It is definitely true. I finally purchased a copy of this Brazilian DVD and found it to be even a bit worse than the Alpha Digital disc released a few years ago.
I think both āprintsā were taken from the same Turner Classic Movies broadcast.
Hopefully, the Stranger movies will be available on officially released DVDās, soon.
I hear rumors that is going to be a reality; but, no one knows for sure WHEN it will happen.
I bought the Brazilian The Great Silence disc
It was cheap and I didnāt have the film with English audio (it has Eng + Por audio)
The disc is awful: non-anamorphic video, audio that sounds so hollow you get the idea youāre watching the movie in a cave; I stopped the DVD after about ten minutes.
Koch Media has an interest for a release of A Stranger in Town.
But there are problems with the German film rights. The rights to the film are by NEW Entertainment. NEW has indeed withdrawn, but the rights situation is still difficult. But it is quite possible that the film will be released in the future from Koch Media.
Tony Anthony (which you may know as the titular character of āBlindmanā) probably is the most feminine of all SW anti-heroes, and still one of the coolest. Heās just so damn relaxed that the coolness comes naturally, thereās little of that typical affectation on his part. He is a slouch, stoic but not stilted, heās wearing a pink shirt, has bleached blond hair and thereās no sign of any homophobic tendencies (when he shoots a baddie who falls into his lap he doesnāt react with either irony or macho behaviour to ensure us how masculine he is). After he got beat up badly he rescues a woman who later wordlessly rides on a horse with him on the back of the horse and her in front, him holding on to her hips to not fall off, but not in any sexual way. In the sequel, āThe Stranger Returnsā, heās even carrying around a parasol for much of the running time. I find it funny that its movie poster even asks the question: āIs he interested in women?ā
Despite all that heās a real badass who most of the time is unquestionably more skilled and smarter than any of his enemies. Thereās no doubt heāll prevail in the end and we still care, weād even care if he hadnāt been beaten up (see sequel), which is a scene that most SWs have to make us care about our anti-hero because most viewers tend not to care about characters who have the upper hand all of the time. Itās worth to note that Tony Anthony more than most stars of a movie not only shapes his own character but apparently the films as a whole as a producer and writer. Ever since this film he always starred in the movies he played in, that guy wouldnāt play second fiddle to anyone.
Dialogue in the film is EXTREMELY sparse, although it doesnāt have more action than your average SW. After the first 15 minutes there is a section in the film that is the most essential to the plot and it has the most dialogue. Cut away that 10-minute section and the complete dialogue adds up to maybe 20 lines. The main music theme rocks melancholically and is catchy, arguably itās a bit overused, but this never bothers me in a film if the tune is good. The additional score arrangements are also effective but the film doesnāt shy away from silent sections either. Certainly thereās nothing special about the film (except that it WORKS), itās just a lot of cool fun. Every bit as good as the surprisingly enjoyable sequel.
Tony Anthony projects logical believability through-out the series. The landscapes and characters exist, because Anthony is so believable. -As opposed to some John Wayne āworldsā, for example.
Iāve got the Japanese Cinefil Imagica DVD, which has fantastic picture quality, but only Italian and German audio. As stated above āDialogue in the film is EXTREMELY sparseā and I could follow the film well enough, but I would like to see a quality English audio release of this film for sure.
hmm, this one has always been a little favorite of mine but I had not commented anything in this topic yet.
I just watched english fan dubbed version based on japanese dvd. A great improvement on the awful alpha digital dvd.
Itās nice to see that most people here share my opinion of the film. Itās not among the best swās out there but itās definitely interesting film with itās slow pace, repeative but good music and with very little dialogue. Someone called it minimalist western which describes it perfectly.
I especially like the filmās ending. Shoot-out with the shotgun is one of the best in genre in my opinion. Shotgun is just too rarely used gun in swās, Moment to Kill is another which I can remember at the moment.
And yes, Tony Anthony as a Stranger is probably the coolest sw hero there is!
And all this reminds me: What the hell was Alex Cox thinking when he bashed this film in his book? Probably Cox doesnāt understand a thing about charisma or talents of certain actors as he calls Anthoy untalented, double-chinned etc and says Wolff never played bad guys convincingly.
Thereās an excellent, very professionally-produced version now available on eBay which I take to be the Japanese print with English audio added from another source (Seller: āVideo Trashā). I donāt know why such a cheap and minimalist movie appeals to me so much, but this is the fourth version of it Iāve bought, and Iāve never seen it looking so good.
Watch it yesterday. Now I can understand the comparison to Leoneās. To be truth I think it is one of the most boring spaghettis that Iāve seen so far.