So there is no version with a Downbeat ending on the BluRay?
The story goes that the US distributor hated the happy ending so much that he truncated the film and slightly changed the dialogue in the penultimate (but now final) scene to make it work.
A few years ago, a French DVD of Minnesota Clay was released by Gaumont under the title Le Justicier du Minnesota. It was the original long version, happy ending, with both Italian and French audio, meaning that’s how it was meant to be. There were French subtitles for if you wanted to hear the Italian audio, so I translated them into English and put them on a copy of the DVD.
Fortunately, a friend of mine was able to get an English VHS which had the truncated version, so I was able to copy that downbeat ending and put English dialogue over it (although the sound quality was pretty awful and hissy). I can’t remember exactly, but I think it just involved putting a freeze in the right place and adding a music cue. So I think your advice about hitting the stop button is just about right.
well it does have the downbeat ending, it just doesn’t end there… you’ll just have to know and then stop watching, kind of. There’s no option in the menu to play it up to just until him laying in the dust…
I’ve got the German Blu Rays of both of these myself. The only downside to the German Blu of TWK…TWD is that the German subtitles are forced when choosing the Italian audio track. A big plus though is that the flashback showing why Bill Kiowa is after El Fego is in black and white as the director originally filmed it (the English dubbed version has the scene in an out of place green tint) and the proper opening scene and credits sequence are in tact (the English dub has the opening credits first with Brett Halsey riding on his horse, and all of a sudden we’re shown he’s in a jail cell, very strange choice).
A funny thing with the Shoot the Living and Pray for the Dead release is that the DVD has the FSK rating logo 16 (which is usually what they rate most of the SWs as) and the Blu Ray has the FSK rating logo 12, still not sure if that’s a screw up or what.
Explosive Media really dropped the ball not having you to be all to choose which ending. Lets face it the upbeat ending should just be a special feature anyhow.
Naturally this reminds me of Corbucci’s Big Silence, which again …
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
…has the hero dying in the street as a downbeat ending. On previous DVD releases you got the happy ending as an extra, where Frank Wolff, who we thought was dead, rides into town, kills all the bandits and rescues our hero. It also had the trailer where Trintignant is clearly seen speaking. Corbucci seems to have been a director who had trouble making up his mind.
Not really. As far as I know Corbucci did the happy ending only because he was pressured to do it by producers. That’s why the happy ending is so crap, the whole crew agreed to do it so bad that it could never be used (which deemed to be wrong though).
The speaking in the trailer is probably just some left over material shot between the takes.
So do we assume that Corbucci was pressured for the happy ending in both Big Silence and Minnesota Clay?
Rather foolish to allow a shot of Trintignant speaking in the trailer. Maybe the trailer editor didn’t understand the plot.
The Koch exclusive version or the comedy title version? I’m still undecided on whether to pick up the Koch exclusive or not, I do have a birthday coming up in 4 days and have asked mainly for money as there’s quite a few UK, German, Italian, & French imports I still need to get.
So what is this comedy version? I assume it’s a German language redub with funny lines. So an English language version is unlikely, and subtitles aren’t really going to catch the nuances.
I thought the original had a reasonable amount of humour in it anyway.
