Sergio Leone Blu Ray News

[Lil Brutto]

It's a subjective issue and is open to personal preferences when there is not a huge difference between the PQ of two releases (i.e. FAFD MGM vs Mondo).

Screenshot comparisons only tell you part of the story. You really need to see the differences in the BD's on your own home theater system.

[drinkanddestroy]

Just looking through the Man With No Name Trilogy on Blu Ray, and found an interesting extra on each movie: As mentioned before, GBU has a commentary by Frayling in addition to the commentary by Richard Shickel that's on the dvd. For FOD and FAFDM, there is a really nice piece with Frayling displaying some his collection of Leone memorabilia -- it's 18 minutes on FOD, 19 minutes on FAFDM. Frayling takes you through the various posters, which are interesting cuz it shows how the film grew and how the marketing changed. Eg. in the very early Italian and Spanish posters, it was a lot of fake American names (Bob Robertson) and no picture of Eastwood. Later, as the film grew, Eastwood began to be featured prominently, and the real names began to be used. I'm sure that the astute fan has seen much of these posters and lobby cards (eg. in Frayling's book "Once Upon a Time in Italy") but it's nice to have Frayling take you through 'em all. There's also original records of the soundtracks, and original shooting scripts (in Italian, of course!) in which Frayling describes some differences with the final movie.
It's a really nice bonus material, and I am not sure why they did not do the same piece for GBU. (Maybe they figured that once they had the additional Frayling commentary, that was enough to advertise that each movie has a new bonus feature?? It really makes no sense why they didn't do it for GBU; Frayling definitely has the memorabilia for that film too!)

So if you get The Man With No Name Trilogy on Blu Ray, be sure to check out the bonus feature on Frayling's memorabilia collection on both the FOD and FAFDM discs, and the Frayling commentary on GBU.


p.s. in the FAFDM piece, Frayling holds up a poster of Eastwood, and says that it hung in his dorm room in the late 60's next to photos of Bob Dylan and Che Guevara, other heroes of the counterculture. I sure hope that  Sir Christopher has re-evaluated his admiration for mass murderers.

[dave jenkins]

Just looking through the Man With No Name Trilogy on Blu Ray, and found an interesting extra on each movie: As mentioned before, GBU has a commentary by Frayling in addition to the commentary by Richard Shickel that's on the dvd. For FOD and FAFDM, there is a really nice piece with Frayling displaying some his collection of Leone memorabilia -- it's 18 minutes on FOD, 19 minutes on FAFDM. Frayling takes you through the various posters, which are interesting cuz it shows how the film grew and how the marketing changed. Eg. in the very early Italian and Spanish posters, it was a lot of fake American names (Bob Robertson) and no picture of Eastwood. Later, as the film grew, Eastwood began to be featured prominently, and the real names began to be used. I'm sure that the astute fan has seen much of these posters and lobby cards (eg. in Frayling's book "Once Upon a Time in Italy") but it's nice to have Frayling take you through 'em all. There's also original records of the soundtracks, and original shooting scripts (in Italian, of course!) in which Frayling describes some differences with the final movie.
It's a really nice bonus material, and I am not sure why they did not do the same piece for GBU.

I believe the answer is because those pieces were prepared for the S.E.s of FOD and FAFDM which happened to come out around the time of the 2005 Leone Exhibition at the Gene Autry Museum in L.A. ("Once Upon A Time in Italy" was essentially the catalog for the exhibition). There was no special edition of GBU done at that time.

Some info on the Leone Exhibition is here: http://www.fistful-of-leone.com/forums/index.php?topic=2187.0

[stanton]

p.s. in the FAFDM piece, Frayling holds up a poster of Eastwood, and says that it hung in his dorm room in the late 60's next to photos of Bob Dylan and Che Guevara, other heroes of the counterculture. I sure hope that  Sir Christopher has re-evaluated his admiration for mass murderers.

I did not know that Dylan is a mass murderer, but Eastwood was no hero of the counter culture. But he played a mass murderer in the Leone films, which some may admire.

[drinkanddestroy]

I did not know that Dylan is a mass murderer, but Eastwood was no hero of the counter culture. But he played a mass murderer in the Leone films, which some may admire.

I am not talking about Dylan (who, btw, I am a big fan of). I am talking about Che Guevara, the favorite mass murderer of hippies then and now

[stanton]

I am not talking about Dylan (who, btw, I am a big fan of). I am talking about Che Guevara, the favorite mass murderer of hippies then and now

He was a soldier, he was a revolutionist.

If he was a murderer (maybe he was one, but I don't think so), then he at least didn't do it for money. And if he was one, he was surely a lesser one compared to guys like Nixon. And people who were worse than Nixon.

[drinkanddestroy]

He was a soldier, he was a revolutionist.

If he was a murderer (maybe he was one, but I don't think so), then he at least didn't do it for money. And if he was one, he was surely a lesser one compared to guys like Nixon. And people who were worse than Nixon.

Nixon? Did I ever say anything about Nixon? wtf does Nixon have to do with anything? If Frayling had talked about having a poster of Nixon, then maybe that would be relevant.
You can use the term "soldier," "revolutionist," or any other favored euphemism that some Leftists love to use when speaking of their beloved Commie murderers. Doesn't change the fact that Guevara was Castro's henchman who killed numerous innocent people -- well, innocent of everything except being sympathetic to Communism. Nothing can change that -- no matter how many times you wanna scream "revolutionary," no matter how many idiot hippies wear his t-shirt, no matter how many dopeheads at Occupy Wall Street wave his picture, or how many Commies in Hollywood speak glowingly of him.

"if he was one (a murderer), then at least he didn't do it for money"?!?
Are you fucking kidding me? Does that justify it? Does that make it any less evil?! Many of history's biggest mass murderers did not do it for money. That doesn't justify their actions one iota.
Murder is evil whether it is done for money or for Communism or for Fascism or racism or any other reason. Guevara was a murderer and nothing justifies that. It is amazing how many people like you are willing to overlook the worst evil acts, and even celebrate the person who committed them, just because they like that person's political views  

[stanton]

I don't overlook that (you don't know enough about me to make such a statement), and I don't care much for Guevara, and yes some of the biggest mass murderers did it for ideology or for power.

But I'm now interested if you think if Nixon is also a mass murderer, or not. Or if only the Commies and the Arabs (and their likes) are mass murderers.

[drinkanddestroy]

I don't overlook that (you don't know enough about me to make such a statement), and I don't care much for Guevara, and yes some of the biggest mass murderers did it for ideology or for power.

But I'm now interested if you think if Nixon is also a mass murderer, or not. Or if only the Commies and the Arabs (and their likes) are mass murderers.

my statement was a response to Frayling's remark about the Guevara poster. So the only relevant point of discussion is Guevara.
There certainly have been mass murders who were not Commies and Arabs. The Commies have sure had quite a few:( In addition to Stalin, Lenin, Trotsky, Kim Jung-Il, the Castro brothers, Pol Pot, Mao.).... and the Muslim-dominated countries have sure not been models of freedom (Saddam Hussein pre-Iraq, see what's happening in Syria today, what happened in Libya under Ghadafi, Afghanistan under Taliban rule, Saudi Arabia and many others that ascribe to Sharia Law)... But in addition to the Commies and the Muslims, there have sadly been many other mass murders:Hitler, Mussolini, Milosevic, the factions slaughtering scores of people in Rwanda, in Darfur,etc. etc. etc. were mass murders as well. The list goes on and on, sadly. All murder is evil and I despise all murderers; I don't give a damn what race, religion, country of origin, or political view they ascribe to.

But for me to begin a new, irrelevant discussion RE: Nixon and others, that would violate my own rule that I really try not start any political discussions, unless it arises out of something in a movie. This invitation of yours is to a general political discussion to which I have zero interest in, and therefore will decline.

I will just make one statement about Nixon, and that is it, I will  not respond any further about him: I absolutely despise Nixon  for many reasons related to domestic policy, but I really don't know nearly as much about Vietnam to tell you one way or another whether he was a murderer. That's it. You will have to find someone else to invite to debate the issue of Nixon.


But whatever emerges from that ridiculous debate over Nixon, that has zero bearing on the fact that Guevara was a murderer and is rotting in hell  

[stanton]

Too bad, I thought you were an expert in the mass murder and rot-in-hell business.

Now I still can't help all those people who come to me to ask me always the Nixon/mass murder question. Even worse I can't be sure about Che and the others you also named, even if I'm sure you know a lot more than poor me.

And trouble is I still don't know should I try to end in hell or in heaven? Cause I don't know which people I will meet in either of those 2 places. What if I try to avoid Nixon in heaven, but then it appears he was a baddie, and I opted for hell, and then it is most likely too late to revise this decision. Pheww, tricky ...

[Cusser]

I believe the answer is because those pieces were prepared for the S.E.s of FOD and FAFDM which happened to come out around the time of the 2005 Leone Exhibition at the Gene Autry Museum in L.A. ("Once Upon A Time in Italy" was essentially the catalog for the exhibition).

Some info on the Leone Exhibition is here: http://www.fistful-of-leone.com/forums/index.php?topic=2187.0

I was fortunate to be able to attend that exhibition in Los Angeles.  It was great.

[stanton]

But whatever emerges from that ridiculous debate over Nixon, that has zero bearing on the fact that Guevara was a murderer and is rotting in hell  

Bhoah, wait, you are totally wrong about this. I just checked Wikipedia, and it seems Che actually rots in Bolivia.

[dave jenkins]

I believe the answer is because those pieces were prepared for the S.E.s of FOD and FAFDM which happened to come out around the time of the 2005. . .

Wrong! I just went through the Dollars trilogy set and found that Drink is talking about something different than what I thought he was talking about. I thought he was talking about the piece that was done around the time of the exhibition that showed Frayling in LA with the Gene Autry currator getting ready for the show (which may have only been on the German Tobis Special Editions, I'm not sure it was ever ported over to other releases). Anyway, what Drink was actually talking about are 2 separate but linked pieces that are in 1080p and were done in 2010 (at what looks life Frayling's home). I hadn't even realized they were on those discs (thanks, Drink!). D&D is right, those make great extras. Apparently, they were made so that the 2010 release would have something new for the fans (a nice touch). I'm guessing that since the GBU disc had already come out (and had the new Frayling commentary anyway), they didn't want to go to the trouble of creating a new disc just to add an extra Frayling segment. They essentially just re-used the stand-alone GBU disc for the trilogy.

Anyway, Frayling showing off his posters and talking about them makes for a great time. No Leone fan should miss these segments.

[drinkanddestroy]

Wrong! I just went through the Dollars trilogy set and found that Drink is talking about something different than what I thought he was talking about. I thought he was talking about the piece that was done around the time of the exhibition that showed Frayling in LA with the Gene Autry currator getting ready for the show (which may have only been on the German Tobis Special Editions, I'm not sure it was ever ported over to other releases). Anyway, what Drink was actually talking about are 2 separate but linked pieces that are in 1080p and were done in 2010 (at what looks life Frayling's home). I hadn't even realized they were on those discs (thanks, Drink!). D&D is right, those make great extras. Apparently, they were made so that the 2010 release would have something new for the fans (a nice touch). I'm guessing that since the GBU disc had already come out (and had the new Frayling commentary anyway), they didn't want to go to the trouble of creating a new disc just to add an extra Frayling segment. They essentially just re-used the stand-alone GBU disc for the trilogy.

Anyway, Frayling showing off his posters and talking about them makes for a great time. No Leone fan should miss these segments.

as much as we criticize MGM and Paramount -- and rightfully so -- for fucking around with the features, a least give them credit for the bonus materials: the special editions of all of Leone's Westerns are jammed full of awesome stuff! (with the one important exception of Paramount screwing up the film commentary to OUATITW).

One the other hand, Warner Bros.' did a very shitty job with OUATIA:  I believe that the only bonus materials aside from the Schickel commentary are some production photographs, and the portion of the "Once Upon a time Sergio Leone" TV documentary that talks about OUATIA (thankfully, that entire documentary is available on YouTube). It's insane that  Frayling doesn't even figure into the bonus materials at all! Whether he was unavailable at the time, or whether the dvd's didn't have enough space for too many bonus materials in addition to the 3:49 feature, they could have corrected all that when the blu ray disc was released a year ago. There is absolutely no excuse for the BR just being an exact copy of the dvd. (Conversely, when MGM released the GBU SE dvd and Frayling was unavailable for commentary at the time, at least they had him record a commentary when he was available later on, and then they released that commentary onto the BR disc). So whatever reason WB had for not using Frayling at all either in the commentary or in the extra features of the OUATIA dvd -- whether it's cuz he was unavailable at the time or for some other reason -- they should have corrected that when releasing the blu ray several years later. There is certainly no shortage of available space on a blu ray disc. Well, maybe it is cuz they are just plain stupid.

Luckily, the new OUATIA restoration means that eventually a new dvd/BR of the movie will be released, and maybe, just maybe, this time they will treat this movie with a dvd that is worthy of the movie's greatness: full of great bonus materials and a film commentary with Frayling... I'm always hoping for the best but preparing for the worst

[drinkanddestroy]

Even worse I can't be sure about Che and the others you also named, even if I'm sure you know a lot more than poor me.

You can't be sure that Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Mao, Pol Pot and the others I mentioned were mass murderers?  Swell fellow you are. Yeah, I'm sure you would have loved to live under their regimes. Not as a dissenter though; that would have gotten you killed or tortured. Maybe you would have been marching in lockstep. Or goose step.

Anyway, if you wanna pretend to be unsure about whether some of the most evil men in history were mass murderers, then you're not worth wasting my breath on, so I will do so no longer, idiot.