Review Detail

One of the less common instances where the director’s cut deletes far more than it adds, it is lovely to see everything from this hypnotic film available together here in HD. The video quality is generally excellent and editing seamless, the scenes exclusive to the theatrical cut standing out due to their poor condition but less so than might be imagined considering the available sources. The only things I can think of that could be feasibly improved is another instance of gate weave at ~0:10:48 (an earlier example being fixed), and a new cut (albeit very similar to one in the theatrical cut) at 1:45:33 feeling a touch sudden and maybe better served with a fade.

I do feel that the cropping of the entire film to 1.66:1 (to match the theatrical cut source) noticeably compromises the framing, e.g. characters’ shoulders are often cut off, though that may have been because I knew to look for it. I personally would not mind switching aspect ratios, believe that the quality differences are sufficient to mark the restored sections for me.

Audio-wise, there is a “squeak” of some sort over the cut at 0:06:40 (which doesn’t sound original to me) and an instance at 0:16:35 where the fade from one source to another stands out, otherwise fine.

Excellent overall, hope someday that the original (and maybe the unused scenes) will someday turn up in decent form and render the quality issues moot, stranger things have happened!