The most striking thing about Paramount's new Centennial Collection DVD of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is a dramatic improvement in image clarity and contrast. By comparison, the original transfer is an under-lit, badly-done scan. Note in the screen captures I've included below: the old disc had a terrible matte job that's off-kilter.
Previous 2001 Paramount DVD of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (top) and the new 2009 Centennial Collection DVD (bottom). Captures taken by me, please credit if you use. Click on the images to view in larger size.
The old 2001 disc, which will now be relegated to the 25 cent bin at your local DVD shop, only had the Theatrical Trailer as an extra. Even that looks better on the new one. The feature takes up the first disc on its own, with two commentaries. The Feature Commentary is done by Peter Bogdanovich with interspersed archival recordings of John Ford & Jimmy Stewart. There's a Selected Scene Commentary that includes archival audio of John Ford, Jimmy Stewart, and Lee Marvin with an intro by Ford's grandson Dan. I've listened to pieces of both, and I can tell you right now that film students will be plagiarizing these tracks before I finish writing this. The major standout is a 7-part The Size of Legends, The Soul of Myth [50:52] featurette, viewable in chapters or all at once. There's a Still Gallery with Lobby Cards and production stills aplenty too.
Previous 2001 Paramount DVD of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (top) and the new 2009 Centennial Collection DVD (bottom). Captures taken by me, please credit if you use. Click on the images to view in larger size.
This movie will look even better in the inevitable Blu-ray upgrade. No plans or release date for that currently exist, but the sooner a Liberty Valance Blu-ray exists, the sooner people's dads start buying Blu-ray players. As it stands, this DVD edition is still fine for Western fans like me or those buying presents for John Wayne/John Ford devotees. This is one of three notable Western DVD releases this week, along with an upgrade on El Dorado and the first DVD release of Catlow, starring Yul Brynner, Richard Crenna, and Leonard Nimoy (as the villain). Why no one seems to be covering this release or the others this week is beyond me.
Click on the box art to order from Amazon. At the time of this writing, it's $14.49.
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