Product Details

• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: Chinese
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (74 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005V54S
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #58,428 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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  Movies & TV > Drama > Television > Twin Peaks

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

85 of 86 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quick Fix for Those Who Need the Pilot, January 11, 2002

By	Christopher White (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Due to legal wranglings over the pilot episode, it was not included in the recent First Season DVD boxset (another 5 star product). What you get here is a Hong Kong import from Republic Pictures which is legitimate but not the highest quality product. I still gave the disc 5 stars because it is the pilot none the less and who knows how long it will be until it is released in America on DVD.

What you ARE getting: The original pilot episode of Twin Peaks that aired on television in the United States. This is good because it maintains continuity and most importantly the suprise of the series. In other words if you have never seen the show you should watch this version of the pilot, the 29 episodes of the series and then Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me in order to experience it in the way you would have had you been watching the material as it was released. This is the best way for a newcomer to get the Twin Peaks experience.

What you are NOT getting: This is NOT the European version of the pilot. In David Lynch's contract he was required to make the pilot into a close ended feature which could stand alone to sell in European markets and possibly the US if the series were not picked up. That version is basically a Cliff's Notes for the series, showing you the end and culprit without any of the fun of arriving there from the series. I would recommend renting this version after you have seen all of the other material out there however, it has some good moments.

QUALITY: Like I said before this is an import from Republic and not the best quality. The video quality is about equal to if the pilot played on TV yesterday and I taped it on a regular VCR. That being said, the video and sound are adequate, but one should not expect the amazingly crystal clear transfer from the Season One set. (In fact I read that the Season One set having been remastered, has better quality than the master tapes that ABC has in its vaults!)

FINALLY: So again, I stand by my five star rating because though the quality is not superb, the pilot is a necessary part of any Twin Peaker's collection. I recommend purchasing this because as anyone can see from New Line Cinema's decision to not only NOT include the sought after deleted footage from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, but also delay its release for a year when they really had no intention of paying for the rights to the footage in the first place that Twin Peaks is not high on the list of priorities for the studios involved. Don't expect an American release anytime soon.

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It IS complete, and essential, but aud/vid drags rating down, August 10, 2002

By	William Adams (Ashland, OR USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I'd give five stars for a better transfer of this wonderful pilot. But if you want to enjoy the rest of the series, starting with the terrific First Season transfers, you need to see the complete pilot, and this is the only version of it.

If you've read this far, you probably know that, and you're going through all these contradictory reviews to make up your mind whether the audio and video quality of this import version is good enough to buy.

So mine is just another opinion by someone you don't know, but maybe it will help anyway.

First, I side with the guy who says that if you have 5.1 Surround sound, it doesn't sound bad at all. I have to believe from the other reviews that if you only have two-channel playback, it sounds very bad.

Visually, it's not nearly as good as it should be, compared with the beautifully transferred First Season collection -- but it *is* better than VHS and will last longer.

Finally, it's the only way to get the real pilot for the forseeable future. The old VHS versions floating around are all of the European release, which was a version of the pilot padded out with extraneous footage and given a completely arbitrary and pointless ending so that it could be seen in European theaters as a complete-in-itself movie. On which point:

DO NOT BELIEVE THE REVIEW THAT SAYS THIS IS A SHORTENED VERSION. THIS *IS* THE COMPLETE PILOT. Proof: It's ninety minutes long. The pilot was originally aired in a two-hour time-slot. At that time, 15 minutes of commercials per hour was standard. (It's more like 17 or 18 now.) Two hours minus thirty minutes is ninety minutes. The VHS version was, again, padded out with extraneous footage and a pointless, jury-rigged ending, and that's why it was rather longer. But THIS is the version you need to see before you watch the First Season collection. There's a rights problem that prevented the pilot from being packaged with the rest of the first season--who knows if it will ever be resolved? This version of the pilot may be the best we'll get for a long long time, and if you have 5.1 Surround playback, it's not half bad.

139 of 161 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Sound Quality is Awful, But It's Better Than Nothing, January 13, 2002

By	"dugpa" (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This is the best the Twin Peaks Pilot has ever looked. (Well, aside from the big screen at last years Twin Peaks Fest) The disc has a surprisingly crisp and clean picture. I played this with a switchbox against the Warner Bros. Pilot Laserdisc, and the DVD did to the Laser Disc what Agent Desmond did to Deputy Cliff in FWWM. However, beware there are noticeable artifacts, and minor distortion is apparent in some scenes. Why this is, I'm not sure. they are not so horrible, that they detract from the presentation, but they are noticeable. The dark scenes were done very well IMHO. Minor dust specs on the print every once in a while, but much cleaner than the laserdisc.

Audio:

The audio has received a FULL aggressive 5.1 remix. Lots of the sound effects are appropriately panned to the rear surround speakers. One thing you definitely want to do is turn your back speakers down a bit, as they can often be distracting. The bass seems to be a bit much at times, but again, a slight adjustment on your Home Theater system can easily correct this. One specific moment that was a good use of the rear surround is when the translator mentions how "Health und Industry They Go Hand De Hand". The response laughter of the Norwegians are panned to the back speakers and give a "Room Full of Laughing Norwegians" effect. It is clear that whomever remixed the sound did so from a sound reel master.

Now the DOWNSIDE. There are a few things that bother me about the sound. First off, when comparing it to the Laserdisc, I noticed right away it seems that whoever mastered the movie (I assume) transferred it from a PAL Master. It's the only explanation I can think of for why the pitch of the sound is about a half step too high. Also, the sound although pretty good for the most part, sounds definately out of phase in the Center Speaker during parts with music in the background. Although it is annoying at times, it is not completely a loss. So be warned !

Supplements:

Well, there's not a lot here. You get a nice Scene Access menu, along with Character Biographies for Joan Chen and Kyle MacLachlan. You also get treated to some awful Republic Pictures trailers for "One Against the Wind", "Class Cruise", "Live Nude Girls", and "Witchboard 2: the Devil's Doorway". My advice... skip them.

Parting Thoughts:

All I can say is that I was very surprised by this release. Although 4% faster than it should be, is a nice addition to a Twin Peaks Fan's collection. The DVD comes only with a 5.1 soundtrack, as the original 2-Speaker Surround soundtrack is absent. The picture is great minus the artifacting, and the sound is bad, but not a total loss. Expect lots of phase problems in the center speaker. Finally having the Pilot as it aired on Television as opposed to the extended European version is a Twin Peaks Fan's dream come true. I would recommend this to any Twin Peaks fan that wants to get a clean copy of the Pilot on DVD. For now, this is as good as it gets. At this point, who knows when Paramount will be getting their act together.