timothyemerson
1K Club - QQ Shooting Star
Yeah, it says John Sayles approved the restoration but Haskell Wexler shot it so he ain't around to give it the thumbs-up. I think the super dark black levels are just a thing that Criterion do. I've seen side-by-side screen caps of their releases of movies with the British release and the Criterion ones are just way too dark. The good thing is that a modernish TV will allow you to monkey with things to get 'em looking right.3D on my older Panny Plasma TV was so dark as to be unwatchable. But on the LG OLED TV, it's a revelation ... almost rivaling 4K. As stated, I do appreciate natural lighting but obscuring the image with overemphasized 'inky' black levels is ridiculous. Sorry to hear Criterion's MATEWAN was a victim as I've always admired this John Sayle's classic. Do you know if Matewan was either 'director approved' or given the green light by Matewan's cinematographer?
edit: For what it's worth, here is blu.ray.com's review of MATEWAN
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Matewan-Blu-ray/103376/#Review