The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Announced in Region B - now in Region A as well (2 Viewers)

[RDarrylR]

Is this finally coming to Blu-ray here in NA?

Bill Hunt says...

 

[Paul Arnette]

The good news is that it sounds like it is coming Region A. The bad news is that it is coming from MGM. The perplexing thing is that it would make more sense if it were coming along with Fistful of Dollars and A Few Dollars More.

 

[OliverK]

I would not be so quick to dismiss them. Their recent release of The Pink Panther looks very nice.

 

[Paul Arnette]

Ronin and, potentially, Silence of the Lambs have me concerned. How old The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly's HD master is would be the other factor to consider.

 

[Matt Butler]

Im so happy!!!

Im still keeping my 2 disc untill I find out if ALL the extras are included.

 

[Brandon Conway]

Apples, oranges.

Ronin was a release that was delayed from 2006/7. The Silence of the Lambs has been re-prepped for its release coming next month (as one can tell, because it is not the original barabones release announced 2 years ago).

GB&U will be fine.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

I'm not sure if throwing more money at TGTB&TU is going to solve the problems you've described. If that were the case, they would have been able to fix the damaged longer cut of the fight scene that is currently contained in the special features on the DVD. It's all a question of how well the elements were stored, and the docs on the current set indicate that the answer to that question is "poorly."

As a Techniscope film, this is going to be very grainy, and I hope that structure stays intact and we don't get a "wax job" on the BD.

 

[John Hodson]

I'm not in the least bothered by grain, what concerned me was the number of little nicks and flecks, which could easily be rectified in the digital arena. The vertical marks down the left, I realise, are very much more a problem - it does look like some work has already been carried out, but they may be impossible to eradicate economically.

How far are MGM willing to go? It was a shame when a little extra footage was found for FAFDM and when it came to MGM's R2 releases, it existed only in an extra. Little excuse though, given the length of time they took to schedule the US set, for not reinstating that footage for the R1 release (as in the German R2 release from Paramount)

 

[ChristianLiemke]

The German Blu-ray will include all the extras from the DVD plus a commentary by Christopher Frayling.

Bild
- 2.35:1 | 1080p

Tonformate
- Dolby Digital 5.1 in Spanisch
- Dolby Digital 1.0 in Englisch
- Dolby Digital 2.0 (Mono) in Italienisch
- Dolby Digital 5.1 in Französisch
- DTS Digital 5.1 in Deutsch
- Dolby Digital 5.1 in Portugiesisch
- Dolby Digital 2.0 (Stereo) in Thailändisch
- DTS HD 5.1 in Englisch

Untertitel
- Deutsch
- Englisch für Hörgeschädigte
- Französisch
- Spanisch
- Italienisch
- Portugiesisch
- Mandarin
- Koreanisch
- Thailändisch

Bonusmaterial
- Audiokommentar von Filmhistoriker Richard Schickel
- Audiokommentar von Christopher Frayling
- Leones Western
- Der Leone-Stil
- Der Mann, der den Bürgerkrieg verlor
- Restauration des Films „Zwei glorreiche Halunken“
- Der Meister: Ennio Morricone - Teil 1
- Der Meister: Ennio Morricone - Teil 2
- Entfallene Szenen
- Original Kinotrailer

 

[Jim_K]

Now we're talking! GBU is the type of film on BD that gets my blood pumping! Keeping my fingers crossed for a loaded multi-version package, but fully prepared to get screwed over.

Too bad we're not getting the entire Sergio Leone set. A huge missed opportunity.

 

[Kris Z.]

Is this something new, or is it just the audio reconstruction featurette again?

Other than the Frayling commentary it seems to be the same package as the previous DVDs. Hopefully it'll look as good as it deserves to, but I'm preparing to be disappointed.

 

[John Hodson]

Savant has news on the US release:

Gary Teetzel reports that MGM's May 12 Blu-rays will include the 007 adventures Licence to Kill and The Man with the Golden Gun; Fargo, and Sergio Leone's The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. Happily, the Clint Eastwood disc will have all the extras of the earlier special editions, plus English, French and Spanish tracks, PLUS a mono track (hopefully mostly original) AND a previously unheard Christopher Frayling commentary track.

 

[John Hodson]

From the Criterion forum: They seem to have done a new HD master for TGTB&TU -- the version that's been showing on HDNet over the past year or so is supposedly a marked improvement over earlier HDNet broadcasts -- so maybe they've revisited the earlier titles as well.

The first two in the Dollars Trilogy are already out there in Italy, thought this comment from a happy punter (on the Sergio Leone Board) would be of interest:

Great news, received both fod and fafdm on blu ray today (from Italy). Picture quality is outstanding! Unreal to see these in high-def! (both have been meticulously restored for this release), fod has english audio, but fafdm does not. Fafdm is uncut though, all the little trims in the us version are here in restored 1080p, so in my opinion, MGM/sony has no excuse to release the cut version when it comes out in North America.

FOD has pal extras, most of which I can't play, however, it has an original italian trailer (which looks beautifully restored and is in 1080p) that is all all outtake/alternate take footage, similar to the one discussed in the FAFDM thread recently - very cool to see new FOD footage in that trailer!

FOD also has a lot of paper extras in the package, lobby cards, an interview booklet and some reproductions of old publicity materials - unfortunately for me it's all in italian, but at least I can enjoy the photos

FAFDM is pretty bare bones in terms of extras, but it would allow me to play the "restoration featurette" (in italian) and I must say from the spiltscreens of the footage (before and after) they've done an amazing/painstaking job restoring it.

 

[Brian Borst]

If it's a new master and has all the previous supplements plus a new commentary, I'm definitely going to buy this.

 

[Kris Z.]

I will still be disappointed if the US theatrical cut isn't included, however if it's from a new master that looks as good as the Italian restored editions of the earlier films (and they do look absolutely fantastic) then I'll pay any price for it, regardless.

Hoping MGM gets English editions of those out too, as well as Duck, You Sucker. And of course I can't wait for Paramount to release the new restoration of Once Upon a Time in the West. Then I can die a happy man.

 

[Osato]

On the mastering front, this article states that work is being done on Fistful of Dollars for blu ray:

Restoration for Blu-ray | A Fistful of Dollars undergoes additional video restoration work for Blu-ray release

This would lead me to believe that all of the Leone / Eastwood films will have new transfers for blu ray.

 

[John Hodson]

I note that that piece was dated August 2007, the work must be long finished by now; let's hope it's as good looking as the Italian BD.

 

[Kris Z.]

I hope they just scrap it all and license the Italian restoration, because from that description I have a hard time imagining how it could be anywhere near as good. I've never understood the idea of doing something yourself when someone else has already done it much better.

 

[Danny_N]

I watched the region B release tonight of The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, or better, I tried to watch it. DNR on this title is as bad as Patton and The Longest Day. There is absolutely no fine detail left in the picture and the result is a BD that is just slightly better than the DVD. I turned it off after 30 minutes because I found it unwatchable. I can't believe that they screwed up this release. Very very disappointing.

 

[OliverK]

Apparently TGTBATU is the only one of the three dollar films where no superior italian version exists. I guess it really makes sense to first release the third movie of a trilogy with a presentation of highly dubious quality :rolleyes