They Were Expendable (1945)
Drama, War • 2h 15m
Director: John Ford
Cast: Robert Montgomery, John Wayne, Donna Reed, Jack Holt, Ward Bond, Marshall Thompson, Paul Langton, Leon Ames, Arthur Walsh, Donald Curtis, Cameron Mitchell, Louis Jean Heydt, Jeff York, Murray Alper, Harry Tenbrook, Jack Pennick, Alex Havier, Charles Trowbridge, Robert Barrat, Bruce Kellogg, Tim Murdock, Russell Simpson, Vernon Steele, Robert Emmett O'Connor, Philip Ahn, Steve Barclay, Betty Blythe, Danny Borzage, Al Bridge, George Bruggeman, James Carlisle, Jack Carrington, Bruce Carruthers, Tony Carson, Jack Cheatham, Fred Coby, Roger Cole, Jane Crowley, Henry H. Daniels Jr., William B. Davidson, Marjorie Davies, Larry Dods, William 'Red' Donahue, Frank Eldredge, John Epper, Jim Farley, Charles Ferguson, Lee Tung Foo, Art Foster, Almeda Fowler, Mary Jane French, Jon Gilbreath, James Gonzalez, Duke Green, Sherry Hall, Stuart Hall, Robert Homans, Michael Kirby, Michael Kostrick, Paul Kruger, Stubby Kruger, Jack Lee, Jack Lorenz, Leota Lorraine, Jack Luden, James Magill, George Magrill, Eve March, Maurice Marks, Kermit Maynard, Merrill McCormick, Frank McGrath, Leonard Mellin, Robert Milasch, Henry Mirelez, Jack Mower, Charles Murray Jr., Forbes Murray, Bill Neff, Bill Nind, Wedgwood Nowell, Franklin Parker, Frank Pershing, Nino Pipitone Jr., Dan Quigg, Joey Ray, William McKeever Riley, Jack Ross, John Roy, Harold Schlickenmayer, Phil Schumacher, Jack Semple, Sam Simone, Reginald Simpson, Leslie Sketchley, Ralph Soncuya, Larry Steers, Sammy Stein, Jack Stoney, Robert Strong, Bob Thom, Richard Thorne, Brad Towne, Jack Trent, Tom Tyler, Emmett Vogan, Eleanore Vogel, Hansel Warner, Billy Wilkerson, Roque Ybarra Jr.
Best English-friendly release · updated 1 year ago
Overview
After a demonstration of new PT boats, navy brass are still unconvinced of their viability in combat, leaving Lt. "Rusty" Ryan frustrated. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, however, Ryan and his buddy Lt. Brickley are told they can finally take their squadron into battle. The PT boats quickly prove their worth, successfully shooting down Japanese planes, relaying messages between islands, and picking off a multitude of enemy ships.
Director: John Ford
Sources: ibb.co (opens in a new tab)
Warner Archive Blu-ray is 4K restoration from nitrate projection elements
Germany Filmjuwelen Blu-ray is AI upscaled https://ibb.co/album/mCJ7RQ
Director: John Ford
Sources: bsky.app (opens in a new tab)
Crystal clear, albeit with some distortion in louder areas
The 4K Blu-ray reuses the same poor mastering used on the 2006 WB Blu-ray, only with a completely unnecessary bass cut and extra noise reduction.
Even putting resolution aside, the Warner Archive 4K Blu-ray has the best video. The old Blu-ray master and earlier DVD both had massive issues with colour.
That said, picture on the 4K Blu-ray isn't perfect, with strange posterized magenta glints and some instances of DNR: https://bsky.app/profile/dagscott.bsky.social/post/3leahavqi7k2l
2022 Paramount Presents Blu-ray disc included in 4K Blu-ray set
Sources: x.com (opens in a new tab) · caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)
Same master, but less bitrate starved.
The encode on the BD is preferable to the UHD. Same master, but less bitrate starved: https://x.com/SadHillDevan/status/1530057783885721607?s=20 and see caps
Director: John Ford
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
USA Paramount has the best video transfer with the least amount of artifacts: https://slow.pics/c/sjZ3mqF6
Olive Films Blu-ray and Eureka MoC Blu-ray are sourced from the same restoration and are both very good.
Apart from some mild attenuation, the audio is the same on all releases of the newest restoration and is relatively untampered with: https://slow.pics/c/bWF9EGuM
Director: John Ford
The audio on the Warner Archive Blu-ray is appalling. It starts to cutoff at around 6kHz to have nothing above 10kHz. The LaserDisc is much more full-frequency.
Director: Morton DaCosta
Warner Archive 4K Blu-ray Nov 24th
TV series
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative for all episodes
Director: Norman Taurog
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: Delbert Mann
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: Lloyd Bacon
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
More Drama on Blu-ray
Director: Joel Coen
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)
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
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Iain Softley
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
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
Shout! Factory has the exclusive The Beauty of the Baud and the You Can't Stop Us All featurettes.
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Bruce Robinson
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Arrow 4K Blu-ray has stronger encode than Criterion
Director: Olivier Assayas
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
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: John Woo
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
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.
Shout! Factory/Arrow 4K Blu-ray has the original mono
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Maintained by the community
· last reviewed 1 year ago
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