Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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35 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A genre-defining masterpiece, 11 Dec 2000
This masterpiece is the film which defines the Spaghetti Western. Clint Eastwood is good guy Blondie and the other two main characters, Tuco (Eli Wallach) and Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef) veer between bad and ugly over the two and half hour duration of this film. The plot is long and winding, but is essentially fairly simple - three guys who don't trust each other trying to get their hands on a consigment of gold. We all know about the music - and Morricone's soundtrack is an undisputed masterpiece. If there is a better marriage of sound and vision in cinema than the last 15 minutes of this film, I have yet to see it. But it's more than just a music video - the direction from the legendary Sergio Leone is out of this world. This is an epic in every sense of the word - the battle against good and bad, a cast of hundreds in the Civil War scenes and camera work which makes no concessions to TV and uses the entire length of the screen. The DVD is good, too. The picture and sound quality are out of this world. The 15 minutes of deleted scenes add nothing, but are a nice curio. You also get the original theatrical trailer. So this isn't a DVD to buy for fancy bells and whistles, but it delivers in spades on the top-quality basics - ie perfect sound and vision. A masterpiece.
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25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
should have left it alone, 25 April 2004
DON'T FIX WHAT ISN'T BROKEN!
From the start let me say I love this filmbut sadly the new scenes are quite frankly laughable. The overdubbing oftheir own parts from the remaining living actors do not work.
There is no other way to put it. Do not get me wrong this film has to bemy all time favourite but the additional scenes turn it now into acomplete joke.
Clint Eastwood overdubbing his own deleted Italian release scenes soundsnothing like himself from 1966, Eli Wallach (The Ugly) is a croaky old manand struggles to have the same mischevious chuckle to his voice from theoriginal film.
This is not a big let down, however the suprising bonusand a factor which works extremely well is Lee Van Cleef's newly restoredparts, which do work and his voice is ALMOST spot on. This is suprisingbecause he died in 1989, 13 years before he was required to voice over hisItalian dubbed scenes. The actor who did his part was pretty much spot onmore so then Clint's or Eli's. I am not blaming Clint or Eli but the truthis and the studio should have realised this that a sound a like actorwould have been much much better. There voices after nearly 40 years havechanged to much. What we end up with on the extra scenes is basicallyClint Eastwood doing a naff Clint Eastwood impression. I so wanted thiselement to work but I am afraid it does not. To cap it all the extrascenes do not 'blend' in with the rest of the film.It switches from monoto stereo so noticably.
Unfortunately it gets worse.
The studio that remastered the film decided to upgrade the soundtrack.This led to certain limitations, i.e the original sound effects (gunshots)were mixed on the same track as the music. Obviously they have to keep themusic so they had to re-do the sound effects. Big Big mistake, what we endup with now is a tinny "blat" for ALL the gun shots in the film. In myopinion ruining the impact of certain key scenes.
There is an interesting additional scene involving Tuco's meeting with thethree bandits who sneak up to Blondies room but on reflection you can seewhy the director Sergio Leone had it cut to the editing room floor.
Thecommentary is painfull, it is by a film critic who spends ages getting tothe point about a certain scene which has by then been and gone and hespends most of his time saying "ermmm" or/and "errrrr" What he doeseventually come up with is fairly interesting but takes such afrustratingly long time about it.
The extras basically skip over the film and it's content pretty quickly,having said that I was amazed at how unrecognizable Eli Wallach is now inthe interviews, which was kind of sad.
All in all I think the film should have been left alone, I am so glad Ikept my original copy on DVD but I do feel in some way that it is a bonusto have the special edition just to throw new light on one of the bestfilms ever made.
Incidentally if you ever wondered where the composer (Ennio Morricone) gotthe idea for the main sound effect in the theme tune. In other words the'Ahheeahheeahhh'. What is the first noise you hear in the film after themain opening credits?
Thats right a coyote.
Little snippits of information like that make this DVD fairlyworthwhile.
As a bonus I hate DVD's with hidden extras or 'Easter Eggs' as they liketo call them. With this one they are not hard to find and when you do findthem they are certainly not worth bothering with.
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43 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
There are those with guns, and those who dig. You dig., 16 Mar 2004
The special edition DVD is finally here. It has been eagerly awaited, for never has such a fine picture graced a digital versatile disc. This film has everything that defines a classic. Frankly it remains under-rated even though it is highly respected.
My personal favourite from Leone, and certainly Morricone, the film doesn't pull you along, it pushes you along, and you don't want it to stop. Eastwood is entirely enjoyable to watch, and never is there a dull moment. The slower scenes perfectly build the tension, and the resolutions are always pleasing - not in a manic explosion of a climax, with explosions, bullets and Hollywood-director-boat only scrapes a rock and then explodes - scenes, but with the expert craftsmanship of Sergio Leone, and he makes you wait and then beg for what's coming. And by God, you won't be able to keep yourself from smiling. This film brings out all the things you want to see in a western. The music does nothing but compiment the action, the photography is graceful yet enjoyably stylish, the dialogue is well written, with a few one liners that have outshined the others for years, and wow, the film is just great. I do not believe i have ever sat through a film with a better ending scene. THE climax of cinema. BRILLIANT!
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