New guy, need help, where's the best place to buy spaghetti westerns on dvd?

Any help would be greatly appreciated! I would love to get them in the original Italian with English subtitles if possible. Thanks again in advance for any help!

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Well that is a very general question :slight_smile:
First of all, where do you live? No matter how you stand towards the giant Amazon, it is one of the most convenient places to buy them. Whether they have Italian with subtitles is hard to say, but in the SWDb, on each movie page you find a DVD subpage that also lists the language options as far as we are aware of them.

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Welcome to the SWDB, AJ!

Stick around with us, you’ll find your feet in picking up Spag DVDS in no time, I promise. Every known DVD or blu-ray is linked to every movie listed right here in the database as my friend (and site owner) Sebastian says. Almost all of the most famous and well-regarded spaghetti westerns have wide blu-ray releases these days so a quick search on Amazon will probably do the trick but, if you’re prepared to dig deep into your pockets for those rare, out-of-print titles, eBay can often be the way to go; you have to be quick on the draw though, amigo. :slight_smile:

I’m in the USA. After watching Django years ago and being baffled by how bad it was in the English dubbed over version, I immediately watched it again in Italian with English subtitles and it went from a mediocre movie in my opinion, to an excellent movie. So, I am hoping to get most of the “best” spaghetti westerns on DVD that have the Italian language with English subtitle option. Also, I am learning to speak Italian and I think this would help.

Anyone else like me in this way? Is there already a thread on here that talks about this?

Thanks for any help!

I think we have discussed about this. I prefer english dubs if the main actors are americans for example, I’d never watch a Lee van Cleef film without hearing his own voice but same goes also for some voice actors. Bud Spencer has almost always been dubbed by different actor in english dubs but I’m so used to that voice that I couldn’t really watch those films in any other language. But then again in many cases the italian dub is preferable.

[quote=“sixgunpasta, post:4, topic:4282”]
After watching Django years ago and being baffled by how bad it was in the English dubbed over version[/quote]

It. Is. Horrendous.

I only switch over to the English track when I’m in need of a good laugh.

So, do you all know of one’s like Django that are so bad with the english dub that it is really worth hunting down and paying for the Italian with english subtitles?

I have a copy of The Great Silence, and I love it, but I’m also interested in watching it in Italian.

With the exception of Django, I prefer my spaghettis with the English dub. There’s no original language anyway since they were all shot silently and dubbed later. Despite being Italian films, many of the actors spoke English on set. The cast of The Great Silence spoke English on set, for example. If you want the Italian dubs, you should collect the Koch media DVDs since they provide optional English and Italian audio for most of their releases. The UK DVD of The Great Silence by Digital Classics has optional English and Italian audio.

I think that is wrong.
The Spags were normally devised and written in Italian, also the Leone films, and the Italian version is the one which was normally (always?) the first which was prepared. It is absolutely unimportant what and what not was spoken on the set for that, there is no real difference between this method and the one with original sound.
The Italian version is the original one, and all others should follow its intentions.

For me also for the Leone films the Italian version is the one which really counts. Actually I never watched any of Leone’s Spags in English, apart from a few parts.

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I was always under the assumption that the actors in the majority of the spags delivered their lines in their native language and the the whole thing would then be dubbed into Italian first, and then English, Deutsch and whatever else later. Subsequently, there was no “original language” as such, although of course the movies would’ve been written in Italian to begin with. I don’t think I learned that anywhere, I just kind-of assumed that’s how they did it.

We’ve had the subs-or-dubs debate many times already I’m sure but for what it’s worth: I prefer my spags with an English dub and will only watch them without one if one is not available (e.g. Death Sentence), since they’re mostly set in an English-language environment. The characters wouldn’t/shouldn’t be speaking in another language (other than Spanish for any scenes of Mexican interaction). For the same reasons, I prefer my animes in Japanese with English subs, although I’m slightly more tolerant of an English dub on a major title since they’ll probably have pushed the boat out and made a proper high-quality track (e.g. Cowboy Bebop) which, in itself, may be well worth checking out (I’d still ultimately prefer the Japanese track though). Similarly, it bugs me that, say, Cross of Iron is in English with a few half-hearted clichéd German “accents” thrown in, to remind us that these fellows are Germans. Have them talk in German, then! I’d imagine that’s what German soldiers might have done! :slight_smile:

So you would prefer to watch Once Upon a Time in the West in Italian rather than English? Surely hearing the actual voices of Bronson, Robards and Fonda is preferable (Cardinale was dubbed by Rita Savagnone in Italian anyway) ?

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I found it bizarre how in “Silence”, Garfield and Driver attempted a Portuguese-accented version of English, but Liam Neeson just stuck with his regular Irish accent. Either they should all have done that, or none of them should, or alternatively actual Portuguese speakers could have been used.

“Cross of Iron” is a fantastic film by the way - one of Peckinpah’s very best IMO.

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I watched the Leones so far always in the German dub, but I would like to have them in Italian with subs. For My Name is Nobody I like Fondas German voice much more than his original voice, so it seems I don’t care that much for the voices. But then I watch English language films on DVDs mostly in the original version.
But for the Italian films the Italian version is always the original to go for me. And besides, we all know that in the Italian versions even the Italians themselves are often dubbed by others.

I watch Spags mostly in Italian with subs, if I have them that way. Contrary to US westerns German dubs of Spags too often don’t care much for the original lines, but invent their own stuff. But if there is a good German dub, then that one is also a good option.

Do you watch Peckinpah pictures in German?

I have watched everything in German for decades, as before the DVD age everything here was only to get in German. I still watch many films only in German.

But I had never much problems with switching between languages. Some US series I have watched partly original and partly dubbed.
German dubs are often very good, only often not for Italian genre films.

I’ll give another example. Just found The Ruthless Four on amazon prime, seems like it is decent movie, but the English dub over is just horrible, so I shut it off after 20 minutes. I’d love to find it with the original Italian with English subtitles. I guess I’ll boil down my question to this:

Are there other spaghetti westerns that you know of that would land in your top 50 or 100 that are horrible English dub overs?

And if so, do you know a place to either purchase them or stream them in Italian?

Thanks for your help in advance!

Grazie!

One more example. I just watched “If you meet Sartana pray for your death” on Cowboy Classics via Roku. The English dub over was horrible, just confusing and misleading much like Django was. Very frustrating. Seems like a cool movie.

Even if you live in the US don’t forget Amazon.de and Amazon.co.uk. Most DVDs can be shipped to the US, the shipping costs are quite low, there is no duty, and you’ll pay much less for your Koch Media and other European titles.

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