Jeffrey Sayre

4K restoration from Original Camera Negative

Criterion 4K Blu-ray (review)

A new transfer from the optical soundtrack negative.

the older Blu-ray is included in the Criterion 4K Blu-ray

The Arrow Video Blu-ray is the best iteration so far coming from a new restoration complete with great supplements and package. The original limited edition version included a second disc with the alternate 2.0:1 framed version. The primary disc is 1.85:1. Older releases pre-2008 were all in Academy ratio. 1.85 is the best compromise ratio for the visuals. As good as this release is, the master is showing its age and sadly has a number of frozen grain artifacts.

For the most part, the mono track available on the BD and UHD is fine, but there's an 8 minutes long segment which sounds terrible with artificially expanded frequency range causing very audible artifacting. The 5.1 remix doesn't have that issue. Sample

• See what smilebox looks like for its smilebox trailer

• See Damn Fool Idealistic Crusader's review especially why a smilebox version is preferred, for example how a letterboxd version is actually distorted

• Even if you do not prefer the smilebox version, the letterboxd version is still present on disc 1

Criterion 4K Blu-ray (review)