A Clockwork Orange (1971) [4K UHD + Blu-ray] Best Buy 50th anniversary NEW rare

USD 150.00

Condition: Brand New

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View A Clockwork Orange (1971) [4K UHD + Blu-ray] Best Buy 50th anniversary NEW rare with current marketplace pricing, condition, product images and item details. "A beautiful transfer of an ugly film.". First, the color. The infamous "aversion therapy" scene above, for example, now more closely resembles a movie theater's light, and the "droog" scene at the top no longer has a sickly greenish-blue tone. NEW & SEALED, This is the Best Buy Exclusive limited edition 50th Anniversary steelbook of  A Clockwork Orange (1971) [4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital] 2-disc set from 2021 and it is in excellent New condition. Urban thugs run wild and new methods of crime deterrence are being explored. Career gang member Alex is nabbed by the police and offered the chance to a commuted sentence if he undergoes a kind of surgical therapy. One where his brain does not allow him to execute his violent urges. Director: Stanley Kubrick Writers: Stanley Kubrick , Anthony Burgess Starring: Malcolm McDowell , Patrick Magee , Michael Bates , Warren Clarke , John Clive , Adrienne Corri Narrator: Malcolm McDowell Producer: Stanley Kubrick "A beautiful transfer of an ugly film." That's the best way to describe this new 4K edition of A Clockwork Orange , which was likely sourced from a restoration created around the time of the 2011 Digibook's release (but not included on that disc, for whatever reason). It's a fine upgrade that offers moderate to strong improvements in all key areas, the most obvious of which are color, density, and film grain. First, the color. It's important to remember that most DVD and early Blu-rays often featured incorrectly "warmed" palettes that, while pleasing to the eye in some cases, rarely represented a film's true theatrical appearance. It's no surprise, then, that A Clockwork Orange now employs a colder atmosphere overall, yet it still looks more natural when considering the locations and emotional temperature of specific moments. The infamous "aversion therapy" scene above, for example, now more closely resembles a movie theater's light, and the "droog" scene at the top no longer has a sickly greenish-blue tone. The HDR enhancement, while not overpowering, brings a nice boost to the era-specific architecture and interior decoration, which are as gaudy as ever. But the most potent improvement comes in the form of overall density, a byproduct of its better film grain and contrast levels; again, look at this image from the old Blu-ray, which almost now reads more like a photo of a screen capture. The 4K's image is so much more even and well-balanced in its overall black and white levels that garish elements, like the regular harshness of interior light (usually from unfiltered bulbs), are handled substantially better this time around. Fine detail is much improved as well, with close-ups and wide shots alike now taking on a more film-like appearance without the waxy sheen of heavy noise reduction. Even A Clockwork Orange 's darkest moments, such as the opening droog attack, look more natural when the artificial brightness of its older transfer is no longer applied. Still, that "ugly film" remark remains valid: A Clockwork Orange makes use of unshowy, in-your-face compositions with frequently wide angles, which gives many frame edges a soft and slightly distorted quality that will never be razor-sharp. (And of course, there's the subject matter itself, which you often don't want to see any clearer.) But thanks to the strengths of Warner Bros.' new 4K transfer -- which also includes the removal of slight horizontal stretching, as well as the preservation of Kubrick's preferred 1.66:1 aspect ratio -- all that ugliness has never looked better. A Clockwork Orange 4K Blu-ray, Audio Quality     Sadly, most of that visual excitement goes right out the window when listening to the 4K's new DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track, which is unfortunately not a direct port of the older Blu-ray's mix. Much like Warner Bros.' recent 4K release of The Shawshank Redemption , the front three channels have been boosted significantly and high ends sound extremely harsh at times, with dialogue mostly taking the brunt of this unfortunate new downgrade. (It's much more noticeable than Shawshank because this is most definitely not a well-budgeted and methodical drama.) While that older surround track didn't exactly offer many notable improvements over its original one-channel source -- even adding in trace amounts of ambient noise to several scenes -- I'd take it any day of the week over this remix, which may test the sonic patience of even the film's most forgiving fans. At times, it really does sound that bad and, while dialing back the volume (or adjusting specific levels on your receiver) may alleviate the most immediate problems, we really shouldn't have to do that. Needless to say, my ears will be on high alert during future WB catalog releases. So why doesn't the audio get even worse marks? As with Full Metal Jacket , Warner Bros. had the good sense to quietly include a mono track as well... and while it's barely DVD quality at 192Kbps, this option sounds immediately better in comparison to the 5.1 mix. It's not even close at times: dialogue and sound effects no longer suffer from a harsh high end, which were already pretty strained to begin with, and overall balance is better too. There are far fewer whiffs of gauzy, crackling distortion that plage most of the dialogue and Alex's voice-over narration. Although the jury's still out on whether this is a downmix or the original mono track, I can safely say I didn't hear any egregious ambient noise -- I'll admit to not being an expert when it comes to A Clockwork Orange 's sonic legacy, but I'll gladly update this section if needed. But one fact remains: even with the "bonus" of original audio, this 4K edition could have certainly used more spit and polish in this department. It looks nice, sure... but picture quality is only half of the equation. Condition: Brand New. Category: Movies & TV › DVDs & Blu-ray Discs.