"The transfers, just completed in July, were supervised by both director William Friedkin and director of photography Owen Roizman." This doesn't exactly inspire confidence if you've witnessed Friedkin's disastrous revisionist transfer-tinkering on the recent FRENCH CONNECTION Blu-ray (briefly, he digitally drained the color from the film, created a layer that oversaturated and defocused the film's original palette, then laid it over the black and white image. The result is completely jarring - not to mention ugly; it looks like a bad colorized film.) Roizman also shot that film but was not consulted for the new transfer, which Friedkin did on his own. Regarding the FC Blu-ray, Roizman said, "I don't know what Billy was thinking. It's not the film that I shot, and I certainly want to wash my hands of having had anything to do with this transfer, which I feel is atrocious. It would be a travesty to see THE EXORCIST transferred in this fashion." Since he's apparently been consulted this time out, I'll keep my fingers crossed, but maybe this is a rent-before-buying situation... On the plus side, the original theatrical version will be included. It would be nice if Warner released this as one of their "book-style" Blu-rays.
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