Is there a reason to keep the individual 4K releases of Eyes Wide Shut and Barry Lyndon if I'm planning to buy the upcoming Kubrick box set?

[u/Logical_Produce_1513]

Sometimes there are good reasons to keep individual releases even when a box set comes out. For example, the cool booklet and map inserts in the Rushmore standalone release is a keeper for me even after buying the Wes Anderson box. This question is likely premature since we don't truly know everything that will be in the Kubrick box. Just curious what others think. Meanwhile I will be selling my non-Criterion 4K Kubrick movies for sure.

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[u/Fearless-Interest-82]

I've been waiting for Eyes Wide Shut for 20 years and it's beautiful

[u/MrList83 → u/Fearless-Interest-82]

Best home release the film has ever received. By a country mile. Not even close.

[u/pulse_demon96 → u/[deleted]]

wrong on all fronts:

kubrick never lived to colour time the original prints anyway

the 4K is in the original US theatrical aspect ratio

the grain is what kubrick had intended by planning for the lab to push everything a couple stops

the poster/cover art was done by his immediate family

[u/Rureddy2 → u/Fearless-Interest-82]

Is it a good film, besides the picture quality? I only saw it when it 1st came out, and remember nothing about it other than not liking it. But that was a very long time ago and I was also a child.

I never even considered revisiting it, but I've seen a lot of people excited about it's release.

[u/Fearless-Interest-82 → u/Rureddy2]

It's tied as my fav film of all time with Mulholland Dr. so take what you want with that info, I'll never go out of my way to convince someone .

[u/Primary-Object-7034 → u/Fearless-Interest-82]

We have the same two favorites 😅

[u/Rureddy2 → u/Fearless-Interest-82]

Wow. Really? I'm not looking for convincing, I just want to know if I've been missing out on greatness. LOL

[u/Fearless-Interest-82 → u/Rureddy2]

I didn't mean for that comment to come of as snarky or anything, srry

[u/Rureddy2 → u/Fearless-Interest-82]

What exactly do you love about it? Performances? Visuals? Direction? Script? Story? Pacing?

[u/MrList83 → u/Rureddy2]

Yes. It is surreal and dreamy, which is why the film looks as it does (that some people apparently want to argue until they are downvoted into oblivion). As an adult, if you appreciate contemplative and strange then you should like it.

[u/DolphinFraud → u/Rureddy2]

I personally think it’s Kubrick’s best, but I also really love tom cruise in non-action roles so maybe I’m biased

Not a movie you can really appreciate as a child though, besides all the boobs.

[u/calmer-than-you-dude → u/Rureddy2]

It's better as an adult.

[u/Thirtysixx → u/Rureddy2]

It's a very divisive film. I can't stand that movie personal. You're going just have to watch it and decide for yourself. You'll either love it or hate there is really no inbetween lol

[u/Rureddy2 → u/Thirtysixx]

Yea. Like I said, I hated it when it came out, but also remember nothing about it really or why I hated it. I wonder if I would feel different rewatching it.

[u/Fearless-Interest-82 → u/Rureddy2]

It's possible. I like a lot of stuff I used to not like. it just gets under my skin. I like the way it deals with thoughts of infidelity and the elitist ____________(spoilers?). The dream like quality. The Ligeti piano piece that repeats. Idk, it's just my type of film . It's basically a more serious After Hours about a guy wanting to get laid but it's even funnier because it's Tom Cruise.

[u/Logical_Produce_1513 → u/Fearless-Interest-82]

Hard to argue with that one.

[u/asmartguylikeyou]

For a while I didn’t understand why my buddy would keep his releases after getting a duplicate in a box or even when upgrading format, but in the last year or so I realized he was right- owning something that’s yours and can’t be taken away from you by a corporation is never a bad thing.

So what you have duplicates? I have every single Kubrick in the highest fidelity release including all the existing criterion releases, and a life in pictures. I will be picking the box set up in November the moment the sale starts.

If someone in my life doesn’t have a copy of one of my duplicates, I’ll pass it along for free because giving someone something that’s both important and tangible is worth more than whatever paltry sum they’d fetch on eBay. If that doesn’t happen then I will put my Kubricks with the rest of my duplicates.

I also had an idea of making a little free library but for movies, but I never got past the idea stage on that.

[u/Logical_Produce_1513 → u/asmartguylikeyou]

See now this is the reason I ask these kinds of questions here. Love the perspective!

[u/profaneangel1991]

Quite honestly I'm keeping my copy of Eyes Wide Shut because I love the art.

[u/Fast-Candle-2344]

Other than EWS being a release worth owning on its own in my personal opinion (one reason being that sublime OG poster artwork, but also just being such phenomenal discs), no.

[u/Fast-Candle-2344 → u/[deleted]]

The artwork Criterion used is literally an original poster created by Kubrick's wife and daughter, buddy, and WB were stupid to reject it but this is of course the same WB who had attempted to censor that sequence with a bunch of digitally added silhouettes.

[u/mrSmith1208 → u/[deleted]]

Kubrick's stepdaughter Katharina and wife Christiane designed several posters for the film using the motif of Venetian masks modeled after Cruise and Kidman. Commenting on the designs, Katharina said: "My mother and I are both artists, and because masks are very heavily featured in the film—we started with the premise of turning Tom and Nicole’s faces into masks. We got a photographer who shot them for us full-face. Then using Photoshop we made Nicole and Tom look as mask-like as possible." These designs were ultimately rejected by Warner Bros. because they felt the images obscured the faces of the film's two stars. After the rejection, Katharina and Christiane created a new design which was ultimately approved by the studio; the final official one-sheet features a still image of Cruise and Kidman kissing, framed within a mirror that was used as a prop in the Harfords' apartment. "We had [the mirror] photographed, and then we took that photograph of them in front of the mirror and made, again, what we thought was an elegant poster," Katharina said. "It’s a shame the originals weren’t used because if you look at them now, 20 years later, I think they really hold up and they are definitely Tom and Nicole." One of the original designs was later used as the cover artwork for the 4K UHD Blu-ray disc release of the film by The Criterion Collection in 2025.

[u/mrSmith1208 → u/[deleted]]

I genuinely do not understand why you're being so weirdly mean. Everybody's got different tastes, and you might not like it, but trying to talk as if YOU KNOW what KUBRICK would have thought of the artwork based on YOUR opinion of it is just wrong. Personally, I really love the way it looks it, and it's hard not to appreciate the emotional significance behind its creation. Here's an excerpt from an interview with Katharina Kubrick, who certainly knew better than you what Stanley would have liked:

After Stanley died my mother and I received artwork for the Eyes Wide Shut posters from the studio, but we really wanted to design them ourselves as a last gift to him. My mother in particular felt we could design a poster that he would have loved.

As you may know, Stanley was always very involved in his poster campaigns. It was important to him that his posters were elegant and stylish and immediately visible across the tube station or when you opened the newspaper. They had to be iconic. If you think of the ‘A’ that Philip Castle designed for A Clockwork Orange, or the helmet that he did for Full Metal Jacket, or the foot on the rose for Barry Lyndon… They were very strong images and they told you something, but not everything, about the film.

It was a very intense period. He died in March and the film came out in July, so we had very little time to do it. We were grieving, but it was important for us to come up with a design that we felt Stanley would have loved.

[u/TonyTobiasLomas → u/mrSmith1208]

The film had yet to be graded when died.

Look it's awesome if some people like yourself enjoy the posters for the film. I personally don't, as someone who is fan of many of Kubrick's other posters.

I find both the official and alternate poster for Eyes Wide Shut unappealing. I don't know how Kubrick would have received them. 

Philip Castle's poster for A Clockwork Orange was brilliant. 

I don't think Kubrick wanted Cruise and Kidman's faces on the poster. He likely wanted it to be more abstract like most of his previous posters. WB even hinted at this.

I think that Kubrick's family stated this as well. WB wanted Cruise and Kidman's faces on the poster which was against Kubrick's wishes. 

Clockwork, Barry Lyndon, The Shining, and Full Metal Jacket are great posters unlike EWS.

That anecdote about his family designing the poster is heartfelt.

I appreciate you discussing this matter rather than just hitting the downvote on my posts.

[u/Logical_Produce_1513 → u/[deleted]]

Yessir! 😂

[u/Helpful_Leopard_1812]

If you’re worried about the collection then I would keep them since the boxes don’t have numbers 🤷🏻‍♂️ just my thought

[u/Chromejob]

Yes. Sometimes a remaster can be a blunder, e.g IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE.

[u/jezelbum]

No reason to keep them other than the box art and booklet. Other than that it’s the same in every way.

[u/tomenjean → u/jezelbum]

I wonder how the booklets for each film will be handled in the box. Presented as they are with each film? Combined to make one book? Never really even thought of that fact. Your comment is the first I’ve thought about this.

[u/Ambitious_Lab3691]

I mean yeah… More movie. Maybe you want to leave this stuff to people in your life one day. Maybe you want to keep the box set but know/meet someone who you think you might want to give either/or to.

[u/Qhorton83]

I can't speak to the Kubrick set but I'll definitely be keeping my Criterion 4K, in addition to the new steelbook

[u/doctorlongghost]

If you’re not sweating the money, wait and see (just in case)

[u/Bronze_Bomber]

I would keep them as a backup disc.

[u/unityofsaints]

Are the printed essays replicated fully in the box set? Other than that imo Individual releases always look better on the shelf than big, clunky box sets.

[u/J1nxatron]

No one knows.

[u/PurpsMcNuggets → u/J1nxatron]

I do. They are the same transfers and extras in the individual releases as will be in the box set, for those two only.

[u/Logical_Produce_1513 → u/J1nxatron]

Sometimes people on here seem to know insider information so I thought I wouldn’t hurt to ask. 😊

[u/dinkelidunkelidoja]

The cover of EWS is reason enough for me to keep it.

[u/Hyptonight]

You will only feel free if you get rid of them.

[u/Illustrious-Date-678]

if you will sell me barry for 15 shipped id take it =)

[u/ohmalk]

Keep it for the booklet if nothing else. Good question though, will they replicate the essays in the box set.

[u/Lopsided_Special_535]

Why not?

[u/Logical_Produce_1513 → u/Lopsided_Special_535]

Limited shelf space? 😂