That is correct.
[quote=āNovecento, post:130, topic:335ā]Just watched the Koch disc and have a couple of questions:
- Iām sure someone must have asked this before, but why is there a brief snippet of music from āFaccia a Facciaā when Cuchillo rides off after tricking Corbett with the snake? Iāll have to check my Franco Cleef copy again, but I certainly donāt remember that happening :o ???
ā¦
- Is the Sollima interview the whole one included from the Sollima box or has it been shortened for this individual release?[/quote]
Ok, have answered #3 by looking at the database entry for the box set where the interview runs about 1 hour. I guess this must have been shortened for the individual release.
Itās a shame they did not fix the audio glitch mentioned in #1 in the individual release.
Very ingenious, with one of the best Morricone Scores! One of my favorites!
Fuck it. Seen it a couple times and liked it. But the last time it all seemedā¦ very talky. Some weed, some beerā¦ ok, feel good. But then. an abundance of talk. Really liked the Pazzafini - Van Cleef shooout, but apart from that itās boring, Turned it off to rewatch (again and again) Lenziās Spasamo. No top 30 material, this Big Gundown.
Honestly, this is the only film that I would put in the same category with the Leones.
[quote=āBad Lieutenant, post:65, topic:335ā]Does anybody know anything about this release?
[/quote]
Received my copy last week and finally had the chance to sit down and watch it. This is a Columbia āPremiumā release which means it contains a nice little booklet in Japanese about the film. The image and the absolutely essential English audio track are of excellent quality and, ignoring the cuts, this is easily the best version of the film I have seen.
As for the cuts, this is the slightly longer Columbia cut whose two complete cuts are the monastery scene and the one of Cuchillo with his wife. The other cuts seem to involve the shortening of other scenes, but the movie still remains wholly coherent.
Personally, I do not find the cuts overly offensive apart from two which I find really upsetting. The first has been mentioned many times, but it is the second that is, in my opinion, far worse:
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The shortening of the initial scene with the three bandits from which the excellent shot of Van Cleef placing the bullets on the log has been removed.
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The slight shortening of the chase through the cane fields and the duel between Cuchillo and Shep. In particular, the truly excellent shot of Cuchillo crouching down as the camera then pulls up and over him to reveal the vastness of the cane fields and his pursuers has been removed! Why the editors at Columbia would see fit to edit these, but leave the ranch scene with Nieves Navarro intact is beyond me!
Thatās beyond me, too.
I would cut the Navarro ranch completely out (if cutting is inevitable), from which at least the pacing of the film would benefit a lot. Would make the film better imo.
But Novecento, why buying a cut version, if an uncut is available?
Me too!
Here are my opinions on the three releases I have seen:
- Japanese Columbia disc:
Pros: Best all round in terms of quality (i.e. video and audio); has English audio
Cons: Is Cut
- Franco Cleef bootleg disc:
Pros: English audio and uncut (except for Cuchilloās reaction shot after the duel which is retained on the cut Japanese release)
Cons: Image and audio quality (although the cane fields sequence sounds much better than the German release)
- German Koch disc:
Pros: Uncut with very good image
Cons: Audio is dull sounding in the Italian version and there is no English audio option; English subtitles are poor; the music is messed up in one section where the tune from Faccia a Faccia plays instead
Another reason (besides the original voices argument) for English audio is the interlinking of the title song with the dialogue.
Whenever Cuchillo escapes he says āyouāll never catch me, never!ā at which point the music comes in beginning with the words āNever, no neverā¦ā Itās really, really cool and is a running theme throughout the whole film. Itās also another reason why that audio glitch on the Koch disc is really infuriating. In fact the end of the film, where it changes to āYouād never have caught me, neverā is like GBU in that sense, although there it works both in English and Italian: the āaā at the end of the English āyouāre aā¦ā or Italian āā¦ putaā is followed by the āAahhhhā or the soundtrack.
There is also the english audio version ( with subtitles for non english bits) put together by member Autephex. Better than the Franco Cleef version in my view, as uses the Koch media print ( so uncut of course) as source print. He did not compress his version and he did as a dvd 9. Although people who have copied his version will have probably compressed it to a dvd 5 at some point perhaps, if they traded a copy of the disc perhaps.
I donāt know if I would go so far as to cut the sequence out entirely, but I do agree that it is a definite low point of the film.
Really. :o Why ?
Such a dominant woman is very rare in a spaghetti Western. Men hornyā¦ A woman who owns a haremā¦ With a handful of Cowboys.
A very strange situation on this ranch. Cuchillo occurs and all other men are very jealous. The life of the cowboys is who can spend the night with the boss. Grotesque. A woman described as a black widow.
And what a twist. When all the other cowboys are dead, Navarro threw himself at the feet of LVC. The dominant woman is a helpless doll.
OK, I give right, for the rhythm of the movie, this ranch scene is counterproductive, since it is considered rather slow.
But i think this change of character is presented very interesting. And the figure of Nieves Navarro is perhaps comparable to the figure of Rosalba Neri in Johnny Yuma?
Autophex version of the Big Gundown is probably the best release of this film. Superb image-quality and a good english dub. Cultcine is selling the version as his own, but its autophexs
[quote=āretask, post:145, topic:335ā]Autophex version of the Big Gundown is probably the best release of this film. Superb image-quality and a good english dub. Cultcine is selling the version as his own, but its autophexs
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This is an impertinence. People like Autophex make a lot of work with this fandub. And then there are idiots like Cultcine and sell these versions. And they give out as your own. >:(
Cultcine: Rest in Peace. Go to hell.
Viewed this one again via the Autophex version.
Still a good one for me, with Cleef on top stylish form. Viewed with english audio and english subtitles for the bits that never had english audio. Next time round will try Italian audio with english subtiles, even though I may miss the voice of Van Cleef.
Ennioo, let us know how you think the Italian audio compares with the English. For me itās not even close.
I had heard somewhere that there is an Italian version of the main song. If so, wouldnāt it have been better to use this with the Italian audio such that āmaiā (never) could then work along the same lines as in the English version (or are the song lyrics completely different)?
Having watched this long hailed classic last week i felt somewhat underwhelmed with the result. It certainly wasnāt a bad movie but maybe my expectations were too high after reading all about it in various forums and book.
van Cleef and Milian are excellent in their roles and make for a great team in the end. The movie started out well but i felt the pacing was somewhat off. It basically comes down to Milianās character escaping every 15 minutes from a new situation while Van Cleef is just a step behind everytime. I do prefer āFace to Faceā if i have to be honest. But you could certainly do worse and Sollima prooves that heās a solid director who knows the SW genre. The movie has alot of tense moments and a nail biting finale and a beautiful Morricone score. Just too bad that it is somewhat unevenly paced.
I should probably give it another chance sometime. But for the moment i feel somewhat dissapointed if i have to be totally honest.
Prefer Face to Face myself.
[quote=āDr. Menard, post:149, topic:335ā]Having watched this long hailed classic last week i felt somewhat underwhelmed with the result. It certainly wasnāt a bad movie but maybe my expectations were too high after reading all about it in various forums and book.
van Cleef and Milian are excellent in their roles and make for a great team in the end. The movie started out well but i felt the pacing was somewhat off. It basically comes down to Milianās character escaping every 15 minutes from a new situation while Van Cleef is just a step behind everytime. I do prefer āFace to Faceā if i have to be honest. But you could certainly do worse and Sollima prooves that heās a solid director who knows the SW genre. The movie has alot of tense moments and a nail biting finale and a beautiful Morricone score. Just too bad that it is somewhat unevenly paced.
I should probably give it another chance sometime. But for the moment i feel somewhat dissapointed if i have to be totally honest.[/quote]
What do you think, would the pacing be better if the overlong Navarro ranch scene (as stated above) was not in the film?
[quote=āDr. Menard, post:149, topic:335ā]Having watched this long hailed classic last week i felt somewhat underwhelmed with the result. It certainly wasnāt a bad movie but maybe my expectations were too high after reading all about it in various forums and book.
van Cleef and Milian are excellent in their roles and make for a great team in the end. The movie started out well but i felt the pacing was somewhat off. It basically comes down to Milianās character escaping every 15 minutes from a new situation while Van Cleef is just a step behind everytime. I do prefer āFace to Faceā if i have to be honest. But you could certainly do worse and Sollima prooves that heās a solid director who knows the SW genre. The movie has alot of tense moments and a nail biting finale and a beautiful Morricone score. Just too bad that it is somewhat unevenly paced.
I should probably give it another chance sometime. But for the moment i feel somewhat dissapointed if i have to be totally honest.[/quote]
When I first saw the movie, I was also disappointed.
The second time I liked it better. And now it is in my top 10.
Give it a second chance, Dr. 