Criterion DVDs/Blurays

[impala454]

So I was at Fry's the other day looking for some old movies. I found this great list of (mostly) older movies and was looking for a few at Fry's when I saw a whole section labeled "Criterion". They appear to be high quality versions of older movies. Does anyone have experience with them? They had blurays and DVDs, and definitely seemed to fetch a higher price.

Oh and here's the list I got, taken from www.artofmanliness.com
I've seen about 1/3 of them but am going to start from scratch watching them all!

edit: I"m going to update the list with a * and date watched as I go through them!

100 Must See Movies For Men

[size=3]1. The Great Escape
2. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
3. Dirty Harry
4. The Endless Summer
5. Bull Durham
6. The Apartment
7. The Shootist
8. Hoosiers
9. Last of the Mohicans
10. The Bicycle Thief
11. Field of Dreams
12. North by Northwest
13. The Outsiders
14. First Blood (Rambo)
15. The Manchurian Candidate
16. In the Heat of the Night
17. Shane
18. Double Indemnity
19. Mar Adentro (The Sea Inside)
20. The Maltese Falcon
21. Das Boot
22. Star Wars (The Original Trilogy)
23. Rudy
24. High Noon
25. Gandhi
26. Rebel Without a Cause
27. The French Connection
28. Casablanca
29. Unforgiven
*30. The Iron Giant (3/15/2012)
31. Gladiator
32. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
33. The Hustler
34. The Untouchables
35. The Grapes of Wrath
36. Bullitt
37. The Best Years of Our Lives
38. Die Hard
39. Enter the Dragon
40. Malcolm X
41. Cinderella Man
42. The Right Stuff
43. True Grit
44. A Streetcar Named Desire
45. Vertigo
46. All Quiet on the Western Front
47. The Shawshank Redemption
48. Cool Hand Luke
49. Spartacus
50. Mississippi Burning
51. Chinatown
52. Remember the Titans
53. Braveheart
54. Citizen Kane
55. On the Waterfront
*56. The Bourne Identity (The Series) (3/17/2012)
57. Rocky
*58. Apollo 13 (3/14/2012)
59. Glory
60. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
61. The Karate Kid
62. The African Queen
63. The Sting
64. Chariots of Fire
65. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
66. Schindler’s List
67. All the President’s Men
68. Zulu
69. Patton
70. Lawrence of Arabia
71. The Godfather (I and II)
72. 12 Angry Men
73. Lord of the Rings (The Series)
74. Gangs of New York
75. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
76. Dead Poets Society
77. The Searchers
78. Pride of the Yankees
79. Saving Private Ryan
80. American Beauty
81. Seven Samurai
82. From Here to Eternity
83. Old Yeller
84. To Kill a Mockingbird
85. Dr. No
86. Jeremiah Johnson
87. A River Runs Through It
88. Bridge On the River Kwai
89. Gentleman’s Agreement
90. Fight Club
91. Indiana Jones (Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade)
92. It’s a Wonderful Life
93. A Raisin in the Sun
94. The Natural
95. Ghostbusters
96. Ben Hur
97. Groundhog Day
98. Top Gun
99. Swingers
100. The Longest Day[/size]

[P-Dub]

Criterion's were known for a combination of high quality transfers and additional features to the regular DVD's. I don't know if they would hold up to current transfers on Blu-Ray, but in the past the Criterion's always sold for a premium.

I would say it should come down to the movie, if it one you like, then the Criterion would be worth it.

However, with the advent of Bluray, in my mind there should be no excuse for a great transfer and lots of extra's.

I do have the Criterion version of "The Rock".

I thought I would do a count of the list, and turns out I've seen about 40 of those movies. A lot more than I expected. Some I doubt I'll go see, but other's will be ones to go have a spin.

Some movies that that I have not seen.

2. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
27. The French Connection
30. The Iron Giant
36. Bullitt
57. Rocky
63. The Sting
66. Schindler’s List
70. Lawrence of Arabia

One that I did see, quite early in my youth.

37. The Best Years of Our Lives

I think it holds up even in this day and age. Saw a bit of it just last year while surfing the channels.

[bigburner]

100 Must See Movies For Men

No "Pulp Fiction"? Can't be taken seriously. Well it's not a bad list actually.

Nigel.

[madmac]

I agree with Paul on this one. In the early days of DVD, the Criterion's were kinda' like the SACD's of DVD's but nowadays, I find the DVD and Blu ray quality excellent. Dvd quality is Soooo good today, that it actually competes with BD quality a lot of times. Except for the sound of course!!. I still can't get over how good the audio is outta' Blu ray!.

What 'they' have to start doing is using the BD medium for audio recordings.....kinda' like they did with DVD-A. Now THAT would be something!!!

[bbggg]

Criterion transfers are the very best, I remember being impressed by Renoir's "La Regle du Jeu", a film that requires technical excellence because of its deep focus technique.

[Chris D]

Totally agree, that Criterion movies (and Superbit movies as well) were good in the age of the DVD, but Blu-Ray makes them all equally obsolete.

Some great movies on that list. Some made me laugh, like Godfather I and II (but not III) and omitting "Indiana Jones II". Lots on there I haven't seen, but are on my Netflix list.

Paul, my personal feedback on the movies you mention:

- You're in for a treat with Bullitt. The driving scenes in that film are legendary.
- You're in for a treat with Rocky. I think we all forget how great the original was, that it was written by Stallone himself, and that Rocky didn't even win in the end!!! The sequels kind of make us forget that about the original.
- You're in for a treat with "The Sting". What a great movie and GREAT plot! I still enjoy this one today, and is Redford and Newman at their finest.
- I do think every human being needs to see Schindler's List. I'm glad I saw it, but have no desire to ever see it again. I distinctly remember seeing it when it came out in the theater, and when the end credits rolled, NOBODY in the theater moved, or talked. We all just sat there in stunned silence. Truly moving movie, and IMHO, something that we all need to acknowledge as a part of human history, regardless of how horrible it is.

[impala454]

Thanks for the info guys. So some of you mentioned with bluray the criterion isn't as big of a deal anymore, but what about the criterion blurays?? In that section at Fry's I saw both DVDs and blurays. So would a criterion bluray be absolute top notch in comparison with another bluray of the same film?

Oh and just for kicks here's my unseen list (lots I know!). I'm still going to rewatch them all. I'm documenting it and will see how long it takes me to get through them all

1. The Great Escape
2. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
4. The Endless Summer
5. Bull Durham
6. The Apartment
7. The Shootist
9. Last of the Mohicans
10. The Bicycle Thief
12. North by Northwest
13. The Outsiders
15. The Manchurian Candidate
16. In the Heat of the Night
17. Shane
18. Double Indemnity
19. Mar Adentro (The Sea Inside)
20. The Maltese Falcon
21. Das Boot
24. High Noon
26. Rebel Without a Cause
27. The French Connection
28. Casablanca
29. Unforgiven
32. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
33. The Hustler
34. The Untouchables
36. Bullitt
37. The Best Years of Our Lives
39. Enter the Dragon
40. Malcolm X
41. Cinderella Man
42. The Right Stuff
43. True Grit
44. A Streetcar Named Desire
45. Vertigo
46. All Quiet on the Western Front
48. Cool Hand Luke
49. Spartacus
50. Mississippi Burning
51. Chinatown
54. Citizen Kane
55. On the Waterfront
57. Rocky
62. The African Queen
63. The Sting
64. Chariots of Fire
65. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
66. Schindler’s List
67. All the President’s Men
68. Zulu
69. Patton
70. Lawrence of Arabia
74. Gangs of New York
75. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
76. Dead Poets Society
77. The Searchers
78. Pride of the Yankees
81. Seven Samurai
82. From Here to Eternity
83. Old Yeller
84. To Kill a Mockingbird
85. Dr. No
86. Jeremiah Johnson
87. A River Runs Through It
88. Bridge On the River Kwai
89. Gentleman’s Agreement
93. A Raisin in the Sun
94. The Natural
96. Ben Hur
97. Groundhog Day
99. Swingers
100. The Longest Day

[impala454]

Heck I think I'll just update the first post whenever I watch one

[Ovation]

I've seen 68 of the movies on the list (a bit more if you count individual titles for some of their "groups").

I have a number of Criterion DVDs and Blu-rays. So far all have been excellent and I have a list of Blu-rays by them that I plan to add to the collection. Besides excellent transfers and making a number of foreign films available that would otherwise not be, Criterion offers excellent supplements. They do not tend towards the PR-heavy "making of" extras that one usually finds. Instead, they are quite substantial in quality and quantity. Criterion actually pioneered the inclusion of a commentary track back in the days of laserdisc and some of those laserdiscs are highly prized by collectors for their extras (licensing issues sometimes mean that extras included on a Criterion release in the laserdisc era are not carried over to DVD/BD).

If a Criterion edition of a film that is personally important to you ever comes out, I strongly recommend getting it.

[P-Dub]

Hey Chuck,

Would you be into starting a new topic for each movie seen? Just a way to start some discussions as you watch each one.

I noticed you knocked off a few already. I am interested in your thoughts on Iron Giant.

I really don't know if the picture and sound transfer is better on the bluray criterions. In the DVD days, they did new transfers and that is one reason for the increase in cost. As mentioned the additional content is another reason.

It would make sense to assume that a criterion bluray should be the best picture, sound and have the best extra content. However, I would search out for a reviewer that had done a full comparison.

[impala454]

Maybe I'll just make a separate thread for the top 100 list, so we don't get a ton of different threads.

[impala454]

Here goes the spinoff thread: http://www.htguide.com/forum/showthr...970#post549970

we can keep this one to discuss the criterion stuff!