Congratulations Kino for dropping the ball, yet again. 
Iād like to return the ācomplimentā and do the commentary on one of Coxā own films, namely āStraight to Hellā, what an ill conceived mess that was ā¦ and yet in his own commentary heās so full of himself - I donāt rate his films or his pretentious pseudo intellectualising of other peopleās work - Plus his contribution to the commentary track on āOnce Upon a Time in the Westā is ludicrous. He makes a comment about the rape/seduction of Jill by Frank, and says that itās confusing as to whether this scene is taking place at the Sweetwater Ranch or in Frankās Navajo hideout - NO itās not!
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I re-read the parts Cox wrote about Il mercenario, and yes, he really dislikes the film, which is especially a pity for one who wants to like Corbucci.
And he does understand the film in a way that the film does not work. Thinks that Corbucci did not want to make it (but the film looks extremely enthusiastic), and is his best directed film, even better than Il grande Silenzio (I think). He thinks that it is a conventional film, but he doe not see how unusual the ending is. Was there ever a genre film before which does not end, where it is supposed to end, but simply starts again? And then directs one more false ending.
He sees nothing in the film, although there is so much to see, so much to explore, so much too understand if one looks a little bit deeper, cause this is a particular rich film.
Here he says The Mercenary is the better of Corbucciās Zapata westerns: http://www.alexcox.com/brussels_000.htm
But in his book I couldāve sworn he said Companeros is the better one??
I know I noticed that. Itāll be interesting to watch to say the least.
Havenāt got the book with me and I canāt remember the exact quote but I definetely remember him saying something about Companeros being the more enjoyable of the two.
Agreed. Iām surprised heās always been so harsh on TM and Companeros. I think theyāre his best two westerns and the zapata sub-genre is the only area he managed to surpass Leone.
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Just announced this morning from Kino Lorber (region A):
Coming November 7th on Blu-ray!
Death Rides a Horse (1967) with optional English subtitles
ā¢ Audio Commentary by Filmmaker Alex Cox
ā¢ English and Italian 2.0 Audio
ā¢ Original Theatrical Trailer
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Cox has way to many ideas going around in his head, sometimes it works in his films but mostly not for me.
according to their FB reaction, they fixed framing issues reported on the Explosive discā¦
Amazon pre-order links are live for both releases, please do use the SWDbās Amazon links if you can
THE MERCENARY aka A Professional Gun
DEATH RIDES A HORSE aka From Man to Man
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My 88Films blu copy of Django Kill arrived today and, as mentioned earlier, the transfer is identical to the Blue Underground region-free blu. The eighteen-minute Django Kill and the Evolution of Tomas Milian feature is light and fun - a bit YouTube-like, really - and itās quite informative to relative genre newcomers but it wonāt offer any new information to any of you gentlemen here. Feature presenter Eric Zaldivar only appears to like Django Kill up to roughly the forty-minute mark, past which he thinks it gets weird for weirdās sake, and I guess thatās a fairly unique approach for 88Films to take, but he doesnāt dwell on it.
Now Iāve got them both Iāll probably keep them both but, ultimately, thereās really no need to double-dip here. If any of you donāt own Django Kill on blu yet but intend to do so (and youāre in a region āBā area), I reckon you should let price and availability decide for you since the extras are minimal and the movie itself is identical in each instance (it should be noted though that the 88Films copy divides the movie up into 8 chapters whereas the Blue Underground disc divides the movie into 21 chapters. Also, there is a Chapter Select option in the pop-up menu on the Blue Underground version but not on the 88Films version.Indeed, the Blue Underground pop-up menu will actually āpop-upā as the movie plays on whereas pressing the pop-up menu button will cause the 88Films version to return to its main menu, and it wonāt remember where you were in the movie, itāll just start it again from the beginning. Very DVD-like). If price and availability are more-or-less identical for both copies then IMHO you should probably plump for the Blue Underground disc, simply because of the chapter select/pop-up menu navigation mentioned above and because the Milian, Lovelock and Questi interview segments probably represent a slightly better extra than the Eric Zaldivar essay on spaghetti westerns and Milianās career. Also, Blue Underground offer subtitles for their English dub as well as English subs for the Italian audio.
The 88Filmsā sleeve is a bit crap tbh too, but it does have a nice alternate āreverseā sleeve, acknowledging the movie by its original name.
https://s26.postimg.org/sp7tz2q21/rsz_photo_20170927_131933.jpg
https://s26.postimg.org/t8him36uh/rsz_photo_20170927_131812.jpg
I wonder if their Mercenary & Navajo Joe will have any unique selling pointsā¦
Agreed! Actually it seems like they took it from the Danish poster for the movie for some reason. Sadly lacking from my poster collection eventhough it stinks 
Unless Iām mistaken, doesnāt Eric go by āYourPallbearerā here?
Iāve no idea tbh, but I did wonder if he might have been one of our patrons, either right now or previously at least. A young man with a keen interest in the genre would surely have trotted through here at some point, Iād have thought.
[quote=āNovecento, post:1816, topic:660ā]
doesnāt Eric go by āYourPallbearerā here?[/quote]
Yeah thatās him, nice fellow.
I have the Blood for a Silver Dollar german Blu ray and itās exactly the same print as the japanese oneā¦ itās ok but itās not HD and suffers from ghostingā¦ still itās probably the best print to date
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I havenāt got the hardbox release yet. Is it better than the Wild East DVD?
Yes thankfully
So as you can see from the banners and the announcement on the SWDbās front page, we teamed up with Dorado Films for special pre-sale event. For each BluRay sold before the end of the month, one dollar goes towards the SWDb.
Click here to learn more and pre-order:
https://doradofilms.video/index.php?upc=828637050102
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