Right from opening the cigar box custom case and viewing the Cuban version of opening credits you can see that this dual-layered, progressive high-definition transfer (fine grain interpositive) from Milestone/NY'er is heads and tails above the initial release. The screen grabs below don't really do justice to the new Ultimate Edition although there are still some speckles and light marks in the opening but the obvious edge enhancement prevalent in the first release is gone. It is by no means a perfect image but it is significantly improved. 

The Dolby Digital stereo 2.0 optional Spanish track (not available on the original release) sounded very good and it is supported by optional English subtitles (based on the Spanish). You also have a choice of the Russian DUB audio as well as the choice of English subtitles based on that.

NOTE: I had some playback issues with the feature disc on my computer drive (hence my lack of a subtitle capture sample) but it played fine, with subtitles, on my stand-alone machines.

Extras include a 26 minute video interview with Martin Scorsese on disc 1 where he talks of the film's impact on him and such devices as hand-held cameras etc. - sharing disc one is the original Milestone trailer and a stills gallery. On single-layered Disc 2 we have Vicente Ferraz's 2005 award-winning documentary on the making of I AM CUBA running the 1:31:00 entitled THE SIBERIAN MAMMOTH  (in Portuguese, Spanish & Russian with English subtitles.). Also on disc 2 is City Cinematheque's Jerry Carlson interviews screenwriter Yevgeny Yevtushenko (from 2004 - 10 minutes. Color. English dialogue); Disc 3  we have another documentary called A FILM ABOUT MIKHAIL KALATOZOV, a comprehensive investigation on this giant of Russian cinema ( from 2006. 2 hours. Color/B&W with English & Russian and English subtitles). Also some liner notes - I AM CUBA: THE TRUE STORY, a booklet on the making of the film and its history since then.

Product Description: 'A fever dream, a plunging rollercoaster ride, a cinematographer's hallucination, a love song to the power of cinema. Welcome to I AM CUBA, the film rediscovery that has changed filmmaking forever in a ultimate edition! Director Mikhail Kalatozov (The Cranes are Flying) and cinematographer Sergei Urusevsky's hybrid offspring of Soviet orthodoxy and Cuban tropicalismo is a film of dazzling contrasts. In four intertwining stories of the revolution, Urusevsky's acrobatic camera takes the viewer on a dizzying ride through smoky nightclubs and rooftop pool parties, rickety shantytowns and rustling sugarcane fields, student protest rallies and remote guerilla outposts. I AM CUBA culminates in the most gorgeously filmed funeral procession of all time, as the camera floats through a cigar factory and hovers high above the narrow streets of Havana. A whirling dance through the sensuous decadence of Batista's Cuba, I AM CUBA: THE ULTIMATE EDITION is a cineophile's dream come true.'

On the original edition: An early DVD from Image Entertainment sporting an "okay" transfer, with varying sharpness, dust, scratches and contrast flickering. Barring a full restoration I guess this might be the best this film will look on DVD. Subtitles are white and very well done, although the English dialogue is not subtitled. A PAL DVD came out in April 3, 2006 also lacking any extras and apparently having some excessive edge enhancement and grain. Not having seen that transfer, I do recommend the Image Entertainment DVD for this historically important film.

 - Daniel Mott