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Third Man on the MountainRating:
Release Date: 07 September, 2004 Retail Price: $19.99 OUR Price: $17.99 You SAVE: $2.00! Cast: |
Third Man on the Mountain Reviews
Shame on Disney
As put very well before by other reviews, this is a poor quality DVD. We all obviously bought it because we love the movie. No denying it is one of Disney's best. It is appalling to think they could not spend a little money to clean up the quality of the picture. The sound seemed okay, but could use some improvemet. The picture and color was spotted and slightly grainy especially at the beginning of the movie. I had read reviews here and knew it wasn't going to be good but I bought it anyway because I am hoping that when Disney has seen the interest in their old movies they may go back and clean them up and make better releases. Most of the older Disney movies have been restored or reprinted from better copies. Two movies, "The Journey of Natty Gann" and this one are very poor quality transfers. Unless you don't have a copy on VHS or you just want even a poor quality picture of this movie you may want to wait. Personally I did not want to wait since it may be years before Disney studios come to their senses and restore all their classic live action movies before putting them on DVD. This DVD does not include any extras either.
The story is a good one with a great cast, camera work, and music. When a young man dreams about climbing mountains like his father, he finds it tough to prove himself. Our hero Rudi's father was killed on the mountain by an avalanche while guiding another climber. The whole towns guides have not climbed "The Citadel" for fifteen years since. When Rudi convinces his Uncle to let him climb as a porter, his chances of proving himself improve. Unfortunately he put his own wants above the climbing party and it almost leads to disaster. When he later puts the welfare of another guide over his dreams of reaching the top, he truly proves how worthy he has become. I would have given this movie five stars but I took one star off for Disney being so inconsiderate and not restoring this fine movie. If you are willing to suffer the poor picture quality, it is a great mountain climbing movie. If you liked "The Mountain" with Spencer Tracy and Robert Wagner, you will probably enjoy this one too. One can only hope they reproduce this after restoring it and even include some interviews or even a documentary about the mountains climbing history. Is anyone else as confused as me as to why Disney sits on a goldmine of classic movies and yet they either don't even put them on DVD or when they do they don't even have a consistant quality control?
great movie, but do not throw out your vhs copy yet
Let me start off by saying that if you are looking to buy a copy to upgrade your old vhs copy of the same film, SAVE YOUR MONEY. Seriously, the Disney Studio has once again shown that they are one of the only studio on the planet that regularly releases old movies at a premium price without improving the image or sound. When other studios do it they sell them for less than $5 in the discout bins. Since they decided not to remaster the film and it has been poorly preserved, the new dvd version of the film has scratches, bad sound, bad color and was in full screen rather than wide screen. No extras even though there are tons of footage that could have been used. I would have liked to see the trailer, footage of Walt talking about the film, and from his trip to Switerland, the original 1955 Disney "People and Places" travelogue on Switzerland, and maybe a piece on the Matterhorn ride at Disneyland. So hold onto your vhs copy, or buy a used on here at Amazon rather than encourage Disney to keep up this butcher job on such great films.
The movie itself is terrific and held a special place in the heart of Walt Disney. It affected him so much he recreated the mountain in 1/100th scale at Disneyland. He took his family on vacation to Switzerland, and fell in love with the mountian and the book the story is derived from, "Banner in the Sky".
Released in 1959 it has endearing characters are brought to life as Rudi (by James MacArthur - son of Helen Hayes, look for her cameo - he also acted in Kidnapped, Swiss Family Robinson, and The Light in the Forest), Lizbeth (played by cheery Janet Munro who also appeared in Darby and the Little People, Swiss Family Robinson, the Horsemasters), and Michael Rennie as Captain Winter. The climbing scenes are very well done. Basically, young Rudi is the son of the best climbing guide in his village, who died tragically climbing the yet unconquered Matterhorn, or as they call it the Citadel. The sons mother refuses to let her son climb, and he is going crazy for it if it were not for the love and understanding of Lizbeth. Rudi is always in trouble for sneaking away to climb area mountains on his own. But the village is beginning to be shamed by the fact that the other guides have been afraid to climb the mountian in the 16 years since the tragedy. When a famous British climber arrives, Rudi and the town get their big chance. Very enjoyable story, dramatic wholesome family fare. My 9 year old loved the suspenseful climbing scenes.
The episode was released on the Wonderful World Of Disney television show in 1963, under the name of the original book.
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