(1) A little piece of cinematic oddity: Superman in its initial home video release from 1979 on VHS. This version runs approximately 16 minutes shorter than it should. In the early days of home video, the technology wasn't up to fit long movies onto one cassette. - ThreadSky

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jsb1980.bsky.social • 605 days ago

(1) A little piece of cinematic oddity: Superman in its initial home video release from 1979 on VHS. This version runs approximately 16 minutes shorter than it should. In the early days of home video, the technology wasn't up to fit long movies onto one cassette.

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jsb1980.bsky.social•605 days ago

(2) Warner Home Video, known as WCI Home Video in its infancy used time compression and removal of the film's closing credits (replacing them with bits and pieces from the credit sequence along with a screenshot of the poster's credits and a copyright notice lifted from the film's 8MM closing.

jsb1980.bsky.social•605 days ago

(3) The transfer was not the best either. But not the worst transfer for its time. (See Magnetic Video's 1977 first release of MASH on VHS and Beta for an example of poor quality film to video transfer.) WCI's early product was hit and miss. For example "Dirty Harry" used a TV print.

jsb1980.bsky.social•605 days ago

(4) And even films that could have easily been fit on one cassette were time compressed without reason. "Blazing Saddles" is a prime example.

Time compression on WCI cassettes simply sped up scenes without dialogue.

Warner would stop the practice by 1980-81.

jsb1980.bsky.social•605 days ago

(5) Superman wouldn't see a home video release at its proper run time and in full until at least 1982 when technology had caught up to the point to where the film could be run in full and with a better transfer.

jsb1980.bsky.social•605 days ago

(6) The theatrical cut would be released several times through the 1980s, with the most recent VHS release in 1995 and the film's overall most recent release was in 2001, when Richard Donner's extended cut arrived on VHS and DVD.

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