I noticed this filmās name on the Mill Creek 20 film DVD set. Is that the same film as the one you guys are talking about? And if so, does anyone know if itās the cut version?
Fullscreen and cut
Doh!..thanks for the info 
Watched the Mill Creek DVD, didnāt have a big problem with the image quality, however the sound was shit. I missed too much of the dialogue because of that.
As for the film, Iām not very sure about it. On the contrary with the brilliant The Shooting, the minimalistic approach didnāt seem to work very well on this one. The film felt really empty at some points. The score was so-so and I didnāt find Jenny Agutter very charming either. Hellman regular Warren Oates plays a bitter and kind of fed-up with everything in life type of character and was cool, as always. Hope to find a more decent print in the future, canāt say something conclusive about the film with the viewed version at the moment. As things are now though, itās my least favorite Hellman film.
What is your favourite Hellman film at the moment ?
The Shooting followed closely by Two-lane Blacktop. I am yet to see Iguana, although I donāt believe it could top one of those two.
Need to check out Iguana aswell.
Iguana is a great film, not so good as Two-Lane Blacktop which is a 5 out of 5 masterpiece to me, but I liked Iguana more than The Shootist, felt like a more complete film to me with a great ending, and Everett McGill gives a great performance, quite a surprise for a character actor mostly.
Iguana got one of those impossible casts Fabio Testi, Michael Madsen and so on
I found a good looking tv-rip in 2.35:1 widescreen from cinemageddon. I think itās uncut too.
Howās the sound on that, have you checked it out?
I need to check it but I remember it being ok.
OK, Bill, thanks for the tip.
Iāve just been watching it and while I have enjoyed it (good performances and interesting direction from Hellman), I do not feel I can make a complete judgement of it as I watch a terrible quality DVD of it, only 84 mins long and obviously cut. Is there an uncut version available?
You can buy it here:
http://cultcine.com/products-page/spaghetti-western/china-9-liberty-37-remastered-uncut-1978-ntsc-monte-hellman-usa1/
It is said to be uncut. As regards China 9 Liberty 37 I havenāt watched the film yet.
I just noticed that my cable service, Comcast/Xfinity, is offering this as one of their free on-demand titles with a listed runtime of 102min. I will check it out to see the length/picture quality/evidence of cuts (nudity or not); and report it here. thx
I finally saw this last night - was surprised, it wasnāt too bad. I didnāt think it was great by any means, but Warren Oates was excellent, and Sam Peckinpah shows up for a cameo (how can you not love that?)ā¦if it ever shows up in a better print, I could see myself upgrading (have the Mill Creek version at the moment)ā¦
Anyone know what release this is?
Quite sharp picture, but directing credits are to Antonio Brandt.
Which leads to a general question concerning this movie; are all available DVD releases credited to its correct director Monte Hellman? In that case I do not know what release thatone in youtube is.
Obviously the (a ?) Italian version.
Deceptionā¦ what a waste of time. Boring, slowā¦
The version of this that was offered by Comcast/Xfinity On Demand is a 102-min., seemingly uncut print. The opening and closing titles are letterboxed but the body of the film is full frame. The opening logo is the WB shield/Warner Bros home entertainment logo. There are 5 (!) separate nude scenes intact. The picture is pretty crisp but the color suffers greatly during several day-for-night sequences. (Actually these scenes are so poorly rendered they are literally unwatchable.)
That being said I found the movie boring as hell and hard to sit through. The background and incidental music was ill-matched to the action and really intrusive at times, drowning out dramatic dialog in a key scene between Testi and Peckinpah. The direction was laconic and built no tension whatsoever. Shame because the story could have been a real engrossing nail-biter, and the three leads (Oates, Testi, Agutter) have proven themselves capable of carrying a film. I wonder what this story would have looked like done in '66 by a Corbucci, a Margheriti, etc.
This film has been on my watchlist forever, never seemed to be in the mood to tuck into it. Now that Iāve seen it, no big loss if I never did. Pros: Warren Oates, intense and winning performance; Agutter, lovely and capable; Testi, tall dark and handsome and uses his own voice, but his English is not great and he speaks his lines too fast to be understood sometimes, and is drowned out by incidental music quite often. Cons: By the time the revenge aspect of the story kicks in, almost an hour in, you will have lost all interest. Just boring as hell IMO.