Sounder (1972)
Drama • 1h 45m
Director: Martin Ritt
Cast: Cicely Tyson, Paul Winfield, Kevin Hooks, Taj Mahal, Janet MacLachlan, Carmen Mathews, James Best, Eric Hooks, Yvonne Jarrell, Sylvia Kuumba Williams, Teddy Airhart, Richard Durham, Wendell Brumfield, Al Bankston, Myrl Sharkey, Inez Durham, William T. Bennett, Thomas N. Phillips, Carl Braser, Jerry Leggio, Peter Goff, Walter L. Chaney, Roy Idom, Randy Wilson, Isaac Greggs, Jackie Spears, Porter Mathews, Timothy Smith, Spencer Bradford, Swampy
Best English-friendly & video release · updated 5 months ago
Mill Creek DVD has Original Aspect Ratio while the Germany Plaion DVD doesn't
Overview
The oldest son of a loving and strong family of black sharecroppers comes of age in the Depression-era South after his father is imprisoned for stealing food.
Director: Steve James
Director: Victor Fleming
3D: Warner Bros 3D Blu-ray or Apple Vision Pro
Director: Morton DaCosta
Warner Archive 4K Blu-ray Nov 24th
Director: Tony Scott
The 70mm 6-track mix has a higher bitrate on the Paramount 1998 DVD, but is more limited than on the THX LaserDisc The Paramount 1998 DVD also has open matte versions in fullscreen 1.33:1 and widescreen 2.00:1 instead of the theatrical aspect ratio of 2.39:1, but the 2.00:1 widescreen presentation is non-anamorphic. The THX LaserDisc is available in both fullscreen 1.33:1 and widescreen 2.00:1 variants.
Director: Terrence Malick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Lovely underlying remaster by Criterion and Resillion but encode is sadly low-pass filtered by Pixelogic, and even then, the encode is still less than ideal. Still easily obliterates any prior disc release, but certainly wouldn't hurt to have a UK or German label take a crack at this same master.
Director: Anthony Mann
Criterion 4K Blu-ray, Universal 2008 DVD
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
2008 Universal DVD mono
The mono on the Criterion is severely filtered resulting in it sounding incredibly muffled. It is nearly as filtered as the 2003 original Universal DVD which had extreme filtering and sounds horribly thin. The 2008 DVD remaster and original Laserdisc analog mastering are mostly left alone. The original LD master is from a worn element but otherwise sounds very natural. The 2008 DVD is the highest quality version we have without the heavy filtering and the defects of the LD master. It isn't perfect but easily the best of the main four sources by a dramatic margin.
The existing 4K SDR restoration looks excellent, but the Criterion extras are limited and disappointing. The classic Stewart interview commentary from the LD is ported over but given a new mastering. Compared to past releases it has been very slightly noise reduced.
Criterion Box Set coming October 20th with FiM encode, work done to un-Nolan the 4K master, the first ever appearance of the 35mm mono track on physical media and a new restoration/remastering of the 70mm 6-track mix.
(early pressing has errors of a shot, later pressings fixed)
Director: Martin Ritt
Director: Martin Ritt
Director: Roger Christian
Theatrical Version: Mill Creek Blu-ray
Home Video Version: Concorde Blu-ray
Director: H.B. Halicki
Theatrical: Mill Creek Blu-ray
Director: Robert Stevenson
US AlphaVideo or Film Detective or Mill Creek DVD
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