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I like the original cut of the film better…the janky additions take away from the overall mood. Every song played is in my opinion the quintessential version of the piece. Masterful.Simply Put-This show is Pink Floyd in therePrime "The original concert film."Which is in the Settings menu isWhat you want to watch.The originalConcert film ?came out on VHS Tape somewhere in the mid1990'S.But was actually recorded in 1975. And Does features both: David Gillmore and R.Waters and the Rest of Floyd,Performing together. InThe Most Stunning scenery, with volcanic Footage, FromPompeii Amphitheater. ??From Start to Finishthe Show is filmed in the Amphitheater & Directored most Excellently and creatively by: Adrain Maben ??'As I Have said And many other as well, This is Pink Floyd At their best Visual Performance on disk.An amazing video from the best band. I highly recommend this. Just don't bother with the director's cut nonsense and watch the concert alone.I own the VHS, but no longer own a VCR. I was searching for a Blu-ray version, but it doesn't exist. The director says during the interview on the DVD that all the original materials (negatives) are lost (!!!) which is a huge shame - probably should not expect a high quality Blu-ray version...The DVD upscaled on my 4K TV looked surprisingly good - much better than the HD stuff on Youtube.Content-wise, this is such a special film, such a special event, and such a special portrayal of the band at a key point in the history of their development. I would even go so far to say that this film captures a key point of development in the evolution of the human race, as we embrace technology as a huge component of the human experience, and do so in the shadow of ancient history & technology in the form of the forum at Pompeii...The director also says during his interview that the in-studio stuff with the 70's rear-projection technology is the least successful component of the film, and he's right, but he also says that pretty much all the usable recordings from "The Floyd" playing at Pompeii is already included. This means the film would be very short without these Paris recordings, and I don't mind how they're interspersed with the on-location footage.The slow-pan & zoom shots of the forum with the Floyd rocking out, together with (I think it's Waters' silhouette) banging on the gong along with the high-tech/low-tech Floyd theme of the 1970's is a gorgeous juxtaposition and surprisingly relevant to this moment (2020).This dvd comes with a widescreen directors cut and the original short 4:3 film.The film was originally released on video years ago as a long version and a short version. Until now, I'd never seen the short version so maybe it was only released in Europe. The short feature doesn't have any interviews with the band or shots of the band recording dark side of the moon. And the long version (not included here and probably the one you rented from your local video store years ago) was intercut with all the extra scenes.The included directors cut is similiar to the original long version but has been rebuilt from ground up. It contains all the original scenes, interviews plus lots of weird scenes of moons revolving around strange planets, space ships taking off, plus new footage of Pompeii, etc.Most people have never seen the original short or the directors cut. And like a lot of purists here I watched the original short verson first and of course my first observation was the lack of scenes like Nick Mason complaining about the crust on his apple pie. I didn't mind the lack of interviews and such, and frankly, the original short plays just great the way it is. It sticks to the Pompeii theme and I like that a lot.As a bonus the directors cut also includes some extra interviews which have never been previously released. There is one very funny scene of a very stoned Roger Waters giving the director a very hard time during an interview. It also contains new footage of Pompeii plus lots of scenes of space ships taking off, and moons revolving around strange alien planets. It's kinda weird and you may not like it much at first, but it certainly grows on you and it was all done very well.So my advice would be, if you're a purist, stick to the original short and then simply skip through the directors cut to see the interviews and studio scenes.And also, the sound quality is just fantastic and the video quality will just blow your socks off. It's just that good. It's amazing considering the original negatives have all been lost. And last but not least, the director Adrian Maben interview is also very interesting. All and all, the entire package is simply fantastic and for the price of about $16, you'd have to be crazy not to get one.Just what I was looking for , and was delivered when they saidI did buy this disk used, so that must be allowed for. The product info didn't say so, but the disk shows clear evidence of having been re-surfaced. The fact that it's plainly visible means that the buffing job was pretty crude. THE DISK PLAYS FINE. I do want to be clear about that..A greater disappointment, for me, is the content. This certainly is not the seller's fault. They represented the content as well as anybody could. I just don't care much for this "director's cut." As far as I can tell, all the director did was shoe-horn in a bunch of spacy CGI crap and eye candy, which he lifted from the Discovery Channel. The original film was far better without it.Disappointing, as the director has added a bunch of CGI "space" sequences to the original footage, which destroys the ambiance of the Pompeii ruins, jars with the warm early 70's film texture, and just plain looks silly. The disc does feature the original 1972 cut, but this misses out on the Dark Side studio interviews. What I'm really after is the 1974 Theatrical cut, which I saw as a midnight movie and which served as my introduction to Pink Floyd. This has the Dark Side studio interviews interspersed, which gives the viewer a breather between the heavy live Pompeii numbers, but that version doesn't seem to be available anywhere at all. Too bad. It looks as though a classic film has been ruined.Really enjoyed this. You can choose the original footage or an extended cut interspersed with band-chat from 'Dark Side' era of recording, and a couple of interpolated tracks. Also an interesting [well, I thought it was interesting] account by the director of the circumstances, logistics etc of making the original film and the thinking behind the extras worked into the director's cut. All a good length too.I had the original VHS tape, long-since unplayable, so this was a real treat.Quite why Adrian Maben decided to revisit this film and make a "Director's Cut" is beyond me. He tries to justify himself during the interview which is included on this release (which, to be fair, is interesting in parts) but fails.As others have pointed out, the computer graphics are terrible, distract from the film of the band playing, and don't fit in with the rest of the shots showing the surrounding area of Pompeii. The "interviews" with the band are OK but you don't learn any real insights since they're obviously taking the micky (and are stoned). The other footage is just them having lunch, which is pretty pointless, and running through some bits for Dark Side of the Moon - which is a bit of a disconnect from the stuff the band is playing in the amphitheatre. These sections would be alright as an extra but not as an addition to the original film.Nothing of real importance is added; there is no "missing footage" or extra tracks - the (music) footage in the original film is all that exists. So do yourself a favour and watch that (which is included on the disc).The biggest travesty though is the final shot. In the original film, as the last sounds of Echoes can be heard, Richard Wright is to the left of the camera, almost our of shot, and is looking at the sunset behind the other three who are looking at him (facing the camera). In the Director's Cut, Dave Gilmour has been replaced by Hayden Christensen...After a quick look at the disc, it appeared to be almost perfect, so I was happy. When I tried to play it, it stopped playing after a minute or so. Looking at the disc more closely, I could see a continuous ring of marks all the way around the outer edge. These marks could be removed by judicious rubbing, so I resorted to washing the disc, which resulted in getting the marks off, but also revealed scratches that were previously not visible.It seems to me therefore, that the disc has been treated in some way to hide defects, and maybe a machine has been used that has also caused the marks around the perimeter. Anyhow, the disc now plays for a little longer before it starts to misbehave, but it is essentially unplayable and only fit for the dustbin.Probably the best Pink Floyd performance outside of a studio. Outstanding performances of pre-Dark Side songs; Echoes is particularly powerful. This director's cut not as good visually as the original movie; same music, but some naff space stuff added where the original just had local and much more authentic Pompeii/Vesuvius stuff.
