Kes (1969)
Drama • 1h 53m
Director: Ken Loach
Cast: Freddie Fletcher, Lynne Perrie, Colin Welland, Brian Glover, Bob Bowes, Bernard Atha, Laurence Bould, Joey Kaye, Ted Carroll, Robert Naylor, Agnes Drumgoon, George Speed, Desmond Guthrie, Zoe Sunderland, Eric Bolderson, Beryl Carroll, Julie Shakespeare, Bill Dean, Geoffrey Banks, John Grayson, Duggie Brown, Trevor Hesketh, Stephen Crossland, Harry Markham, David Glover, Frank Norton, Martin Harley, Leslie Stringer
About the film
Bullied at school and ignored and abused at home by his indifferent mother and older brother, Billy Casper, a 15-year-old working-class Yorkshire boy, tames and trains his pet kestrel falcon whom he names Kes. Helped and encouraged by his English teacher and his fellow students, Billy finally finds a positive purpose to his unhappy existence.
- TSPDT
- 2026: #2222025: #2222024: #2182023: #2232022: #223
Director: Ken Loach
Even though no screencap comparisons, given that Criterion is a 2K scan of Original Camera Negative, and supervised by Ken Loach, Criterion is likely the best.
Director: Leo McCarey
Director: Hal Ashby
See caps https://slow.pics/c/lVdZaG0W
Director: Anthony Mann
The film only exists in MGM letterbox masters and the HD version upgrades the DVD presentation. Sadly the film still needs a modern restoration and a better audio source. The master holds up very well today regardless and has a very natural appearance. The Eureka BD is far superior to the Kino Lorber in encode and extras making it easily the only version to consider.
Director: Elaine May
Cinématographe 4K Blu-ray > MoC > Olive Films. From nicolas:
The master is good but it’s not that big an upgrade from the Olive Films disc and Vinegar Syndrome’ encode has some blocky highlights. A shame that they didn’t hire David Mackenzie here.
Cinématographe has unnecessary noise gating not present on the previous releases.
Flicker Alley 4K confirmed for 2027 https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=24404584&postcount=1
MoC audio is better https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=225532&page=3
Directors: Charles Reisner & Buster Keaton
MoC 4K Blu-ray late 2027
Director: Buster Keaton
Kino Lorber new Seven Chances / Sherlock Jr. Blu-ray?
MoC 4K Blu-ray late 2027
Lobster Films (Kino Lorber?) > Cohen/Eureka https://slow.pics/c/3KWXoMyR The new Kino Lorber's Seven Chances / Sherlock Jr. might be using the same restoration as Lobster Films
UK MoC Blu-ray > Germany Wicked Vision Blu-ray > US Flicker Alley Blu-ray see DVDBeaver caps
Director: Paul Leni
Theatrical/Original A negative: MoC Blu-ray
European C/D negative but better picture quality: Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray
From DVDBeaver: The MoC Blu-ray is scanned from the American A negative, as opposed to the European C or D negatives used by Photoplay and others (Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray), so it is identical with the film US audiences saw in 1927
See caps for comparison
In addition, the Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has sepia tinting throughout while the MoC Blu-ray has yellow for normal scenes, blue for night scenes, and some even green tintings.
More Drama on Blu-ray
Director: Richard Rush
> Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray (FiM encode on Radiance compared to Duplitech encode on Shout! Factory)
Director: Victor Sjöström
Video format: 1080p Blu-ray
Director: Victor Sjöström
Video format: 1080p Blu-ray
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Video format: UHD Blu-ray
Directors: Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Director: Philip Kaufman
Criterion 4K Blu-ray is a significant upgrade over previous WB Blu-ray see comparison
Criterion for the first time on home video have provided the 70mm 6-track as well as the Dolby stereo which was previously on LaserDisc. Both tracks are unique so included both with the 6-track default. Criterion’s 5.1 remix is lossless compared to the lossy tracks of the previous blu-rays and DVDs.
See comparison
New 4K restoration recently screened at Venice Film Festival https://variety.com/2026/film/news/apichatpong-weerasethakuls-4k-restorations-match-factory-1236843949/
Director: Robert De Niro
2027 FreeWind Media UK 4K Blu-ray
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· last reviewed 1 year ago
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