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Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (2016)
Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (2016) poster

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (2016)

Drama, War • 1h 53m

Director: Ang Lee

Cast: Joe Alwyn, Kristen Stewart, Chris Tucker, Garrett Hedlund, Makenzie Leigh, Vin Diesel, Steve Martin, Stro, Arturo Castro, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Barney Harris, Beau Knapp, Mason Lee, Ben Platt, Bruce McKinnon, Deirdre Lovejoy, Laura Lundy Wheale, Tim Blake Nelson, Gregory Alan Williams, Bo Mitchell, Ric Reitz, Allen Daniel, Randy Gonzalez, Matthew Barnes, Austin McLamb, Tommy McNulty, Markina Brown, Eric Kan, Dana Barrett, Richard Sherman, J.J. Watt, Christopher Matthew Cook, Kristin Erickson, Brad Mills, Genevieve Adams, David Ramsey, Matthew Brady, Holly A. Morris, Alan Gilmer, Andy Glen, Brandin Jenkins, Chesta Drake, Cooper Andrews, Katie Deal, Tatom Pender, Katrina Pettiford, Erin Moore, Elizabeth Chestang, Kellie Pickler, Marc Inniss, Fajer Al-Kaisi, Haithem Badrani, Badia Obaid, Leila Kadiri, Mansour Badri, Azim Rizk, Jay Peterson, Zaydun Khalaf, Phil Armijo, Stevie Baggs Jr., Adrienne Ballenger, Paul Barlow Jr., Alexandra Bartee, Brooke Borba, Claire Bronson, Bricine Brown, Amanda Burke Buczek, Todd Chapman, Chuck Clark, Alex Coker, Jameson Jamey Copeland, Xavier Cortes, Erin Dangler, Patrick Darcey, Deena Dill, Sydney Durso, Angela Everhart, Gregory Fears, DeRon Ford, Courtland Fuller, Gabriel 'G-Rod' Rodriguez, Fred Galle, Marion Guyot, Jas Hardy, De'Adrian Harmon, Jon Hartley, Robert Hendren, Walter Hendrix III, Danni Heverin, Dennis Hill, Terayle Hill, Geoffrey Howard, Billy James, Dale Anthony Jennings, Racquel Bianca John, Kendall Kiker, Brian Kim, Alex Kramer, Avery Laraki, Roy Larsen, Adrian Lockett, Shannon Long, Luke Loveless, Zamadia Lyles, Shaun Lynch, Eric Maldonado, Asia Diamond Mason, Ronny Mathew, Trey McGriff, Jock McKissic, Matt Mercurio, Gary Miller, Michael Montgomery, Ricky Muse, Tommy O'Brien, Afsheen Olyaie, George Pringle, Moneca S. Reid, Shuntel Renay, Kristin McKenzie Rice, Chan Ta Rivers, Giovanni Rodriguez, Joel Rogers, Kourtney Shales, Jack Teague, Kenneth Tipton, Jordan Verroi, Steve Warren, Erick Wofford, Brian Wyatt, Jesse Yarborough, Jonathan Yaskoff, Jay Busbee

Sony 4K Blu-ray

Best English-friendly & video release · updated 6 months ago

Overview

19-year-old Billy Lynn is brought home for a victory tour after a harrowing Iraq battle. Through flashbacks the film shows what really happened to his squad – contrasting the realities of war with America's perceptions.

Release details

Length
113 mins
Type
Movie
Alternative Titles
Billy Lynns Long Halftime Walk

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Director: Ang Lee

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Kino Lorber Blu-ray

Sources: DVDBeaver (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Kino Lorber Blu-ray has original 1.85 aspect ratio, and better encoding but with a few caveats: some scenes are in a lower quality than the rest of the film see DVDBeaver

Make sure you have the replacement disc with correct location title card

Director: Ang Lee

Best English-Friendly:

Australia Imprint Blu-ray?

Additional Info:

US Olive Films has hardcoded subtitles.

Director: Ang Lee

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Director's Cut: Criterion Blu-ray
Theatrical: France or Germany Blu-ray?

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Director: Ang Lee

Best English-Friendly:

US Olive Films Blu-ray or Australia Imprint Blu-ray?

Director: Ang Lee

Best English-Friendly:

US Film Movement Blu-ray or Australia Imprint Blu-ray?

Director: Ang Lee

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray

Director: Ang Lee

Best English-Friendly:

Criterion Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

Criterion 4k scan 2k transfer

Director: Ang Lee

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

Universal Blu-ray

Director: Ang Lee

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Fox 4K Blu-Ray

Director: Ang Lee

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Sony 4K Blu-ray Columbia Classics Vol. 2

Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

The 2025 stand-alone MOD edition is worse in encoding quality.

More from Sony

See more →

Director: Luc Besson

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly:

StudioCanal UK 4K Blu-ray

Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab) · fanrestore.com (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

2020 StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray vs 2017 Sony 4K Blu-ray (20th annivesary) vs 2025 Sony 4K Blu-ray (Luc Besson Box Set). The first two have totally different texture.

  • StudioCanal: More natural looking. Better defined grain. The white balance is rather yellow/orange. Some say it is closer to the original theatrical release.

  • 2017 Sony: More vibrant and impactful. The white balance is rather neutral. While color noise and grain can look busy because it had been sharpened and had micro-contrast boosted.

  • 2025 Sony: Supposedly an improved version of the 2017 release? Shows around 20mbps-higher overall video bitrate. caps

Audio Notes:

The Atmos on the Sony release is reportedly better than StudioCanal's.

Additional Info:

Disc info of the box set discs. This film have recieved multiple encode/versions in different regions over the years. The 2017 Germany4K Blu-ray is encoded differently than the 2017 Sony but not better. Also, the same can be said to 2024 France Gaumont 4K Blu-ray while comparing to the 2020 StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray. The StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray omits all the extras from previous releases, being barebones.

Director: Stanley Kubrick

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Sony 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Upcoming Release:

Criterion Box Set coming October 20th with FiM encode

Best Audio:

1994 LaserDisc (marginally)

Director: Frank Capra

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Sony Frank Capra Boxset Blu-ray

Director: Hou Hsiao-hsien

Best English-Friendly:

Taiwan Sony Blu-ray

Best Video:

Carlotta Blu-ray, HD transfer, also available in a set

Best Audio:

2006 Japan Kinokuniya DVD

Director: John Carpenter

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Sony 4K Blu-ray or Carlotta 4K Blu-ray (FiM encode)

Video Notes:

Sony 4K Blu-ray and France Carlotta 4K Blu-ray (FiM encode) are similar

Director: Michael Arias

4K · Worse Than BD
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Sony Blu-ray

Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

GKIDS 4K Blu-ray is a sharpened upscale. Caps

Best Audio:

GKIDS 4K Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

GKIDS 4K Blu-ray has a true lossless English dub and correct volume levels for the Japanese audio

Additional Info:

GKIDS has correct English subtitles that change a few lines from the director-approved dubtitles, to match with the Japanese dialogue better while still remaining true to director Michael Arias' intent. The corrected GKIDS subtitles are director-approved.

Director: David Fincher

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Sony 4K Blu-ray

Additional Info:

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: Martin Scorsese

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

2024 Sony 4K Blu-ray Steelbook

Sources: blah-ray.blogspot.com (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

2024 Sony 4K Blu-ray Steelbook fixes duplicate shot seen on the previous Columbia Classics release and has better encoding

Best Audio:

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: Michael Apted

Video format: HD Streaming

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Starz is Streaming in HD with OAR

Or Sony Special Edition DVD

Director: David Greene

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Sony Blu-ray

More Drama on Blu-ray

Director: Joel Coen

4K · Disappointing
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Director's Cut: Disappointing UK StudioCanal/US Criterion 4K Blu-ray
Theatrical Cut: LaserDisc or 2001 UK Universal DVD

Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?p=21782879#post21782879 - comparison. StudioCanal is a massive improvement to the Criterion but still flawed in some areas (chroma noise)

Director: Liliana Cavani

4K · Solid

Director: Iain Softley

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Capelight Germany 4K Blu-ray

Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Both 88 Films and Germany Capelight are superior to the Shout! Factory in HDR10 but their FEL layer may even things out. Objectively, the Capelight looks best as they avoided the chroma blocking that’s visible in 88’s disc but they in turn included an Atmos mix. I have the Shout! Factory, love how it looks and the 4K transfer is spectacular. https://slow.pics/c/vPmFQSAH

Best Audio:

88 Films 4K Blu-ray

Additional Info:

Shout! Factory has the exclusive The Beauty of the Baud and the You Can't Stop Us All featurettes.

Director: Akira Kurosawa

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

BFI 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

2015 Star Media Blu-ray/2019 BFI Player WEB-DL

Director: Hiroshi Teshigahara

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

Criterion DVD

Director: Bruce Robinson

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray has stronger encode than Criterion

Director: Olivier Assayas

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Arrow UK Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Encoding is clunky on both Arrow and Criterion BDs but Arrow at least included the original stereo mix in addition to the 5.1 remix, while Criterion only included the 5.1 remix.

Director: Tsui Hark

Best English-Friendly & Video:

US Shout! Factory or UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray?

Director: John Woo

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

US Shout! Factory or UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

> Disk Kino/WCL China import

review: Disk Kino

Both have better encoding than Disk Kino, some shots are better on Shout! Factory, others on Arrow

Shout Factory still has the best video while Arrow did a questionable regrade. Arrow definitely has less grain in most shots, has a worse encode and is cm v2.9 compared to Shout’s cm v4.0.

Audio Notes:

Shout! Factory/Arrow 4K Blu-ray has the original mono

Director: Steven Spielberg

Best English-Friendly & Video:

US Paramount Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray Dec 15th

Video Notes:

US Paramount Blu-ray > International WB Blu-ray

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tyyuxJojoTheMovieOtter

· last reviewed 6 months ago

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