Herzog: The Collection [Blu-ray]

Update: After being in touch with Shout Factory customer service, I learned that the discs were Not Defective, but that the blu ray players I was attempting to play them on could not play them properly. Anyone else who seems to be receiving defective discs might want to try them out in different blu ray players if at all possible. All I know for sure so far is that Xbox One consoles cannot properly play some of the discs. Now I am only disappointed in the Xbox and not this beautiful collection of films put to disc by Shout Factory.Additionally I want to say that Shout Factory's customer service is the best!Personally, I tend to love the films of Werner Herzog. This is a great collection, and it looks quite nice as well. Unfortunately, twice so far, the disc containing Where the Green Ants Dream was defective, as was the disc containing Fata Morgana.I didn't have time to check every disc in the collection to determine if they were defective or not. Ideally, I wouldn't need to first watch a disc to see if it will actually play all the way through, but I'm certainly not going to invite someone to watch a movie with me if I suspect that the disc may not play properly, ruining the movie part way through. Which means I don't even feel that I'm sitting down to watch these movies the first time - I'm just checking for proper function but expecting the film to be interrupted mid-view with digitally garbled audio and video.Long story short, this sure would be a great collection if it worked.

If you're a fan, you already know about the 7-disc BFI set being released in the UK around the same time. I immediately canceled my order when I found out about this. Then I did the cross-comparison of the films in each set and re-ordered the other set as well. Here's what I know: This set claims to be 1500 minutes in length while the BFI set reports to be 1310. There are 10 films that are duplicated on each set, leaving 8 on the BFI set and 6 on this set that are exclusive to each.The 8 films included in the BFI set that you won't find here are as follows: The Unprecedented Defence of the Fortress Deutschkreuz (1967); Last Words (1968); Precautions Against Fanatics (1969); Handicapped Future (1970); The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (1975); How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck (1976); Huie's Sermon (1980), and God's Angry Man (1980).The 6 films featured here that aren't on the BFI set include Even Dwarfs Started Small; Ballad of the Little Soldier; Where the Green Ants Dream; Lessons of Darkness; Little Dieter Needs to Fly, and My Best Fiend.If you do the math, the price of the BFI set (including shipping) divided by 8 comes to about ten and a half bucks per film. That's ultimately why I re-ordered that set. I do hope this price will drop before its release. It's a lot of money to spend and I haven't seen most of these films but I haven't seen a Herzog film that I didn't really like/love. My only disappointment would be the exclusion of Grizzly Man.Hope this helps!

A perfect birthday present!

Everyone knows that Herzog is the creative genius behind some of the greatest films of the 20th century, so allow me to simply add that the BLURAY editions in this collection make the purchase well worth the $$$ spent. to see a brand new digital transfer (made from the original negatives or inter-positives) of Aguirre and hundreds of indians scaling down the side of a steep mountain in the opening shots of...it's nothing short of breathtaking. i almost wept at the sheer beauty of it, despite having seen this film a dozen times before. it was like seeing it BRAND NEW.

I'd like to thank Shout for restoring and saving these films in this manner. Obviously many of these were filmed with miniscule budgets and will never look great, but the restorations of what I have seen are as good as you can expect. I haven't made it through all of them yet, but I'm getting there.Werner's commentary on the films is vital and so much appreciated. I love to hear what was in his mind when he created some of these films. Werner is an amazing person who never shied away from a project. I don't always love his films, but I love that he made them. I don't think his contributions to cinema have been fully appreciated yet.This is a fantastic looking presentation, with one big flaw. The discs are packed into some kind of a lightly-coated cardboard sleeve. When you pull the disc out, you can see residue on the part that was covered. So far it hasn't affected the playback, but this is far from ideal. It may look great, but I worry that it will scratch the discs over time.I've always been a bigger fan of Herzog's documentaries, but it's fun to appreciate his films too. As fabulous as Fitzcarraldo is, it's incomplete without also watching the amazing Burden of Dreams. Only then can you truly appreciate how much of his life Werner puts into his films.

No question about it, this is THE set to keep. It contains most of Werner Herzog's important films, short of Grizzly Man, White Diamond, Encounter at the End of the World, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Happy People, Into the Abyss....I have most of his films in DVD form including his box set "Herzog/Kinski". I hope the makers of this blu ray collection set do justice to those films by producing some pristine quality blu rays and not simply copy from the sources from Anchor Bay.With his amazing and prolific collections of important film works, we are fortunate enough that more are expected down the pipeline.As for the BFI set, it is Region 2, not Region Free type.

This is a gorgeous collection, lovingly packaged and the films have never looked better.

Un oasis para cualquier amante del cine de Herzog, 16 películas/documentales en Blu-Ray.La único que podría mejorar es que tuviera subtítulos en español, sólo los tiene en inglés.

I have been slowly watching these movies alone and with friends. I enjoy the dramas more than the documentaries but all are good. The case is sort of weird. It is a book with slots for each BD. I think the case looks kind of cheap like a book you would find in a bin at a shopping mall that talks about the 100 greatest sci-fi movies of all time. The book is informative but I could probably get the information I need about the movies from the internet. I would have preferred Criterion packaging for these movies but then it would have cost about $600 so I shouldn't complain too much. The BD's themselves all have very high bit rate with lots of film grain. Apparently Herzog signed some of these so it would be neat to have one of those.

El título de esta crítica tiene doble sentido. Antes que nada debemos tomarnos un momento para realmente apreciar lo que significa esta colección: se trata de una selección hecha en colaboración con la Werner Herzog Film GMBH editando 16 de los títulos más representativos de Werner Herzog por primera vez (al momento de su lanzamiento) en alta definición. Probablemente para muchos basten estas palabras para convencerse de agregar este conjunto a su repertorio, pues en este caso la calidad de las obras aquí contenidas es de obviarse, pero no es todo lo que ha de comentarse.La presentación es una belleza. Aunque difiere bastante de las fotografías promocionales (que sugieren un formato bastante compacto) el empaque, que más que a un libro se asemeja a una suerte de álbum o catálogo, revela al tacto su alta calidad y tiene una edición muy organizada a la altura de la presentación que en su conjunto lo vuelve visualmente placentero. Como introducción contiene un folleto con un pequeño ensayo y sinopsis de todas las películas, algunas de las cuales formaron parte de una retrospectiva del director en el Museo Histórico Alemán de Berlín. Quizá el único detalle está en la forma en que se guardan los discos, que tienen cada uno una ranura en su respectiva sección donde han de ser deslizados. Aun cuando esto es congruente con la elegancia de la presentación algunos podrían pensar erróneamente que esto daña los discos, sin embargo la naturaleza de la edición sí se presta a acumular polvo entre sus páginas, lo que a la larga es indeseable; los más quisquillosos habrían de buscar la forma de proteger el empaque de este problema. Con todo, se trata de una pieza hecha para ser exhibida antes que para guardarse entre el resto de las películas.Títulos como “Lessons of Darkness” o “Ballad of the Little Soldier” difícilmente habrían obtenido un lanzamiento individual de la forma en que las encontramos aquí, lo que se agradece (aunque se extrañan otras como "The Dark Glow of the Mountains”). También se incorporan la incomprendida “Even Dwarfs Started Small” y ambas versiones de “Nosferatu The Vampire”. El audio original para la mayor parte de los títulos es Stereo aunque los hay con opciones más complejas. Como material extra por regla general se incluyen comentarios en audio del director junto con trailers y galerías fotográficas para la mayoría de las películas, así como producciones dedicadas al trabajo del autor, entre las que destacan “The Making of Nosferatu” y “Location Africa” (erróneamente etiquetado como “Herzog in Africa”). Lastimosamente el material extra en video no recibió el mismo tratamiento que el material principal, quedando como meras curiosidades. Llama la atención la ausencia de otras producciones icónicas sobre Herzog como “Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe” y “Burden of Dreams”, ambas de Les Blank, que pudieron acompañar mejor como material extra, sobre todo al contar con “My Best Fiend” en esta colección.La calidad de la restauración es bastante buena, pero incomparable con otras como la realizada en la colección de la BFI o lo que pudo haber hecho Criterion, sin mencionar el material extra, que pudo ser más dedicado. A pesar de que el precio actualmente es bastante aceptable (porque esta vez sí se trata de cantidad) quizá el contenido que ofrece esta edición no estuvo a la altura del precio original de salida (de más de el doble) y es algo a tomar en cuenta cuando existen otros esfuerzos, mucho más austeros en presentación pero también mucho mejor cuidados (regresando a la similar colección de la BFI). Con todo, se trata de detalles que sólo se pueden notar haciendo una comparación directa y que no impiden el disfrute y apreciación de ninguna obra.Por último, se ha de tomar en cuenta el código regional de los Blu-ray, en este caso región A, que no tendrá problemas en el continente americano pero sí en el resto del mundo, y es quizá también una razón importante para elegir o no esta edición. Así mismo, es importante saber que el único recurso de subtitulaje para todos los discos es en inglés.En resumen, es una excelente compra como introducción al cine de Werner Herzog, o si tienes un montón de DVD o VHS rogando una actualización. Además se trata de una edición limitada con varios títulos que seguramente no se encontrarán por separado por mucho tiempo. La selección es excelente y la calidad de la edición es algo que vale la pena tener. Definitivamente recomendada.

This is an incredible set.....beautiful packaging and many excellent Herzog films tranferred to blu-ray in one collection. The quality of the transfers is variable but all of them are superior to the earlier DVD editions. I would have appreciated more supplemental material but I'm not going to quibble....this needs to be in every Herzog fan's collection. Now I'm hoping for volume 2!!

Si bien la caja llegó ligeramente maltratada en una orilla no es algo que demerite la presentación. Todas las cintas subtituladas al inglés y con gran calidad de imagen. Todo coleccionista debería tenerle.