Iāve had the kino blu ray of this one for a little while now but didnāt get around to watching it until last night. Do people generally prefer the Italian or French audio? I watched in French because I assumed thatās what Hallyday, Fabian and others were speaking, but there were a couple moments where the subtitles showed dialogue that wasnāt audible.
I found the film itself to be really interesting and very good overall. Hud definitely felt like a classic Nero character but I thought Hallyday did very well himself, with great support from Adorf, Moschin and Fabian (although her role felt a bit underwritten to me). Iāve seen complaints about the soundtrack but I quite liked it actually; definitely a bit atypical for a spaghetti but it worked for me. Beautiful scenery and cinematography as well, some of the best Iāve seen in a spaghetti recently.
There were a few poor scenes, namely the very cringey bathtub āseductionā between Fabian and Moschin, but I found the pacing to be pretty tight otherwise. I also liked the inclusion of the hippies, who seem to be a bit divisive; without them I think the movie would lose a lot of its unique feel, not the mention the almost Jodorowsky esque finale. Corbucci films tends to have some very memorable side characters and this one was no different.
The way the final showdown with the hippies played out was pretty brilliant as well. Corbucci with a great reversal (subversion? not sure what the proper term is here) of the Fistful of Dollars ending.
Very good movie, glad I finally watched. Definitely will fit somewhere in my top 30.
I didnāt quite get the same buzz as last time. I was either in a good mood or I was in a bad mood tonight. Donāt get me wrong, I didnāt dislike it but I donāt think itās a masterpiece. Itās definitely unusual and thatās probably what makes it stand out a bit. The first half of the film is a bit slow but the second half is very good.
I watched it in Italian with English subtitles this time. Itās a pity the English dub drops out so much because I preferred the voices in the English version.
Thereās a note on the Eureka Blu-ray that states the film was ānot initially planned for release in English.ā I find that surprising considering Corbucciās films did fairly well. I wonder where they got their information.
Good question. However, I donāt think that back then he had any sort of name. Audiences may (may!) have heard of Django etc, but not sure if directorsā names were such a big pull at all. Plus, this movie had a very political message and the star wasnāt a huge deal outside of France I believe (still need to watch that netflix documentary on Halliday)
That is correct Stanton. Django was banned in the UK and it was never distributed to the US.
Not sure about TGS though, have to check that.
Iām sure both Django and TGS were released in English in markets where they donāt dub films in the native language though.
So the English dub was made at the time in the 60s for both Django and TGS, but Django (and maybe TGS as well) was not shown in either the UK or the US.
Yep The Specialists, Django and The Great Silence all screened in Denmark and I canāt imagine them having being shown with anything but English dubs.
Besides countries in Europe where they donāt have the practice of dubbing films, SWs were also exported to other parts of the world. For example there was some guy who were guest on the SW podcast, he said he saw SWs in cinemas in Hong Kong in the 1960s and they had English audio.
Interesting, usually countries which donāt dub show the original versions with subs. But it seems being westerns the Spags got a different treatment.
Other Italian genre movies in the 60s and 70s also got an English language version for export, so it wasnāt just SWs.
So these films were made in post production in Italy with two languages, italian and English. Remember that the audio tracks were always added afterwards, even for the Italian audio.
And then the films got a dubbed language track in Germany, France, Spain, etc. Those countries did the dubbing themselves.
I donāt know if SWs were dubbed in Tamil or Hindi when they were shown in India though.
A few months ago, I saw āDjangoā at my local cinematheque here in Oslo, and it was a Finnish print. They told us it was the last surviving print of the film in Scandinavia, and it was in English with Finnish and Swedish subtitles. It was likely shown in English in countries where dubbing non-children films is not common.
UK MFB review from December 1973. Released in an English dub but only 90m long compared to 105m on the Eureka Blu Ray.
It was cut for an X rating but the cuts (Bootās death, Virginiaās rape reduced to flash before Hud jumps down to save her, shooting of Gino Pernice reduced to 2 shots) would only add up to about 30s.
I agree with your favorable comments. The hippie element amuses me, doesnāt ruin the film at all in my opinion. I thought Johnny H was good ā i happened to be in Paris (2017, i think) when he died, and it was a HUGE deal in the press and all media IN France, like when Elvis died over in the States. Hadnāt been aware of JH before, but when Kl released THE SPECIALIST i was especially interested to see how he did. Thought he was quite cool, and lethal ā¦better than Elvis would have been ( donāt kill me, Iām sure most would disagree with my assessment.) Enjoyed this movie much more on a second, and third, watching. Dig the chain mail, too. Cheers.
