Region 4 Winners and Losers

    This film was released on DVD in Region 1 earlier this year as part of a 7 film collection, just like this one. This movie, in both regions, is one side of a double-sided disc (The Big Store is on the other side).

    The Region 1 version gets one more extra: Leo is on the Air: Go West — a radio broadcast which is really a trailer for the film. It plays (in fairly poor fidelity) for 13:47 while the menu is displayed — the Region 4 disc isn't missing much.

    The transfer on the Region 1 disc isn't quite as good as the Region 4, but it's not whole lot different. It runs 80:12, which is in the correct ratio to the R4 run time (77:02) for both to be telecine transfers from the same print. If they are, then the telecine of the Region 4 transfer was done on better equipment or by better technicians. The R1 shows a bit more jumpiness (more sprocket hole damage?), and is a bit darker than the R4. Both show about the same level of film artefacts, including the reel change markings (The R1's first reel change marks come at 19:49, again fitting with this being the same or similar screen print). The R1 also shows a very slight mis-sync of the audio intermittently.

    All up, I'd say the Region 4 is the better disc.