Does a picture quality affects how you perceive a movie?

I found that some movies I did not like too much when I saw them in a bad picture quality suddenly got better for me when I watched them in an excellent picture quality. But it does not work for all of them. Some still suck even in a good quality (like Dead men don’t make shadows hah). Moreover the lighting and colours also affects my mind more than I would expect. I often can’t stand movies that look pale and have hardly any colours (Requiescant for instance though I like some of it the colours hurt my eyes). I wonder if a better colouring helped these movies. What are the movies that in your opinion really improve when you see them in a better pic quality?

Absolutely - a mediocre film can be more enjoyable in HD.

‘Texas Adios’ on BD is a good example - originally I found it a bit of a chore, but the photography and locations in HD made it much more fun.

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I believe the impact of a good movie is greatly enhanced by seeing it on a large screen. It can be like watching a different film.

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All of them.

I mean I quite like my scuzzy, grindhousey genres - spaghetti westerns most definitely among them - to look a bit scuzzy themselves. There’s a certain charm to that tenth-gen videotape with audio sync issues and a tracking fault across the bottom of the screen. Makes it seem like you’re watching something properly rare, or maybe it feels as though you’re watching something you shouldn’t. I dunno.

But still. All of the above may well be true - certainly is for me - but the undeniable (and slightly boring) truth is that any film will become an immeasurably better experience with a quality release. Like a different movie in most cases.

All merely imo, of course.

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I watched Django Kill, Requiem For Gringo and The Forgotten Pistolero on Youtube first and found them good enough to buy, and obviously the better DVD or Bluray quality emphasized my appreciation of them. I rank my unofficial low picture quality Death Walks In Laredo DVD as 6/10 and even if it is a bit too lighthearted sometimes for me I might rank it higher if it had a high quality release.
Maybe the same would be true for my God’s Gun now 5/10

But have you changed your opinion about a movie based on how good the image was? I for example found out that I really love A Stranger in Town but only with a perfect picture. All the little details somehow added a desired definition to the atmosphere. Maybe it is the city settings. I enjoy it so much more like that. It is funny but the improved image quality of the second part of the trilogy The Stranger Returns did not do the same thing for me. I thought it would but it did nothing. The movie felt just about the same.

I’ve yet to see El Puro, although I have it on DVD. The quality’s so bad I’d rather wait until something better arrives.

The Universal Pictures horror blu ray box set brings a whole new dimension to their antique charm because the image is so sharp you can pretty well see the brush strokes on the painted backdrops.

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I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a complete 180° volte-face in terms of my opinion on a film based solely on seeing an improved print; as I say, I like 'em when they’re scuzzy too. But I guess the closest I’ve come to that would be with Vengeance (Margheriti, 1968). I took a couple of tries at it via the barely-visible version commonly found on YouTube and I couldn’t get along with it; It was just too unwatchable. I could tell there was a good film hiding in there somewhere though and that conviction bore fruit when I finally saw a much clearer copy.

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Yes an average movie can become good when watched in high definition in my opinion.

especially when the jump is from vhs to blu ray…

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On the other hand, the cast of Avatar could turn up at my house in full costume to re-enact the entire movie around me in my living room and it would still be a pile of auld bumshit.

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agree… I watched Avatar once when it came out just to see why it’s so popular but it’s just a steaming pile of goat shit.

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LOL Harsh … I actually didn’t mind it, as I had zero expectations … as big Hollywood movies go, it’s not the worst by a long shot.

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It should make a difference, but actually it doesn’t for me.

I could watch for many years lots of 2,35:1 films only in full screen VHS versions, but even with such a wrong aspect ratio, which really looks bad, none of these films could ever generate an Aha-effect when watching them in the correct aspect ratio and with better colors.

A film’s quality is obvious for me in nearly every version, as long as it is uncut.

I find that if the picture quality is too terrible, I have little to no patience for the movie unless it grabs me right off the bat. High def has spoiled me. :smile:

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Story line trumps all. I saw the crappiest copy of Apocalypto, with people talking in a theater and walking in front of the camera, on a tiny Kindle device and was riveted from beginning to end.

I agree about Avatar as evidenced by it coming “free” on a new smart phone I bought years ago and I told them to take it off the phone.

I agree here with my man last.c, with what I am guessing was the opposite experience OP was referring to.

When I accidentally click on a “new” western, especially the indies, and it’s that stark crisp almost choppy HD video shot with LED lighting and over produced audio, my body immediately starts rejecting it. I get uncontrollable ticks and break out in hives. The perfectly laundered wardrobe with the rented hats and perfectly starched neck scarfs don’t help things, not to mention the put on southern accents, incessant cgi muzzle flashes and incorrect gunshot foley.

But yeah the, let’s say character of the presented medium, goes a long way in delivering the intended experience and how it is perceived. And sometimes in the opposite way one might think.

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I can certainly think of a couple of (non-SW) examples. I recently watched the DVD of Howard Hawks’ 1939 classic Only Angels Have Wings, and the atmosphere ans visual depth added by being able to see a decent print of the film improved a film I already enjoyed immensely.

The 1970s television series The Protectors, starring Robert Vaughn, had a terrible reputation for decades, being screened even on its first run in horrible grainy prints. The DVD release cause a major reevaluation of a series which actually had a lot going for it.

It’s good to hear from you again, Brahm! Hope life’s treating you well, and hopefully this isn’t too short a pit-stop for you. Stick around a while, bud (or pop back a bit more frequently)! :slightly_smiling_face:

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Texas Adios is a personal favourite so I was delighted when it came out in Blu Ray.

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I’ve never been a big fan of most Sartana films, but watching the blu ray transfers gave me a new appreciation for them as the colors and scenes really come to life. Lots of beautiful shots that were kind of lost in the previous dull looking DVDs

For me, many times my love for genre films comes down to the specific look of scenes and way they are shot - over the story, so this aspect can make a big difference.

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