A Few Words About A few words about...™ Fistful of Dollars -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Trancas]

To clarify about the German double feature set:

The Ripley version is available on both Italian and German BDs, but the the encoding is slightly better on the Italian in terms of tech specs. however the German has lossless English mono whereas the Italian does not. The German is Region free, the Italian is not and more expensive.

According to the back cover of the Italian version it's region-free.

 

[haineshisway]

The Italian is absolutely region-free and for my money looks a bit better than the German. And I'm sorry - the English mono is fine on the Italian - no one is going to be able to hear a whit of difference on an old mono track whether it's lossless or not.

 

[Jordan Krug]

The Italian is absolutely region-free and for my money looks a bit better than the German. And I'm sorry - the English mono is fine on the Italian - no one is going to be able to hear a whit of difference on an old mono track whether it's lossless or not.

Yes the German and Japan discs both are slightly darker and a shade more red than the Italian, the Italian looks more natural. The extras that are 23.98 on the Italian disc (like the original Italian trailer which is comprised entirely of alternate takes and angles) will play fine but I'm pretty sure it has a couple of SD extras in PAL.

 

[Robert Harris]

Dear Mr. @Robert Harris, why you and your colleagues don't say anything to Ritrovata/ Eclair before they "ruin" more movies with the teal-yellow cast?
There are dozens blurays already with the exact same color palette (some of them my favourite films, that I haven't bought due to this).
Maybe they'll listen to you, that their settings are wrong. (i don't know exactly what is the problem)

Possibly because the licensee / licensor likes what they’re seeing, and one cannot always be the restoration police.

Not my battle.

 

[JoshZ]

I don't understand why this is allowed to continue-especially since there was an outcry about the poorly done OUATIA Italian extended release that was later revised and redone by Warner for their USA release of the longer version.

Are you sure Once Upon a Time in America was redone by Warner? That disc received a lot of complaints about weird colors when it was released in 2014.

 

[haineshisway]

Warners did NOT revise anything - that "restoration" is perhaps the biggest debacle I've EVER seen anywhere. Completely drained of color so that the added sub-par bits wouldn't stick out so much. a) those bits should NEVER have been added - they do nothing for the film and Mr. Leone released his version of the long cut and didn't include them. Whatever problems the original Warners Blu of that Leone long cut were (and it's included with the "restoration" - the color is absolutely perfect. All one wants is a new transfer with that proper color timing of the original cut. The film deserves it and so do we. And frankly, I have never understood why Warners haven't included the crazy short version they released to theaters, which is the way many of us first saw the film. Just as a curio, and as a curio it really is fascinating and in a couple of instances it works better in terms of emotion. I love this film and I HATE that "restoration" beyond words. Anyone who thinks that's good or a proper representation of Tonino Delli Colli's brilliant photography needs to turn in their Leone card.

 

[Spencer Draper]

Warners did NOT revise anything - that "restoration" is perhaps the biggest debacle I've EVER seen anywhere. Completely drained of color so that the added sub-par bits wouldn't stick out so much. a) those bits should NEVER have been added - they do nothing for the film and Mr. Leone released his version of the long cut and didn't include them. Whatever problems the original Warners Blu of that Leone long cut were (and it's included with the "restoration" - the color is absolutely perfect. All one wants is a new transfer with that proper color timing of the original cut. The film deserves it and so do we. And frankly, I have never understood why Warners haven't included the crazy short version they released to theaters, which is the way many of us first saw the film. Just as a curio, and as a curio it really is fascinating and in a couple of instances it works better in terms of emotion. I love this film and I HATE that "restoration" beyond words. Anyone who thinks that's good or a proper representation of Tonino Delli Colli's brilliant photography needs to turn in their Leone card.

I can actually agree with that 100% though I was under the impression WB did something to improve upon the original Italian release disc. The longer edit while filling in some narrative gaps really harms the film and its flow and additionally the new color throughout is off putting. The degraded bits are extremely distracting and doubly so since they appear like sore thumbs and interrupt the 229 minute version. Unfortunately this is now becoming the new standard version in theaters via DCP. I still think Leone removed those scenes with good reason.
I quite agree the original transfer is fine and looks just like the previous editions. While the master may be old and could be better encoded-it is a fine one. The letterboxed Laserdisc is identical to the DVD and is such a good transfer it ranks among the best I've ever seen on that format-plus it has the original mono mix.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

And Warners don't control the title anymore; the latest Blu-ray release is from Fox, as the rights have reverted to New Regency [Arnon Milchan]. Not sure if their release of the "restored" edition includes the original Warner master as well.

 

[Vincent_P]

Re: OUATIA, Warners *did* revise their Blu-ray version, in that they cropped the image from 1.85:1 to 1.78:1. And no, they didn't open it up, they cropped the sides of the 1.85:1 hard-matted master. But colorwise, yeah they didn't touch it. Warners was doing this cropping a lot at the time and never got called out on it. They also cropped their Blu-ray of DOMINION: PREQUEL TO THE EXORCIST from 2:1 to 1.78:1, EXORCIST II from 1.85:1 to 1.78, and I imagine there were other examples as well. Nobody seemed to care, though.

I think Spencer might be referring to the Warners Blu-ray having better compression than the Italian release, which was swimming with digital artifacts.

Vincent

 

[Jordan Krug]

Mr. Harris, wondering if you can tell us, does the new Kino disc feature the alternate opening seen here in clips below (Joe steals the poncho from a man by the river)? I know the Kino disc features outtakes/dailies but the ones in this video below were mostly not used on the previous Italian blu release. It appears that all the raw footage survives. I'm assuming the Kino disc is simply porting over the outtakes from the Italian release but I'm hoping that they have included more like the ones in this video below?

Well, got the disc...some nice extras but the outtakes on the Kino are simply this same YouTube video (above) that's been around since 2014, (but in better quality and without titles) . A shame they didn't try to acquire the whole alternate opening only glimpsed in this video. Maybe the Italians will do their own 4K release and take advantage of this missed opportunity.

 

[Jordan Krug]

A comparison of the available discs:

 

[Trancas]

A comparison of the available discs:

Wow that new Kino restoration looks peculiar.....like greenish outtakes from the underwater scenes in "The Shape of Water"! How could the multiple sets of eyes that were involved in the production of the latest restoration have thought this was correct and pleasing?

 

[haineshisway]

Can't judge on the computer - not possible. BUT, if we must play the game, the Italian (Ripley) is best for color but on my computer does not quite resemble what the disc actually looks like on a calibrated screen. That said, the detail in the Kino is best, clearly, and I'd actually now be interested to see it on my screen, just for interest.

 

[atfree]

How can you not love the green wood?

 

[Bob Cashill]

Warners did NOT revise anything - that "restoration" is perhaps the biggest debacle I've EVER seen anywhere. Completely drained of color so that the added sub-par bits wouldn't stick out so much. a) those bits should NEVER have been added - they do nothing for the film and Mr. Leone released his version of the long cut and didn't include them. Whatever problems the original Warners Blu of that Leone long cut were (and it's included with the "restoration" - the color is absolutely perfect. All one wants is a new transfer with that proper color timing of the original cut. The film deserves it and so do we. And frankly, I have never understood why Warners haven't included the crazy short version they released to theaters, which is the way many of us first saw the film. Just as a curio, and as a curio it really is fascinating and in a couple of instances it works better in terms of emotion. I love this film and I HATE that "restoration" beyond words. Anyone who thinks that's good or a proper representation of Tonino Delli Colli's brilliant photography needs to turn in their Leone card.

The new German Blu-ray of HEAVEN'S GATE includes the shortened version as an extra (in HD, for the first time). I also saw the short version of ...AMERICA, and wouldn't mind having it back, either, if only as a curiosity.

 

[Kyrsten Brad]

Possibly because the licensee / licensor likes what they’re seeing, and one cannot always be the restoration police.

Not my battle.

Restoration Police !!!

We might be onto something here RAH.

An official Branch of the U.S. Library of Congress, Film Preservation Dept.

 

[Robert Harris]

Restoration Police !!!

We might be onto something here RAH.

An official Branch of the U.S. Library of Congress, Film Preservation Dept.

“Badges? Badges! We don’t need no stinking badges!”

 

[B-ROLL]

“Badges? Badges! We don’t need no stinking badges!”

 

[PMF]

I have seen all 3 versions of "Once Upon a Time in America";
and based upon their chronological U.S. release dates my reviews are as follows:
Bad, Good and Ugly.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

My copy of the German release of A Fistful of Dollars and A Few Dollars More arrived today, and I gave the first film a spin. I want to thank those HTF members who recommended this version --the transfer was very good. I'm glad I bought this set instead of the Kino release. Maybe someday we will get a proper release of the complete trilogy here in the U.S., but until then this version will keep me satisfied.