ADDITION: Olive Films (Signature) - Region 'A' - Blu-ray - September 16': Olive's 4K restoration looks stunning. This is such an improvement - far more than I was anticipating. The film is finally in its original 1.66:1 aspect ratio and the overall image is beautiful - richer, darker colors accent the 'Trucolor'. We lose information from the top and bottom but gain some on the side edges. This is dual-layered with a max'ed out bitrate and I couldn't be more pleased with the results - finally a 1080P transfer worthy of the film!

Olive improve the audio as well with a more robust DTS-HD Master at 24-bit (as opposed to 16). Effects carry depth. Victor Young's (The Big Clock, The File on Thelma Jordan, Three Faces West, The Sun Shines Bright, Johnny Guitar, China Gate etc.) score has never sounded better to me. Olive include optional English subtitles (see sample) and the Blu-ray disc is region 'A'-locked this time (not region FREE!).

Supplements are another area the package has greatly improved. We get the same introduction by Martin Scorsese, but now there is also an audio commentary with historian and critic Geoff Andrew and five video pieces; Tell Us She Was One of You: The Blacklist History of Johnny Guitar has historian Larry Ceplair and blacklisted screenwriter Walter Bernstein discussing the topic for over 10-minutes. Is Johnny Guitar a Feminist Western?: Questioning the Canon runs just shy of 1/4 hour with critics Miriam Bale, Kent Jones, Joe McElhaney and B. Ruby Rich. Free Republic: The Story of Herbert J. Yates and Republic Pictures -has archivist Marc Wanamaker discussing the studio for a brief 6-minutes. Johnny Guitar - A Western Like No Other is an 18-minute critical appreciation of Nicholas Ray with critics Miriam Bale, Kent Jones, Joe McElhaney and B. Ruby Rich. It is fabulous! My Friend, the American Friend is a Nicholas Ray biographical piece with Tom Farrell and Chris Sievernich - running just over 11-minutes. Johnny Guitar: The First Existential Western is an, excellent, original essay by critic Jonathan Rosenbaum showing text on the screen and is also in a liner notes leaflet in the package. Lastly there is also a theatrical trailer.

Absolute must-own - this is way beyond my expectations. Olive's signature Blu-ray of High Noon is of similar stupendous quality. What a treat to see Johnny Guitar as beautiful as represented in this 4K restoration. It will be on my top ten of the year! Our highest recommendation!

NOTE: Olive have stated not to take heed of the delay at Amazon - will be in stock very soon!

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ADDITION: Olive Films - Region FREE - Blu-ray - July 12':  The new Olive Blu-ray is superior to all the SD-DVDs and, remarkably, is the only digital edition in accurate theatrical running time. Colors gain vibrancy, detail and contrast advance and there are far fewer artefacts although there are still some light scratches and speckles on the 1080P source. Certainly this is the edition to own with modest lossless sound (no subtitle options) and a cool 3.5-minute appreciation by Martin Scorsese. This is iconic cinema and we give a full endorsement to the Olive Films Blu-ray package. This is great news!

NOTE: The film was originally composed for 1.66:1 and the Olive Films Blu-ray is, like the DVDs, approximately 1.33:1. (Thanks Bob!)

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ON THE DVDs:

ADDITION: Paramount - Feb 2008. Our information is somewhat sketchy as I don't own the Paramount edition (yet) myself but from the captures sent - it is far superior to the other two releases.

Pablo says: 'Paramount has released a DVD edition of Johnny Guitar here in Spain (probably in other European countries as well), and the colors it shows look absolutely right to me, the image is crisp '. Thanks Pablo!

Gary Tooze

REGARDING KINOWELT VS. UNIVERSAL: NOTE: The color on both is wrong, as the film was a three-strip TruColor film. Truffaut wanted to use the format for his 1966 FAHRENHEIT 451, but Universal was locked into a contract with Technicolor, so he settled for that. I bet this film was one of the reasons why. The new Universal edition may have messed up the color into the Crayola-Zone with all of its bleeding and inaccuracy, but Kinowelt's clarity and refinement are undermined by its color-poorness. I have seen the film on film and can tell you the TruColor is so good, it can rival the best 3-strip Technicolor you can imagine and it is too bad the format did not last. In the U.S., the Republic catalog is handled by Lion's Gate. Let's hope they get a pristine TruColor-looking transfer (preferably in progressive-scan HD at 4K), sound clean-up and a bunch of extras this classic deserves. I bet Mr. Scorsese has more than 3.5 minutes to share with us about the film.

It is quite shocking how poor the Universal transfer is next to the Kinowelt. The color balance on the Universal is quite heavily manipulated and hence skin tones look totally irregular and ridiculous (see below). This is highly relevant as color is so important in the film for the male characters:  Turkey is in bright yellow, the Dancing Kid in green, while Johnny Guitar is in pink (NOTE: The women, by contrast, are almost totally devoid of color').

The Universal image is far hazier as well as being cropped. The Kinowelt is from a dual layered DVD (7.26) where the Universal is single layered (3.75 Gig) and this is the probable root of the image discrepancy. Unfortunately, the short Scorsese introduction in no way balances the poor DVD package of the Universal. Kinowelt all the way! The film is a true classic and highly recommended.

 - Gary Tooze