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Why Doesn’t Terry Gilliam Want You To Buy TIDELAND On DVD In The US?!
Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.
I wonder if Terry Gilliam’s displeasure with this transfer has anything to do with ThinkFilm’s reluctance to send out screener copies of the disc, or if they’re just working to fix the issue already. Whatever the case, this will be worth digging further into in the weeks ahead, and for now, Brendon Connelly is on the case.
Read ‘em and weep.
No. Seriousy. Weep.
ThinkFilm have wantonly disregarded the mastering specifications of Terry Gilliam and butchered his film Tideland on DVD.
Here's a couple of posts from film ick, the first explaining the current situation and containing statements from Terry;
And the second with a statement from Nicola Pecorini, the film's cinematographer.
I thought that this kind of bad mastering was behind us so far into the DVD age.
PLEASE consider running a piece on this. I think ThinkFilm need to be 'named and shamed'. The statement from them in the first post above is pretty damning.
Thanks for reading,
Brendon
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I was about to buy the DVD site unseen. I guess I'll order the UK version now...
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...we could get a balls out version of Baron Münchhausen on DVD
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I must stand here and confess my sin today... j/k, or am I? I saw they were releasing tideland on DVD. It never came to a theater anywhere near me. I felt the clarion call to buy a copy. And now have that abortion thinkfilm put out (assuming that's the one they're hocking on amazon) hell and damnation what is a dude supposed to do????
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or else I wouldn't have seen the great movie Three Burials of Melqiades Estrada.
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Somehow, I doubt that'll happen.
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Who would have cared about this ten years ago? I know this two point summink point summink business is important to a select few, but it's no wonder Gilliam struggles to get films made when he pitches fits over every little thing.That said, I'm looking forward to seeing this one. Even if it's crap, crap Gilliam is better than crap everyone else.
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*sigh* still haven't woke up yet this morning
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Who has the rights to Munchausen now? Too bad Criterion couldn't issue a DVD of their amazing laserdisc with Gilliam commentary.
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CURSED, i tell you!
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Your post displays a staggering ignorance about screen ratios and cinematographical composition.
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It's all a bit whiny, regardess of how much you know about screen ratios. It's not like they released a 90-minute edit of the film.
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I got the movie in the correct ratio.
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Damn it.
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I still maintain it doesn't matter all that much. Either the film's good or it isn't, and what most people want is to see the images and hear the sounds with as few adverts as possible. Bonus points for the word cinematographical, though. I'm glad to hear you've moved on from your zoetrope. I myself have recently purchased a monaural phonograph, but I can't figure out where the USB ports are.
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amazon.ca
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Perhaps it doesn't matter to the average punter on the street. But it's a bit like covering up a third of the Mona Lisa and expecting no one to complain.
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I am still pissed Coppola refuses to release Apocalypse Now in 2.35:1. now *that* is one DVD I will not be buying.
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I agree, that was a bloody annoying decision...
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Anyone remember the re-issue of BTTF they did a few years back when they found that the second DVD was incorrectly centered, cutting off the top of the screen?
They let you send it back and get it exchanged for free.
These guys should do that sort of thing.
Sadly, Gilliam's Curse (TM) probably won't allow that to happen, though... -
one is a fine dvd indeed, thank you very much. Except i was hoping for some subtitles. I mean understanding the spoken language is one thing, Jeff Bridges on drugs is a hole other ballgame.
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This autumn. The links Moriarty posted are to film ick, and the story was there a couple of weeks back.
What can I say? I'm big on Gilliam.
Next in the list is a special edition of The Fisher King, I feel. -
This might have been better served if it was PUT OUT LAST WEEK!!! BEFORE EVERY GILLIAM FAN WENT OUT AND BOUGHT THE DAMN THING!!! DAMMIT!!! I haven't watched it yet. But the packing is off, and it's not returnable after that. SON OF A... How about letting the public know this ahead of time, Terry.
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One, comparing this new Gilliam (from what I've heard - I've yet to see it) to the Mona Lisa is a little too much. If we were talking about Brazil I'd go along with you, but come on.Second, have you been to see the Mona Lisa? With the glare on that bullet-proof glass and all the tourists crowding in front of it, you can hardly see the thing anyway.
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Multi-regional dvd player and can order this sucka from Sendit.com.
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Multi-regional dvd player and can order this sucka from Sendit.com.
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Rottentomatoes has Tideland rated at 26%. Who cares what the transfer is when the movie is this much of a steaming turd.
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...I wouldn't want anyone buying it either.
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Who the fuck cares what they say? Gilliam is a true auteur. Make your own mind up, slack boy
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but people keep screwing him over.
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Seriously horrible. And I love me some Terry G.
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he just said he's unhappy with the way it's been released. two completely different things. personally, i loved the movie and got to see the man himself in a q&a. but considering the fact that this movie is regarded as a failure by the industry to the point where they didn't even promote its limited release, i don't think "not buying" it will help matters. the studios will just see the lousy sales as a failure on terry'spart and hold it against him in future business endeavors. so i's a lose-lose situation for gilliam as well as the fans.
one funny but extremely sad moment in the q&a was when an audience member asked gilliam if he had any advice for independent filmmakers. his advice was don't even try. just give up. he's a master filmmaker, and he can't even get his movies distributed to audiences. -
I haven't seen it. Does it suck because the studio made him butcher it in post, so there will be a director's cut coming in a few months, or does it suck because it sucks?
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Gilliam DID say he didn't want people to buy it. That is EXACTLY what he said!
Gilliam only found out about the botched transfer in the last 48hrs or so. He's as shocked and apalled as the rest of us.
Incidentally, I was asked to remove David Hudakoc's postal address and phone number from the piece. I complied, but they can't be that hard to find if you know how to use google.
Thank heavens nobody put them in here where they can't be so easily deleted. -
Everyone knows those black bars shouldn't be there on the movies.
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I wasn't comparing Tideland to the Mona Lisa, merely the analogy that you can't just arbitrarily cut off pieces of someone else's art. I'm not a big fan of the Mona Lisa myself but it was the first thing that came to mind.
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Where did you hear about the Munchausen special edition? Will it have the Criterion Gilliam commentary?
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lists two versions of tideland... one has no details at all (and there's only 2 copies left) while the other is the ThinkFilm version with a 1.77:1 ratio... d'oh.
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Honestly I thought it was a sweet and tender film. I have a feeling a lot of people just can't get over the disturbing material and actually look at what the film really is.
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I bought my copy the day it showed up on store shelves. Oops.
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...and I can't be more thrilled. I do wish I could see some of the original moon sequences, though - did they have storyboards for it on the laser?
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I didn't even realize it had been cropped to 16x9, I've only watched the special features so far and didn't think anything of it. Goddammit, now I can't return it. Motherfucking Think Film had better offer an exchange policy, because I'm sick of getting raped for buying DVDs when they come out. Lionsgate did the same thing with Lord of War, and my shitty ass 16x9 edition is still sitting on the shelf waiting to be replaced. I'm just not in the mood to give them more money for fucking me over.
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and Harry & Co. never see fit to direct us to the products even when they're the subject of the post? How tough would it be to include a link to the proper aspect ratio copy of Tideland? You've got our attention, now go the extra mile.
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really, just a bloody awful movie. there's reason it got shit on, and it's not just due to gilliam's famous bad luck this time. i love terry gilliam dearly and i'll go to bat for any of his other films but tideland was a fucking mess. sorry if i can't get worked up about the aspect ratio of a film this unbelievably shitty.
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Damn you ThinkFilm! If you have any sort of class, you would fix it and set up a DVD exchange program, but you probably won't. Oh well, I was hoping for a Criterion Collection version in the next couple of years anyway. BTW, GREAT NEWS about the Baron Munchausen SE if it happens, sucks to be me as I ended up buying that last year for a few bucks after years and years of holding out for a SE that never arrived.
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I suspect that most of the ads placed on AICN are done through Google ads or similar placement services that crawl a page for content and then place the ad. Harry and company probably have no more control over the ads placed here than those companies who came under fire for having ads being placed on Ann Couletr's website after she called someone a F****t in public last week.
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I'm not even sure what any of this means. But why can't seasoned directors just get the movie they made out the way they want it? It's pretty ridiculous. I thought advances in technology were going to make it easier for filmmakers to do their own thing. Is it getting worse or better?
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Jeebus. Rat bastard psychotics. Though a lot of companies are downgrading their dvd output to push us consumers to the new standards.
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I saw it in the theatre with perfect sound and perfect picture and it was still a fucking mess. I'm talking diaper filled with Indian food mess. Just awful. In fact, even talking about it makes me angry all over again. Hard to believe this was from the same guy who gave us Brazil.
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...not one of his better efforts.
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Some film snobs will call it a masterpiece just because it's "Different". The film is terrible. Who would want to waste money on it?
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Gilliam wants 2.25:1 and Pecorini wasnts 2.35:1 So no matter what is released, some ninny will say it's wrong.
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Come on, no matter how you slice it, Gilliam's recent films have been awful.
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Cause everyone knows that's a reliable source for information.
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People shat on Night of the Hunter when it first came out too. And yes, I am making that explicit comparison.
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THIS...IS...SPARTA!!
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You won't turn this into the new AICN phrase of the week. For that would be madness. And Sparta!
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I love Terry Gilliam. I think he is the coolest ever. I grew up with his movies. He is one of the greatest American directors around. But Tideland. Yuhhhh. It hurt me to dislike it, but it is a fucking mess. There's no way around it. It is cool just BECAUSE it's so fucking loony and all over the place, but that's not good for repeat viewings. See it once out of morbid curiousity. Or something. I don't know. Tideland is pretty bad. I'm so sorry Terry.
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I agree with Traumnovelle. I love Terry Gilliam's films deeply and tried, tried, tried to like "Tideland" but with every minute more I watched of this, let's just say it, boring mess, it started to get like being with a friend you love who you start to realize is having a really, really, really bad day and the best thing you can do for him right now is to leave him alone for a little while and hope he works things out.
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http://snipurl.com/1cbh0
Now including a useful telephone number -
"Bad Mastering." Wasn't he the guy who shot a man just for snoring too loud? Not the kind of man you want on your six.
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I have to give Terry credit. He went and found a brilliant, unfilmable, deeply disturbing book that spoke to him. He managed to get it made as a true independant film as labor of love, knowing full well that many many people would hate it but hoping that maybe, just maybe, it would speak deeply to some people as it did for him. It did speak to some people, maybe not enough to have a cult audience but some people out there love it. Terry Gilliam is standing up for those people, and the artists whose work is routinely butchered by studios. Go get em.
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I have to give Terry credit. He went and found a brilliant, unfilmable, deeply disturbing book that spoke to him. He managed to get it made as a true independant film as labor of love, knowing full well that many many people would hate it but hoping that maybe, just maybe, it would speak deeply to some people as it did for him. It did speak to some people, maybe not enough to have a cult audience but some people out there love it. Terry Gilliam is standing up for those people, and the artists whose work is routinely butchered by studios. Go get em.
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... but this really was one of the worst films I've ever had the misfortune of seeing. I was really excited about it since I like Gilliam, and hearing it was dark and unconventional made me even more interested. But it was just so annoying and boring. Gilliam's introduction was the best part of the whole film. Normally I respect an artist for taking chances, but this... The closest I've come to walking out of a film my entire life.
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I thought Tideland was great. Never thought a movie would be to twisted for AICNers, guess you guys just couldn't hadle the "gruesome" situations. By the way, see you all at Hills Have Eyes 2, it might just be a little more tame than Tideland.
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now thats one Im really interested in.
Robin williams at his best. and ya gotta love jeff bridges as well. he and terry seem to get along well, what with him working with the director more than once.
the whole aspect thing really doesnt phase me that much, but im with the people who say, let a director put out the film the way he intended it to be seen and stop fucking with the aspects. most people prolly wont notice the difference anyways, but still.....
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Fuck those motherfuckers! And if nobody else has yet, I hereby coin the new name "StinkFilm" or "ThinkFailm" or "FinkFilm" or "FlimFlam" or whatver I'm going to bed. But I agree they should eat shit.
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He's not cursed, he's just belligerent. He's made some fantastic and amazing films, but he's also made utter shite. The Brothers Grimm was a steaming pile of shite and Tideland is no better. Yeah, it's great to be an artist and independent but for fucks sake if you want to keep working make something that people want to see. Even guys like Jarmusch manage to make watchable, independent films on shoestring budgets. It's possible Terry.
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He was with Eric Idle, and they were sitting a couple tables over from us at a show. They were cool enough to give my buddy's wife autographs and take a photo with her. They also let her sit them for 15 minutes. I regret not imposing as well, but she was geeking out the most, so we let her have the honors.
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he seems to be always challenging himself and audiences, challenging what is and isn't part of modern filmmaking. in many ways, i felt Tideland forces an audience to retain its 'sense of childhood perception' during ever-increasing plot and character threads against it. i'll definitely see it again.
MY POINT IS -- I like that Gilliam is pushing his own filmmaking senses and boundaries every time... whether i like his individual films or not. if he thinks his particular film is unlike what he himself thinks he is capable of, then and only then would i be disappointed with Mr. Gilliam.
my personal faves of his are Brazil, The Fisher King and Time Bandits. those are the one's i like best, but are not necessarily the only films i think are successful of his efforts. i just really like seeing a director push a REAL VISION forward, even if i don't "enjoy" the movie. -
This guy can't make a movie without some kind of problem. It gets a little boring after a while. Don't worry, Terry, I won't be buying this DVD.
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Sucks you have to dish out the ass for the price of a R2 disc. John Carpenter's STARMAN is no longer in widescreen format with extras, only some shitty "fullscreen" version with no extras. I got the widescreen R2 version from a seller on Ebay for $6. Much better disc.
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...but it is good. The haters probably all think Jefff Bridges died in the movie. All Gilliams films have the reality/fantasy dichotomy going on, but here the level of reality is MUCH more hidden than usual, and there is more than one level of fantasy. Most folk are mislead, and end up hatin'. "Too boring" is a common complaint from those guys. It's not what you think.
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Watch Lost in LaMancha and see a director who can't take control of his own movie, and then sulks and blames it on The Suits. Ridley Scott should produce Gilliam's movies--there's a guy who, like his movies or not--takes command on the set and doesn't just whine when it rains or whatever. Also, some of his great ideas--Muchausen--are never really worked out in the script stage. When he has a solid script--12 Monkeys, Brazil, Fisher King, Fear and Loathing--he's very good. But he needs a solid producer to stand up for him, because he seems to polite to take command of his own set.
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I hear that looks like Babe too. For every kid in peril movie there's a friendly family film where kids are just kids.
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yeah, he totally blamed the weather on the suits. he totally blamed the star's failing health on the suits.sigh...
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It's always something whenever Terry Gilliam makes a film, isn't it?? From Universal Pictures attempting to recut Brazil, to the misfortunes that plagues Baron Munchausen and Don Quixote, and even the Weinsteins bothering him whilst he made The Brothers Grimm. Tideland got made without a flaw, and now it's disaster comes on DVD...
That doesn't stop Gilliam from being the best director there is though. If only the studios could cut him some slack, and actually greenlight some of his films, it'll be what we ALL want!! ;) -
ebayed a r2 couple of days ago, could have done that awhle ago but who knew. Just a question about the process of mastering this film to dvd. does that mean that they snipped the top and bottom of the frame losing part of the picture or did giliam snip the sides himself.. either way i want to see gilliams version.
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no studios want to work with the fucker cos he's scarey to the hollywood birds to look at. looks like he'd eat their kids...then sell them back to them a few hours later in an asda bag, if u know what i mean. brazil was good tho
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The problem is that he Makes movies that are vast and utterly shambolic at the same time. The movies he makes are astounding and magnificent to look but have utterly incohrent and rambling stories. Take baron Munchhausen. Looks fab but the story is about the adventures of baron munchhausen and what else exactly. People give out about hollywood system on this site. But gilliam creates terror among studio execs because of the sheer length of time it takes to make his movies. Nobody will take him on becuase once they do he asks for more time and more money and wont tell them what the story is about. Baron Munchausen nearly closed down the studio that made it. Why? gilliam kept asking for more and more money. The story behind the making of brazil is one of the greatest movies stories of all time. Brazil looks great and it is Gilliams undisputed masterpiece. Magnificent. But it brought the studio that made it to its knees. His last proper film was HUnter S. Thompson's fear and loathing Las Vegas. A film that was considered to be so awful, that many predicted it would not only gilliams career but depps too. How depp walked away from that carnage and survived I will never know.
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