[b][i]While working at Sony on the Spider-Man films, Murawski made the deal to release Sergio Sollimaās The Big Gundown, with Van Cleef and Tomas Milian. āColumbia never put out Big Gundown, even in the golden age of VHS,ā he says. āAll [it] had was the American 89-minute cut, and thatās terrible, because the Italian version is much longer. So I tracked down the producer Alberto Grimaldi, and he had a new video master of his cut.
āWe looked at the Sony print and were shocked it was so beautiful. So we had that with Grimaldiās, but [his was] missing sound elements, since the longer cut was in Italian. James Owsley found a 16mm television version with those scenes in it, so we put together our sound.ā[/i][/b]
Product Description
Grindhouse Releasing is proud to present the first-ever U.S. home video release of the greatest Spaghetti Western youāve never seen - Sergio Sollimaās widescreen epic THE BIG GUNDOWN. The legendary Lee Van Cleef stars as a relentless bounty hunter on the trail of Cuchillo (Euro-film superstar Tomas Milian), a savage Mexican outlaw accused of the rape and murder of a twelve-year-old girl. Written by ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST screenwriter Sergio Donati, THE BIG GUNDOWN features an incredible soundtrack by Ennio Morricone. This Special Edition contains 15 additional minutes of gunslinging action never before seen in America.
Four Disc Deluxe Limited Edition Combo Pack - Two Blu-rays, One DVD And One Bonus CD
Individually Numbered And Limited To 3000 Copies
Spectacular New 2K Digital Restoration Of The Original Uncensored English Language Version, Newly Expanded With Three Additional Scenes
LA RESA DEI CONTI - The Complete, 110 Minute Director's Cut Presented In Italian With Optional English Bubtitles And Special Musical Subtitles
Bonus CD - THE BIG GUNDOWN - Original Soundtrack By Ennio Morricone
Compelling In-Depth Interviews With Director Sergio Sollima, Star Tomas Milian And Screenwriter Sergio Donati (ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST)
Audio Commentary By Western Film Experts C. Courtney Joyner And Henry C. Parke
Liner Notes By C. Courtney Joyner And Euro-Music Expert Gergely Hubai
Extensive Still Galleries, Trailers And TV Spots
AND OTHER SURPRISES!
To me, āRestoration Of The Original Uncensored English Language Version, Newly Expanded With Three Additional Scenesā would mean that the English version is fully restored without any Italian dialouge
So each bluray is probably the same cut, one in English and the other in Italian. But yeah, if thatās the case it doesnāt make a lot of sense because just an audio track doesnāt need a whole new disc, and they could have the alternate Italian credits play instead of the English credits on the same disc
So maybe the second bluray is some bonus features
All this stuff could easily be split up on two discs, and then possibly DVD version of the film like a lot of bluray releases do
Compelling In-Depth Interviews With Director Sergio Sollima, Star Tomas Milian And Screenwriter Sergio Donati (ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST)
Liner Notes By C. Courtney Joyner And Euro-Music Expert Gergely Hubai
Extensive Still Galleries, Trailers And TV Spots
AND OTHER SURPRISES!
To me, "Restoration Of The Original Uncensored English Language Version, Newly Expanded With Three Additional Scenes" would mean that the English version is fully restored without any Italian dialouge
So each bluray is probably the same cut, one in English and the other in Italianā¦
That would be great.
By the way, Blue Underground have just announced Companeros on Blu-ray:
This is my take on it. I believe you are completely right there Novecentoā¦so I think the English version is still going to be a lot shorter on this Grindhouse blu-ray. I think we are going to get the shorter English cut with three additional scenes all in English and the full length Italian cut with Italian dialogue. The statement says uncensored English version which doesnāt necessarily mean it is the same length as the Italian cut, example would be Blue Underground used that same lingo with their uncensored English version of Deep Redā¦yes it wasnāt censored but it wasnāt the same cut as the Italian cut.
Quoted from Sundanceās first post on this pageā¦ from what Iāve read on the internet, Grindhouse will be the company releasing this under license from Sony
If memory serves correctly, there were only 3 additional scenes in Italian for the uncut version using FCās audio
From http://www.truewestmagazine.com/jcontent/entertainment/entertainment/western-movies/6366-westerns-digging-for-treasure
While working at Sony on the Spider-Man films, Murawski made the deal to release Sergio Sollimaās The Big Gundown, with Van Cleef and Tomas Milian. āColumbia never put out Big Gundown, even in the golden age of VHS,ā he says. āAll [it] had was the American 89-minute cut, and thatās terrible, because the Italian version is much longer. So I tracked down the producer Alberto Grimaldi, and he had a new video master of his cut.
āWe looked at the Sony print and were shocked it was so beautiful. So we had that with Grimaldiās, but [his was] missing sound elements, since the longer cut was in Italian. James Owsley found a 16mm television version with those scenes in it, so we put together our sound.ā
(Murawski is behind Grindhouse Releasing, along with recently deceased Sage Stallone)
They really do have a complete version with all english audio (taking the sound from the 16mm TV print)
OR
They have two versions of the film, one for each BD, one being the uncut complete version in Italian with Eng. Subs AND
a shorter but all English version ( because of the 3 additional scenes discovered scenes, this version will be longer than previous english versions but still shorter than the complete Italian version)
I really donāt think Grindhouse would bother with releasing a cut version, or at least they would include the scenes in Italian with subs like previous versionsā¦ They donāt mess around with their releases
Three scenes added to previous English versions to make it uncut, and this has three additional scenes alsoā¦ seems pretty obvious to me
