To anyone thinking of buying the new region 2 release of Psycho, my advice would be…
…don’t bother!
To be honest, I’m getting utterly tired of the way Universal UK is treating Hitchcock fans and this release is just another shining example of how little the UK branch of the company cares.
First of all, the film transfer is exactly the same one they used for the original 1999 release in the UK – the bitrate graphs are exactly the same.
For crying out loud – it says “SPECIAL EDITION” on the packaging! What on earth is special about re-re-releasing a 6 year old transfer that was regarded as being poor to start with?
Secondly, we have the extras… but wait, where’s the excellent 94 minute “Making of” documentary that’s been available on every US release of the DVD since 1999? Heck, it even appeared in the UK Psycho Collection set! Sadly, it’s not included in this so-called “special edition”.
Instead of that, we get the heavily edited “AFI Salute” (15 minutes instead of the original 71 minute broadcast) and the “Masters of Cinema” interviews (again, edited down to 34 minutes from the original 55 minutes).
So, don’t even think about buying this DVD – put the money towards getting the US “Masterpiece Collection” instead!
Well said sir! I still bought it though for the AFI material and was also annoyed at how heavily edited it was, pathetic…why on earth didnt they put the FULL tribute show on…didnt they think we’d be interested in seeing a lot of Hitchcocks old collaborators/stars talking about him…what a mistake THAT was! Universal UK are a royal pain in the arse!
PermalinkI have the one from 2003 (link), and it remains on my stockpile of things to watch. How does it compare with the 1999 release and the 2005 release? The transfer, I mean…
Sad news about the new one.
PermalinkHi Duncan
Sadly, the transfer is exactly the same as the others :-(
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