The Smiley Smile Message Board

Review: Mirror Spock’s “A HARD DAYS’S NIGHT” DVD RESTORATION/REMASTER

Hearing that Mirror Spock was doing a restoration/remaster on AHDN
led me to wonder how much needed to be done and could it be done
successfully enough to warrant such a release? After reading the specs
on what sources were used and how they were done technically, smoke started to come out of my ears, so I won’t go into the many details explained. I will tell you all that I was more than pleasantly surprised in the end product, and find this to be the definitive
version that I now own. The visual sources used were the MPI DVD and the Miramax DVD. The songs have been restored to the original mono mixes used in the film (and as he admits EQ’ed for better sound) which now makes watching and listening to the film less jarring than the Miramax stereo mixes of the songs that stood out too noticeably against the mono dialogue. In fact, they still play a bit louder than dialogue in the film, but then again, I’ve never enjoyed the sound recording done on the dialogue which still seems a bit tinny and distant. No fault of Mirror Spock.

The 1982 reissue prologue has been included with “I’ll Cry Instead” in mono. It looks nice. A nice beginning to get you excited about the upcoming start of the feature. Also included is the outtake “You Can’t Do That”, inserted where it was originally cut out of the final print, back at the beginning of the concert at end of movie. It’s quality doesn’t quite match up to the rest of the film visually, but It’s nice to have an additional Beatles performance restored and doesn’t detract from the flow or enjoyment. How can it…? C’mon it’s
the Beatles! It’s not a superfluous outtake, but one that fit’s nicely back into the film.

The aspect ratio has been corrected as much as possible with a representation probably the closest to a full-screen presentation with no loss of the top (as with the Miramax DVD)or sides (as with the MPI did). As explained by Mirror Spock, by the creation of this image using these two different aspect ratio sources, some tv’s may leave four black rectangles in the corners of the pictures, but it didn’t happen on my tv. All the better! There is no menu and the DVD immediately starts with the prologue.

Given the few extras that are included, and the restored mono soundtrack (even the amp falling over in “If I Fell”)this is a very enjoyable effort--since it’s closest to the original theatrical presentation available on DVD, I’d have to say this enjoyable effort is essential to own!

Video: 4 out of 5 Stars
Sound: 4 out of 4 Stars
Presentation: 5 out of 5 Stars

Regards,
Cal
aka "Beatle Bob
:)

Cool stuff!

When is this going on sale?

 ::)

 :shrug

Geez, I guess I should have read that post more carefully. I was in a hurry. It's true...I was.

Uhhh...thing is...Miramax DID use the mono mixes. Don't believe me? Watch the "If I Fell" rehearsal. Notice how Lennon is single-tracked. And notice the amplifier sound restored.

It was MPI that used the stereo mixes.

Martin Lewis, who somehow was involved with the Miramax reissue (and takes HUGE credit for it -- hell, this twit takes credit for the resurrection of Christ! And yes, I know ML is Jewish and wouldn't care about such a resurrection, but still....), was screaming about how much better the video quality is, even saying that you can actually read what John wrote on the notepad when the interviewer asked him about his hobbies. Uhhhh.....nope; at least, not on our Sony flat-screen!

My wife and I have both the MPI and Miramax versions....and really, we normally don't take much time to decide which one to watch when we want to watch the movie. We just grab the first one we see, but I typically prefer the Miramax. I just might check out Mirrorspock's, though.