Just gave the extended cut a spin, might be my preferred way of watching this now, Cities and Big Business/I Zimbra fit perfectly well into the flow.
The new 4K remaster is stellar, no DNR (thank god) but a nice crisp image, with tight grain. The Dolby Vision is nice although the only actually bright thing is the lamp in This Must Be The Place.
The Atmos is killer. It could stand to be a touch more adventurous, leaning towards a front heavy and audience in back experience but opens up as the film progresses, with Life During Wartime when things start really picking up. Synth solos swirl around, backing vocals like Heaven (not Tina! Caught that this time, her mouth doesn’t move… must be someone off stage) float in the rear heights, and when David puts the mic near the cowbell in Take Me To The River it does some fun things in the heights/sides/rears.
Exploring the special features reveals a few things:
The two new songs are available as separate videos that use the same 4K remaster footage… but are Dolby Digital 5.1 for some reason, and lack Dolby Vision. Notably this is the only 5.1 on this disc (minus the Atmos fold down) as it is lacking the two previous 5.1 mixes. There’s a transfer of a very worn VHS of David Byrne (and later on some of the other extended band members) practicing choreography to absolute silence, and a compilation of the band being interviewed on TV back in the day and in 2023. There’s also the pre-existing director commentary that is advertised to be “remixed using archival material”, which I haven’t gotten to yet but seems interesting.
The most baffling inclusion, however, is the old home video version on Laserdisc. Other than the 4:3 framing, this inclusion seems to serve no point as the new extended cut seems to be the same thing, just in 4K, with Dolby Vision, and Atmos (where as the laserdisc transfer is limited to stereo). If the new restored/edited version of this cut, done better, is on this disc, why include a worse version? I’d rather have the two 5.1 mixes on this disc to make it feel more “complete”.
The book it comes inside is… strange. Lots of pages but most of them are just scans of film strips, the same image over and over just slightly different. The content it does have is however, interesting, such as scans of the editor’s notebook, who seems overwhelmed by the project, and diagrams of camera placements, call sheets, etc. The disc slot is in the front cover of the book and has one of those “push to release” disc holders that… has imprinted on the first few pages of the book. On paper its a neat package… in practice it’s a bit odd.
As a huge fan of the film I’m glad I have it, but have to admit it’s a steep price for something that can’t really be called definitive. I have to wonder if a cheaper non deluxe version is coming later down the line… if so and you don’t want the book and slipcase and bells and whistles that’s probably the version to get