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This is way too long and probably nobody else cares, but...
The Abyss has always been an important movie to me.
As a child, I picked up a love of movies from my father. I knew instinctively that there was a difference between watching a movie at home vs a proper big-screen presentation, but I didn’t really understand the how and why of it until high school, when I worked as an usher at a theater in Memphis. During the year I worked there, we showed one title in 70MM (the final Indiana Jones movie).
When I learned that Cameron had a new film coming, out, I was extremely excited. As a teen, The Terminator and Aliens were two of my favorites. (Still are.) I watched the trailer for The Abyss countless times while on the job. The moment the trailer went from 1.33 mono to widescreen and surround got me every time.
Instead of watching The Abyss at “my” theater, I decided to wait, hoping to get an even better experience. I'd been accepted to college in Colorado, where I saw (from newspapers!), that The Abyss was showing in 70MM at a single screen theater called “The Continental.” I’d never even visited my future college, but when we rolled into Denver, we went straight to the movies.
Holy shit. I was blown away. I'd never been in a theater that even came close to that size. We sat on the 5th or 6th row. The massive 78-foot-wide D-150 screen transported me to the bottom of the ocean.
I loved the movie but had to agree that the ending was missing something.
Four years later, Cameron fixed the ending with the Special Edition. I watched it on laser disc and loved it, but of course the experience wasn’t nearly as immersive.
Then, just as my family was coming to visit for graduation, The Continental booked one of the two 35mm prints that were struck of The Abyss: Special Edition. I went on opening night, only to discover that just over a minute of footage was missing. (The sequence of Bud swimming back to Deepcore after the submersible chase.)
I complained to theater staff, who were dismissive, saying something along the lines of “That’s the print we got.”
Through a roundabout sequence of events, I had a friend with a phone number for Mike Cameron, the director’s brother, who also worked on the film. I called him and told him about the missing footage. I even gave him the corresponding time codes from the laserdisc. By the time my family came out to Colorado, the missing minute had been restored.
The Abyss: SE has never been released for home viewing in high definition. It’s never even been released in 480p. The DVD was mastered at 480i. It’s unwatchable on a screen bigger than 30 inches. There is, however, a bootleg HD fan restoration of The Abyss: SE that looks pretty good.
Last night for one showing, a 4k restoration The Abyss: SE was screened in theaters across the U.S. It will be releaesd in 4K UHD in March.
The Continental is gone, along with all the other great cinemas the area. In fact, most of the theaters in Colorado today are so goddamn awful that I refuse to go to them. The only good screen around is the CineXL at Harkins’ Northfield location. As luck would have it, a private party booked Harkins’ CineXL screen on the one night that The Abyss: SE 4k remaster was showing.
So I drove 3 hours round trip to Cheyenne to see it on the 64-foot wide ARQ screen (photo below) at WyoMovie Capital Cinema, which incidentally, was modeled after Denver’s magnificent and long-gone Cooper Theater.
The presentation was great. Picture and sound were sharp and immersive. My only nit-picky complaint: it felt like the image was zoomed in little too much. It felt like they might be cropping a bit off the top.
Prior to the show, the curtains were only opened a little, to show small 4:3-ish ads floating in the center of the screen, which I suppose is a a decent way show ads and keep some of the presentation magic. At showtime, the curtains closed and then reopened to their full width. Unfortunately, they ran a bunch of full-sized ads at that point before the trailers stared. Oh well.
The Abyss holds up. I was struck by the beauty of the cinematography, with amazing lighting and rich, wide compositions that invite you to actively look around at action spread out across the screen. (Especially from the 2nd row.)
The emotional impact of Bud and Lindsey's relationship and the sacrifices they make near the end holds up incredibly well. I know the production was hell, but the result is masterful. The ending is a little uneven, even with the Special Edition additions. Effects aren't perfect and the some of the fillmmaking is a little corny... Despite that, as I mentioned, The Abyss holds up. It's a magnificent movie.
image.png
Edit: And, like an idiot, I failed to capitalize the title of the gd movie. Sigh. It's late. Any chance someone can fix that?
The Abyss has always been an important movie to me.
As a child, I picked up a love of movies from my father. I knew instinctively that there was a difference between watching a movie at home vs a proper big-screen presentation, but I didn’t really understand the how and why of it until high school, when I worked as an usher at a theater in Memphis. During the year I worked there, we showed one title in 70MM (the final Indiana Jones movie).
When I learned that Cameron had a new film coming, out, I was extremely excited. As a teen, The Terminator and Aliens were two of my favorites. (Still are.) I watched the trailer for The Abyss countless times while on the job. The moment the trailer went from 1.33 mono to widescreen and surround got me every time.
Instead of watching The Abyss at “my” theater, I decided to wait, hoping to get an even better experience. I'd been accepted to college in Colorado, where I saw (from newspapers!), that The Abyss was showing in 70MM at a single screen theater called “The Continental.” I’d never even visited my future college, but when we rolled into Denver, we went straight to the movies.
Holy shit. I was blown away. I'd never been in a theater that even came close to that size. We sat on the 5th or 6th row. The massive 78-foot-wide D-150 screen transported me to the bottom of the ocean.
I loved the movie but had to agree that the ending was missing something.
Four years later, Cameron fixed the ending with the Special Edition. I watched it on laser disc and loved it, but of course the experience wasn’t nearly as immersive.
Then, just as my family was coming to visit for graduation, The Continental booked one of the two 35mm prints that were struck of The Abyss: Special Edition. I went on opening night, only to discover that just over a minute of footage was missing. (The sequence of Bud swimming back to Deepcore after the submersible chase.)
I complained to theater staff, who were dismissive, saying something along the lines of “That’s the print we got.”
Through a roundabout sequence of events, I had a friend with a phone number for Mike Cameron, the director’s brother, who also worked on the film. I called him and told him about the missing footage. I even gave him the corresponding time codes from the laserdisc. By the time my family came out to Colorado, the missing minute had been restored.
The Abyss: SE has never been released for home viewing in high definition. It’s never even been released in 480p. The DVD was mastered at 480i. It’s unwatchable on a screen bigger than 30 inches. There is, however, a bootleg HD fan restoration of The Abyss: SE that looks pretty good.
Last night for one showing, a 4k restoration The Abyss: SE was screened in theaters across the U.S. It will be releaesd in 4K UHD in March.
The Continental is gone, along with all the other great cinemas the area. In fact, most of the theaters in Colorado today are so goddamn awful that I refuse to go to them. The only good screen around is the CineXL at Harkins’ Northfield location. As luck would have it, a private party booked Harkins’ CineXL screen on the one night that The Abyss: SE 4k remaster was showing.
So I drove 3 hours round trip to Cheyenne to see it on the 64-foot wide ARQ screen (photo below) at WyoMovie Capital Cinema, which incidentally, was modeled after Denver’s magnificent and long-gone Cooper Theater.
The presentation was great. Picture and sound were sharp and immersive. My only nit-picky complaint: it felt like the image was zoomed in little too much. It felt like they might be cropping a bit off the top.
Prior to the show, the curtains were only opened a little, to show small 4:3-ish ads floating in the center of the screen, which I suppose is a a decent way show ads and keep some of the presentation magic. At showtime, the curtains closed and then reopened to their full width. Unfortunately, they ran a bunch of full-sized ads at that point before the trailers stared. Oh well.
The Abyss holds up. I was struck by the beauty of the cinematography, with amazing lighting and rich, wide compositions that invite you to actively look around at action spread out across the screen. (Especially from the 2nd row.)
The emotional impact of Bud and Lindsey's relationship and the sacrifices they make near the end holds up incredibly well. I know the production was hell, but the result is masterful. The ending is a little uneven, even with the Special Edition additions. Effects aren't perfect and the some of the fillmmaking is a little corny... Despite that, as I mentioned, The Abyss holds up. It's a magnificent movie.
image.png
Edit: And, like an idiot, I failed to capitalize the title of the gd movie. Sigh. It's late. Any chance someone can fix that?
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