Digi-Bathed?
At the end of a thoughtful assessment of Sergio Leone‘s “Man With No Name” trilogy, L.A. Times contributor Sam Adams says that the new MGM Bluray versions (available Tuesday, 6.1) are afflicted with the Patton/Spartacus virus.
“[Featuring] exemplary audio commentaries by biographer Christopher Frayling, the ‘Man With No Name’ set duplicates earlier editions in terms of features, giving the images a high-definition upgrade that is something of a mixed bag,” he writes.
“To minimize natural film grain, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is rendered mushy and plastic at times. [And] the re-recorded surround-sound on all three movies is an overactive mess, panning dialogue into the side speakers in a fashion that has more to do with showing off than serving the film. (The discs include the original mono as well, although they default to the new soundtrack.)
“It’s unfortunate that the Good, Bad disc includes only the questionably ‘restored’ version of the film, with newly recorded dialogue and scenes that Leone himself cut for release, but some judicious reprogramming can take care of that.”
“To minimize natural film grain, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is rendered mushy and plastic at times.”
Score one point for the Grain Purists. If removing grain can’t be done properly (if it looks like plastic), then don’t do it at all.
Maybe blasphemous, but these three movies not only NEED grain, they actively SHOULD look scratchy, blotchy, grubby, with imperfect colors like a bad 1984 tv print shown at 11:30pm on the local movie. Seen all of these more times than I could ever count, and while obviously optimal presentation is important and widescreen is crucial with Leone… as with any great movie, I never fail to enjoy it no matter how bad the presentation.
Saw almost all the formative ’60s and ’70s classics for the first time back in the ’80s on late movie channels, often hacked to bits, dubbed, scratched, panned and scanned… And while, yes, it’s a revelation to finally see anything the way it was intended, it’s not like Deliverance or Fistful of Dollars ONLY revealed itself to be a masterpiece once I saw it on DVD twenty years later.
Not saying we should all sit around watching old-ass TV prints of these classics instead of BluRay, but with Good, the Bad and the Ugly, I had it on that early MGM single disc, no-extras DVD with the classic American cut of the film, all scratched to shit with imperfect flesh tones and a shitload of grain; Then I bought that white-cased special edition, and it just didn’t look “right” all sheened over with those lousy deleted scenes with the weird dubbing. Never gave that thing a second spin, and to this day would only wheel out the 12-year-old shitty first-gen DVD if I wanted to see it.
Wait, Lex watched something older than 1979?
Are there shots of barely legal feet that I have forgotten about in any of those films?
No, just shots of the three awesomest dudes of all time– Clint, Van Cleef, and Gian Maria Vollante, not to mention that big, fat, sweaty, fly-covered dude who was in all three of them, not to mention KLAUS FUCKING KINSKI in the 2nd one, not to mention INDIO POWER, GREATEST VILLAIN OF ALL TIME, or Van Cleef’s LOCKET from his sister with the GREATEST THEME OF ALL TIME.
Actually, know what? EPIC as the third one is, iconic as the first one is? It’s ALL about FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE.
THIS TRAIN WILL STOP AT TUCUMCARI POWER.
INDIO POWER:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_0APz3h6Ts
ARCH STANTON POWER.
Also: “I ALWAYS SEE THE JOB THROUGH.”
It is IMPOSSIBLE to decide which is more AWESOME, FAFDM or GBU… Impossible, i tell you. Both are CINEMATIC PERFECTION.
I have esteemed friends who make the case for Once Upon a Time in the West, which is pretty damn hard to deny. Accept it has chicks and calliope music and Jason Robards from his weird era and it’s all American and somewhat terrestrial… Versus some Spanish-Italian INSANITY fever-dream mania with INDIO POWER.
Also let’s give some props to FISTFUL OF DYNAMITE, which is sort of the weird, moody, depressing, RATTING OUT YOUR FRIENDS political middle ground that connects the spaghetti Westerns and THE WEST to OUTIA; Coburn and STEIGER POWER trying to out-ham each other and that relentless, dreary, depressing as hell SHONG SHONG SHONG score, sounding all psychedelic but with those weird shots of their younger years functioning exactly as a warmup for the De Niro/Woods movie… It’s the one that falls under the radar and, yeah, maybe the least “great,” but still pretty awesome…
Except for the shot of the rich fatties stuffing their faces, which is disgusting.
Duck, You Sucker
I also clearly thought the second one was the best.
I love all of these, and particularly A FISTFUL OF DYNAMITE / DUCK, YOU SUCKER. Just all types of awesome.
HOW ABOUT THE BRAKHAGE BKU RAY?
So I take it Duck, You Sucker us nit included in this set….
Is not*
stupid iPhone.
Not to mention “A Fistful of Dollars” is cropped on the right side and zoomed in. The recent Italian blu-ray that was restored shows the full image, and comparisons can be soon over at DVD Beaver.
Sad.
The second and third movies are two of my very favorites ever made. Pure bliss for me. I’m a bit curious, but not too much so, about the qualtiy of the blu rays compared to my sergio leone box set. i don’t think it will be worth the purchase, since i just paid for those a few years back.
‘The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly’ is always my favorite.
Unless I’ve seen “For A Few Dollars More’ in the past month.
My thing with ‘Once Upon A Time in the West’ is, as good as it is, it just doesn’t feel like a Leone movie to go that long without a random crazy gunfight. It’s a great movie, no doubt, but it doesn’t feel like a great Leone movie to me, as defined by the Trilogy.
We’r ed hardy outlet one of the most profession
of the coolest and latest ed hardy apparel,
such as
ed hardy tee ,ed hardy bags,
ed hardy bathing suits, ed hardy shoes,
ed hardy board shorts ，ed hardy watches women,ed hardy jeans for women,ed hardy for men,
ed hardy swimwear,
ed hardy for women,and more,
ed hardy clothing. We offers a wide selection of fashion
cheap ed hardyproducts. Welcome to our shop or just enjoy browsing through our stunning collection available wholesale ed hardy in our shop.
Technology once again saved a classic.
Jane
You may also choose to have your leisure time with the help of kiev escort services. It would be a marvelous time spending, because you will get both active and passive free time. As you can know sex is an activity the purpose of which is to have a totality of body and mental reactions. So you have active free time and in the same time an amazing relaxation that is really useful for your health.
I love that you’re challenging the integrity of anyone who might not like this movie. стройматериалы цены
Pretty good post,thank you for sharing.I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you post again soon.
your blog’s layout is so nice ,and the theme impressed me a lot.
Just love your writing style, while I dont agree with everything it was still good, bookmarked.Thanks for the good post.
I certainly like the design of your blob. I appreciate the quality of the information. You have done a exceptional job. Thank you north face denali