LET'S DO A PETITION: DAWN OF THE DEAD '78 Restoration !!!!!

[The Alive Man]

All your responses are very witty, and they definitely put my fear in the refrigerator. Many thanks to everyone, glad to know that the classic has been well preserved! Quite frankly, the image is ideal, spot on as it stands in its latest incarnation. Also, quite frankly, I wouldn't want to see it polished up to ridiculously high heights. I want to feel that 70s vibe and I want to see it. Damn true, I agree. ROMERO's movies are truly cinematic "documents" of the specific times they were realized, and if they would erase that "vibe" they are gonna flush the whole point behind them...

[creepntom]

You mention 4 versions. There are really only three (unless you want to count some of the 'unofficial cuts', like the Japanese version that cuts out all the gore). You say the director's cut and extended cut. The extended version is sometimes mislabled the director's cut, this must be what you are thinking. If anything, the Theatrical version is really the director'c cut, it was the version that GAR made after the extended version. see how confusing it is

[Danny]

wait. you just want them to look more clean and modern?!? thats frikkin cinematic blasphemy thats like watching ringu and complaining its "kinda grainy" THE GRAIN IS PART OF THE CHARM, it gives it a sense of home-movie style fim makeing yet at the same time seperates you from it to such a degree you still know the horros in your head, man i friggin hate when people need to do this kind of stuff, just like george lucas and those friggin star wars re-realeases he does every few eyars. films are what they are, nospheratu wouldnt be as cool wihtout the grainy 1900's style picture, if you want a clean cut thing view the damn remake dont try to change a directors work to be more suitable on a hdtv, thats like saying dawn should be shot more like dawn 04' because the natural lighting was too fake

[MinionZombie]

*ahem* Nosferatu - 1922 That thar is a 1920's vibe, a vibe where the film was all-but destroyed completely due to people whinging about copyright back in the day, thankfully someone managed to preserve most of a copy long enough for folk today to restore it. Just a shame some of the scenes were lost forever. And indeed - Dawn of the Dead comes in 3 (official) flavours: Extended - incorrectly labelled as "the director's cut" in the UK with the 1997 BMG release. It was the Cannes cut that GAR originally showed at fests before cutting it down to... Theatrical - GAR himself considers this not only his favourite cut, but he considers it his director's cut. European - Dario Argento comes along and adds in a bunch of deleted shots/scenes which are cool to see, but the never-ending wall-to-wall misplaced Goblin music is grinding, it spoils the true vision GAR had in my opinion.

[axlish]

The Rated R cut mentioned earlier would be nice to have on disc somewhere as a novelty, but to be honest, I'd probably only watch it once just to see what they removed. I'll go a step further. The Theatrical Cut is too re-mastered. I prefer a DVD that I made from the full screen Cannes Extended Cut VHS. It features the dull ghastly whites from the dawn sunlight shining through the mall's skylights. Dang it, SCREEN CAPS COMING SOON...

[MaximusIncredulous]

There was an R Rated Theatrical cut released in a doublr bill with Firday the 13th that was pulled from release after a week or two. The R version I saw was teamed up with Creepshow back in '83.

[capncnut]

The R version I saw was teamed up with Creepshow back in '83. Yeah, to make the double bill Dawn had to be cut down to Creepshow's certificate apparently. I heard they were pretty brutal.

[The Alive Man]

wait. you just want them to look more clean and modern?!? thats frikkin cinematic blasphemy thats like watching ringu and complaining its "kinda grainy" THE GRAIN IS PART OF THE CHARM It seems to me that the DAWN 4-disc set presents unnoticeable scratches at some points, but it doesn't look GRAINY, ain't it?

[Monrozombi]

theres only some much polishing you can do to a film, any film. A film like DOTD is only going to get to a certain point where it won't be able to be refined any further. Will we see an HD-DVD or Blue-Ray version of this film, probably not. The 4 disc set that came out has the best remastering of the film ever. I just got a 42" plasma tv and thats the first thing I played on it, and I played it on an upconvert dvd player and it came out looking better then it did when I watched it on a standard tv. A restoration of the Argento cut would be nice but thats about it. Movies made back in the day (before the 80s) will never look as good as something filmed today. The film stock used was probably not the best, especially if the film wasn't big budget to begin with. A good example of a great restoration is the Elite dvd of NOTLD 68. It still has its flaws but looks great none the less

[MinionZombie]

Have you still not bought the 4 disc Ultimate Edition of Dawn? Geez man, just buy the damn thing, it IS the best version of Dawn on DVD out there, it's fantastic and like I've said several times before - the image is fantastic. JUST BUY IT!!!

[Philly_SWAT]

According to many of you, the THEATRICAL VERSION of DAWN'78 (which is the *CANON*, opposite to the other two versions) is not *RESTORED*. Scratches, spots, and a substantial lack of that "digital sheer" you claim for. They can do that. They can re-animate this dead corpse as well. It's not matter of the stock Romero used to film the movie. It IS possible to restore the movie... trust me. Let's do a petition. Damn true, I agree. ROMERO's movies are truly cinematic "documents" of the specific times they were realized, and if they would erase that "vibe" they are gonna flush the whole point behind them... The Alive Man.......are you arguing with yourself now??

[MinionZombie]

I know, that's what I was thinking ... so I'm not going crazy after all ... well, that's good! Can I say it any simpler than this: Dawn 4-disc Ultimate Edition DVD is the ONLY Dawn DVD you will ever need. It's fantastic. Nuff-friggin-said, now go buy it already!

[Philly_SWAT]

I know, that's what I was thinking ... so I'm not going crazy after all ... well, that's good! Can I say it any simpler than this: Dawn 4-disc Ultimate Edition DVD is the ONLY Dawn DVD you will ever need. It's fantastic. Nuff-friggin-said, now go buy it already! I wish you would have told me this before I bought 5 Laserdiscs, 7 DVD's, and probably 10 VHS!!!! I might even have more than that!!

[Danny]

The Alive Man.......are you arguing with yourself now?? wouldnt be surprised after he ranted with himself for liking/hating imdb or something last month

[The Alive Man]

wouldnt be surprised after he ranted with himself for liking/hating imdb or something last month I'm not so much contradictory. I'm just convincing myself. People change opinions, sometimes... I'm one of them. What's wrong with letting yourself convinced by witty and experienced people like you all? What are the flaws of the NIGHT ELITE version, by the way?