UK (Eureka) R2:
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France R2 (reduced image quality):
[URL=http://img94.imageshack.us/i/francer2.png/][url]http://img6.imageshack.us/i/eurekar2.png/[/url]
![http://img6.imageshack.us/i/eurekar2.png/[/url]](http://img6.imageshack.us/i/eurekar2.png/%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
It looks like Digital Classics have used the same print as Eureka/Fantoma but have not cropped the edges and have made it anamorphic. The French DVD appears to show slightly more image than Digital Classics and with very different colors (much brighter and bluer).
I havenât gone through checking scene by scene but am assuming that there will be variations throughout between UK (Digital Classics) and France due to them appearing to use different source prints.
Simple question: When was this movie released? Alex Cox, in his book, says on two occasions that it premiered in December 1967, once specifying it was a Christmas release. SWDB and imdb say November 1968. Cox also cites Corbucciâs widow as asserting that Corbucci had the death of Che Guevara in mind when he conceived the film. OK, so Che is killed October 8, 1967 - then the movie is conceived, written, shot, edited, and finally released in time for Christmas? Thatâs a bit of an unusual turnaround, no? Whenever I see a copyright date for the film itâs 1968. But Cox, in many places in his book, strongly implies that The Mercenary was made after The Great Silence. Itâs somewhat important to his thesis that the commercial failure of Corbucciâs âmasterpiece,â The Great Silence, turned the director âcynicalâ and âdismissive of his own work.â
Silence was released 19.11. 68, only one month before The Mercenary 20.12.68
Silence sold about a Million tickets in Italy, so it wasnât a big success, but also not a total failure.
[quote=âStanton, post:204, topic:122â]Silence was released 19.11. 68, only one month before The Mercenary 20.12.68
Silence sold about a Million tickets in Italy, so it wasnât a big success, but also not a total failure.[/quote]
It didnât do well in Italy but I suspect it did much better in Germany and France, the respective home countries of Kinski and Trintignant. Italian movie goers had a taste all their own back in those days. All of Mario Bavaâs films did terrible business in Italy, and amazingly most of the Gialli that are well known to day fared relatively poorly in the box office as well.
OK, then I assume that The Great Silence was filmed before The Mercenary. But Corbucci had no idea how successful The Great Silence would be before he filmed The Mercenary.
imdb says The Mercenary premiered in Italy in August 1968⌠before The Great Silence⌠I guess thatâs wrong, then.
Never trust IMDb!
Not sure about Germany cause the movie is (or better was once âŚ) quite popular in Germany. I knew the Title before Iâve seen the Movie. Again not sure but I think The Specialists with Johnny Halliday was more successful in France as The Great Silence.
Silence was and is a cult film in Germany, but I have no idea how much success it had. At least neither Silence nor Mercenario made the top 10 in the year of their German release.
Yeah, but whatâs your conclusion of this supposed fact?
I was getting the impression from Alex Coxâs book that The Great Silence was Corbucciâs great artistic statement, but when the film was not as hugely successful as expected, the director lost a little heart and was not so ambitious with his subsequent westerns. But the timetable indicates that this theory could not really apply to The Mercenary, since Corbucci filmed The Mercenary before the release of The Great Silence.
Havenât read Coxâs Book but The Specialists and Companeros are looking ambitious to me.
BTW IMDB just found a movie connection:
Per qualche dollaro in piĂš (1965)
- In both The Great Silence and For a Few Dollars More, Klaus Kinski plays a bounty killer. ??? In both movies Kinskiâs character is bothered with a match.
Unfortunately Kinski never was a Bounty Hunter in For a Few Dollars more. No wonder that there are so many mistakes at IMDB. ;D
What Cox writes about The Mercenary is mostly not comprehensible for me. I mostly thought he talks about another film. If The Mercenary was a routine work done without enthusiasm, then I have no clue what enthusiasm in a film looks like.
Form the mere point of directing and framing The Mercenary is even slightly better, slightly more fascinating than The Great Silence.
Howard Hughes also puts its release in 1967. On p.185 Cox says that he follows Howard Hughes chronology of Corbucci films based on âWesterns allâitaliana, book 1â which gives TGS an Italian release of xmas 1967. He then says that Giusti confirms it as a 1967 production but thinks of it as a 1968 film.
In Germany it premierd also with only a month difference to The Mercenary in spring 1969.
All books I have read before Hughes give it with 68.
[quote=âStanton, post:216, topic:122â]In Germany it premierd also with only a month difference to The Mercenary in spring 1969.
All books I have read before Hughes give it with 68.[/quote]
Well, I donât know about Germany (in which I think you mean 68 not 69), but the official release is the Italian one in any case. I keep meaning to buy that Giusti dizionario which I am assuming to be very reliable.
No, both were released in Spring 69. German releases are mostly a few months later than the original releases. OuTW was also released in Spring 69. All 3 about half a year after their Italian releases.
Oh ok, itâs just this is what you wrote earlier:
By the way, does anyone want to trade anything for the UK Eureka release of TGS? Now I have the Digital Classics release, I have no use for it.
I only wanted to say that the German releases were also very close together, just like what we suppose for the Italian releases.
Our Italian release dates are from the Anica.It site.