I bought the recent Criterion release of Cornel Wilde's THE NAKED PREY (1966) and enjoyed it. Widescreen. Beautiful video print. Not much for extras, but oh well... "At least we can get rid of our VHS copy - that saves us a whole inch on our shelves!" said wifey-poo, as she was looking for new locations to bolt my ankle and wrist chains to. (She's always doing that. She thinks NINE TO FIVE's Dabney Coleman Signature Restraint System is the cat's meow.)
Then, when TCM played THE NAKED PREY on Feb 1, some viewers commented, "Hey - they cut out some of the awful killing scenes! They've edited them out or shortened them, reducing the horror."
Huh? What?
So, last night, we popped in both films and see that the DVD is 3 minutes shorter than our old VHS version, and that the killing scenes are indeed excised.
So, we no longer have that "extra space" on our shelves. I suppose Criterion may say the only available widescreen print didn't have those scenes in them, that they were edited out long ago. And truly, dwelling on bloodletting isn't necessary for me to understand the horror that the filmmakers were trying to illustrate. It's just a shame that folks are paying for new editing processes well after the fact. They pay for Pan & Scan Editing, they pay for Political Correctness Editing - all to save our poor souls, I suppose.
Ya think all DVDs would really be selling for about $3 a piece if they'd cut out all this "protective services" nonsense? I WISH!
NAKED PREY VHS - don't throw it away yet!
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Mr. Arkadin
- Posts: 2645
- Joined: April 14th, 2007, 3:00 pm
I did not see some of this footage in yesterdays showing:
The print is widescreen though. Laserdisc maybe?
As for DVD's and their expense, the sad thing about all of this is the fact that ALL DVD's are too expensive. You are actually paying more for the packaging than the actual product. DVD's are actually cheaper to make than videocassettes, but have remained the same or higher in price. I found an amusing article years ago saying that Sony was selling a DVD of a popular film for around $2.00 (American) in Hong Kong and China because of the rampant black market. Sony representatives said the official release costs a fraction more, but they lowered the price hoping that consumers would prefer to have a better transfer and extras to a shabby bootleg. THEY THEN SAID THEY WERE STILL MAKING A PROFIT! What does that tell you about the prices we are paying?
The print is widescreen though. Laserdisc maybe?
As for DVD's and their expense, the sad thing about all of this is the fact that ALL DVD's are too expensive. You are actually paying more for the packaging than the actual product. DVD's are actually cheaper to make than videocassettes, but have remained the same or higher in price. I found an amusing article years ago saying that Sony was selling a DVD of a popular film for around $2.00 (American) in Hong Kong and China because of the rampant black market. Sony representatives said the official release costs a fraction more, but they lowered the price hoping that consumers would prefer to have a better transfer and extras to a shabby bootleg. THEY THEN SAID THEY WERE STILL MAKING A PROFIT! What does that tell you about the prices we are paying?
The YOUTUBE footage is part of the DVD, but there is a longer, more detailed "dressing in feathers" set of clips and a longer, more detailed "stabbing" sequence of our hopping feathered friend. There's a more substantial rotissarie scene, too, complete with additional screams. And the snake bite scene has 3 strikes by the cobra. The DVD only has 1.
Frankly, seeing the extended scenes once was more than enough.
The part of this movie that I seem to repress (and always am surprised when I see it) is the coming of the Muslim slavers.
Frankly, seeing the extended scenes once was more than enough.
The part of this movie that I seem to repress (and always am surprised when I see it) is the coming of the Muslim slavers.
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jdb1
Why surprised? Unglossed history tells us that the slave trade in Africa itself was run in large part by Arabs from the Arabian peninsula and North Africa. There's a reason that the lingua franca of central Africa, Swahili, has so many Arabic words in it, and the reason isn't free trade. Arab colonialism seems to have been every bit as reprehensible as Western European colonialism where Africa was concernedOllie wrote: The part of this movie that I seem to repress (and always am surprised when I see it) is the coming of the Muslim slavers.
Good morning all,
Mr Arkadin, unbelievable, isn't it? Not that they're still making a profit at a $2 retail price, but that they're selling them here in the U.S. in the $20 range. I think it was P.T.Barnum who said that "No one ever went broke underestimating the stupidity of the American public!" As much as I hate to say it, kudos to WalMart for demanding that record labels lower their costs so that any CD could be retailed for under $10. Did you know that the Eagles CD "Long Road Out of Eden" (a double album) sold for $9.66 and was released directly through WalMart with no record label promotion whatsoever and yet paid the artist $4 in royalties per copy versus the $2 they would have received had they gone the traditional route? WalMart has recently cut back on the amount of shelf space they allocate to DVD's given the upward trend in downloading movies (NetFlix currently has over 10,000 titles available for streaming, and there's no extra charge for doing so.) We can only hope they make the same demands of DVD producers and suppliers. It may not be easy for them to swallow, but it sure would help the consumer. With economies of scale, they could conceivably realize a larger profit than what they're looking at now. Seems like the time is right for the wind to change direction.
As always,
Hollis
p.s. It's also inconceivable to me that the cost of the grains used in a normal 12-16oz carton of cereal is less than 10 cents, yet we're paying anywhere from $2 to $5 for that product. Talk about highway robbery!
Mr Arkadin, unbelievable, isn't it? Not that they're still making a profit at a $2 retail price, but that they're selling them here in the U.S. in the $20 range. I think it was P.T.Barnum who said that "No one ever went broke underestimating the stupidity of the American public!" As much as I hate to say it, kudos to WalMart for demanding that record labels lower their costs so that any CD could be retailed for under $10. Did you know that the Eagles CD "Long Road Out of Eden" (a double album) sold for $9.66 and was released directly through WalMart with no record label promotion whatsoever and yet paid the artist $4 in royalties per copy versus the $2 they would have received had they gone the traditional route? WalMart has recently cut back on the amount of shelf space they allocate to DVD's given the upward trend in downloading movies (NetFlix currently has over 10,000 titles available for streaming, and there's no extra charge for doing so.) We can only hope they make the same demands of DVD producers and suppliers. It may not be easy for them to swallow, but it sure would help the consumer. With economies of scale, they could conceivably realize a larger profit than what they're looking at now. Seems like the time is right for the wind to change direction.
As always,
Hollis
p.s. It's also inconceivable to me that the cost of the grains used in a normal 12-16oz carton of cereal is less than 10 cents, yet we're paying anywhere from $2 to $5 for that product. Talk about highway robbery!
(Why do I open these? Hollis REALLY brings up soapbox topics!)
Cereal, yes! Cost of DVDs, YES! I really wish they'd put DVDs into the $5-8 range. Instead of making a little off of one, make tons off of a lot.
I think every DVD buyer is a collector to some degree - no one's buying DVDs and immediately tossing them out. But the cost keeps them from having BIG collections. And for those of us with a few in our collections, it's not cost - it's availability.
Cereal, yes! Cost of DVDs, YES! I really wish they'd put DVDs into the $5-8 range. Instead of making a little off of one, make tons off of a lot.
I think every DVD buyer is a collector to some degree - no one's buying DVDs and immediately tossing them out. But the cost keeps them from having BIG collections. And for those of us with a few in our collections, it's not cost - it's availability.