Amazon HD Streaming
Video format
Best English-friendly & video release · updated yesterday
Overview
A documentary on the life of the people of the Aran Islands, who were believed to contain the essence of the ancient Irish life, represented by a pure uncorrupted peasant existence centred around the struggle between man and his hostile but magnificent surroundings. A blend of documentary and fictional narrative, the film captures the everyday trials of life on Ireland's unforgiving Aran Islands.
Director: Jean Rouch
Video format: HD Streaming
Sources: amazon.com (opens in a new tab)
Director: Shinji Aoyama
Video format: HD Streaming
Video format: HD Streaming
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Amazon US HD Streaming is from the 2018 UCLA restoration. Olive Films Blu-ray is from an older scan and quite rough. caps
Olive Films Blu-ray is again rough, with distortion, crackle and other issues, but sounds much more natural. With some EQ the restored track can be significantly improved
Director: David Butler
Video format: Only Unofficial Sources
Sources: archive.org (opens in a new tab)
The DVD isn't an official one, and according to a user review on Amazon:
This DVD comes from Archive.org, where the movie can be viewed for free. The original source, comes from the Fox Movie Channel
Video format: HD Streaming
Director: Mark Sandrich
Video format: HD Streaming
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab) · amazon.com (opens in a new tab)
IVC Japan Blu-ray is clearly from a higher generation film element and looks terrible. Comparisons: https://slow.pics/c/XUTwiv7B
Director: Kiyotaka Oshiyama
Video format: 1080p Blu-ray
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
The 4K Blu-ray is an upscale with strong sharpening. Caps
2026 Japan Avex 4K Blu-ray
Includes original 5.1 and an Atmos remix. The HD disc only includes 5.1.
Director: Rich Lee
Video format: 4K Streaming
Directors: Michael Hegner & Stefan Fjeldmark
Video format: HD Streaming
More Documentary on Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has excellent master in SDR and a good encode. BD caps here.
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has poor audio: The 2.0 is fine but unremarkable, the 5.1 is presumably an upmix with a botched, strongly raised LFE channel which makes the entire track unlistenable on well-tuned equipment. Audio graphs here.
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
While it's included on both Criterion The Palm Beach Story extras and Arrow's Sullivan's Travels' extras, Criterion uses a different source and is vastly superior, see caps
Director: Ebrahim Golestan
Director: Ebrahim Golestan
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