WHY DID THEY DO THIS???????
Quoting from the review on DVD Drive-In
"While not historically accurate by any means, ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. is a timeless fantasy of epic proportions.
It made an international sex symbol and pin-up girl out of Raquel Welch, allowed animator Ray Harryhausen
to create some of his best visual effects ever, and became Hammer Films' most mainstream excursion,
bringing in a lot of box office mula for U.S. distributor 20th Century Fox.
Like any Ray Harryhausen or Hammer title, ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. has been a top-want on DVD for quite some time,
but Fox messed up BIG TIME with this release."
"The huge disappointing blow with this release is that 20th Century Fox Home Video has released the SHORTER, U.S. version of the film,
which is MISSING A FULL NINE MINUTES of footage.
The full 100-minute version was released on laserdisc in 1996 (which opened with "Associated British Pathe presents a Hammer Production"
rather than "A Seven Arts/Hammer Production"), so there is absolutely no excuse for this.
Some of the footage missing from this version include where cavegirl Martine Beswick performs a sexy tribal dance,
violence during a fight between some savage apemen, and a good chunk of Harryhausen's animation.
A "Restoration Comparison" (one of the disc's few supplements) explains that the original negative was lost,
and that two 35mm duplicate negatives were used for this transfer.
Using a split-screen, the superior transfer is shown in comparison with the earlier ones done for the 1993 film master
and the 1996 laserdisc release, which again, was UNCUT.
his DVD is missing nine minutes, so what was the point of going through all the trouble on a new transfer?"
"On a better note, the new DVD transfer looks far superior to the old VHS and laserdisc releases.
Letterboxed at 1.85:1 (yes, the true ratio for all those online complainers that maintain the false belief that various Hammer films were not shot in open matte 1.85:1)
with anamorphic enhancement, colors are distinct if not overly vibrant (with natural fleshtones and deep blue skies).
Detail is sharp, and even when optical effects are on display, the picture hardly drops in terms of quality.
The mono is perfectly audible, and even though it's in mono, carries the sound effects and music to nice effect.
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