MovieChat Forums > Dracula (1979) Discussion > Predict the year when we will get a rele...

Predict the year when we will get a release of the color version?

posted 9 years ago by Navaros
16 replies | jump to latest

The purpose of this thread is to predict the year when we will get a release of the color version.

I haven't watched this since I was a kid but I know it's a great film and I don't want to sully my memories of it by watching the inferior version that is now available. So I'll wait 'til the color version is released.

I don't know much about how studios decide when to release proper versions of films and when not to, so I wouldn't know what year to predict myself.

What are your predictions for the year when we will get a release of the color version?

[–] preppy-3 9 years ago

I'd say we'll have to wait until director John Badham passes away. He's the one who unwisely drained the color away. Seriously--did the guy ever realize how wrong he is? The undead Lucy had glowing red eyes in the full color version. Now her eyes look white! It totally destroys the shock in seeing her.

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Navaros 9 years ago

The undead Lucy had glowing red eyes in the full color version. Now her eyes look white! It totally destroys the shock in seeing her.

That's a darn shame!

In my opinion that is quite probably the very best horror scene ever put on film. To have it ruined in the way how you said is a sacrilege to the art of filmmaking.

[–] KatharineFanatic 9 years ago

Probably never.

It's a cult classic but I doubt they'll re-release and remaster it from the originals a second time.

[–] PrometheusTree64 9 years ago

Oh, I know, I know.

While I love black and white, the studio wouldn't let Badham shoot it that way in 1978, so he went the other direction and shot it in particularly vivid, rich color.

So once he could digtially drain it for DVD in keeping with his original desire to shoot it like "a Victorian etching", what he winds up with (and sticks us with forever) is just a drained, muted, washed-out version of a movie once shot in color.

So his goal isn't really achieved, and the fans remain robbed.

--
LBJ's mistress on JFK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcXeutDmuRA

[–] Michael71 9 years ago

So his goal isn't really achieved, and the fans remain robbed.

Yes I agree it really bugged me throughout the whole film it didn't really work he should have left it in full vivid colour, it would have been so much better.

[–] PrometheusTree64 9 years ago

Nor should he have changed the music for the Carfax Abbey dinner scene -- but that was done eons ago.

--
LBJ's mistress on JFK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcXeutDmuRA

[–] Bloodfordracula 9 years ago

My Blu-Ray version is in full color. You might need to get your eyes examined.

[–] Navaros 8 years ago

My Blu-Ray version is in full color. You might need to get your eyes examined.

I mean the real color version, not the abomination edited version on the Blu-Ray that you brag about.

[–] vanessavegan 9 years ago

It's well known that the director has tinkered with the film, and unsaturated the color. This is because he originally wanted to shoot in black and white. However, the film was not lighted for black and white. The existing version is a compromise between the two, easing none.

[–] Bloodfordracula 9 years ago

It's desaturated by 50% but still full color.

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ElectricWarlock 9 years ago

I'm going to guess 2019. I think it looks like a 2000s/2010s movie with the color looking washed out like it does. Lots of newer movies look the same without very bright, vivid colors.

[–] R_Kane (15828) 5 years ago

It’s 2 weeks till 2020 and your crystal ball was clouded. I’m watching it right now on streaming, because I think it’s the best movie Dracula ever, so much better than Coppola’s abomination of the novel. I have the feed running through an outboard Darbee video processor. I just went into the processor’s setting and boosted the color saturation. That’s your answer. Then I put the saturation back to where the director and I both want it.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Scream factory has released a blu ray with both versions on it.

I guess there are issues with the color version though, so people who want that still really haven't gotten a quality release of that.

[–] Guitar King (4911) 8 years ago

I read on another site that if you watch the DVD on a computer with VLC Media Player you can adjust the color back to what it is supposed look like. I haven't tried this yet, but these kinds of things really frustrate me. Seeing this movie with the bad color is as irritating as seeing the awful Special Editions of Star Wars. Directors who have lost their sanity shouldn't be allowed to go back years later and ruin their great works.