On June 3rd MGM will rerelease The Man with No Name Trilogy on blu-ray, this time including a new 4k remaster of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. The previous edition was released in in 2010, and at that time was the only way to get A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More on blu-ray. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly disc that was included in this set was a copy of a previously released disc from 2009. That edition was far inferior in image quality to the Italian blu-ray released around the same time. Sadly the Italian version did not feature an English audio option.
Below is a blow up to show the quality difference. USA MGM is on the left, Italian Mondo on the right.
Full comparison of the US vs. Italian editions were featured in a previous blog entry here
**6/13/2014 Update - Full Disc Review HERE
Currently this blu-ray is available for pre-order from Fox Connect with the below description.
The Sergio Leone “spaghetti westerns” did not simply add a new chapter to the genre...they reinvented it. From his shockingly violent and stylized breakthrough, A Fistful Of Dollars, to the film Quentin Tarantino calls “the best-directed movie of all time,” The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, Leone’s vision elevated Westerns to an entirely new art form. This definitive Leone collection of the most ambitious and influential Westerns ever made includes over five hours of special features that uncover buried gold in these gritty classics—plus a NEWLY REMASTERED version of The Good, The Bad And The Ugly.
A full press release should be out soon, and at the time I will updated this entry with any new information.
On Google news, I find showing of Good, Bad & Ugly as well as other classic SWs such as For A Few Dollars More, Big Gundown & Death Rides A Horse at theaters around the country. Usually this is in larger cities. I've often wondered & hoped they have decent film prints for these presentations. As to home use, no doubt Blu-Ray is the best! Back late last year I received my copy of Big Gundown & the Blu-Ray disc has excellent visual performance.
ReplyDeletePersonally I never want to watch the shorter originial English language version of GB&U now. I only watch the full length Italian version now that it's in English. That IS the movie Sergio Leone made & the narrative is obiviously smoother.