Posted by Rich on December 01, 1999 at 04:29:03:
Well ... it's happened! Rich & Elaine have seen the new release, on DVD, of "The Last of the Mohicans!" .... Well, sort of ....
Coming home at lunch time ... I have a God-awful TWO hour lunch ... DVD player in hand ... I proceeded to attack our audio/video system thinking I'd have it all set up in a matter of minutes! Ha HA!!!!!!! Our little maze of wires & plugs connecting satellite receiver, TV, stereo system, VCR ... now a DVD player ... was too entangled to believe ... Two hours, and lunch passes, and now NOTHING worked! Good job, Rich! Back to work ...
Coming home at night, I wolfed down some Domino's pizza and proceeded to dismantle & re-wire the entire set-up! It wasn't easy, but everything was now working properly ... Only problem was ... it was now BEDTIME!!!! I couldn't resist, though, I HAD to catch a glimpse of this DVD ... our one & only! Popped in the disk ...
WOW!!!!
Firstly, we had a ball playing with the little interactive menus that allow scene selection, etc. Finally bored with that, I endlessly played with the zoom control, allowing for intimate close-ups, freeze frame (perfectly clear stills), slo'-mo', etc. Pretty neat! Where was this thing when I was trying to find the locations????
So, we watched the first third or so ... then skipped to the last scene ... then to bed. A complete viewing to look forward to tonight.
Not disappointed, though, I can tell you that!
It seems to me, there are various ways to look at this thing. One is simply as a DVD release. Another as a Director's Cut release. Then, it can be viewed through the eyes of someone who has seen the film countless times, or by someone who has never seen it ... or maybe not in years ...
We'll have lots more to say after seeing it in its entirety, but ... DVD is absolutely fantastic. There's no going back to video. Little perks aside (interactive stuff, etc.), the image quality is near perfection ... Much like seeing the film on the big screen. Images & details pop out at you, particularly in the night scenes where EVERYTHING is noticeable. Brilliant images! Superb, rich, colors! The sound FAR surpasses what we've heard previously with videos. Heard things I'd never heard before! For those two qualities alone, this disk is very much worth buying & owning & watching ... over & over. It is LOTS of fun!
We saw some new things in the way of added footage, including, as I said, the ending, but our opinions will have to wait until tonight ... We will write a complete review & add it to our DC Page ... Surely, our expectations for this release & what has come to pass are different. We want to make that clear on that page. However, after realizing it isn't exactly what we thought it might be - and coming to grips with that - it's not necessarily for the worse ...
See it!