Best way to watch older movies as they were intended to look (aka how they 'assimilated' Se7en)?

[David McLaren]

Funny I had the same viseral reaction when saving private ryan was remastered for Blue ray. and lost the whole bleach bypass'd chemical process. Interesting times..

 

[Michael Weinheim]

I would start with Criterion editions which often attempt to stay true to intent and use high quality scans.

A recent statement from Roger Deakins on "1984" :

"The bleach bypass was originally done on all the prints rather than the camera negative. Consequently, as neither Mike nor I were involved in the transfers, none of the previous digital versions of 1984 truly reflected the original. I did oversee the Criterion version so I would say it is more faithful to our original intent."

 

[Rajneesh Kassin]

Funny I had the same viseral reaction when saving private ryan was remastered for Blue ray. and lost the whole bleach bypass'd chemical process. Interesting times..

I was told that Janusz Kamiński came in to supervise for a few hours each week to set the look over at Universal StudioPost in North Hollywood, and at the very end, Spielberg himself approved the final 4K, as did his head of post for Amblin. What you saw was what the filmmakers wanted. They do have access to film projection on the lot and could check Spielberg's 1998 print for reference.

What sometimes happens is the prints in theaters did not quite have the intended look the DP and the director wanted, but were instead a compromise just to get the picture done on time. They have much more exacting controls in digital post, and I would bet they got what they wanted 27 years later. My experience with Janusz is that he's doesn't want to compromise in the color room, but his work is so exemplary, to tell you the truth there's not a lot to do with it once you get the look.