I am appreciative of your affections toward this film georgewiggins. This film has always been one of my favorites, and finding people to support it and step in for it is rare.
About wires...that has to do with the cropping...the very LAZY cropping of the picture that was done poorly in the 2000 transfer for the DVD. Look at the waterfall moment in the flying ballet when she flies UNDER the bottom of the picture, or when, in the final scene, Lucy's chin is cut off at the bottom of the screen (jeez, where are visual aids when we need them). The picture was cropped for the transfer and was NOT in it's total wide screen. That said, all the mechanics that worked with hiding wires and whatnot were exposed. Sounds strange, but believe me. You didn't see them in the other versions (US Theatrical, Directors Cut) where the cropping was correct. The same transfer was re-transfered by WB in 2006, so there was nothing new to see, just a more shimmery shiny (yes it was a beautiful transfer...) version of what Anchor Bay already did.
WB was, on that note...VERY LAZY to not care enough to pay attention to the cropping detail, b/c they just wanted to cash in on it by simply releasing it because they KNEW fans demanded it as much. They will never roll out that respect for it though. Call me cracked but I think Criterion should do all of this. HELL! I'd finance the project myself if I could. I'd have taken care of it YEARS ago.
Then there are some smaller things as well, different shots and whatnot. Mainly the single shot, about two seconds at longest, while she is flying to the finale from the PZ, and we, in the US Theatrical, see a side shot of Kara flying through a starry portal, part of what she is flying through when she shoots toward the screen at us. You can hear the cut in the music on this with the Directors Cut and European versions. Something small, not much, but it would sure be nice to have that little detail reinstated.
Also in the vaults...BLOOPERS! I read an interview with Helen from a magazine...probably Starlog, about funny little things that were in the bloopers, ie- when she swoops down to graze the pond before soaring out into the open during the flying ballet. Helen says there was one take where they swung her too low and plummeted her into the pond. Funny things like that would be GREAT to see.
When will you ever learn, this feeling is all you can discern?
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lilmarkuk
10 years ago
Thank you for this I love reading posts from fans of the movie, id love the bloopers too, and since they obviously filmed the scene where the girl gets frozen to ice that would be good even if all these things were in standard low quality def id love it
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georgewiggins
10 years ago
If Warner is going to release Supergirl on Blu-ray someday I really hope they don't mess with the image like they did with the Superman movies.
See more here:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFBEB6343A8AA0935
http://theabyssgazes.blogspot.com.br/2010/03/teal-and-orange-hollywood -please-stop.html
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lilmarkuk
10 years ago
hmm I don't see what you mean because the bluray versions have way better and more realistic colours, the others and the dvd bersions look way too dull and they were not that dull looking in the cinema either
that's only happened due to them not cleaning the original print up for digital transfer.
when it comes to Blu-ray 9 times out of 10 you get the correct colour and details that were meant to actually be there.
TBH if supergirl came to bluray I can bet it will be a bog standard basic transfer with hardly any clean up.
In my dream world they would totally restore the picture, fully clean it up, also spend a little money on removing the wires, on the old vhs versions because they were not clear picture wise you could not tell as much but as soon as it came to dvd wow you can see wires in every flying scene that was not blue screen.
it would not cost a lot to remove them, they have done this in loads of movies, hell I remember them doing a lot of work on the old nightmare on elm street movies when they went onto dvd for the 1st time, on the 3rd movie you could see the stage lights above so they extended the wallpaper on the wall to cover them, and in the 4th movie when freddy picks alice up and throws her across the church they removed the wire that was holding and flying her..i say wire because it was just 1 BUT it was actually a really thick wire almost like it was rope haha
but that was removed so they can easily do the same with supergirl
AND have all that other missing footage as extras on the bluray
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HeartMonger
10 years ago
I am sorry that I came so late in this post. I used to post here religiously about this gem of a picture.
Regarding the footage in the vaults - yes it's still there. One thing I haven't seen mentioned in this thread that should be, is that there were MANY other exchanges in which Kara, as Linda Lee, becomes Supergirl, and vice versa. I believe Helen and Jeannot have both confirmed this.
Script wise - there were allegedly lines of dialogue that dealt with showing Kara in a more supremely heroic manner ("I bow only before truth and justice" was one).
I personally think that, since we're talking about the longer version of the film here, it was probably hard to cut because Faye Dunaway portrayed Selena in two ways - a funny caricature, and an evil minded sorceress. She could be both, but the balance was hard to find. It is for this reason that people are so divided by her performance. Some love it, others hate it. Those who love it state that she played the hell out of it (she did! ). Those who hate it state that she was just being over the top - in which they are only referencing the funny lines of dialogue that she put her own comic spin on.
I'm sure a longer version of this film would add more balance - but the effort to sit through at least 150 minutes of it would seem a bit of a painstake for SOME people (not I!)
"All I want in life is a thirty share and a twenty rating."
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lilmarkuk
10 years ago
oh I would love to sift through all the footage, hell id do it for free being a big fan.
personally as a whole I think faye's portrayal of selena was fitting with the movie we got. Look at it this way im damn glad dolly parton said NO to playing selena because she did not want to play a witch.
But yes the movie could have been a lot better, if i had my way i would not have had selena in it at all or if i did i would have just made her more evil, make the movie a bit more darker.
The effects work was not too bad, there were a lot of things..simple things that could have been done to make parts not look as bad, like the invisible monster smashing through selena's wall, we could see the shape of the monster already cut out because the material covering the wall blew out the shape with the wind showing it...that was simple to fix, also some of the miniature work was not good, supergirl flying into the sky with the lamp post that miniature of her was horrid, same with argo city.
And something that always drives me nuts and i wonder why on earth they did not retake this flying shot but when supergirl is flying fast towards selenas new castle/mountain when we come to Helen/stunt double on wires flying towards the camera past the people and traffic jam she sways sideways while flying forward...why they did not retake that i do not know..maybe no time :/
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AlexisB75
10 years ago
the problem of extra footage was that Dunaway was truly on the screen and that was a huge catastrophe for the movie because she was horrid in every sense.
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lilmarkuk
10 years ago
I suppose it could be a blessing in disguise for people who don't like dunaway that supergirl flopped because it more or less ended what was left of her career
I think she was banking on this being as big as superman to revive her career haha
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