The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (4KUHD) [4K UHD]

great movie

MGM released a DVD edition of "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" in the late 1990s, but it had few extras, a mono soundtrack, and a scratched print. Finally, MGM has given Sergio Leone's Western epic the double-disc special edition it deserves. The print is restored and as clear as I've ever seen it, the sound is now an astonishing 5.1 Surround (listen to the glass falling off Tuco after he springs through the window in the opening sequence!) nineteen minutes of footage from the Italian original have been restored, and the discs are packed with extras. Even the packaging is great: a sturdy interlocking box, with the DVDs kept in the upper and bottom parts of the two lids. Also inside the box are cards containing posters for the film in five different countries.The film, like most of the European Westerns of the 1960s, was critically disregarded in its day. The New York Times said of it: "the most expensive, pious, and repellent movie in the history of its peculiar genre. There is scarcely a moment's respite from the pain." It's amazing how people missed the brilliance of this movie, which turned Western conventions upside down in such a wonderfully bizarre, European way. Now the film is considered a classic, and only Sergio Leone's own "Once Upon a Time in the West" (another great 2 DVD set, by the way) has more respect in the genre. Leone's strange style -- stretched out time, obsession with close-ups and extreme wide-shots, focus on rituals, and use of Morricone's wild and avant-garde score -- are all in full force in this tale of three treasure-seekers searching for a cache of gold coins on the Texas-New Mexico border during the Civil War. The implacable and unflappable 'hero' Blondie (Clint Eastwood), the crazy comic bandit Tuco (Eli Wallach), and the calculating immoral sadist Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef) cross each other's paths amidst the senseless violence of the war. Leone perfectly contrasts the self-interested men with the greater backdrop of the tragedy of war. It's a strangely emotionally affecting picture despite its focus on three men who are detached from normal society and seem not to care about anything but money. So many individual scenes stand out for their virtuosity that the movie a parade of "greatest hits." Most astonishing of all is "The Ecstasy of Gold" sequence where Tuco dashes madly through a cemetery, looking for the grave that might hold the gold. Morricone's music here is especially overwhelming.Chances are you've seen the film and love it. What about the new scenes and the extras?Nineteen minutes of footage have been restored that were never shown in the American prints. The scenes integrate perfectly into the film, and after seeing them once, you won't be able to imagine they were ever missing. Among the scenes are Angel Eyes visiting a destroyed fort; Tuco hiring bandits to help him chase Blondie; Blondie and Angel Eyes having a face-to-face when they first set out together to find the gold; and some extra conversation between Tuco and Blondie in the desert. However, these scenes were never dubbed into English in the 1960s. Therefore, the DVD producers had to newly dub them. Eli Wallach and Clint Eastwood do their own voices. An actor named Simon Prescott does the imitation of the deceased Lee Van Cleef. Admittedly, Wallach and Eastwood no longer sound the same, but I couldn't imagine someone else imitating their voices -- it couldn't have been done any other way. Prescott is pretty good as Angel Eyes, if a bit more gravelly.The extras...Disc 1 has audio commentary by Richard Shickel, a film historian who wrote Eastwood's biography and also did commentary on Leone's "Once Upon a Time in America" DVD. His comments can be pretty dry, and he focuses mostly on Leone's style and techniques instead of on background information on the filming itself. Nonetheless, there are many interesting insights, and Shickel manages to say a lot during the three-hour running time.Most of the extras are on Disc 2:"Leone's West" -- A 20-minute documentary about the making of the film. Includes interviews with Shickel, producer Alberto Grimaldi, author of the English dialogue Mickey Knox, and best of all, Eastwood and Wallach. There's some very interesting info and memories here, mostly from Knox and the two actors."The Leone Style" -- A 23-minute documentary, really just an extension of the first one. It spends more time on Leone's unusual techniques. The same interviewees appear here."The Man Who Lost the Civil War" -- A 14-minute documentary that was produced separately from the DVD. It makes no mention of the movie, but is about its historical backdrop: the disastrous General Sibley campaign in Texas. Sibley appears in the film briefly, and this short documentary gives the viewer an important insight into the world of Blondie, Tuco, and Angel Eyes."Reconstructing The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" -- An 11 minute look into the painstaking work involved with fixing the picture and sound, restoring the cut scenes, and re-dubbing it."Il Maestro: Ennio Morricone" -- 8 minutes; mostly an interview with music scholar John Burlingame about the film's score. At the end of the feature, you can choose to listen to an audio-only twelve-minute lecture by Burlingame that provides a much more in-depth analysis of the music."Deleted Scenes" -- Two scenes couldn't go back into the film. The extended torture scene had a damaged negative, so here it is in its rougher state. An apparently lost scene is reconstructed through text, stills, and clips from the French trailer.Finally, there's a gallery of posters, the original trailer, and MGM tossing in some gratuitous advertising for their other films.Don't miss this DVD. Not only is it one of the great action films and one the great westerns, but it's the kind of release that the DVD format was invented for!

This standard definition, two-disc collectors set of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is likely to be valued by anyone familiar with the film and who recognizes it for the unique role it has played in filmmaking. Though not a high-def offering (you'll have to find that at The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo in Blu-ray Packaging)), this remastered video which includes a substantial amount of original content not seen in the US edition, is a wonderful package. The video quality has been improved through remastering techniques, the surround-sound audio has been included, and the package contains a number of little "gift" items that, although are not necessarily expensive, are quite enjoyable in their own right. For example, the package includes a small set of four original posters for the movie in Italy, Japan, Spain, and the US printed in high quality gloss embossing on card stock. These are physically small, but are so lovingly printed that they are delightful. In addition, a small booklet with items of note from the movie is included, also on high-quality print and paper. Then, in addition to the movie itself (which is on one DVD) a second DVD containing an entire series of extras and bonuses finishes off the set. For the price, its a "tidy little sum" (to quote Angel Eyes), and should more than please any fan of the movie. It's a nice little collectors item package.It is not necessary, and is probably too difficult a task, to here write a long passage about the move itself. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is one of those films that was transcendental, that made its mark so strongly that, for many fans of the genre, divides what "came before" with what "came afterward." Its one of those movies that even those with little interest in Westerns could recognize as substantially different and a substantial contribution to moviemaking. Was it the filming techniques, with ultra-wide angle vistas interposed with tight shots of actors eyes? Or was it the script that asked fundamental questions about life while masquerading as a "Western"? Or was it perhaps the acting, with a magnificent performance of Tuco and also of Blondie, both of which from that point mark both actor's careers? Or was it the haunting and unmistakable music by Sergio Leone that is instantly recognized the world over, even by those who have never seen the movie? Or a combination of all these?I'm not sure, but I, like many others, upon first seeing this movie was instantly and acutely aware that this was something different, something moving and powerful, something with a message, something that bore (and still bears) repeated viewings, something that played around with deep issues and questions in life, and did so in a truly artistic way. Yes, it is hilarious--picture the opening scene where Tuco comes breaking through the windows with the giant turkey bone in his hand and turkey hanging out of his mouth--and yes, we can choose to watch the movie with any number of mindsets. But there are few movies--and this is one of them--where the viewer can be lifted out of the seat into a world of the storyteller so strongly that one truly forgets that it is a movie being watched. It happens more than once in this movie (in the graveyard scene, in the civil war bridge attack scene, and in the stagecoach scene, for example), but few movies ever can reach this level of narrational power. Its irrelevant that it is a Western. These are just the accouterments that allow the story to progress. Its about greed and wealth, law and order, haves and have nots, war and peace. And more than that.Someone once said to me, "Why is it called 'The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly'? There's not really anyone good, bad, or even (really) ugly in the movie!" But you see, that's one of the keys here. If you are looking for "good," "bad," or "ugly" in the story, you've started on the wrong foot. So, maybe, its one of the most deceptive titles in moviemaking. And maybe that's part of the clue to the story itself.Five stars for this wonderful little gift package of one of my favorite movies.