Well, we can always create English language fan subtitles for Sartana right?
http://www.alive-ag.de/index.php?page=artikel&ArtikelNr=6418117
thatās the official distributor pageā¦ you can see thereās no English options.
Maybe the delay might be cause they are trying for the English dub, probably not but wishful thinking. All I know is there is a 4k master out there now so an English friendly company will be bound to utilize sooner than laterā¦perhaps Arrow.
As I am sometimes involved in German Spaghetti Western releases:
If there is no English audio on a dvd or blu ray release from āquality labelsā like Koch, Explosive, Colosseo, etc. it is more or less always in issue with rights. That means that the italian or spanish owner does not allow to put the English Dub on the releases. That sometimes happens even with āoriginalā langauge dub
So, please do not blame the labels.
For the Sartana release:
As far as I know it will be a complete new scan from different available sources. I am pretty sure it will be worth waiting and the release will contain some more material than for instance the Wild East.
Thanks for the information Grinder. Film and audio rights are such a strange mess and itās always difficult to understand why itās like that, but at least we are getting the film! And even if itās not in my language Iām happy that we can finally see this film in good quality!
Like I said before we can always create subtitles for the film. Heck we could even do a fandub.
Looks like the upcoming Grande Silenzio BluRay will get an audio commentary by Mike Siegelā¦ And a scan of Mikes personal 35mm print which they call the Grindhouse version
The updated extras are
Bonusmaterial:
Alternatives Ende; Trailer; 20-seitiges Booklet; Audiokommentar von Filmhistoriker Mike Siegel; Grindhouse-Fassung (HD-Abtastung einer seltenen deutschen 35mm Kinokopie von 1969); Filming Silenzio; Promoting Silenzio (ca. 9 Min.); Silenzio in Pictures (ca. 7 Min.); zahlreiche fremdsprachige Bonus-Featurues (OmU);
Or just sync the new HD footage with the old English audio.
I find it amazing that copyright owners are making things so difficult for fans and distributors ā¦ after all, weāre talking about films which are 50 years old and of almost no commercial value other than to die hard fans of the genre.
Perhaps the arrival of Tarantinoās 2 pseudo westerns has raised some interest with casual film fans ā¦ but not all that significantly.
I remember how UK television in the 80s and 90s would show many of these movies very late at night, on ITV and Channel 5 ā¦ they were clearly being screened as time fillers for insomniacs. The only thing comparable today is the movies4men channel which shows a lot of SWs, dumped in with some of the worst āstraight to videoā garbage imaginable. So there must be some regulation as to how much a copyright owner can be paid for a television broadcast?
Are these owners holding out for a big pay cheque ? ā¦ and if so, how come low budget DVD releases are readily available in English, albeit in dubious quality.
Speaking to a festival organiser at the Almeria Western Film Festival, a few years ago, I inquired as to why the rather odd selection of older films being screened ā¦ He explained that it was down to the budget they had for paying copyright owners ā¦ he told me that the Spanish owner of āFor a Few Dollars Moreā (La muerte tenĆa un precio) Death had a Price - wanted 3000 euros for a one off screening, and that was a DVD projected, not a 35mm print. In contrast they could have screened āOnce Upon a Time in the Westā for just 50 euros ! So, it all comes down to greed, rather like that which we encounter in characters from our favourite genre. Itās a shame that there arenāt regulations to prevent greedy selfish copyright owners from holding out ā¦ after all they had nothing to do with these films production, nor I doubt do they have any personal interest in the material they control. Assholes!!!
Good points you mention. All about the cash like you say !
Thanks ENNIOO ā¦ a little philanthropy in the movie distribution world would be much appreciated, but itās not very likely.
Yeahā¦ that Wild East audio track is pretty okay, except for the high pitched ringing throughout it.
I think because most of the low budget dvd releases donāt bother with rights. What mainly comes to mind is the Video Asia DVD setās using Franco Cleefās restoration of Gli Fumavano Le Colt and blatantly just ripping from other dvdās. Maybe Iām wrong on that though.
Yeah, I second what VanEyck mentioned here. Most of the really early Wild East releases, as well as overseas releases with English options, are just ripped and put onto dvds. Shameless, but I will say that they do help people get cheaply into the genre.
I suspect that the early Wild East releases were considered āpublic domainā at the time of their issue? So is it a case of bootlegging a bootleg, as someone commented before. The work Wild East put into assembling extras is great, but many of their prints are well below acceptable quality levels. Many are simply European PAL discs converted to NTSC, with an English dub added. The conversion process they use softens the image and creates ugly interlacing.
I have a Spanish release of āKill them all and Come Back Aloneā which is identical to the W.E release (except the image is pin sharp) ā¦ right down to a couple of scratches at the very beginning.
This was the first SW I ever saw, even before knowing who Clint Eastwood or Sergio Leone were ā¦ so I was very excited to see the DVD in a Malaga store. Over the years (pre internet) I had tried to find some information on the film, with very little success, except that it was released in the early 70s in the English version by Columbia Pictures ā¦ so either Columbia let their distribution rights expire or the film is now public domain? So the whole business of what is copyright legal seems to be a rather gray area.
Robert Woods told me that he owns the American distribution rights to several of his films, including āChallenge of the McKennasā, which he hates and says he will never want to see it released. Also, most of the companies producing these films in the 60s and 70s no longer exist ā¦ so who can claim legal ownership over a specific title or itās soundtrack ?
Recently I found a VHS copy of āCaptain Apacheā in a charity shop, for 10 pence - āA tidy sum!ā ā¦ The video is titled āA Gun for April Morningā ā¦ I was curious to see how the print looked, and itās definitely a bootleg or public domain release from a company called Scan Euro Video ā¦ the print itself is a rough looking 16mm widescreen 1.85 ratio version, covered in scratches and dirt with very noisy audio and a āhomemadeā title card inserted during the original credits. The back of the box has the usual copyright warning and Ā© 1987 Scan Euro Video - The original distributor, Scotia International, arenāt mentioned and their logo is removed from the beginning of the film, though itās present in the recent Blu Ray release ā¦ strange! Seems like illegal releases have been in circulation for a long time, masking as official ones.
I donāt know about early Wild East, but their current transfers are most likely conversions of an EU PAL transfer. I donāt suspect they make much money off of them (why theyāre limited runs, DVDs, and only a new one every couple months), which is why they can only do so much.
Thanks for sharing - thatās an interesting post!
It was pointed out to me that our DVD/BluRay news section could be updated better. Who can help out? Spaghetti Western DVD news - The Spaghetti Western Database
Some rumours/indications floating around that Arrow will be releasing Sartana and Light the Fuseā¦ Sartana is Coming:
And the holy grail, a Sartana box set, is being dreamt about again
[quote=āAvatarDK, post:1887, topic:660ā]
Sartana box set[/quote]
Just imagine if Arrow released it in the style of their Hellraiser Scarlett Box.
Details for the German BluRay were added yesterday
https://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Giorni_dell'ira,_I/BluRay
Iām gonna scream if they actually announce a box set. I might just have a heart attack.