Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Drama • 1h 53m
Director: John Schlesinger
Cast: Jon Voight, Dustin Hoffman, Sylvia Miles, John McGiver, Brenda Vaccaro, Barnard Hughes, Ruth White, Jennifer Salt, Gilman Rankin, Gary Owens, T. Tom Marlow, George Eppersen, Al Scott, Linda Davis, J.T. Masters, Arlene Reeder, Georgann Johnson, Jonathan Kramer, Anthony Holland, Bob Balaban, Jan Tice, Paul Benjamin, Peter Scalia, Vito Siracusa, Peter Zamagias, Arthur Anderson, Tina Scala, Alma Felix, Richard Clarke, Ann Thomas, Viva, Paul Rossilli, Ultra Violet, Paul Jabara, International Velvet, Cecelia Lipson, Taylor Mead, Paul Morrissey, Joan Murphy, Al Stetson, M. Emmet Walsh, Sandy Duncan, Philip Bruns, Waldo Salt, Bill Walters, Jay Morran, Renee Semes, Jeffrey Walker, Mary Boylan, Marlene Clark, Paul Jasmin, Pat Ast, Randall Carver, Robert Dahdah, Trent Gough, Larry Sherman, Barbara Maggio, James Miller, Lucian Addario, William Door
Imprint 4K Blu-ray
Best English-friendly release · updated 2 days ago
Overview
Joe Buck is a wide-eyed hustler from Texas hoping to score big with wealthy New York City women; he finds a companion in Enrico "Ratso" Rizzo, an ailing swindler with a bum leg and a quixotic fantasy of escaping to Florida.
Director: James Cameron
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
2013 MGM Blu-ray, or 4K Blu-ray if you MUST have the mono mix, 1997 Image DVD/2001 MGM DVD for a purist version with original colors and the international mono mix
Sources: facebook.com (opens in a new tab) · vimeo.com (opens in a new tab)
2013 MGM Blu-ray for non AI transfer, 1997 Image DVD/2001 MGM DVD for a purist version with original colors and the international mono mix
1991 Image Entertainment LaserDisc for the US mono mix, 2001 MGM DVD for the International mono mix
Comparison between the US and International mixes: https://vimeo.com/246332731
The 4K Blu-Ray and the 2001 MGM DVD have exclusive extras.
Director: Rob Reiner
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Arrow 4K Blu-ray releasing December 14 2026
Director: David Fincher
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
4K Blu-ray has exclusive “unrated” audio with a small change to one line under the request of David Fincher (removed the poor dub over of frickin’ in the line “Screw it, let’s gut the f**kin’ nerd.”).
Director: Fred M. Wilcox
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: YouTube (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Arrow 4K Blu-ray used what was also originally screened theatrically: The Perspecta Stereo 3.0 and a mono option. The Perspecta track sounds best with better dynamic range and was set as default with the mono as optional. The previous releases stereo were downmixes of a now lost original 4-track, and it sounds very thin as a result. See comparison
Director: John Carpenter
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Universal 4K Blu-ray. Maybe Turbine Blu-ray instead for better audio?
Sources: blog.sporv.com (opens in a new tab)
1997? Signature Collection LD
Good: 2017 Arrow and 2016 Shout! Factory Blu-ray have the original audio options.
the only track on Universal 4K, which is in DTS:X, has a mixing error of around 6dB too low on side channels, otherwise very similar to other 5.1 mixes.
Director: W.S. Van Dyke
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Warner Archive Blu-ray, 4k scan
Director: Martin Scorsese
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
2024 Sony 4K Blu-ray Steelbook
Sources: blah-ray.blogspot.com (opens in a new tab)
2024 Sony 4K Blu-ray Steelbook fixes duplicate shot seen on the previous Columbia Classics release and has better encoding
Original mono mix: 1990 Criterion LaserDisc/1991 Columbia LaserDisc
The 4K Blu-ray mono is only minimally worse (see blah-ray).
5.1 remix: Sony 4K Blu-ray
Director: George Stevens
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Director: Ridley Scott
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Theatrical Cut: Fox 4K Blu-ray
2003 Directors Cut: Fox 4K Blu-ray
Theatrical Cut: Fox 4K Blu-ray
2003 Directors Cut: Fox 4K Blu-ray (additional scenes appear to be upscaled)
Original Theatrical 70mm 6-Track Stereo: Fox 4K Blu-ray (DTS-HD MA 4.1)
Original Theatrical 35mm Matrixed Dolby Stereo: 1999 DVD? (2.0 mix on the UHD is a downmix)
2003 Directors Cut: Fox 4K Blu-ray, Fox Blu-ray (DTS-HD MA 5.1)
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
StudioCanal Blu-ray
StudioCanal was overseen and approved by Nicolas Roeg and has a more filmic color grade than the Warner Archive Blu-Ray.
Director: John Schlesinger
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
2015 StudioCanal Blu-ray
Director: Martin Scorsese
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: facebook.com (opens in a new tab) · Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · blah-ray.blogspot.com (opens in a new tab)
Imprint Australia 4K Blu-ray has slightly better compression than Criterion 4K Blu-ray.
The master in DV looks all but identical to the Criterion’s HDR grade. Detail-wise, FiM’s encode looks like it uncovered a tiny bit of extra high-frequency information that got filtered on the Criterion. See nicolas review
1990 Criterion LaserDisc/1993 MGM LaserDisc/2002 R2 MGM DVD are the best. See blah-ray https://blah-ray.blogspot.com/2018/01/raging-bull-1980.html
Imprint Australia 4K Blu-ray has better audio than Criterion 4K Blu-ray, from nicolas:
I believe that what’s on Imprint’s 4K is one of the good mixes MGM and Criterion released during the LaserDisc days. Music is powerful and detailed, dialogues have excellent fidelity and ambient sounds have perceptible depth. I compared the "new" 2.0 with the anemic 5.1 as well as the Criterion 4K mix and could clearly hear the improvements.
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Canada Blu-ray or Netherlands Blu-ray?
better than Constantin Germany 4K Blu-ray and Australia Imprint 4K Blu-ray
Australia Imprint 4K Blu-ray's encode is awful.
Director: Jack Cardiff
Best format: HD Streaming
HD Streaming
Director: Robert De Niro
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
UK 88 Films 4K Blu-ray in October
Australia Imprint Blu-ray?
Germany Filmjuwelen 4K Blu-ray is disappointing with AI upscaling
Director: Iain Softley
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Director: Elliott Nugent
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Sources: DVDBeaver (opens in a new tab)
Kino Lorber Blu-ray is a newer 4K restoration than Imprint Blu-ray and significantly better see caps
No information on French Elephant Films Blu-ray
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
UK ICON 4K Blu-ray (caps)
UK 4K Blu-ray has a slightly better encode than US Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray and Germany StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray
5.1 mix is flawed on Shout! Factory/ICON, a phasey upmix instead of the proper discrete surround. The UHD 2.0 tracks are downmixes of that track.
2008 Fox Blu-ray sounds great, very close to the original 70mm mix, only with split surround.
2001 DVD has the original mix as 4.1 and matrixed 2.0.
Imprint 4K has a 4.0 track. The StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray has a different 5.1, unclear if it's the same as Fox BD.
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