spite of the dissonant brassy moments, the love theme is quite lush. After the training sequences and the fight in the arena between Draba and Spartacus, the score does not sound overly "modern" to me.

North was probably going for an ersatz Roman sound. No music survives from ancient Rome, but Trajan's column and other illustrations show that brass was much in evidence, particularly in military parades and triumphs. The dissonant and brassy moments are used primarily in relation to Rome and the Romans.

I probably watch the main title more than any other part of Spartacus. North's score, coupled with Saul Bass's images makes for one of the great title sequences of all time, IMO. Its mixture of heroic themes, percussion, dissonance and some tragic chords foreshadows the entire film.

This discussion does make me wonder if a more complete disc of the original [Spartacus] recording has recently been officially (meaning, not a bootleg) released.

I thought there had been a release of a fuller score than the original American Decca LP (which was rather short, but representative, and of audiophile sound quality).

Still, [Spartacus is] a classic, but not like the beautifully written, framed, painted, directed inspirational work of art Quo Vadis (available on bluray).

I'm a big Quo Vadis fan, and I doubt the film has looked as good as it does on Blu-ray since its sixties theatrical re-release, but I think Spartacus is a far, far better film. I consider it the finest of the ancient world epics.

The grain is almost gone on the Blu-ray screenshot? What the heck..?!

lol, that last shot looks like something straight out of a wax museum..for real

True.

I've mentioned this before here, but in the night scenes towards the end of the movie, the black sky at times has prominent green speckles (almost looks like 'laser rot' on LDs) and it's pretty distracting. I have the HD DVD. I never see this mentioned, so I'm wondering if this was just my copy or if all are like this?

The green speckles are on my HD DVD copy too so I would say it's print damage. I really wish they could rescan this movie and give a much better treatment like what Warner does for it's classics.

Thanks for the confirmation.

I think the spent it on the new King Kong attraction.

FWIW, it's an opinion I agree with. I have long thought that North's score is just awful.

Of course, this has nothing to do with the picture and sound quality of the BD.

True, although the AQ does make the brass sound shallow...

^^^ Looks like they threw water on the cage floor in the BD shot... where did the grains of sand go? Also the textures on the clothes and the statue have been smoothed into distracting perfection. Kubrick would be displeased if he had cared (he really could care less now) about a movie he pretty much disowned after being done with it.

The green speckles in night shots are not uncommon on older films, the worst I've seen was Road Warrior - I forget the terminology for it but it's I believe due to the film process itself, almost like a background registration when there is no light that registers on the film itself.

soo. they'll never fix this?

You think they would. The EE looks terrible on the disc from the screenshots. My theater has been doing a classic movie every month and we just did Spartacus for July, and were given a new 2K Digital Print to show. Noticed lots of grain present in the picture and it appeared to look closer to the HD-DVD transfer than the Blu-ray.

Spartacus is not a "grainy" film. There is natural 5248 grain, reduced by half in the filming process, on top of which is video noise.

RAH

I had the pleasure of seeing this in 70mm over the weekend and it was truly marvelous to behold. Here's hoping Universal lets Criterion do a high-resolution scan of the 65mm IP.

I agree this could use a new HD xfer. PQ on the BD was pretty disappointing, with some of the worst EE I've seen. Seeing it in 70mm musta been quite a treat.

I just saw it last night @ the Academy (With Kirk douglas in attendance!) in 70mm. Looks like it was the 1991 restoration but the prints were brand new.

it looked amazing. Way better than the blu ray!

What the ?

Oh yeah? Well I watched the crappy HD version with a poster of Michael Douglas on the wall. So there.

any difference between the 2010 50th version and the 100th 2012 version?