The Spinal Tap Fiasco?

[Spoon]

I was afraid this might happen, but... I couldn't find Spinal Tap anywhere today. I went to many different places, called several others, checked online, etc., etc. Nada. Nevertheless, I still decided to stop by Cicuit City after work in the slim chance they might have a copy. After the salesman asked me "Spinal Tap?? Is that a movie or something???" (no kidding) a customer overheard our conversation and told me that he found a random copy laying in some cardboard box on the floor, mixed in with a bunch of other DVDs.

After buying it, I figured the first thing I wanted to check was the subtitles fiasco, since this seemed like quite a "random" copy that I picked up.

Here's the weird thing... It appears that all the subtitles are there, HOWEVER, they are extremely "low budget, last minute production" looking, and they also completely disappear when I hit the fast forward button.

Not that I really care all that much, but I'm just curious to know if anyone knows if this is how the subtitles are supposed to appear on the finished product, or if I've got an older "defective" copy.

If anyone knows... thanks.

[clortho]

Actually, I just popped mine in, and I know why, and I'm really kind of irked at how MGM handled this. These subtitles are not burned in as they as supposed to be, the actually inserted them into one of the subtitle streams with flags to make them pop up at the right moments. This is wrong! They not only look horrid, but on my television, they extend below the 1.85:1 image. I think MGM has some explaining to do. It has been quite a while since I saw the movie, but this just looks bad and is a lazy, LAZY fix to a problem they created/overlooked. They need to fix this, and quick. I'm completely fed up with MGMs output. !

Clortho

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I am the Keymaster
clortho@hotmail.com

[P7A77]

My Criterion is looking better and better...

[Gyvedgate]

Wow. I went to Saturday Matinee and found the Spinal Tap disk there, however with no subtitles to speak of. I was gonna take it back to exchange it, but now I think I'll hang onto my captionless copy. Thanks for the info.

[samuelk]

What the heck are you guys complaining about? Spinal Tap isn't supposed to be officially releaced until October!

Sam

[clortho]

The release date was yesterday, September 12th.

Clortho

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I am the Keymaster
clortho@hotmail.com

[1138]

From www.thedigitalbits.com :

Now then... we've been getting reports from readers that the "corrected" version of Spinal Tap, which streeted yesterday, is... well... fixed. But the way MGM fixed it AND meet street date was to include the captions, which were originally burned into the film image, as another subtitle track - one that automatically defaults to "on" when you first play the disc. Some will find this unacceptable, while others will probably not mind overmuch. In any case, while this was clearly the easy way out of the problem, the captions ARE there if you want them.


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Floyd is pink. Lando is a sex machine.

[TampaFlyer]

I wanna know how the captions could have NOT been there. Aren't they part of the movie itself?

[clortho]

I suspect the boobs who did the new hi-def transfer somehow forgot them. My question is...how in the world did it get past q/c? It's as if none of them had seen the movie before if they didn't notice that.

Clortho

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I am the Keymaster
clortho@hotmail.com

[Taxi]

I get the feeling when they do quality checks on these disc, they just pick a few random points in the disc and check those, rather than watching the entire thing. The spots they checked obviously weren't when the subtitles were on the screen. (Although any QA department worth its weight would have known to check those parts of the disc.)

If you happen to have worked on the Spinal Tap disc, and want to explain yourself, please feel free.

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Taxi
DVDFile Administrator

[Spoon]

I'm with you, TampaFlyer. I still don't understand how the subtitles could NOT have been there, even with a new hi-def transfer. Aren't they part of the original print? Losing the burned-in subtitles makes about as much sense to me as losing one of the actors...

Anyway, did anybody here see the recent theatrical re-relase? If so, did the subtitles on that print look like a last minute "public access" job as well?

[samuelk]

MGM went back to the original negative to get the best film quality, as I understand it. Of course the original negative isn't going to have the subtitles on it.

I for one don't mind that the subtitles are included as a separate subtitle track. Kudos for MGM for a) trying to get the best print possible and b) quickly fixing a problem and still meeting street date.

I'm happy with my copy. Great movie, hilarious commentary, and great extras.

And as for not noticing the subtitles, just imagine if you've seen this movie over and over again...eventually, you don't even notice the subtitles. Now maybe if they'd had a copy of the original film running along side the DVD transfer for comparison, it would have been noticed. It's an understandable error.

Sam

[This message has been edited by samuelk (edited 09-16-2000).]

[MichaelLegner]

How do I get to see these horrible subtitles?

I can select subtitle 3 - English, on my Pioneer 717, but nothing is shown on screen. Are they below the picture or am I supposed to select subtitle immediately when the movie starts?

Luckily the subtitles aren't crucial to the movie as you just _have_ to hear those voices!

Another strange thing: "Catching up with Martin DiBergi" sounds like it was all "surround sound".

/Michael