Sergio Leone's classic trilogy of films with Clint Eastwood arrives on Blu-ray (and also in a separate DVD release ) under "The Man with No Name" with varying results. All three films "Fistful of Dollars", "For a Few Dollars More" and "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" (the last film previously released on Blu-ray before this set)have their individual issues but, on the whole, all three films have more positives than negatives when it comes to their debut on HD.I'm going to skip the plot summaries since others have already done a good job with that.
"Fistful of Dollars" clearly isn't the same transfer as the European edition; skin tones tend to be a bit red and the framing is a bit different than the European restored edition. I'm not sure if the original negative was accessed for this edition (I doubt it)but it could use a bit of restoration work.
Still, it looks pretty good with good detail. Overall the transfer looks quite good and digital noise reduction doesn't mar this one quite as badly as it does "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" (which still looks good even with that issue). Audio sounds quite nice as well.I'd also note that fans should be prepared--it looks quite grainy but this is the way the film was shot and originally shown in theaters.
We get all the extras from the previous edition on DVD that was released in "The Man with No Name Trilogy" and "The Sergio Leone Collection" (the only difference between those two DVD releases was that "Duck You Sucker" was included starring James Coburn was part of that package).
"For a Few Dollars More" looks exceptionally good with nice detail, colors that mirror the overseas edition of the film and, again, the extras from the DVD edition. This is probably the best looking of the bunch here. Again, the film is grainy but thats the intended look of the film.
"The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" looks extremely good even with occasional heavy handed DNR applied to the film (more to do with eliminating grain since all three films were shot on film stock that tended to be extremely grainy to begin with). The detail is still surprisingly strong this doesn't look as bad as, say, the latest edition of "Predator" where everyone has waxy skin completion but it isn't quite as strong looking as "For A Few Dollars More" either.
Part of this could be due to the fact that "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" underwent a restoration some years back and this could an older HD print for the film whereas the other two films received more recent transfers. The overuse of digital noise reduction (which tends to reduce detail, cause skin textures to look smooth like wax but smoothes out grain often eliminating it if overused)was pretty common as recent as three to five years ago. That's no excuse just the facts. I doubt given MGM's current financial crisis and Fox's recent trend towards overusing DNR ("Predator" again as an example for a recent catalog title or "Patton")that we were going to get a new HD transfer. It's not something that should prevent you from buying this set although you will notice it on TV sets 50 inches and above.
The video bit rate for all three movies is quite good with an average of 30Mbps ("Fistful" has the highest at 36 while "Good" which is the longest film of the three has the lowest at 26Mbps) which translates as a good, consistent picture.
Audio is strong for all three films. As previoulsy mentioned the extras from all three previously released DVDs are included as part of the set usually in standard definition though and on the same disc as the movie. We get multiple langauge tracks including English, Spanish, Hungarian, Italian and Turkish. Subtitles are available in English only.
All three films are packaged in a slimline 3 Blu-ray case with film credits printed on the inside of the outer sleeve. I would have liked to see Fox (which is handling MGM releases in the U.S.) include replicas of the lobby cards like they did with the previous single DVD sets and/or a booklet similar to the one that came with "The Sergio Leone Collection".
So is the transfer for "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" and the framing issue for "Fistful" a deal breaker? No. You'll enjoy these films and they really have never looked this good on home video before. Be aware however that there is a region free European edition that doesn't have the framing issue for "Fistful" and the skin tones are a bit more muted for that restored edition. It all comes down to if you have a fistful of dollars to spend.
Most fans won't notice these issues and for those that do there is an alternative should you want to pick up the European edition of the film.
So a total of 4 stars because of some minor issues with two films in the set. A note on the cover--for some reason Fox has chosen to reuse the cover from "The Sergio Leone Collection for the Blu-ray (and DVD) of "The Man with No Name Trilogy".Recommended.
Picture quality:
"Fistful": 4/5
"Few More": 4.5/5
"Good, Bad, Ugly": 3,5/5
Region Free!
Widescreen 2.35:1
Audio: English, Spanish, French (German/Italian also on "Good, Bad, Ugly")
Extras: seem to be the same as on 2-disc DVD sets.
NB: extraordinary audio commentary by Leone expert Christopher Frayling!
In my view this box set is a bargain (I ordered my copies for $29).
If you like these Leone films, then this 3-piece set should be a no-brainer.
2. For sprocket hole addicts (myself included):
All films of this "trilogy" (of course it wasn't intended as such) were shot in "Techniscope" (i.e. 2 perforation holes instead of 4, as in "Cinemascope" ) hence cutting stock costs in half unfortunately same goes for picture resolution. Therefore a slightly lesser picture quality than in usual Cinemascope Blu-ray transfers is the result. But this only adds to the intentional grittiness of Carlo Simi's production design. Much better prints are not likely in the future.
Still these Blu-ray prints of the three movies differ in their picture quality with "Few More" being the best (except some minor visible stain at TC 00:04:09-56, Chpt. 2) followed by "Fistful" and "Good, Bad, Ugly" (due to excessive DNR processing).
Alternatives for the 3-disc box set?
"Fistful" you can also look for the Italian BD release from RHV (Ripleys Home Video; Region Free) available from bol.it.
"Few More" this BD is available seperately (for the price of this entire set!)
"Good, Bad, Ugly" you could wait for an enhanced BD version, but who knows when this will be around? "Good, Bad, Ugly" of course could use some improvement...
Fox have put out a 4-disc BD set also including "Hang 'em High" available from amazon.co.uk (RC? / picture quality? / audio?)
Overall these BDs look great a definite improvement over DVDs and are great fun to watch!! Audio commentary by Christopher Frayling (author of: "Spaghetti Westerns: Cowboys and Europeans from Karl May to Sergio Leone", 1981) impressively marks the difference between informative vs. talkative (yes, Sir!) and provides you with everything you always wanted to know about these Leone films but didn't know whom to ask... brilliant!!The trilogy of westerns made by Sergio Leone during the early to mid-60's are among the best of the so-called spaghetti westerns produced. Leone's unique cinematic vision and his unusual use of the camera (a bit of trivia Leone never storyboarded his films. Unlike Hitchcock and other major directors he had it all in his head)make these films unique and powerful. Leone was the first foreign film director to make self reflective movies; i.e., his westerns were really about the classic western films he grew up loving with a post-ironic twist.
You can read about the plots elsewhere as I want to concentrate on the major drawback (and the benefits)of these DVDs; Both Fistful and more are presented in their widescreen aspect radio. Since Leone's films benefited from the widescreen format and vistas, seeing them in a pan and scan version doesn't do the films justice; it's like listening to a great piece of music through a portable radio with poor reception. You get the gist of the music and feel that's powerful but it lacks the full impact and range.
The films exhibit a high amount of analog artifacts. Portions of More also look quite faded. Both films deserve and require a restoration similar to that performed for The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (although the version included here is not the restored version). Both discs also include both pan and scan and widescreen versions of the films. There's also theatrical trailers and booklets with background on the making of both films. The soundtrack sounds flat and thin--given the way the original soundtracks were mixed and released that's not a surprise. Still, if the original elements still exist it would be worthwhile to revisit these films, restore and then remaster them with a commentary track (similar to that for Once Upon A Time in The West). They don't look horrible but it's clear that the negative is either in poor condition or the prints used were not pristine.
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly looks and sounds better than the other two films in the series. It also benefited from a much larger budget and shooting time which is to the benefit of the film. The acting is stronger (Eastwood returns as does Van Cleef joined by the scene chewing Eli Wallach in a marvelous turn as "the ugly"). THis version features a number of scenes cut for both the International and US version. While the scenes aren't restored (and my copy didn't even had the advertised "Italian" dialogue track but was silent), they provide an interesting background as to the motivations of the characters.
TGTBATU looks still has a fair amount of analog artifacts but not quite as bad as the first two. The sound is slightly better although still thin (again, it was recorded and shown in mono. Remember, this was the early 60's). Leone's direction and visual flair are more in evidence on the third film of the series. Here's hoping that MGM will get around to re-releasing the restored version that showed earlier in the year. Reportedly, Eastwood and Wallach re-recorded their dialogue (which might explain why the tracks are silent--it's clear that the dialogue tracks must be missing or incomplete)and they had a sound alike for the late Van Cleef.
While all three films are essential western classics, all three are marred by a variety of analog flaws. Their still worth having but I'm hoping with the advent of reissues like Once Upon a Time in The West, that all three will get a face-lift and second chance on DVD. It also wouldn't hurt to provide some interesting background on the making of all three films. Eastwood and Wallach are still around as are various crew members/actors from the original productions. Let's hope it gets done!
Oh, and by the way, the Man with No Name did have a name in at least two of the three films here. That Man With No Name aspect was a marketing ploy dreamed up by the original studio (United Artists) to sell the films later on down the line.My low rating does not apply to the movies themselves. In a period when most Hollywood westerns were becoming predictable and formulaic, Italian director Sergio Leone broke the mold! This trilogy, along with his last western, "Once Upon A Time In The West" (not included in this set), are the four greatest westerns ever made, and yet were not produced by Hollywood. The greatest of the Hollywood westerns, such as "The Magnificent Seven", "The Big Country", "The Alamo", "The Three Godfathers"; and south-of-the-border westerns like "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and "Guns For San Sabastian" (to name but a few of the greats) all fall in behind the Leone westerns. If you are a fan of westerns and have not seen the movies in this trilogy, watch them as soon as possible, but be prepared for something different than you are used to. They are not slick, but instead portray an accurate grittiness of the old west. They are not gimmicky like the Hollywood westerns of more recent vintage (say from about the mid 1970's to present). The greatest western ever made has to be "The Good, The Bad And The Ugly". This is the mother of all westerns! The acting in all three movies is superb, but the performance of Eli Wallach as Tuco in "The Good..." is extraordinary, and ranks as one of the greatest performances by any actor on film. Clint Eastwood also gives the greatest performance of his career in "The Good...". It is interesting that Clint tried to recapture the magic of the Leone films in his own productions such as "Pale Rider", Hang 'Em Hign", etc., but never even came close.
Now on to the problems with these discs. The transfers are not particularly hign quality, and appear not to be remastered. The first two trilogy movies are merely letterboxed rather than enhanced widescreen. But the biggest bummer of all is the sound quality. The sound quality on "The Good..." is about as good as any of the versions I have heard. The sound quality of "Fistful..." is rather poor. But it is the obnoxious sound of "for A Few Dollars More" that is really a crime. The dialog is too far in the background, and the overall sound on this disc is so harsh that if you turn the volume up to a level where you can hear the dialog clearly, the hard, treble-heavy, distorted sound will bore a hole in your head! I'm not kidding. I love these movies so much that I will have to find an alternative version of "For a Few Dollars More" to replace the one that came with this trilogy. If I had it to do over again, I would purchase the best individual versions I could find, rather than waste money of this set. It's too bad that MGM didn't put just a little bit more TLC into these masterpieces!A good series to own, if you like westerns or Eastwood. I'll just comment on the DVD features. The video reproductions of "A Fistfull of Dollars" and "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." are excellent. The reproduction of "For a Few Dollars More" left a lot to be desired. This one must have been reproduced from an imperfect source because a lot of dust floaters are present which is only really distracting during nighttime scenes. Not a lot of extras included, a few trailers and for the "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" some extra minutes from deleted scenes.
Save 52% Off
No comments:
Post a Comment