How can you modernise a classic film? Bring it out on a shiny disc!

I recently saw a poster informing me Scarface was going to be released onto Blu-ray disc soon. It made me wonder...

Films nowadays are shot using the latest High Definition (HD) technology, utilising ultimate picture clarity and audio. Films are produced to be made using the latest technology to get the best out of the film.

Image: scottchan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

However classic films were shot using technology that was terrible by today's standards. The film was grainy, the sound was crackly and distorted...

So why are production companies spending so much time and effort to bring shoddily made films (in a technological sense, I mean) out on a format designed for perfection?

(OK, This is a rhetorical question - I know there are financial implications, but I am not going into that!)

Since DVD was offered as a consumer film format - one that included cleaner sound and picture quality; that could contain more footage than on traditional VHS format and was easier to navigate than holding Fast Forward button for 25 minutes - films have offered as many extras that can be squeezed onto a disc as possible...

Audio commentaries; film trailers; alternative endings; deleted scenes and out-takes are often featurettes included onto a DVD, along with the main film...

These can be included because were planned as additional features for the DVD release during the production of the film.

However - will classic films that were produced in the cinematic dark ages have any of these extras because they are now available on DVD / Blu-ray (the latest successor to DVD)?!

Probably not...

The reason - when films were originally shot, DVD wasn't an available format, and so the production probably didn't have 'added extras' in mind:

Despite being well ahead of his time, I doubt Orson Welles thought "I think I should keep all of the bad takes, in case they develop a format that is capable of showing them in an amusing manner..." when he was directing Citizen Kane...

I'm fairly sure Clark Gable didn't sit down to offer an audio commentary during the post production of Gone with the Wind, and it was also highly unlikely that Warren Beatty had the hindsight to create alternative endings when he produced Bonnie and Clyde. (Although perhaps he should have to save countless film producers creating their own parodies!)

Even though these films often undergo a digital remastering (the audio and visual elements are digitally cleaned up), personally, I don't think classic films gain anything by being re-released on the latest technology format. 

I think there should be a real need to digitally enhance a classic film to make it better, and this is rare. 

The digital remastering of Star Wars is a good example - the effects George Lucas originally had in mind had to be created years after using CGI techniques not available when the film was first made!

However, I think otherwise classic films should be left as they were made originally... Or things could get silly!

What's next? Casablanca in 3D?!
Play it again, Sam!

- TheLittlerich.