Well, whatta ya think?
What are currently the best blu releases?
Embarrassingly, despite embracing the Blu-ray format, I still have the vast majority of my Spaghetti Westerns on DVD and not BD (even Leone). With those caveats, I would say Grindhouse Releasing’s The Big Gundown Blu-ray is a must-have. Excellent PQ, both cuts, a lot of interesting extras and the soundtrack on CD!
Definitely the Franco Nero Italo Western Box set
we should maybe compile a list and create a page in the DB which could be regularly updated
Then everyone can easily keep track of which titles to definitely get and of course maybe help generate some extra cash for the site through purchase links
Wasn’t the Cipolla Colt cut?
German My Name is Nobody looks absolutely stunning but it’s missing some rude language and farts.
Cipolla Colt has both the Italian Theatrical (71min) and German (91min) versions of the film, neither include English subs or audio options.
Even without Cry Onion, the price of that set is worth it for the other two films which could cost more individually in comparison to many other releases…
[quote=“autephex, post:4, topic:3420”]we should maybe compile a list and create a page in the DB which could be regularly updated
Then everyone can easily keep track of which titles to definitely get and of course maybe help generate some extra cash for the site through purchase links[/quote]
Absolutely! That would be very useful I think, for members and lurkers. A lot of the information is already available on the individual film pages, so I’m not sure it would take a tremendous amount of work to create such a page.
I think it may be pretty useful to even have a list of the best versions of each spaghetti to get, regardless if it is a must own or not.
Often takes a good bit of digging to find this info, would be a pretty useful page to have
I’m a few inches away from placing my order for these. So I don’t have them yet, but they seem to be the best blu releases for these films so far?
German Fistful of Dollars
http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00A990CT6?ie=UTF8&tag=italowestern-21
German For a Few Dollars More
http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00A990CSC?ie=UTF8&tag=italowestern-21
Haven’t bought them yet, but I researched this a few months back and concluded that both are indeed the best English-friendly BDs available of the respective films.
I don’t own it yet, but I’ve heard some good things on the newly remastered GBU R1.
OUATITW is pretty good too.
I second JW on The Big Gundown release R1 although I don’t own that one yet (I used to own the german one).
I didn’t buy it because of the lack of english audio on uncut version. I prefer restored versions with subtitles here and there like Anchor Bay’s/BU’s Companeros.
Seems to be an obvious inclusion as this blu ray is regarded very highly even outside the genre. Ridiculous that I still have not bought it yet since its pretty cheap and among my top 5.
I was wondering about this. Is the remasted US GBU now the go-to or is there still a better one? What I’ve read says it still has some problems
(Re: The Big Gundown)
Seems to be a deal breaker for a fair amount of people. I still bought it, but I wasn’t happy about this.
I’d still put it on the list because its a pretty nice release if you can live with this problem.
Main, unanimously agreed upon problems are the lack of the original mono soundtrack and the U.S. theatrical cut (which would be pretty simple to reconstruct using seamless branching). PQ seems to be incredible, far better than the previous BD, but there’s controversy over the colour timings. A release you definitely need to see screen caps for before you buy, as it’s quite a radical colour shift: http://www.caps-a-holic.com/hd_vergleiche/multi_comparison.php?disc1=4091&disc2=4088&hd_multiID=1687#auswahl
This would be a good section to include, but I don’t think there’s one universally acceptable blu for a lot of the big films (as we can see from the debate here on TBG and GBU, etc). Maybe, if it’s constructed, it can not only function as a “recommended blu” section, but also as a comparison of releases with pros and cons to each! Also, another idea, maybe add in the section for each film you can add a highlighted box around the recommended release so people can see what to pick!
Absolutely. “Recommended” blu. I bloody love the colour timing on the new TG,tB&tU for instance, I think it improves the film. There’s also the issue of blu-ray regions. I appreciate that we’re talking specifically about the quality of the release, but if a fantastic and utterly gorgeous blu-ray is Region A locked then, for me, it may as well be a YouTube rip. I do not own a multi-region BD player and I’ve no intention of buying one. TBH, even though all of my players can play all DVD regions I try to keep my region 1 purchases to an absolute minimum. What makes a disc essential will probably differ from person to person. See, I don’t care about original mono soundtracks or the missing 30 seconds that have only ever been seen on the Japanese VHS from 1982 (I’m not saying those things aren’t important btw, they’re just not a dealbreaker for me). But I DO care about an English dub when it comes to Spags. In every other instance of global cinema I’ll take the original audio and subs but Spags are set in America, populated by characters who are (largely) American. I can’t watch them in their original Italian. This extends itself to a further weird quirk where I’ll prefer an English-language territory release over a non-English-language territory release. For example, I’ll keep my Blue Underground blu of Django Kill over the German FilmArt blu of Töte Django despite the screenshots appearing to favour the FilmArt release. Again, this strange behaviour towards world cinema only covers Spags. But, it’s these little subjective tics that will have us all preferring different releases for different reasons, even if the picture quality is undeniably superior in one release above all others (and even then, we’re back to the TG,tB&tU conundrum).
And I’m probably alone in thinking that the Westerns Unchained blu qualifies (for me) as a must-have. Yes, the quality is like watching YouTube through an old dial-up connection with a burlap sack on your head, but… Twenty-five films on one disc! For a fiver!
Seventy-one? :o
[quote=“John Welles, post:15, topic:3420”]A release you definitely need to see screen caps for before you buy, as it’s quite a radical colour shift: [url]http://www.caps-a-holic.com/hd_vergleiche/multi_comparison.php?disc1=4091&disc2=4088&hd_multiID=1687#auswahl[/url][/quote]It’s hard, each version has pics looking better than the other.
[quote=“last.caress, post:17, topic:3420”]Absolutely. “Recommended” blu. I bloody love the colour timing on the new TG,tB&tU for instance, I think it improves the film. There’s also the issue of blu-ray regions. I appreciate that we’re talking specifically about the quality of the release, but if a fantastic and utterly gorgeous blu-ray is Region A locked then, for me, it may as well be a YouTube rip. I do not own a multi-region BD player and I’ve no intention of buying one. TBH, even though all of my players can play all DVD regions I try to keep my region 1 purchases to an absolute minimum. What makes a disc essential will probably differ from person to person. See, I don’t care about original mono soundtracks or the missing 30 seconds that have only ever been seen on the Japanese VHS from 1982 (I’m not saying those things aren’t important btw, they’re just not a dealbreaker for me). But I DO care about an English dub when it comes to Spags. In every other instance of global cinema I’ll take the original audio and subs but Spags are set in America, populated by characters who are (largely) American. I can’t watch them in their original Italian. This extends itself to a further weird quirk where I’ll prefer an English-language territory release over a non-English-language territory release. For example, I’ll keep my Blue Underground blu of Django Kill over the German FilmArt blu of Töte Django despite the screenshots appearing to favour the FilmArt release. Again, this strange behaviour towards world cinema only covers Spags. But, it’s these little subjective tics that will have us all preferring different releases for different reasons, even if the picture quality is undeniably superior in one release above all others (and even then, we’re back to the TG,tB&tU conundrum).
And I’m probably alone in thinking that the Westerns Unchained blu qualifies (for me) as a must-have. Yes, the quality is like watching YouTube through an old dial-up connection with a burlap sack on your head, but… Twenty-five films on one disc! For a fiver![/quote]
You’ve got a friend here with the dubs! I can’t watch them without the original English dub for all that it covers either. 
Same goes for watching Eurocrime in Italian. But I also don’t like to watch anything uncut! If there’s more than a minute cut I usually won’t watch it (BTW what’s this about 30 sec only on the Japanese tape?). Now I made an exception when it came to TBG, I watched the extended US cut on the Grindhouse disc, but that’s cause I really wanted to see it and not spend $50 to import the German one.