[quote=“Reverend Danite, post:60, topic:795”]I’m really pleased that you enjoyed it Bro’ Bluntwolf.
Sharing views and OPINIONS about OUR films makes this forum something special and I’m proud to have been involved in following Brother Stanton’s lead on this thread and being part of that. I think E.P. is a magnificent film. It’s got a bit more profile and a bigger audience amongst the people that matter and that’s been highlighted by the comments made by US.
There’s a lot of negativity floating about tonight, and I know all about it :P, but don’t lose sight of the fact that there is some seriously positive shit as well that makes it all worthwhile! Light up that cigar and Sermon over!![/quote]
I have an English-dubbed, no sub-titles VHS version of this movie, apparently a boot from a Yugoslav vid-rental, judging by the color sleeve’s language. I don’t remember where I got it, it was years ago.
I like this one a lot because it’s a tight, well-acted movie, even though it was obviously shot quickly on a shoe-string budget. Plus! There is no Mexican trumpet music anywhere to be heard! The Alessandroni soundtrack is perfectly sparse and well-fitted to the scenes. (The Hexachord CD release of this title is NOT from the movie, but is instead live performance recordings made much later). I like this music so much, I hooked up the VCR to an iMic and then into my Macintosh to record it into iTunes. It’s now on my iPod and in my ears, along with “Riding With the Wind” (Stephen Boyd) from Those Dirty Dogs (Anyone got a 45 of that, write me!). Anyway, one of the funniest scenes I have ever seen in any spag-western comes near the end when El Puro is facing down the three bad-guys. Mario Brega suddenly yells, “PUR…PURO!!! I’m gonna getcha!!! AAAHHHHH!!!”, and then chugs toward Woods, stomach shaking like a laughing Santa, firing his pistol sloppily over and over…of course missing every time!
I will check the runtime. The aspect ratio looks to be ALMOST 1.85:1, (1.77?) but it still looks wrong…some of the titles are not all there, like it could’ve been originally 2.35:1. If you play your VHS, listen for a rip in the opening song, as if the “record” skipped, if you know what I mean. It’s pretty obvious to hear. I would venture to say, if you hear it, then this is from the same source. The “melting VHS faces” aren’t TOO bad…and outline definitions are pretty sharp. It sounds great.
The running time of my English language, no subs Yugo Vid-rental dub is 94 minutes, and looks to be close to 1.85:1. If someone has a nice 2.35:1 of this fine movie, how would one arrange to get a copy of same? I would really like to see it that way.
Also, does this one have a slow pace? Revernd used it in comparison to Time and Place for a Killing which does have a slow pace. Does anyone else thik this rips off thedollars trilogy score? Heard a sample on fistful and heard similaritiesto GBU and afistfull of dollars. Maybe because Alessandro Alesandroni whistled in those ones.
The soundtrack is very close to both, so close that Morricone deserves a co-composeres credit.
And yes, it’s a slow western, which needs his time to develop story and characters, but also not that slow, but full of corners, not choosing the direct way.
I recently obtained an Italian release of El Puro, the source of which I am not sure of, since none of the official or DVDR releases I am aware of have Italian audio tracks. This one has a statement in the beginning, in Italian, which says something to the effect of “some of the scenes are not presented in Italian because there is no italian audio track for these scenes and the scenes have been presented to preserve the best viewing experience.”
Runtime on this Italian release is roughly 1 hour 40 mins, with the time of the previous message omitted, as well as a bit of excess time at the end of the film.
There are several cut scenes compared to the English language VHS rip that is floating around, although most are not of much interest- there is one scene where one of the women are laughing in the bar as El Puro gets beat with a bat. There is a good chunk cut out of the intro scene, although nothing that adds any insight- just creates more atmosphere perhaps. There are a few short dialogue scenes, in which I do not know what they are saying. Probably really the only scene that is somewhat interesting, is after the bandits enter the clothing store and before Gypsy shoots the wanted poster… there is a somewhat odd scene of everyone trying on clothes, and some decent atmosphere created leading into the poster being shot
oddly, there is a scene in the English VHS rip which is missing from this Italian release. After El Puro gets beat and thrown out of the bar, and the “old witch” is laughing at him, there is a scene of him getting up off the ground. Its a brief, but interesting looking shot
anyway, just though I’d add this information in, as it adds to a good amount of extra footage, but no real content loss when it comes down to it. The English VHS rip also beats this one in quality. The Italian release appears to be the same quality print as the French release. I have never seen the French disc though.
I was/am working on a edit to add the cut scenes in, but questioning if it is really worth it- due to the low quality of the source material and the fact that its not adding too much to the content.
Would love to hear if anyone has found any other versions of this floating around
Thanks for the info autephex. I have the VHS rip. Haven’t seen it yet unfortunately.
Next month I’m going to do something similar as I will put together the two versions of “I’ll sell my skin dearly” that I have together, as one is a widescreen cut version and the other is a fullscreen uncut version. I will add the extra scenes from the fullscreen onto the widescreen version.
