As I said, Wild East wasn’t perfect, but they were a god send to fans of the genre. Sadly, physical media has become a niche and hard core collectors have high expectations, which in turn causes many of the smaller players to die off as they do not have the funds to meet these expectations. Many people with these high expectations have made physical media collecting groups toxic, so much that I’ve chosen to not participate in Facebook groups anymore. Eric Mache and Ally did Wild East as a labor of love and Mache mentioned in an interview I with him about 10 years ago that they made no profit from their releases and all money they made would go to the next release, and sadly many people gave them a lot of hate despite this. I wouldn’t have lasted as long as they did with all the negativity.
Do I have high expectations when it comes to a release, SW or any other film: Yes. Will I get mad if a company doesn’t meet those expectations: No. I admit freely that I’m very picky when it comes to certain types of films that get released, especially the Italian genre films, but I’ve really tried not to put my expectations as high, and even if they’ve let me down with a certain release that I might have given a try on and in the end didn’t get, I would never go and bad mouth them about it, I have way too much respect for any company that deals in those types of films to give them a hard time. Yes I care about quality, but I would never expect ‘grand art’ every time. Yes, there are a lot of Blu Ray guys who are totally jerks, but not all of us are. In fact, almost everyone I’ve seen here, and on WordPress, are quite nice and are very objective in their opinion on the overall product.
My main concern about Wild East has been that, even with it being a labor of love, why didn’t they ever grow as a company to compete. Mondo Macabro here in the US and 88 Films in the UK are pretty small run businesses themselves, and have really flourished over the years, which makes me very happy that they were able to reach the success they have. I mean, were there really no one Eric Mache and Ally could’ve reached out to and say, ‘hey, we’d like to grow this venture, and really make the fans happy, can you help us, or recommend someone.’ I mean sure, no one’s gonna do it for free, but I’m fairly certain something could’ve been worked out where everyone felt like they were getting what they wanted. It still would be a labor of love, but you’d have the help to keep it fresh. I know this sounds naïve, but it’s a reasonable thought.
Some of their prints weren’t of the highest quality possible it’s true…
… That said however, the double bills of some of the rarer titles, and some exceptional extras, made up for this imo, but they were certainly far superior to most of the fliks put out by Mill Creek etc, and they will be missed
Well I think its pretty obvious - spaghetti collectors are obsessive and obsess over small things like all the titles released by a company which is supposedly very good.
People who understand the technical qualities of a release clearly are not impressed by these releases, yet the fans continue to pay absurdly high prices for used DVDs which have since seen better quality release - digital or otherwise
Pretty much says everything you need to know
There are those who care about what they are looking at while watching a film, and those who pride themselves on their bookshelves…
And regarding US availability… I was buying DVDs back in the early 2000s released in Europe from sites like xploitedcinema… US availability is somewhat of a moot point for the true fan
I just want to make my position clear here… I don’t hate Wild East or anything
But the truth of the situation as it appears to me is the company consists of some Spaghetti Western fans with limited budget and limited technical ability.
As such, they released bootleg quality dvds to a niche market, much of which was greatly appreciative.
People like myself are more critical because I put in quite a lot of my own personal time to understanding the technical details which WE has ignored
I’ll point out here thant WE has released DVDs in incorrect AR. I ask you, how can a competent distributor release DVDs with wrong AR?
But I understand that people love WE and I’m not trying to take that love away.
I’m just providing some perspective on the criticisms
And Wild East has had its run, as it has earned based on the effort put into its releases, in my eyes
U.S. availability is a “moot point” for the true fan these days but when Wild East first began releasing films, that wasn’t the case. For instance, go back and look at the first forum post on here for Pistoleros.
Take a look at The Dirty Outlaws. Even my friends across the pond in Europe had not seen the film on DVD.
And this is just a couple of examples.
I don’t think that you can say that any of those people that have been posting here for over a decade and a half do not fall into the “true fan” category. Wild East was where these films were available and not only to us in the United States, which I said earlier, but to those in Europe as well. So, yes, U.S. availability for those films was an issue…even when you were purchasing from xploitedcinema back in the early 2000s making that kind of the “moot point” in regard to a discussion on Wild East releases.
I think you and I simply have two different ideas of the “true fan” of spaghetti westerns. For you, it is lining your shelves with the most beautifully made, pristinely transferred copies made which is phenomenal if that is what makes you happy. For me, it is finding the nearly impossible to find movie in the genre that I have yet to see, even if it means that the transfer came from a copy that had been played at a sleazy grindhouse theater or drive-in every night for a year before being discovered in the projectionist’s attic 40 years later. It is almost like a treasure hunt. When at some point an Arrow Vengeance Trails release or a Grindhouse release of The Big Gundown comes along then I happily fall to my knees and let the tears of joy flow. But, the simple fact of the matter is, and is the point I made earlier, Wild East gave us the opportunity to see those specific movies on DVD when nobody else did. And for that reason alone, they have always had my support as well as my gratitude.
Guilty
I like to think I’m that guy
But I’m definitely that guy
Same here. 
Wild East have served people well. I stopped buying their releases a while back now. But other companies have taken things to a higher level re quality now.
Wild East for all of their flaws put out a number of releases that weren’t previously available in English e.g. Ten Killers Come from Afar. Also, they filmed a number of exclusive interviews with stars from the genre, which were fascinating to watch.
Ten Killers Come From Afar did have a Brazilian release in English before WE released theirs but yes, many of their releases haven’t been surpassed yet.
It’s still worth holding on to the following volumes for these films:
Volume 5: Between God, the Devil and a Winchester
Volume 8: Pistoleros
Volume 10: Beyond the Law
Volume 12: The Dirty Outlaws
Volume 15: Matalo
Volume 16: A Reason to Live, a Reason to Die
Volume 18: Clint the Nevada’s Loner &
There’s a Noose Waiting for you, Trinity!
Volume 20: Django the Last Killer
Volume 21: The Forgotten Pistolero
Volume 24: Payment in Blood &
Red Blood, Yellow Gold
Volume 26: Don’t Turn the Other Cheek
Volume 27: Kill or Be Killed
Volume 28: One Damned Day at Dawn &
Dead Men Don’t Make Shadows
Volume 29: A Hole Between the Eyes
Volume 30: Full House for the Devil
Volume 31: Arizona Colt Hired Gun
Volume 32: Revenge of the Resurrected &
Hands Up Dead Man! You’re Under Arrest
Volume 33: It Can Be Done…Amigo!
Volume 37: The Road to Fort Alamo
Volume 38: Django Against Sartana
Volume 39: Vengeance is a Colt. 45
Volume 41: El Rojo
Volume 42: And the Crows Will Dig Your Grave
& The Dirty Fifteen
Volume 43: Nest of Vipers &
Tails You Lose!
Volume 44: The Tramplers
Volume 45: Twice a Judas
Volume 48: Savage Gringo
Volume 49: His Name Was King &
Gunfight at High Noon
Volume 51: The Wild and the Dirty
& Chaco
Volume 52: The Last Tomahawk
Volume 53: Two Crosses at Danger Pass
Volume 55: Sonny and Jed
Volume 56: Blood for a Silver Dollar
& Adios Gringo
Volume 57: Ten Killers Come From Afar
Volume 58: Ramon the Mexican
Volume 59: The Belle Star Story
Volume 60: Days of Vengeance
Volume 61: Requiem for a Gringo
Volume 62: Ride for a Massacre
Volume 63: A Bullet for the President
Volume 64: The Beast
& Thou Shalt Not Kill
Volume 65: The Fighting Fist of Shanghai Joe
Volume 66: Arizona Colt
Volume 67: The Ugly Ones
The German releases of Payment in Blood, Adios Gringo, One Silver Dollar and Vengeance is a Colt. 45 are possibly on a level with Wild East releases. If I remember correctly, WE’s One Silver Dollar might even be better than the Blu-ray, which has a pretty bad upscale. With the exception of fan projects, the rest of these films are currently unavailable in English except from Wild East, so until another company manages to surpass them, many of their releases are still relevant.
If if some of their older releases has been surpassed in terms of quality, they still hold plenty of nice extras like trailers and interviews.
I have not seen the Brazilian DVD, but from the research that I have done, it has Portuguese and Italian audios and not English. Have you actually seen this disc? Can you confirm that it has an English audio?
For anyone that may have it, does the Wild East release of Boot Hill have a clear case or a black case? Thanks!
I’m pretty certain it was a black case, as I believe Wild East spines 1 through 5 or 6, or maybe as high as 10, were black cases.
That’s what I thought to as the one I have has the black case. I saw yesterday where someone was selling one that had a clear case and it made me paranoid. 
Mine is clear case and I think I bought it in 2004.
Thanks!
I’ve bought this twice both have been in clear cases. Like Sundance I bought my first copy way back in the day either directly from Wild East or from Xploited Cinema.