To say the least !
âWe can kill creepy crawlies, ugly animals, but not the pretty horses!â 
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Thatâs pretty dumb.
While Iâm still happy with the version of the Blu Iâve got Iâm with you entirely on that.
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A couple of years ago I said I was going to re-watch this what was going to be âover the next week or soâ at the time. I finally did a couple of nights ago ( 
) and I actually liked it more than I remembered. I loved Lee, the music the atmosphere, the villains and Dentice even though I think it was his only major role. I even thought it was quite fitting in a way that Santi directed a lot like Leone given that this was probably the last good spaghetti Lee made, so the copycat style didnât bother me at all. I had it ranked around 50th place on my list but I itâs definitely in my top 40 now.
While I donât usually care for comedies, I really enjoyed this one. The humor in it was toned down enough that it didnât overwhelm the action and I enjoyed a lot of the characters. The Saxons, in particular, are the type of plotting, amoral villains I love in a Spaghetti Western.
I think Bill Willer is right when he says Giancarlo Santi was trying to channel Leon, particularly in the flashback scene, but thatâs fine by me since Leonâs style is the best of the genre.
My biggest complaint is that I wish we got just a little more back and forth trickery between Clayton and Philip. I love when a older gunslinger is pitted against a younger one.
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It doesnât strike me as a comedy, although a lack of character depth and development results in a slightly comic book feel. I rewatched it last week - there are comic elements, as in Leoneâs films, but the general tone isnât comic. Strong points are the Bardotti/Bacalov score, Van Cleef, the landscape and cinematography.
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Oh yeah I forgot to mention the score. Really incredible stuff, I think itâs one of my all time favorites. Iâm ashamed to say, though, I actually heard it the first time in Kill Bill and didnât even realize it was from another film.
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Definitely agree not a comedy 
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Recently watched this one via the Apple TV app ($0.99 for the rental, decent deal)âŚgood picture quality (widescreen) and while clearly not uncut this version includes the famed bloody hand print scene cut from some of the other versions (also includes the nudity but I think I spotted a jump where a horsefall was likely cut).
I certainly enjoyed it, not great but I didnât think it was as bad as some others found. As many have noted the score, particularly the main theme, is brilliant, although I found that the songâs dual personalities often didnât fit or even clashed with what was happening in the film. For example, the scene where LVC walks through the town (Gila Bend) pointing out all the bounty hunters to Philip sounds great during the harmonica/guitar/oboe parts, but less so during the operatic/strings/flute parts (reminiscent of OUATITW) because it just seem doesnât jive with what is happening (this could also be said, to a lesser extent about the final duel).
Two minor things bugged me, the first being LVC catching the bullet with his teeth, but the explanation provided here that LVC had previously removed the bullet from the cartridge makes perfect sense. Upon re-watching the scene, LVC clearly does speak as if he has something in his mouth, and Philip/OâBrien notes after that the gun is only good for making noise (i.e., shooting blanks). The other was when Clayton/LVC rescues Philip at the waterfall and Philip rides off on Claytonâs horse, leaving Clayton to walk to town (eventually picked up by the coach)âŚwhy didnât he take one of the bounty huntersâ horses? we also know he didnât because they arrive in town shortly after, each riding their own horse.
There are some loose ends (does the machine gun massacre advance the plot in anyway? not sure why it was needed, although it does a great job of establishing just how much of a sociopath Adam is), but also some memorable moments and fun little twists (I thought LVC had shot/killed Philip in that first saloon scene, so was surprised to see him suddenly stand up when the gunfight broke out). The final duel was slightly rushed or lacking in tension a bit, but still entertaining, the hat shot was an original way to get things started and I appreciated how the setting seemed to be a nod towards the famous OK corral shootout.
minor spoiler alert*
In the flashback sequence, we see David (Horst Frankâs character, the older Saxon brother) peeking out of a wagon as the patriarch is killed. I assume this was shown to throw up a red herring and cast some doubt as to the identity of the patriarchâs killer. However, in the end, his presence there is never explained. What he is doing there, and why is he in a position to know the real killerâs identity? Are we to assume that he hired the shooter to kill the patriarch? The other kind of odd thing in the flashback is seeing Philip dressed in fancy clothes when him and his dutch immigrant followers always appear dressed as peasants the rest of the time.
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Watched again after a long break (Arrow Video blu ray). Still good, but the plot was just so-so. Lee Van Cleef is great here. I didnât like the comedy elements. Stepehn Princeâs audio commentary is interesting. I didnât know the whole movie was made in Italy, not Almeria.
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Should probably check that out at some point.
I waited for his explanation of the boots-clapping scene after the old man was killed by Adam Saxon, but he said nothing 
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Damn such an awesome western, Van Cleef really was the coolest, superbly shot, great music, lots of tension and well paced.
I have a couple questions though (probably something Iâve missed) why did David Saxon not want anybody to know it was Clayton, as far as I can tell, heâd still inherit his fathers money and power, to put the blame on Philipp seemed like extra hassle.
And whilst the massacre scene was incredible and showcases how fucked up the villains are - was there a reason it happened?
Thanks!
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My interpretation is that both your questions relate to the wish of David Saxon to get hold of the silver/silver mine. The plot is probably well described here : The Grand Duel - Wikipedia
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this shows why you need to get the Arrow release
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReview3/the_grand_duel_blu-ray.htm
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This movieâs page in the SWDb has been upgraded to the new âSWDb 3.0â format. Please have a look and let us know if thereâs something you can add (information, trivia, links, pictures, etc.).
The Grand Duel is updated with a new poll at the top of the page!
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Havenât seen this one in more than a decade. This was the first film I pirated, I downloaded it from rapidshare back in 2010 or 2011 I believe. I remember having been hugely disappointed with the film at the time and oddly enough, my feelings have not changed much on my revisit, as a matter of fact, I think I disliked it a lot more this time around. The upside is that the movie boasts the uncannily cinematic, luxurious appearance with billowing clouds of steam and a panoply of tasteful close-ups coming to the fore apart from furnishing a gamut of highly memorable villains. This should all make for a winning mixture, nonetheless, the film never really takes off on account of the absolutely abysmal script.
There is generally very little in the way of narrative focus and consistency and the narration continually shuffles a range of motives only to arrive at the garbled, overly ambitious and pretentious final product. The story does attest to some political commentary all right and seems to be trying to touch upon some loftier issues, but at the same time, all of this is completely concealed and squandered by the overactive storytelling, superficial writing and a general lack of a unifying topical goal. It just seems all over the place and aside from the core story, I am genuinely at a loss as to what the entire composition was supposed to denote at some deeper level considering the grandiloquence and extravagance of its content.
The work is certainly not that terrible and I can see why some people may like it, but I fail to connect with this film on any meaningful level and find it incredible that Gastaldi actually penned such a piece at some point.
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Interesting to hear you say that. I really like this film because the sort of dark-mystery aspect of it is really cool, and, of course, Lee Van Cleef
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I am genuinely conflicted about this flick, as the visual presentation happens to be truly splendid. To my way of thinking, Santi is visually one of the most intriguing âLeone copycatsâ and from what I can discern from the content here, he had found his own directorial voice and gave expression to his visual predilections in a fairly efficacious fashion here.
There is a certain bite and pungency in the way he frames this film and the aggressive panache clearly goes beyond the markedly Leonesque style, something that cannot be asseverated about Valerii for instance, but then again, I am a bit of a Valerii hater myself. The narrative mediocrity of this film may partially issue from filmâs disarrayed structure as well, so I definitely see the filmmaking merits here, especially in the visual domain, it is just that the demerits happen to smother all the potential and come to debilitate the movie beyond repair.
The predominant problem consists in the fact that the film seems to be teeming with ideas, but never distills the most significant ones and eventually fails to develop any of them to any satisfactory extent, becoming intemperately forgettable in the process. The motion picture comprises two distinct character arcs (three if we count Van Cleefâs altercation with the Saxons), all of which center on disparate revenge motifs. There are like three different comic relief characters and none of them introduce anything of worth into the principal storyline in any way whatsoever, which further saps the focus. In addition to the aforementioned, there are elements of a family drama, a political commentary, a treasure hunt, romance and God knows what else scattered all throughout the perpetually transmogrifying blob of a plotline.
The tone of the film incessantly oscillating between grimness and outright blitheness, the acrobatics and the terminal lack of scripting parsimony bespeak the decadent proclivities of the erstwhilely inventive genre. It is such a shame Santi had not entered the stage earlier because I believe he would have made a cracking film director.
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He worked for Leone as an assistant director and 2nd unit guy on 'Once Upon a Time in the West ⌠very interesting interview with him on the Arrow release of âThe Grand Duelâ ⌠in fact, the extras are more fun than the movie ⌠not that I hate it, but it is a bit plodding at times.
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