Was listening to the DVD bonus commentary, and Rodriguez points out that the original edit look better than the film because the conversion to 35mm was badly made. So Columbia ruined in essence the master.
I checked out the Blu-ray, the film is about 16gb in size. It's a different master from the DVD which is 1.66, you can tell because the credits are redone and look pristine and static (computer made), whereas the rest of the film looks crappy. On the DVD everything look crappy and the credits wooble a bit.
Rodriguez should rescan the original 16mm edit, instead of the 35mm which are further removed from the original neg. Or maybe get someone to reconform all the rushes direct from the original footage trims.
I think it may have happened that way:
- Rodriguez printed every he shot.
- All the pristine footage was transfered on video.
- The original edit was on video.
Columbia buy the movie.
- The film is edited on film, but probably from 35mm dupes of the 16mm rushes. So there might not be a 16mm Oneg, just a 35mm one.
- Then IP were made, then IN, then 35mm copies.
The question is, what is on the VHS? The original video edit (since it's 1.37:1), or the 35mm edit in open matte?
If this was the original video edit, it would be awesome.
On DVD & Blu the whole film is misframed, there's too much top and not enough bottom so half the film looks badly shot.
Apparently there's a rare japanese LD in 4/3 full screen format. Link here
http://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/33480/SRLP...l-Mariachi