No, not all Spags were released first in Italy, and it is Wikipedia which gives the Spain release for 1966, also the French Wiki.
But even if you count all Wiki pages as one source, there are at least 2 sources for an earlier Spain release, and none for 67.
Ok, still 3 :1 at the moment ā¦
the english wikipedia site is the only one thatās actually maintained though so they arenāt equal.
The French Wiki gives only the Spanish date as release date, not the Italian one.
Both is possible. But still 3 sources against one, and I btw see no reason why that Spanish web site should be wrong.
I just donāt see the cut foreign release releasing before the uncut italian versionā¦ that has never happenedā¦ anyway man i think we will just have to agree to disagree lol
Another Spanish one:
from that site lol
In SW land everything is possible, and there are releases from different countries with different scenes.
And as a co-production it is not totally a foreign release.
Iād say we all agree that āFistful of Dollarsā is a 1964 film ??? Yet most of the world didnāt get to see it until 1967 or even later ā¦ so, whatās the ruling on that?
Year of first release (anywhere) is what counts, not when the gringos finally got around to see it 
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The Finnish National Audiovisual Institute KAVI says published 1966. Finnish release date is 02.08.1968 (August, not February 
) though.
IMDB actually used to say it was released in Spain on 29th November 1966. That info has been changed ārecentlyā (during the last five years) to 1967. Also used to have Argentina 29 November 1966 (Buenos Aires).
EDIT: Looks like it wasnāt released yet in early December 1966. (Despite even finding a website mentioning the city it was supposedly shown in November 1966 
)
Page 14, top left
āLo que se rueda en EspaƱa
He aqui una breve panoramica sobre la actividad cinematografica en los estudios y tierras espanolasā
So 1966 has been wrong all these years before, in books and elsewhere, I wonder why?
AgaĆn, it was not wrong.
The 66 date was not bound on the release date. It was the year of production or the year of copyright. And there are many, many other old films for which the year given is not automatically the year of release.
If you search for TBG in books or even if you check internet links, the majority still uses the 66 date.
1966 is an officially used date for TBG, and it is not an exception.
And imo all these officially used dates should stay as they were. Iām used to these since Iām reading about films.
But if Sebastian wants to change this, no problem for me.
Itās most likely the fault of IMDB that now for such films other dates are used.
Can there be more films in the SWDb where the year given is not the release year?
Then you have to check every film and perhaps change the year, that sounds like a lot of work, but otherwise the information is not consistent?
Thereās one Japanese film that was made in 1984. It was first shown in 2012. The IMDB has it as a 1984 film even though they list the first release date in 2012.
So it is not consistent at all and honestly I would think it would be stupid if it was listed as a 2012 movie.
Yes, but these are the big exceptions.
Actually if there is more than 1 year between the shooting and the release it should be noted.
Several of Terrence Malickās later films were shot much earlier than released, he needed his time in the editing room.
thatās the exception that proves the rule. When thereās a massive gap it makes sense, but TBG is just a case of it not completing the process of releasing until 1967, its not a film that was unreleased for years because it was shelved. Plenty of movies were not released in the initial year of filming and are noted using the year of release.
Well we can just consider The Big Gundown to be an exception to the rule as well, since it has been like that for over 50 years and most sites (and Finnish Film Archive which is obviously the most important source ) still consider it 1966.
Maybe it has originally been given 1966 based on the same whatever criteria that gave the other films their own years. And it just happened to result in 1966 despite first release date being in 1967.
As far as I know films havenāt always been given the years based on same criteria and noting them based on the release date is a fairly recent (like, after the release of the Big Gundown) thing and even that has been used in different ways (first release date in the country of origin or release date anywhere).
EDIT: But as far as the database is concerned, whatever Sebastian wants is fine with me. In my mind it will still be 1966.