A Few Words About A few words about...™ One-Eyed Jacks -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[haineshisway]

Really interesting to read posts from people who've never seen the film.
I don't think Haines was saying it was a mess but Haines is Haines, right?

Not watching until tomorrow with 3 other friends who've never seen it.

For whatever reason, I've always felt that One-Eyed Jacks and The Searchers feel like similar films,
although they are very different.

They seem like stories that were allowed to follow their plots without regard to time or tightening the story points or eliminating scenes that
don't directly advance the story but films that are focused on the characters and the circumstances that connect them.

Of course I wasn't saying it was a mess - I was nitpicking the blue, which isn't what it should be - other than that, it's pretty stellar.

 

[willyTass]

Some compressed grabs, which give me more hope than beavers


http://www.criterionforum.org/DVD-review/one-eyed-jacks-blu-ray/the-criterion-collection/1672

 

[John Hermes]

Like Bruce, I would have liked a little more blue, but the thing looks pretty darn awesome. Beautiful contrast.

 

[WillLon]

Stanley Kubrick was involved in pre-production up to the point just before the start of filming.
It's interesting that Kubrick left his mark on the resulting film in a few ways, leaving many of us wondering what might have been.

some of the casting:
Slim Pickens - real world cowboy later appeared in Dr. Strangelove. Kubrick had wanted him for the Dick Halloran (Scatman Crothers) role in The Shining, but Pickens declined.
Elisha Cook - had appeared in The Killing
Timothy Carey - had appeared in The Killing, Paths of Glory. Later appeared in James B. Harris' film "Fast-Walking"

The memorable opening shot with Brando finishing a banana and tossing the peels on both sides of the bank scale seems very Kubrickian.

Many of the camera placements and actor placements feel Kubrickian. The interrupted tracking shot of the jailhouse is mentioned in the Criterion extras as an example.

I don't recall the exact source but actor Richard Anderson, who had just appeared in Paths of Glory, related a story that Brando, Kubrick, Anderson and James B. Harris were all playing poker at Brando's house.
Toward the end of the night, Brando had lost or taken a break, and simply said to Kubrick: "what if I decide to direct the film myself?" as he walked out of the room. That was the end of Kubrick's involvement with One-Eyed Jacks.
Anyone else heard that story ?

I think Marlon Brando had many of the elements Kubrick had setup, but simply did not know what he was doing. He did the best he could. I believe Brando's ego would never have taken direction from the 4-years younger Kubrick.
It seems to me more like discussions with Kubrick gave Brando the hubris to direct the film himself.

 

[OliverK]

Stanley Kubrick was involved in pre-production up to the point just before the start of filming.
It's interesting that Kubrick left his mark on the resulting film in a few ways, leaving many of us wondering what might have been.

some of the casting:
Slim Pickens - real world cowboy later appeared in Dr. Strangelove. Kubrick had wanted him for the Dick Halloran (Scatman Crothers) role in The Shining, but Pickens declined.
Elisha Cook - had appeared in The Killing
Timothy Carey - had appeared in The Killing, Paths of Glory. Later appeared in James B. Harris' film "Fast-Walking"

The memorable opening shot with Brando finishing a banana and tossing the peels on both sides of the bank scale seems very Kubrickian.

Many of the camera placements and actor placements feel Kubrickian. The interrupted tracking shot of the jailhouse is mentioned in the Criterion extras as an example.

I don't recall the exact source but actor Richard Anderson, who had just appeared in Paths of Glory, related a story that Brando, Kubrick, Anderson and James B. Harris were all playing poker at Brando's house.
Toward the end of the night, Brando had lost or taken a break, and simply said to Kubrick: "what if I decide to direct the film myself?" as he walked out of the room. That was the end of Kubrick's involvement with One-Eyed Jacks.
Anyone else heard that story ?

I think Marlon Brando had many of the elements Kubrick had setup, but simply did not know what he was doing. He did the best he could. I believe Brando's ego would never have taken direction from the 4-years younger Kubrick.
It seems to me more like discussions with Kubrick gave Brando the hubris to direct the film himself.

You bring up a few interesting points there.
I do however prefer the current outcome with Brando having directed One-Eyed Jacks, it was his only job as a director after all and it is a very unique movie. Not that I can imagine Stanley Kubrick finishing the movie with Marlon Brando as the star - that wouldn't have worked anyway.

 

[Jim*Tod]

Just finished watching ONE-EYE JACKS and was blown away by the detail in the image. It is also a pretty remarkable film. Loved the use of the California coastline in many of the scenes... there are shots in this that David Lean would have been proud to claim. Also strongly recommend the extras on this disc, which are wonderful.

 

[Douglas_H]

I finally watch this last night.
Wow. Beautiful.
Because of Haines' post I was looking for blues.
The sky looked gorgeous and I'm only going from memory which is highly unreliable but if I'm not mistaken,
I remember one of Dad's suits while sheriff was blue and on this disc it was very, very subdued, dull.

Like I said I could be totally wrong.
Not for the first or last time.

Still a great movie and a fantastic restoration.

 

[WadeM]

Having put up with the public domain DVD over the years, I have to say that I was blown way by this gorgeous blu-ray. The cinematography is soooooo nice to behold via this restoration.

 

[Angelo Colombus]

Saw the film for the first time thanks to my local library which has the dvd and liked the film with a great performance by Brando and stunning cinematography by Charles Lang. Great extra on the making of the film too.

 

[OliverK]

Saw the film for the first time thanks to my local library which has the dvd and liked the film with a great performance by Brando and stunning cinematography by Charles Lang. Great extra on the making of the film too.

Glad you liked it but did you really watch the DVD, not the Blu-ray?
This seems like a bit of a shame as the movie has such beautiful cinematography.

 

[Angelo Colombus]

Glad you liked it but did you really watch the DVD, not the Blu-ray?
This seems like a bit of a shame as the movie has such beautiful cinematography.

The library had the dvd only for this movie but i will buy the blu-ray for sure.

 

[Douglas_H]

Funny. On a site supposedly made up of true cinephiles, a serendipitous turn of events yields a miraculous release and meticulous restoration of a film like One-Eyed Jacks.
There are 5 pages of anticipation posts and just over a page or so of member reaction or acknowledgement of even viewing it.
Maybe folks don't want to be redundant posting their praise or gratitude but it just seems odd how little buzz this has generated.
Perhaps it's a sign that older films like this really are a niche within a niche within a niche.

Look at how much buzz there was over Wrath of Khan missing a few seconds of inconsequential content.
You would have thought the earth reversed its orbit around the sun.

 

[TravisR]

Funny. On a site supposedly made up of true cinephiles, a serendipitous turn of events yields a miraculous release and meticulous restoration of a film like One-Eyed Jacks.
There are 5 pages of anticipation posts and just over a page or so of member reaction or acknowledgement of even viewing it.
Maybe folks don't want to be redundant posting their praise or gratitude but it just seems odd how little buzz this has generated.
Perhaps it's a sign that older films like this really are a niche within a niche within a niche.

Look at how much buzz there was over Wrath of Khan missing a few seconds of inconsequential content.
You would have thought the earth reversed its orbit around the sun.

I think of it as the phenomenon of "No news is good news". If there was a problem, people would be out of control with complaints. Since there isn't a problem, everyone is just quietly enjoying the disc.

For what it's worth, I had never seen One-Eyed Jacks before and was highly impressed by it. The disc looks great to my untrained eye. I think Scorsese nails it in his intro when he says how the movie was like a bridge between classic Hollywood and new Hollywood.

 

[John Hermes]

I watched the entire movie tonight with my film buddies. Nitpicking, I thought it could use a bit more overall color saturation and a slightly more blue balance. The clarity and contrast are fantastic. The sound is excellent. Another wonderful aspect are the first-generation dissolves and fades. They really keep you in the movie, unlike the all too common jarring dupe footage opticals from most older films. Great job here.

 

[Robert Harris]

I watched the entire movie tonight with my film buddies. Nitpicking, I thought it could use a bit more overall color saturation and a slightly more blue balance. The clarity and contrast are fantastic. The sound is excellent. Another wonderful aspect are the first-generation dissolves and fades. They really keep you in the movie, unlike the all too common jarring dupe footage opticals from most older films. Great job here.

First gen printer functions have nothing to don with the quality of the restoration work, or the presentation.

They are what they are, and simply a matter of how the original element was conformed.

There is no way that they could have been cut in.

 

[John Hermes]

First gen printer functions have nothing to don with the quality of the restoration work, or the presentation.

They are what they are, and simply a matter of how the original element was conformed.

There is no way that they could have been cut in.

In any case, having the dissolves and fades the same quality as the main footage gives a wonderful, involving feel to things. In my opinion, having a noticeable drop in quality during a dissolve, especially when it hangs around until the next cut is not a good thing.

 

[Robert Harris]

In any case, having the dissolves and fades the same quality as the main footage gives a wonderful, involving feel to things. In my opinion, having a noticeable drop in quality during a dissolve, especially when it hangs around until the next cut is not a good thing.

As a rule, all large format was either auto-select or A/B roll, and all early Eastman was single strand.

Probably the worst single strand offender was Giant, an otherwise beautiful beautiful production, where multiple famous shots were dupe.

 

[OliverK]

Probably the worst single strand offender was Giant, an otherwise beautiful beautiful production, where multiple famous shots were dupe.

That back then studios thought they could get away with dupes seems to indicate that they were not deemed as offensive as we see them today. Probably there was a feeling that the dupes wouldn't be that visible once the release prints were shown in the average movie theater of the day.

 

[Alan Tully]

Making dupes of dissolves meant single roll printing instead of A & B rolls, half the printing time & only cleaning one roll, so lab costs cheaper. I'm sure the dupes looked very acceptable at the time, how would they know that after fifty years the dupe stock would age much worse that the original negatives. You didn't dupe dissolves & fades with Techiscope, I wonder if it was the same with VistaVision?

 

[Robin9]

Probably the worst single strand offender was Giant, an otherwise beautiful beautiful production, where multiple famous shots were dupe.

I find Giant unwatchable. I have that James Dean Blu-ray box-set and I cannot sit through Giant because those slow dissolves look so awful.