Dolores Claiborne (1995)
Crime, Drama, Mystery • 2h 12m
Director: Taylor Hackford
Cast: Kathy Bates, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judy Parfitt, Christopher Plummer, David Strathairn, Eric Bogosian, John C. Reilly, Ellen Muth, Bob Gunton, Roy Cooper, Wayne Robson, Ruth Marshall, Weldon Allen, Tom Gallant, Kelly Burnett, Matt Appleby, Thomas Skinner, Vernon Steel, Taffara Jessica Stella Murray, Susan Lane, Frank Adamson, Edward Rubin, Sandy MacDonald, Dean Eilertson
About the film
Dolores Claiborne was accused of killing her abusive husband twenty years ago, but the court's findings were inconclusive and she was allowed to walk free. Now she has been accused of killing her employer, Vera Donovan, and this time there is a witness who can place her at the scene of the crime. Things look bad for Dolores when her daughter Selena, a successful Manhattan magazine writer, returns to cover the story.
- Alternative Titles
- Dolores Claiborne
Theatrical Cut with unaltered sculpture: Initial DVD
Altered Cut: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab) · +3 more
Theatrical Cut with unaltered sculpture: Initial DVD with this red message: "The large white sculpture of human forms on the wall of John Milton's penthouse in "The Devil's Advocate" is not connected in any way and was not endorsed by the sculptor Frederick Hart or the Washington National Cathedral, joint copyright owners of the Cathedral sculpture "Ex Nihilo" in Washington D.C.".
Altered Cut: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray see caps
Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray is more filtered than Warner Bros Blu-ray, although differences may not be audible.
(While the LaserDisc 2.0 is reportedly better clarity in dialogue?)
DV Plot. For those curious, the sculpture is still the altered one found on the re-issued DVDs, and previous Blu-ray.
5.1 audio on the Shout (either be 1080p or 2160p) was 16-bit, with more roll-off than the Warners one, the Warners was very similar to the NTSC and in terms of balance of the mix, while the Shout seems to be tinkered with, with the score at the beginning and at the end sounding worse on Shout.
Audio Comparisons: Slow.pics
For the regular commentary found on the NTSC DVD "Original Version" (there's no difference including the other NTSC DVD), Shout or Warners; the Shout commentary was just a bloated lossy transcode with some EQ. The best one was from either of the two DVDs.
Commentary Comparisons: Slow.pics
Now there's another commentary; it's basically the same commentary but has some parts different than the others, it can be found on EUR PAL DVD with subs for said commentary. The subs for it doesn't sync for the commentary #1 and vice-versa. Samples
4K restoration of the original 3D left eye and right eye camera negatives
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: Richard Brooks
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: Vincent Sherman
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: George Pal
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: Compton Bennett
4K restoration from original technicolor negatives
Director: Jack Conway
4K restoration from safety preservation elements
4K restoration from safety preservation elements
More Crime on Blu-ray
Director: Robert Altman
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Cinematrographe's HDR grading is overcooked, which is a known VinSyn tendency. Additionally, their booklet mis-credits the encode to FiM.
YMMV, but for some, the included BD encoded by Marcus Johnson—ironically may make for a more pleasing experience.
Director: John Woo
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Arrow has a different grade and a better encode than the Shout! Factory, though the difference in either is not major. Imprint release, which leaves Shout! Factory's master and subtitles as is, is encoded by FiM. https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=24473097&postcount=56
Original mix: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray
Alternate mix: Scanbox Nordic PAL DVD
Surround remix: HK Video France 4K Blu-ray (5.0)
Original mix: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray (similar to Criterion LaserDisc, but less distorted)
Alternate mix: Scanbox Nordic PAL DVD
Surround remix: HK Video France 4K Blu-ray (5.0)
Arrow used the alternate mix, but with extra filtering and lowered dynamic range. The alternate mix has much better fidelity.
Imprint presumably used the Shout! Factory original mix and left it as is, though no official confirmation.
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Arrow 4K Blu-ray > Criterion 4K Blu-ray > Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray
1991 Orion LaserDisc vs 2024 Arrow 4K Blu-ray
Director: William Dieterle
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
The 4K discs in both Criterion and Imprint sets are FiM encodes, but low-passed, Imprint minimally less so. Unfortunately, unlike with The Killing, Kino does not hold up at all, the grain is much rougher and the compression visibly struggles making for a much less pleasant watch, even if select stills look better.
All discs use the same source transfer. Criterion cleaned up some hums and hiss, but lost a little bit of high-end detail. Unlike The Killing, the difference's relatively mino.
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
The 4K discs in both Criterion and Imprint sets are FiM encodes, but low-passed. The compression is better, but some of the grain is lost. Difference is pronounced in screen caps, but not likely to be noticed during playback, without a reference to compare it to. Comparisons
All discs use the same source transfer. It's not of the highest quality, and it includes some slight distortion, looping, clicks, pops, and hum. Criterion cleaned it up for their release, but unfortunately also lost a lot of fidelity in the process.
MGM NTSC DVD doesn't seem to have some of the more prominent distortion and has slightly different EQ but is otherwise the same.
Director: Karel Reisz
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Cinematographe is mis-credited to be an FiM encode. It isn't. Neither the encode nor the color grading are entirely satisfactory.
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray > Paramount US and Capelight DE, same black crush on all three but the Arrow is encoded by FiM and has very good new supplements, the Capelight looks slightly low-passed, but in motion it probably looks about the same as the Paramount, see caps comparison for all three.
Arrow and Paramount basically sound the same, the Arrow has a slightly higher bitrate. Capelight is probably the same too but for now it's TBA.
Paramount US 4K Blu-ray has FEL Dolby Vision
Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray and Capelight DE 4K Blu-ray have MEL Dolby Vision
Director: Tony Gilroy
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