I found this link that I thought was pretty cool, and although granted I’ve never actually seen the movie, the screenshot comparisons are still pretty incredible…
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCompare/zulu.htm
Basically I guess what this site does (or at least one of the things) is put together extremely detailed comparisons of the quality of film releases over the years, both with hard data (which I don’t understand) and also with screenshots (much easier!). It’s an interesting look at a question that I first pondered when I even thought about buying into Blu-Ray – simply put, will there really be any value to buying older content or will the higher resolutions have to be strictly newer stuff simply due to the original master quality that is still available?
Now I’ll also readily admit that when it comes down to it, I probably understand very little about mastering and remastering and recoloring and all of that, but just in flipping through the screen captures (about halfway down) of this 1964 Michael Caine movie, it’s most definitely at least clear that the potential is still there to make some beautiful pieces out of the older classics. It really amazes me how not only does the picture become more crisp, but the colors really pop as well – it almost looks like a different film!
And one more caveat, this also may very well be a special case that got a healthy dose of remastering for Blu-Ray, as I’ve flipped through a handful of other titles and have yet to find even close to the difference that is seen with Zulu. A particular curiosity of mine was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which frankly doesn’t look much better than the DVD at all. Granted, maybe there’s another difference between source material for animation vs. live action movies, but if anything, it definitely convinced me that we’ll want to check out some of the Disney classics via Netflix before we even dare to pick up these latest re-issues.
And finally, don’t get me wrong – Blu-Ray vs. DVD on its own looks great and in general I’m still very happy with the purchase, but when we’re looking back across a catalog of older titles, it’s going to take something really special (or really cheap!) for me to consider repurchasing anything. Show me a Blu-Ray version of Snow White that looks like the updated animation from Enchanted and I’d be all over that, but just slightly more crisp ain’t gonna cut it!