Hacker Cinema
The Boy in the Plastic Bubble
1976 · Film · 96 min
Directed by Randal Kleiser
Tod Lubitch is born with a deficient immune system. As such, he must spend the rest of his life in a completely sterile environment. His room is completely hermetically sealed against bacteria and virus, his food is specially prepared, and his only human contact comes in the form of gloved hands. The movie follows his life into a teenager.
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4 comments on Hacker News
Why do I feel like there's a guy here that could take film restoration to the next level.
I use a personal favorite movie The Boy in the Plastic Bubble as an example. I don't know why I like this movie as much, but I do. I just looked it up. It was filmed, or video taped, in 1976. It got four Emmy nominations.)
It was shot on video I believe? As a child, I recall it being a movie of a week film. It looked crystal clear to me, but then again my perception might have been different?
For years, I've seen the movie on PBS type channels. I think it's due to the dedgration of the original video, or film. It looked terrible. It was fuzzy, and barely watchable. I don't believe the remastered versions, if they exist, are good enough quality for the media companies?
Someone did a better job at restoration about two years ago, but it's not nearly as sharp, and vivid, as I recall, and it's only watchable in a small format.
Every time I watch it I get interested in video restoration.
My point is film/video restoration seems like it has so much room for research, and innovation?
Does anyone know who did the restoration work on The Boy in the Plastic Bubble? (The made for TV version, with Travolta, and Mr. Brady--197?)
I just saw a restored copy on one of the cable channels, and even though it was not a full screen copy; it was watchable.
I liked the original movie. It was shot of video tape, and was made for T.V. movie. I don't even think they bothered to copyright it? The original copy(master) degraded over time, and for years I thought it was lost.
I'm can't find any info on the Internet on who did the work? It's not a theater quality restoration, but I'm suprised anyone could restore that old, degraded video.
As a child, watching the Tonight show I really liked the episodes when Orson Welles was on!
In a Film Appreciation course in college--the only movie I really liked was Citizen Kane. The camera work was brilliant.
I actually liked all his movies, and they didn't become dated with age. I would like to see The Stranger Remastered, but that's another topic.
As to embellishment--he knew Hollwood, why not play with them? Hollywood is magic, and escapism; why not quild the lilly? It's not like he didn't know the real problems of his generation--people dying in wars, the depression, being accused by Mccarthy.
(I have an off topic question about remastering old film/video. This is really off topic, but here goes. As a child I really liked a The Boy in the Plastic Bubble. It was a made for t.v movie and shot on video tape(I believe). For years the only copies of the film were severely degraded. So degraded, I was told it was beyond remastering. I noticed Starz had it in their line up. I watched the movie and someone did a great job remastering the old video tape. Does anyone know who did the work? I couldn't find anything.)
With the deepest reverence to John McCarthy, I regret to say that Lisp is our cosmological constant. It creates a static universe that is otherwise expanding; it reduces the problem to a solvable one and then declares victory. The truth is, it's all state. All of it.
Remember that movie "Boy in the Plastic Bubble," about a boy with an immune system deficiency who lives instead a hermetically-sealed, sterile bubble? That's not the answer. We instead need to create immune systems (read: robust systems) rather than simply avoiding them.
[I know I'm simplifying things, and this is not meant to be a slight.]