Kelly's Heroes / Where Eagles Dare (Action Double Feature) (2010)

I bought this Blu-ray for Where Eagles Dare, and had hopes for an improvement over the DVD version, which was already pretty good. Sadly, during the transfer the brightness was turned down so low that much of the image is now lost in the shadows. For example, many scenes are now so dark that you can't see the actor's faces. In other cases, big items (like airplanes) are lost in the darkness of the mountain backgrounds. This was not a problem on the DVD version. It's especially regrettable since in the brighter scenes, the blu-ray does offer a sharp image. I can only wonder if the person doing the transfer actually looked at the results. (Note that another reviewer feels the brighter DVD image was a problem, and the darker blu-ray is more faithful to the original version shown in theaters 42 years ago. I saw it back then, but make no claims to remember the brigtness level in the theater on that day so long ago. Maybe others have a better ability to remember such things.)

UPDATE 6/18/10: A commenter suggested I try altering my LCD video settings. These settings work well for every other disc I own, plus OTA broadcast and streaming Netflix over Roku, but what the heck, I tried it. I had to choose a setting with very, very high contrast and backlight levels, but it made a real difference. The movie looked a lot better and the details became much more clear. Was the result better than the DVD version (viewed with my regular LCD settings)? To my eye, maybe it's a 5% or 10% improvement. I wonder how or why the default settings are so dim on this BR disc? Another reviewer (on blu-ray.com) had the same experience I did. But I think if you really like the movie, it's probably worth getting the BR disc and turning up the brightness and contrast when you watch it.

The seventies saw a spate of enjoyable war themed movies being released, from The Dirty Dozen to Eye Of The Needle. WED and Kelly's Heroes were among the best of the bunch, lighter and more energetic than today's dark tales such as Valkyrie, Saving Pvt. Ryan etc, good though they may be.

Anyone who is going to purchase this is already familiar with the plotlines, so I won't delve into a synopsissee IMDB or Amazon for that.

Allies vs. Nazis has always made for good theater, and Eastwood as an action hero is tops, with stellar casts including Richard Burton in WED and Telly Savalas and Don Rickles in KH.

The price point for the Blu-ray discs as a combo is great and the transfers are superb, though not restored and remastered, as some reviewers have lamented.

Still, the clarity of the picture and the vibrancy of the colors is, in my opinion, superior to the previous DVD releases. I compared WED on standard DVD and Blu-ray by simultaneously playing them, one in my sony BDP350 and the other my upconverting Toshiba HD-DVD players. There was no contest, the blu-ray was remarkably detailed, and colors excellent, the 2:35 widescreen a must for viewing the entire film as it should be seen. (mind you, I love my HD-DVD and always felt that it was a better standard for high def than Blu -ray, but alas Toshiba lost that battle........sigh)

You simply can't go wrong with this combo set!

Buy Kelly's Heroes / Where Eagles Dare (Action Double Feature) (2010) Now

First the real question. The transfers are pristine and look great. The sound is much better on both this go round. Worth the upgrade? Yes, definitely.

The movies themselves are really trend setters for their time and tho Kelly's Heroes is the more dated of the two (ironically mainly because of the studio's attempt to update it to a sixtie's teen audience despite it's WWII movie status)...it's still worth a soda and a box of popcorn (and that'll pay for them right there!) to hear Donald Sutherland say "Stop making with the negative waves...Man"...as he manages to slip some sixties love generation comic relief into the proceedings (his appearance as the visiting General thorn in Robert Ryan's side in The Dirty Dozen is almost as hilarious and helped Sutherland rock the 60's at the movie theater leading up to the seminal MASH in 1970). Heroes is a solid heist caper set in the middle of Wartime which makes it oddball enough -even for then. The motley crew featuring Don Rickles in his first 'close to persona' appearance post his Beach Party epics, are savvy acting vets and deliver the goods. Particularly the Nazi Tank Commander to whom they eventually spread their gold fever. One other appearance of note is an early Carroll O'Conner comic gem as a Give 'Em Hell General that displayed his flair before Archie Bunker immortalized him. All in all a very satisfying movie from an era that turned out too many psychedelic wrecks attempting to capture the times. These guys reflected it perfectly and did it in a WWII vehicle long before Hawkeye and Pierce...go figure!!!

Where Eagle's Dare is really a ride along for Clint Eastwood who had just achieved his superstar status prior to this one's release, so even tho it's always been billed since it's original run as a Clint Eastwood movie it's really Richard Burton's show all the way. It was his first and only attempt to forge himself into an Action/Adventure leading man and he succeeds admirably. Heaven (and Elizabeth) knows why he didn't do more! The plot while seeming a simple straight forward WWII rescue mission turns mind-twister in the final third and the movie features really spectacular stunt sequences. There's action, suspense, and skullduggery aplenty for fans of this type of film and as I said before a surprisingly effective action star performance from Richard Burton coupled with an almost as silent as his 'man with no name' cowboy turn, as the token American on a British mission, from Eastwood. Great fun and since it's a period piece it holds up well.

Highly Recommended

Read Best Reviews of Kelly's Heroes / Where Eagles Dare (Action Double Feature) (2010) Here

We ALL need to email these studios and stop them from putting out movies on blu ray with no restoring or removing lines and dirt from prints. THis is shoddy, and unacceptable, however both of these movies are classic war movies and are five star films in the genre. Although 'kelly heroes' is more of 1970's army transplanted to the 40's but who cares? it's still fun and noone could think it was more than unrealistic adventure, 'where eagles dare' is played much more straight and is just a great war flick all the way. Why didn't Wb fix this up? Please email them so they will stop this practice.

Want Kelly's Heroes / Where Eagles Dare (Action Double Feature) (2010) Discount?

Kelly's Heroes and Where Eagles Dare had special blow-up prints for 70 mm presentations, including overture, intermission an exit segments, none of which are present in these Blu-Ray discs.

Once in a while the inheritors of the MGM film library forget to do a proper research of the theatrical prints used for movies. We can see a clear example in all of the MGM cartoons for Tom & Jerry, where the soundtrack is subpar compared to the original tracks, and on many occasions the shorts were cut and never re-edited to their original content.

Sadly, this is the case with these two BD-V discs, and all of a sudden we miss the chance to see those movies exactly as they were shown in the 70 mm theaters.

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