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Schindler's List (Widescreen Edition)

Schindler's List (Widescreen Edition)

List Price: $26.98
Your Price: $18.89
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: why do we have to turn over
Review: what a great movie A1 sound and picture but why ruin it by having to turn it over, for goodness sake this is a DVD not a Laser disc. I can't believe it!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Schindler's list
Review: this was a very interesting movie, It really showed me things that i couldn't believe. How could other human beings do this. It makes me wonder how could we let something like this happen. this movie made me cry, I also got so angry at the Germen people, i can't believe some people living in Germeny let is thing happen, and what were the jewish people thinking they had time to do something too. There was enough of them to fight back.
anyway this was a great movie. I enjoyed a lot...

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: The worst DVD release ever?
Review: Well, maybe not the worst. Disney's non-skippable previews take that prize. But here it is 2004 and this studio has *finally* released this epic film on an unnecessarily (GAG!) two-sided DVD packaged in (GAG!) cardboard. What's even worse than having to get up and flip the disc over in the middle of the film is that the stupid DVD won't default to the DTS sound track. It's got that insulting message that assumes we consumers don't know what DTS is. And on my first viewing, I realized 75% thru that I was no longer hearing the better DTS soundtrack after the flip. That was so annoying it just ruined the whole experience for me.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Bad excuse for a DVD edition
Review: Everyone already knows how great and critically acclaimed this film is so this is a review of the DVD. This will probably go down as one of the biggest let-downs (for me) in DVD anticipations. Sure you have the widescreen version with great sound on DVD, but thats it. For People who already have the VHS versions, you pay more money for a little better picture and sound and you get cheated on features. Instead of a great commentary or documentary you get more preachy propaganda Spielburg dumped onto the second side of the disc. I have a feeling that Spielburg wanted the film to be the highlight of the DVD and not the extras, but in my opinion, extras never hurt...especially if your going to price it like it has tons of extras on it. If you want to be emotionally, or spiritually moved watch the movie, you don't really need to see the lousy extras. My advice is to only buy the widescreen DVD verion if you don't already have it in VHS.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Important movie gets mediocre DVD release
Review: There are at least three packaged versions of this film on DVD as of its release date: Movie/extras only, movie/extras with souvenir book, and horribly overpriced collector's edition with "sturdy" yet irrelevant display case. I bought the one with the souvenir book, primarily because it came at no additional cost over the movie-only version.

The souvenir book is a throwaway item. All it has is a few dozen stills from the film. You thumb through it once, realize it is nothing special, then set it aside, never to pick it up again in all likelihood.

The film, of course, is just shy of masterful. The DVD release offers it in DTS sound, which makes a WORLD of difference in the enjoyment of the film.

The disc is a "flipper", as they are called by DVD afficianados. A flipper is a disc that contains most of the movie on Side A and the conclusion on Side B. You have to get up and flip the disc over during the course of the film. Boo. That feature was annoying enough (though almost always necessary) with LaserDiscs, but should not have to be a factor with DVDs. [Actually, most higher-end LaserDisc players had 2-sided play -- the machine would scan the other side of the disc without you having to do anything but wait a few moments for the transition. The only real drawback was having to change discs if the film's running time necessitated more than one disc]. Other films with the same running time as "Schindler's List" have fit comfortably on one DVD disc side for uninterrupted viewing. I only know a tiny bit about technical specs and limitations on DVD disc space. Perhaps it is the inclusion of the separate DTS track space that uses up too much of the disc side to fit the whole film onto Side A. It CERTAINLY wasn't because of a director's commentary. Spielberg hates those and has pretty much promised to never make one.

The other footage/features on Side B are interesting but a bit lacking in quantity for what consumers have come to expect from high-profile DVD releases.

Other reviewers have suggested that the "flipper" disc just comes off as being cheap and low-rent: that perhaps a 2-disc set with nicely done artwork on the discs' cover side might have at least looked a bit more presentable and classy.

I agree whole-heartedly. I mean, if you're gonna have to use a second disc side to watch the film, at least a bit of physical "production value" to match the film's "event status" release would have nice.

Not that there is anything too terribly WRONG with a flip-disc movie. It's not the end of the world. But by this point in DVD history, many customers have at least a minimum expectation of the aesthetic classiness of a disc's appearance.

But we've come to expect this from Spielberg movies on DVD lately. The "Raiders" trilogy was disappointingly anemic when it came to bonus features, and only a few of those were less than 15 years old. The wonderful LaserDisc box set collector's edition of "Jaws" in 1995 had a fascinating 2 hour documentary included, but the DVD release in 2001 saw it cut down to just over half that length.

Still, it is great to have "Schindler's List" on DVD -- get it in WIDESCREEN format everyone! But don't buy it expecting a plethora of bonus features or bells and whistles. They just aren't there. There is, however, some Holocaust Survivor and Holocaust Foundation-related stuff included (the documentary stuff). But that was included more for the purpose of pushing the director's message across rather than for the purpose of treating the DVD buyers to the fun and interesting treats that can come with the nifty DVD format.

A great DVD release model for this film could have been any one of several New Line Cinema DVD releases that came out single or double disc and with tons of extras. Examples: "The Sweet Hereafter", "Se7en", and "Boogie Nights".

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: It could be worse...
Review: The folks at Universal could have used a man like Oskar "The Presentation, that's what I'm good at" Schindler to oversee the release of this DVD. As it is, I agree with my fellow reviewers, that somebody dropped the ball in putting together this DVD release. It could be worse - some genius could have tried to cram the entire 3hr, 16min film onto a single side of one disc. Warner's "JFK" is the only 3hr+ movie that I've seen on DVD that gets away with putting the entire movie on a single-sided dual-layered disc and not suffer serious quality/presentation issues. The theatrical versions of the Lord of the Rings films tried this and (compared to the special edition releases (which are spread out over two discs)) suffer the consequences.

And because the film is spread out over two-sides of a disc, once one gets past the "on-the-cheap" DVD particulars, the film looks fabulous on any widescreen TV in progessive scan. Never has the film looked this good - somebody cleaned this sucker up nicely. And for the time being, that's good enough for me even though the extras - while touching - are less than fulfilling for a movie buff. Five star movie, five-star video quality, two-star DVD production.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I would give the DVD zero stars if possible.
Review: The movie is great, but the DVD is horrible. There is absolutely NO excuse for making this disc a "flipper." I am incredibly disappointed.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Schindler's List Gift Set is the way to go.
Review: I ended up shelling out major dough for the gift set and it was worth it. I agree with the other reviewers about the flip disc nonsense, but ultimately the merits of the film outweigh the inconveniences of flipping the disc. Only two or 3 films out of the several hundred that I've seen have made me shed a tear and this was one of them. Everyone should own this movie. It's a lesson of how not only one man can save many but how even in the face of evil, hope survives.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Boring
Review: I appreciate the sentiment behind this film. I understand what this story is about (the holocaust). Its a serious subject. I tried to watch this movie on TV a few years ago and just couldn't get into it. I tried to get interested three different times, but it was just plain boring.

I also found out where the "Seinfeld" show got the idea to have one of Elaine's boyfriends carry on about how he could have "done more!" He could have shown Mr. and Mrs. Seinfeld so much more...etc etc. That's what Oskar Schindler says at the end of the movie. I'm sorry, but I couldn't help but laugh. I guess Jerry Seinfeld (who is Jewish), or his writers, felt the same way.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: For the movie, Not the DVD
Review: I agree with the other reviews. The packaging is dissapointing. One disc? It makes it harder to keep from scratching when you have to play both sides of the same disc. To me, this is something that should be discontinued by movie companies. I will not buy further seasons of "The West Wing" and "E.R." because of the flip disc thing. The book like format is a nice touch but personally I'd prefer a single disc type case with 2 disc, similiar to 'Gangs of New York', "Catch Me If You Can", "Minority Report", etc. The movie itself is excellent and Liam Neeson gives an amazing performance towards the end of the film. The bonus material is minimal.. I get the impression they are waiting for later editions to be made because once in a while you'd see a behind the scenes shot in the 1hr+ documentary 'voices from the list', which is primarily stories from the survivors. It's worth buying but Universal could've done a better job with the packaging.


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