Not much of a review, and a few weeks early so not sure if actually all that legit (plus, it is not very enlightening)
https://tripwiremagazine.co.uk/headlines/tripwire-reviews-arrows-a-fistful-of-dollars-4k-edition/
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Relatively new Prime USA listing, can someone check its merits: Amazon.com
Already shipping from some retailers, get it now, UK peeps!
Details >> Per un pugno di dollari/BluRay - The Spaghetti Western Database
Comparison:
https://www.avforums.com/reviews/fistful-of-dollars-4k-blu-ray-review.19926/
but some have question the author of this reviewās knowledge, so take it with a pinch of salt. Obviously HDR makes for a ādarkerā pictures, as without HDR you donāt have these kinds of blacks in the first placeā¦
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Got my shipped confirmation from OrbitDVD just now!!!
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Fistful looks fantastic. Blue skies, creamy walls, bronzed skin tones, rich reds, and itās actually got CONTRAST with decently dense blacks. Everything is so well integrated and well balanced in the HDR grade that it doesnāt look like itās HDR, and I mean that in the nicest possible way, that nothing leaps out at you as being too conspicuously āmodernā. Shame that theyāre having to use the Ritrovata restorations with their odd stop/start grain baked in but theyāve done the bestest job they possibly could, and thank fook it doesnāt look like a Ritrovata colour grade! Reminds me of the Italian Blu-ray from Ripleyās, albeit with a touch less green and a bit more saturation. source
And a screenshot comparison: A Fistful of Dollars (1964) | Slowpoke Pics
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Easter eggs on the new Arrow release:
DISC ONE:
(1) On the Play Film screen, highlight Play English Version and press [Right] to display an option to play with additional TV prologue (4:50).
(2) From the Trailer Gallery screen, highlight Italian Theatrical Trailer and press [Up] for some additional text overlays from the Italian trailer materials (1:23).
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use a machine translation
so basically, it offers some additional goodies (for example alternative credits etc), but the main version is the same as the Kino cut and others
Got my Arrow Blu Ray and virtually immediately plonked on the Italian version to watch. At a high volume. Print was excellent and I was pleased with purchase.
I was surprised how closely the Italian dialogue followed with only minor changes:
ā¢ Piripero uses āJoeā an extra time than in the English dub, much earlier in the film
ā¢ At least 4 ābastardosā which donāt appear in the English dub where āAmericanoā is used as a substitute for āGringo bastardoā because I guess the mouth movements are similar
ā¢ At the end Piripero can be heard in the Italian version measuring the height of the corpses - 5 foot 9, 6 foot 1 - which I thought was a good touch. Piripero doesnāt say anything in the English dub.
ā¢ Joeās response as to why he helps Marisol as discussed earlier
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Received my Arrow box this morning (and 'For A Few Dollars More). Looking forward of hours of viewing. Iāll probably not get to bed tonight.
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A good review with plenty of great comparison shots with the Kino 4K
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Thanks for sharing the link ā¦ Iām just wondering with more image visible top and bottom of the frame, presumably the entire picture area, can the film splices be seen? as these areas would under usual conditions be slightly masked when projected on a cinema screen ā¦ because when real film is projected, the edges are blurred, hence the use of black masking to give a sharper presentation.
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Didnāt realise until yesterday that the outtakes extra on the Arrow Blu Ray runs 36m - the narrative mentions that Jolly has 6 hours of outtakes in its archives. I watched it and it had snippets from virtually every scene in the movie.
Leone seems to have favoured a lot of alternative angles and shots - quite odd that he would have got away with this for a low budget movie when cost is paramount.
That scrapped prologue was interesting but correctly scrapped.
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Review
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The reviews suggest that the 1080p version has slightly better colors than the 4K UHD. Iām considering buying For a Few Dollars More in the 1080p version. I have A Fistful of Dollars from Arrow in 4K UHD and it looks great, but to me the image is just a bit too dark.
Real Technicolor prints are much more dense than other film stock, and require a stronger light source than the average film print ā¦ the intensity of the colour palette can initially give the impression of the picture being a little darker ā¦ You can always adjust your TV settings accordingly, brightness contrast etc to suit your own taste.
I have a user setting on my telly for Blu rays in particular, were the disc contrast has been increased to give the illusion of a sharper image ā¦ this is not cinematically accurate for older film, for instance the Bond movies of the 1960s and 70s, I found the contrast on these releases too heavy ā¦ the only ones that looked cinema accurate were āYou Only Live Twiceā and āLive and Let Dieā ā¦ these are just my personal opinions and tastes.
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I call bullshit on reviews that make such apples vs oranges comparisons. The 4K presentation here makes use of HDR, so that will only play out to full use with an HDR capable TV. More often than not people have OLED displays which are indeed rather dark as they display black as actual black etcā¦ if you have the option to enjoy this film in 4K UHD HDR, go that way, and like aldo says, spend some time tweaking your TV settings rather than settling for a second best option
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I said the image looks great 
Maybe itās true that the OLED creates that impression. Another thing is personal habits ā over the years Iāve watched various copies of this film, and Iāve probably gotten used to a distorted image. Iāll try increasing the contrast like Aldo suggested. Thanks!
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I was suggesting that you reduce the contrast and up the brightness just a tad ā¦ but yes experimenting with settings is vital, as most TVs come out of the box with retina blowing pre-sets ā¦ colours so high they almost bleed into each other and contrast set so high that everything looks like a 1990s Tony Scott film ā¦ a stylish trend which thankfully didnāt last long.
PS: My first comment was misleading regarding my contrast setting ā¦ I was suggesting that BDs themselves were using too much contrast - Sorry about that confusion.
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