Disk 4 - Special Feature - Making of T2 Chaps. 71-78

Theatrical version. First BBFC-uncut release of T2 in UK, getting an '18' rating. All other releases were cut by varying amounts for a '15' rating, until the cuts were finally waived in 2001.

This is not the 'Special Edition' of T2, but the (then as released in 1991) BBFC '18' Rated cinema version. The subsequent 1992 UK VHS release was cut to get a '15' rating. This Laserdisc was the only way at the time to see the original cinema version at home.

Includes a letter from Jim Cameron:

Image quality, Shot composition, Sound fidelity.

These things matter to a filmmaker. Obviously, we want everyone to see our films in the theater first, but the laserdisc is the best way we have of enjoying the film later, long after the theatrical prints have been retired, scratched and filthy, to some forgotten warehouse.

The widescreen-format laserdisc represents the truest translation of a film into an electronic medium presently available. One is able to watch the film with the full dynamic range of its surround sound faithfully reproduced digitally, and with the image uncropped and of the highest quality that current video resolution allows.

A film like T2, which was shot in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio, only looks right to my eye in the letterbox format. The shot compositions don't make as much sense when the image is shoe-horned by cropping it to the standard 3:4 video aspect ratio. So what you are holding in your hands is by far the most faithful presentation of the film outside of a movie theater.

T2 has been carefully transferred to video under my supervision, using state-of-the-art digital component-video telecine equipment and high-fidelity digital sound. It is satisfying to know that decades, perhaps even hundreds of years from now, this film will look and feel as it does now, its life encoded in the digital realm.

Enjoy. And don't forget to CRANK IT UP!

-- Jim Cameron