'Paint Your Wagon', a film that may be best known for Clint Eastwood's rather dubious singing debut, has finally been released by Paramount in a letterboxed edition. The film was released in 1970 and the film elements used here are showing their age. Though certainly better than the previous P&S transfer, the quality of this transfer is limited by the source material. The colors are generally solid and appear accurate though slightly faded. Some scenes appear rather dull, lacking the contrast and sharpness found in the transfers of many older films. The film was shot in anamorphic Panavision and this transfer is framed at around 2.15:1. The compositions appear fairly well balanced but I would have preferred a more accurate ratio. Considering the condition of the source material, I would rate this transfer as very good but image quality is only good.
The audio is, on the other hand, quite good. The original multi-track mix seems to have been transferred with little alteration. Dialog is often placed in either the right or left speaker, depending on where the character is in the frame, a practice some find distracting but that I consider more true to the original intent of the mix. There is also liberal use of the surround channel, much more so than is usual for transfers of pre-Dolby films. The soundtrack is clear with very little distortion and better than average dynamics and range.
The film runs 164 minutes and is spread to 3 sides in CLV with the intermission coming in the middle of side 2. The disc has 18 chapter markers. Retail price is $49.95. Paramount has been flirting with higher prices on a few selected releases lately ('The Keep', 'Beverly Hills Cop'). I feel this disc would have been a better value at $39.95 though I'm sure fans of the film will be glad to finally get a decent transfer of the film.
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