This Blu-Ray Disc edition, mastered from a very-good to excellent 35mm print, has a broad range of greytones that emulate a film print in high-definition well.

The film is accompanied by its original synchronized music and sound effects soundtrack.

The supplementary material includes The Language of Shadows: Tabu, a documentary on the making and restoration of the film (15 minutes); a presentation of alternate takes and outtakes (26 minutes); Tabu: A Work in Progress, a compilation of unused camera footage; and Hunt in the South Seas (1940), a short film utilizing unused footage from the production of Tabu.

We are pleased with this Blu-ray Disc edition of Tabu and highly recommend it for the film’s beauty and historical cinematic significance.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

The film is accompanied by its original synchronized music and sound effects soundtrack.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

Supplemental material includes full-length commentary by R. Dixon Smith and Brad Stevens, a 15-minute German documentary about Tabu by Luciano Berriatúa, and an 80-page booklet with articles by Scott Eyman, Richard Griffiths, and David Flaherty, an interview with the film’s cinematographer Floyd Crosby, and the original story treatments written by Murnau and Flaherty for Tabu and its aborted predecessor Turia.

North American collectors will need a region-free Blu-ray Disc player to view this edition.

United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region B Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.

Supplemental material includes full-length commentary by R. Dixon Smith and Brad Stevens, a 15-minute German documentary about Tabu by Luciano Berriatúa, and an 80-page booklet with articles by Scott Eyman, Richard Griffiths, and David Flaherty, an interview with the film’s cinematographer Floyd Crosby, and the original story treatments written by Murnau and Flaherty for Tabu and its aborted predecessor Turia.

This remastered edition replaces Eureka’s 2007 edition noted below in their The Masters of Cinema Series catalogue.

North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 2 PAL DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Purchase supports Silent Era.

Supplemental material includes full-length commentary by R. Dixon Smith and Brad Stevens, a 15-minute German documentary about Tabu by Luciano Berriatúa, and an 80-page booklet with articles by Scott Eyman, Richard Griffiths, and David Flaherty, an interview with the film’s cinematographer Floyd Crosby, and the original story treatments written by Murnau and Flaherty for Tabu and its aborted predecessor Turia.

North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 2 PAL DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Purchase supports Silent Era.

This DVD edition is the best representation of Murnau’s original film since, according to the disc’s commentary, the video transfer originates from a 35mm print struck from UCLA Film and Television Archive’s 1983 35mm preservation negative copied from an original 35mm nitrate positive previously held by Paramount, the film’s distributor. Prior to restoration, abbreviated prints of poor visual quality circulated and did little to support the film’s reputation. The restoration results are, for the most part, very-good but never approaches excellent image detail or tonal range. Much of the footage is slightly contrasty and a little soft in detail. Some shots jump about in the frame, others are rock steady. But, despite these minor flaws, the beauty of many of Murnau and Flaherty’s carefully-constructed shots and Crosby’s cinematography remains, and the disc does the best possible job of presenting the film on home video. The film does a reasonable job of rendering a filmlike image on HD equipment.

The original synchronized soundtrack was also restored by UCLA and presents Hugo Riesenfeld’s 1931 monaural music score in the best possible quality.

The disc’s supplemental material includes informative audio commentary by Janet Bergstrom, the original theatrical trailer from a 35mm print, 35mm outtake footage that ranges from grainy to very-good (24 minutes) and a short 1931 35mm film on actress Reri (4 minutes) with commentary by Bergstrom that adds additional information to that of the main film, a stills gallery (50 images) with script pages (24 images) and telegrams (4 images), and for those with DVD drives in their computers there are clearer PDF reproductions of the same script pages and telegrams.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.