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 Bravo and hooray and THANK YOU for a most wanted restoration Nov 23, 2009
THE MEANING OF SERGIO LEONE'S WORK
Spaghetti Westerns were the first significant movies I watched as a little boy growing up in some East European backwater, back in the late sixties. And Sergio Leone was the Spaghetti king. What could be more subversive in a world aiming at total or totalitarian state-enforced collectivism than watching these rugged individualists, Italian-speaking 'cowboys' answering to American names, relentlessly and usually violently pursuing their own greedy goals while the world around was cracking and collapsing with a so-called 'civil' war raging? Add to that those wide shots of small men under immense, blue, cloudless dessert skies and Clint Eastwood's cigars and the effects of all those years of constant and persistent indoctrination were irreversibly blown away by 3 hours of movie viewing.
It's hard to quantify the role Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood played in the collapse of communism - after all, what followed isn't exactly the happy-go-lucky Wild West - but almost certainly we wouldn't have the Tarantino some of us love and the massive Stephen King's Dark Tower saga might not exist at all - and this is just scratching the surface. Maybe Sergio Leone is not the sole mother of all contemporary creative artistic expressions but he's clearly one of their more prominent godfathers.
THE RESTORATION
These being said, the restoration and actual reconstruction of his work was something that HAD to be done because we can't afford having these masterpieces degrade any further. What came out is certainly not 'perfect' but it's great work for sure and, as a digital product, it can't degrade any more.
The restorers succeeded in giving us, Americans, what Europeans always had - the 'full' movie, not the butchered American version, 15 or 20 minutes shorter, made so to meet the business demands of theater operators. It was hard to find film of an acceptable quality for all the chapters and, at least in one instance, what was found was too damaged to be included in the film but, whenever possible, the lost content was added and the restorers even brought back Clint Eastwood and Eli Wallach to do their voices over the Italian-speaking cuts. The picture was cleaned up and the restorers even managed to turn the mono sound track into a 5.1 surround, adding a few sound effects when needed - yes, it's not 100% the original sound track but I'm not complaining.
THE BLU EDITON
This edition is the 2003 restored movie. As I noted above, it gets a DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio sound track and it's 2 minutes shy of 3 hours long. For a 1966 movie done on the cheap back then - it cost only a little over $1 million to make it - the restoration quality is above expectations. Not everything is perfect. Sometimes we even get to see the proverbial 'hair' at the bottom of the screen and not a lot of time was invested in creating the 5.1 sound track but what we get is probably better than what I saw as a little boy in the movie theater.
In addition, there is a serious complement of extras. There are two separate commentary soundtracks by Richard Schickel, an Eastwood biographer and by Christopher Frayling, a noted authority when it comes to Sergio Leone. Then, there's the "Leone's West" documentary, discussing the making of the movie, another featurette on Sergio Leone himself, a short on the actual Civil War events that the movie seems to refer to, a very informative short on the restoration process and two extras on Ennio Morricone, the composer responsible for the innovative sound track.
Sadly, the packaging is not what I expected. The disk comes inside one of the cheapest Blu-ray case made so far - the kind that has holes in it to save one or two pennies worth of plastic but... I can live with that.
OVERALL
I am VERY happy with this restoration. I think it's the best we are going to get for many years to come so... enjoy it. I know that I am. It's 5 stars without hesitation.
0 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Outstanding movie, horrendous packaging Nov 21, 2009
I am not going to review the movie's quality itself - it's outstanding, but the packaging is awful. Some studio idiot decided to "go green" and for this BD used a case with huge holes in it! These holes are supposedly for less plastics use... Hello? The case is supposed to protect the disc, not the freaking environment at the expense of the disc! How far are we going to go in this idiotic pursue of mindless green trend following?
1 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Great transfer Nov 10, 2009
One of my favorite movies just got better. The Transfer is great. I was surprised How good of a transfer it was. The audio had its moments. This is the first old movie I have bought on blu. With the result I will buy some more. I am really happy with the transfer I watched the movie 2 times in 2 days. I saw some things I never noticed before. I am really impressed.
If this is one of your favorite movies or any Eastwood fan buy it on blu.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Blu Ray release is worth it ! Oct 06, 2009
I've now owned 5 versions of the film, 2-tape VHS, Laserdisc, DVD, restored 'full-length' DVD, and now the Blu Ray version...
I'm sure that if I added up the total amount spent on all of the purchases, I'd find that I've spent over $150 on this film...
It's been well worth it !
And, especially since the cost of the Blu Ray edition, is less than almost all the previous purchases... (Available for between $14 and $16).
It contains the restored 'full-length' version of the movie (like the restored DVD edition), but does not come with all of the 'extras' such as the original movie posters and booklet that were in the 'box' for the DVD.
When I played it (Sony BDP-BX2 player, Sony STR-DA3400ES upscaling receiver, Sony KDL-55xbr8 LED tv), it didn't seem to be up to 'true' HD quality, (though, all of the 'close-ups' of faces were perfect, as they always were on the previous editions, due to the high quality of the original film).
I didn't think that much had improved over the DVD release (which looked very good on my 'triple' upscaling video setup), UNTIL I played the DVD version again, and noticed the difference.
There is a great improvement in 'contrast'. Dark areas (in shadows, etc) are now visible (note the stucco wall to the left of the table that Angel Eyes stands next to in his first scene). And, the higher bitrate gives greater clarity to the sky, the ground (pebbles in the dirt, blades of grass) and all of the 'wide' background scenery. Compare the scene after Clint and Eli Wallach cross the river (where the bridge was blown up) climbing the hillside (approaching the camera). The DVD release is all 'jaggy' and 'dark', while the Blu Ray version shows every detail of the bodies strewn about the ground.
You may not notice the enhanced 'detail' if you have a small TV screen, but when shown on the larger models (50" and above) the improvements become much more apparent...
The 'restored' DVD release had added a 5.1 soundtrack, with 'added' sound effects. The Blu Ray goes beyond this, with the DTS-HD format, which (to me at least) sounds less 'added on' and has more 'punch'. The second blast from the cannon, when Eli Wallach attempts to get to the cemetery without Clint was much more pronounced (especially with a subwoofer).
The bottom line is, that any improvement to the film is worth it... I can't wait for the 3D version to be released...
4 out of 5 stars (missing 1 due to the 'bland' inclusions to the packaging).
1 of 2 found the following review helpful:
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Sep 29, 2009
I bought this Blue-Ray DVD for a friend for Christmas. Of course, I have seen this good movie several times myself, and enjoy it. I checked on prices of Blue Ray DVD's in several stores and found the best prices on Amazon for Blue-Ray DVD's for gifts for a long time friend.
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