Apr 07, 2001 09:13 PM
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The Good the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
Format: DVD
Region: 2 (UK and Europe)
Type: DVD 9 - Dual Layer, Single Sided.
Case: Amaray
Country: Italy
Studio: MGM
Genre: Western
Running Time: 154 minutes
Rating: 18 (no cuts made by BBFC)
Picture Format: Widescreen, 2.31:1
Anamorphic: Yes
Colour: Technicolor
Audio: English (5.1)
Subtitles: English
Menu: English
Extras: 14 Minutes of Previously Unseen Footage, Trailer
The FILM
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The intertwining stories of three characters, each out to steal a fortune in gold from an unmarked grave. Their attempts are continually interrupted by the civil war that is raging in the background, but in the end a shootout between the three men decides everything.
This was the third in Leone’s trilogy of spaghetti westerns with Clint Eastwood reprising his role as The Man With No Name (though he is known as Blondie in the film) for the final time. A great success at the time with cinema audiences, the film has slowly garnered critical appreciation as well, and is now widely regarded as one of the biggest achievements in this genre.
The DVD
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MENUS:
The main menu consists of a still of a saloon, upon which a lizard crawling, whilst a short looped clip from the film plays in the background. The sub-menus are all backed by stills from the film. Not the most impressive menus then, but they are all good-looking and clear and simple to use.
There are forty-four chapters to the film, which makes jumping to individual scenes a breeze, even when taking into account the films longer than normal running time.
VIDEO:
One of the extra features listed on the back of the box is the fact that the film has been completely restored, and it is certainly the best this film has looked in a long time. If you want a comparison, you only have to look at the trailer to see how bad it could of looked. What is most striking in this print are the colours. While admittedly a lot of the film is intentionally drab and dusty, take a look at the soldiers uniforms in the concentration camp sequence and you’ll see what I mean. Of course the age of the film means that the picture is not perfect, but none of the slight glitches should distract from your enjoyment.
Thankfully the film is in widescreen, which preserves all of Leono’s compositions – whether these be wide vistas as in the final shootout, or massive close-ups of faces with wide-brimmed hats. It is also anamorphically enhanced, which for some reason the first two films in this trilogy weren’t. If you want these two films, I’d advise waiting for a while, as there are rumours circulating that they will be getting a re-release soon with this feature added.
AUDIO:
The audio is mono. It is always a question with older films if they should be updated to take advantage of new technology, or left as they originally were. In this case there are one or two scenes which would benefit from a Dolby remix, the cannon fight for example, and this would have been nice to see.
However, the mono sound has been expertly restored, and again a comparison with the trailer highlights how bad this film could of sounded without this work – full of crackles and clicks. This restoration ensures that the audio we have is perfectly clear throughout the film.
EXTRAS:
The main extra on this disc are seven deleted scenes which total about fourteen minutes in length. These were removed before the International version of the film was created meaning that they have never be seen previously, but also that they are only present in an Italian language version (subtitles are included). As is normally the case with deleted scenes, there is nothing major here (mainly describing how various characters get from A to B) but they are interesting to look at all the same.
As has mentioned previously, the quality of the trailer as regards video and audio is pretty poor, although I imagine that studios often do this so you see how much the restoration has improved the actual film. Perhaps the best thing about the trailer is the mistake in it – can you spot it? Answer at the end of this review …
PACKAGING:
The disc comes in an Amaray case which thankfully seems to have pretty much become the standard for DVD packaging. MGM use a standard layout for all their DVDs meaning that the information is easy to find.
As with most MGM releases, you also get an eight page brochure, which includes: a principle cast list, information about the film’s production and reception, a few photos from the film and the period, and a chapter list.
OVERALL:
This is one the greatest Westerns of all time, which manages to combine humour (apparently this was took black for most reviewers at the time) with serious undertones. The main advantage of the DVD is of course that you can see and hear the film in as perfect a condition as is possible for a film this age. On top of this you get a few decent extras, which makes this a very recommendable disc.
Answer to Question
The mistake in the trailer is that the nicknames of the characters are wrong. Clint Eastwood is rightly listed as – the Good; but the names of the other two are reversed, with Eli Wallach becoming the Bad, and Lee Van Cleef the Ugly.
