Here's a comparison on YouTube of the new restoration of The Searchers (in 4K and a new Blu-ray) versus the old (yellowish) Blu-ray. The new restoration really is stunning.
The Warner Archive Collection proudly announces its first 4K UHD release -
John Ford’s “THE SEARCHERS”
(Newly Remastered and Restored from the Original VistaVision Negative)
Available as a 4K UHD/Blu-ray Combo and as a remastered Blu-ray disc December 17th from the Warner Archive Collection
Perhaps the greatest collaboration between the legendary director John Ford and his famed leading man John Wayne, the 1956 Warner Bros. classic The Searchers will be arriving on 4K UHD Blu-ray disc, meticulously restored and newly remastered from its original VistaVision camera negative.
The film will be available as either a 4K UHD Blu-ray disc combo pack, including a newly remastered Blu-ray disc, or as a stand-alone Blu-ray disc. SRP for the 4K/Blu-ray combo pack will be $29.99. with sleeve packaging, and the remastered Blu-ray will have an SRP of $21.99. Both iterations will contain over an hour of special features in HD on the Blu-ray disc, with the feature itself having an archival commentary from the late Peter Bogdanovich.
The Searchers will release on December 17th, and is available for pre-order at leading online media retailers.
The new 4K UHD Blu-ray presentation of the feature will be available with Dolby Vision and HDR10. Both the 4K and Blu-ray discs will contain the feature’s original monaural audio track which was restored from the best available source materials to provide a clean and dynamic audio presentation.
The film underwent an extensive restoration earlier this year, at Warner Bros. Motion Picture Imaging and Warner Bros. Archival Mastering (for audio). The restoration was undertaken in collaboration with The Film Foundation, and made its public premiere earlier this year at the TCM Film Festival.
Compression and authoring for Blu-ray and UHD Blu-ray were performed by Fidelity in Motion. To maintain the highest possible image and sound quality for home viewing, these optimized encodes fully utilize the available bandwidth and disc space on the BD100 and BD50 formats.
The Searchers was filmed using the 8-perf 35mm VistaVision process, where the negative went through the camera horizontally with double the frame size of traditional 35mm film, thus yielding incredible clarity with greater depth of field. The original camera negative along with yellow separation protection masters were used for this new presentation, to fully restore the film’s original color palette capturing the masterful cinematography of Winton C. Hoch, a frequent Ford collaborator. The result is a revelatory presentation which is a testament to the artistry that went into creating this beloved motion picture.
Special Features on the 4K UHD disc and the Blu-ray disc:
• Archival Commentary by Director Peter Bogdanovich (The Last Picture Show, What’s Up, Doc?) on both the 4K and Blu-ray discs.
On the Blu-ray disc:
• Original Theatrical trailer (HD) • 1996 Introduction to the feature by Patrick Wayne (HD)
• The Searchers: An Appreciation (HD) • A Turning of the Earth: John Ford, John Wayne and The Searchers (HD)
• Newsreel coverage of the film’s world premiere (HD)
• Outtakes (HD)
• Behind the Cameras (segments from the 1956 Warner Bros. Presents TV series): (HD)
o Meet Jeffrey Hunter o Monument Valley o Meet Natalie Wood o Setting Up Production
Running time: 119 Minutes-COLOR-NOT RATED-DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono
Aspect ratio 16x9 1.85:1
Subtitles: English SDH
For the 4k UHD Blu-ray: Dolby Vision, HDR10, BD100
For the Blu-ray: BD50
4K UHD Blu-ray/Blu-ray 2-Disc combo-$29.99 SRP
Blu-ray-$21.99
Street date-December 17, 2024
