I believe it’s the longer international cut with a choice of either dub. Although I think they have labeled the dubs backwards on the DVD menu which is a little confusing!
My Blue Underground dvd does not seem to have both options, just the “bad” dub. Frustrating. (Maybe Blue Underground’s blu-ray has another dub option? I would be interested to know if it does…) Anyhoo, I just bought the Amazon Instant video version, the “good” dub, and I intend to sit down with pen & paper and run them both simultaneously to archive the different dialogue used in each version. I want to do this because I not only think the voices are better on the good dub, but I also think the dialogue is better & want to document the differences. I will email y’all the results once I finish.
PS, I want to use the right nomenclature: is the good dub the international one or the US one? (I define the good dub as the one where Volonte is voiced the same as he was in the first two Dollars films.)
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Cool project!
Okay my Blue Underground blu-ray offers:
- US cut with Good dub
- International cut with not so good dub
You can’t mix and match, sadly. So if you want to watch the international cut on this blu-ray, you’ll have to endure the inferior dub.
Why did the original “rainbow collection” Koch DVD have both dubs as a choice on the longer cut, yet the newer Koch blu-ray only have one dub (at least according to what I can see in the database)? Just like “Navajo Joe” where the Koch DVD has the correcting timing for the beginning music but the newer Blu-ray doesn’t, once again the Blu-ray seems to be inferior to the old DVD…
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So the international cut is longer than the US cut?
Yes, but only by about 3 minutes or so.
The Blu has both dubs.
So it’s identical to the DVD then? Longer international cut with a choice of either dub?
Uncut 117:47 Min, German dub, 2 English dubs, original Italian dub,
In that case, I guess my old DVD is redundant then…
It’s weird how the US Blu-rays of “Face to Face”, “The Big Gundown” and “Bullet for the General” (there are probably more) seem to be based on the notion that consumers will want two separate cuts with different audio tracks (whatever the language(s) may be) instead of a single uncut version with a choice of different audio tracks. In all three of the above cases, the German Blu-rays are far superior to the American ones.
Yea I find that weird too. Plus, who would want to watch a shorter version, if a longer one is available?
Well, in some cases people want that.
GBU is one for which many want the international theatrical version released.
In the case of GBU, you’re talking about an “extended” cut like they did with OUATIA. I’m talking about ones where international distributors just produced “butchered” cuts to get shorter runtimes.
Mainly because for the original version the dubbing is not homogenous (2003 re-dub) or in other cases incomplete.
Well my viewpoint is that I want to see a cut that the director has been involved in.
So, for example, while I would have loved to see Sollima’s intended cut of “Face to Face”, I am still prepared to watch the cut that was forced on him by the producers and that we all know. However, I am not prepared to watch the American cut that did not involve Sollima at all. At this point the cuts tend to become arbitrary (the most egregious in Sollima’s case undoubtedly being the cutting of some of the cane fields sequence in “The Big Gundown”).
I guess I will find out exactly what they cut, I’m gonna run 'em side by side tomorrow, the Blue U. dvd on tv & Amazon video on iPad, compare & contrast scene by scene. I’ll hit ya back with results.
Extended?
The Italian version is the original, the international version is cut by at least 14 min. Some might call that butchered too. But actually it is debatable which version is the best (as long as the grotto scene is out)
But with the Blue Underground disc its U.S.: 115 Mins. / International: 118 Mins.
You can still watch the whole international cut in Italian with subtitles, some parts cut to the english version
Yes, fair point, but the grotto scene you mention is a good example. The different versions of Leone’s films are well-documented, but ultimately it should come down to which version(s) Leone was personally involved in and sanctioned. We all know longer/extended does not necessarily mean better (Harmonica’s rising in OUATITW is a perfect example of this) nor does it necessarily mean desired by the director.
However, what I’m complaining about is when someone completely unrelated to the production, often in a foreign country, just randomly chops chunks out of the film to fit more showings in per day. I’m pretty sure Sollima had no say whatsoever in what happened to The Big Gundown and Face to Face in the United States for example; I doubt Damiani had any say with “A Bullet for the General” either.
As bad as it is, to be fair: that was (and is to some extent) how the business works/ed unfortunately