[quote=“Novecento, post:326, topic:335”]
a really egregious cut in the finale.[/quote]
That cut during the cane field sequence is horrendous, especially when the music just abruptly jumps to the chorus.
[quote=“Novecento, post:324, topic:335”]
the German Blu-ray which is as good (some say better) than the US Blu-ray and with the English dub (albeit a few subtitled areas where no English dub exists)[/quote]
Now this sounds like the best way to watch it, I’ll have to get a copy of that 
“a 3s shot of Milian has been removed from the climax (owing to print damage)”
Might not really be such an issue but it’s a pity it happens during the climax. There was no print damage on the Grindhouse release. Pity Explosive didn’t use the same source.
Interesting. It also then says “At the moment, it is unclear whether or not the US disc contains this 3 second shot”. I wonder where it is… although it must be pretty trivial. Then again, I haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere else so I wonder if the person who wrote it is simply confusing it with the slight cut on the Franco Cleef version mentioned earlier:
Just ordered the German Blu-ray.
That’s true - I thought it was him the first time I watched it. While Milian definitely owned his “Cuchillo” persona and continued to use a variant of it in many films after this one, it seems to be Sollima who was the actual impetus behind it since he asked him to act like Mifune in the Seven Samurai. Therefore I suppose Sollima probably ensured that the voice was dubbed in a manner that would be consistent with this character and which Milian then just made his own from there on.
Now you can compare the two and see what is going on with this mystery 3 seconds (if indeed anything at all!)
[quote=“The_Man_With_a_Name, post:332, topic:335”]
Just ordered the German Blu-ray. [/quote]
Me too.
No I’m in Europe so I’m region B. Never realised there was a German Blu if I’m being honest (I haven’t been on this site for a while until recently) but that’s now No. 1 on my list of discs to buy. Cheers for the info
I’m pretty sure I’ve heard somewhere (probably on this site) it’s the shot when Cuchillo smirks to himself after the gun vs blade duel, so even if it is missing it’s nothing deal-breaking, (although it does make me laugh). BTW do you know who dubbed Milian in the English dub? I always thought it was him.
Not even sure if the Explosive disc is even region coded 
That sounds like the same as the short cut on the Franco Cleef disc. It would be weird for it not to be included on the Explosive disc then since I think it was included on the previous Koch DVD.
The audio is better on the Grindhouse release. It’s a pity they didn’t give us the option of watching the Italian version with the incomplete English dub.
So what’s going on with this mystery 3 seconds then?
I’ll check both discs and let you know.
[quote=“Novecento, post:341, topic:335”]
So what’s going on with the mystery 3 seconds then?[/quote]
I have both releases and yes that little shot of Milian is missing from the Explosive Media version.
So is it the same 2 seconds missing from the Franco Cleef version that Chris Casey mentioned earlier?
Franco Cleef’s version is only short by about 2 seconds otherwise it is uncut. In the completely uncut version (Koch Media and Cult Cine versions) there is an extremely brief reaction shot of Milian during the finale confrontation and that is the only difference.
Does it run slightly longer then on the Grindhouse one?
I did hear as well that Cuchillo was based on Toshiro Mifune’s performance as Kikuchiyo.
I’m puzzled why Grindhouse didn’t restore some footage to the US cut. The extra dialogue in Italian doesn’t change the film much for me, I think it’s just as good without it but the extended chase, showdown and scenes of Milian and Van Cleef riding enhance the film. Since there’s no dialogue during those scenes, it should be easy to create a longer English language version.
[quote=“The_Man_With_a_Name, post:346, topic:335”]the extended chase, showdown and scenes of Milian and Van Cleef riding enhance the film. Since there’s no dialogue during those scenes, it should be easy to create a longer English language version.
[/quote]
They could have stitched together the ultimate English language version, but they blew it.
And I can understand some dialogue being cut to achieve a 90m runtime, but cutting the chase and riding scenes is unforgivable.
They could have stitched together the ultimate English language version, but they blew it.
[/quote]
But isn’t that what Explosive Media did? Or do you mean, chopping out all the bits with only Italian audio from the Explosive disc to have a version with only English audio throughout.