They Call Me Trinity

Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Spaghetti Westerns -- with a twist !
Review: "They call Me Trinity" deserves six stars except for the poor video quality. This looks a UMAX tape version that has been overly compressed by mpeg 2 in it's conversion from tape to digital. It's a shame that one of the greatest Italian westerns ever made should have been treated in this way. My understanding is that the beautiful film-to-digital video transfers [for example 'Los Campaneros' or 'Day of Anger'] have been scanned from original 35mm film in a Rank or Ampex video conversion machine that converts the 35mm image directly to digital video with little or no compression, but 'Trinity' obviously did not get that treatment. 'Trinity' stars Bud Spencer [real Italian name is Carlo Pedersoli] and Terrence Hill [Mario Girotti] as two at-odds brothers, one a rough diamond and the other an accomplished intelligent goofball. The plot is fairly simple with the two brothers trying to prevent a gang of outlaws from terrorizing a group of farmers and stealing their land. Much of the humor in this film is very subtle and can only be appreciated after viewing two or three times. The test of a good movie is multiple watchability and Trinity certainly succeeds with every scene containing importance and entertainment value. The interaction with the farmers becomes a little tedious in the end and parts could have been cut since the movie is fairly long at nearly two hours. In fact the length of the movie may account for the excessive video compression on DVD. The editing style is more consistent with older movies and wham-bam-thank-you-mam fans may not like the pace. Even so this is a very special entry and the humor is engaging and optimistic and never stilted or patronizing, and the action scenes are also extremely well done. Hence the classic nature of this film as a spaghetti favorite. Will end on the usual disclaimer with spaghettis: traditional 'John Wayne' western fans probably won't like this movie and will rate it with low marks, however that is a tremendous shame because 'Trinity' is a solid gold spaghetti classic!

Rating:
Summary: Great Movie, DVD sucks
Review: At the risk of repeating the other reviews: this DVD sucks! I loved Terrence Hill's deadpan performance in this spaghetti western, but the DVD quality just isn't there. I've tryied playing it on a Sony DVD player, a PS2, my laptop, and even a CineVision DVD player. Only the PS2 even recognized the menu, and could partially play the movie. The burn was too faint for the other players to read at all. (No scratches on disk.)
Buy this on VHS!

Rating:
Summary: Max Brand, Italian style
Review: First, let me explain the three stars are for the DVD, not the Trinity Boys (they are 5 star all the way). What we need is a digital restoration of Terence Hill movies. The Spaghetti Western genre relied on several gimmicks: obtuse plots, quirky characters, superhuman heroes, great music, and lastly INTENSE,VIBRANT COLORS. Unless you catch them on the Western Channel, almost all home video versions of these movies are faded travesties. This dvd is better than most, but is nothing compared to the original. This is even more true of Boot Hill.If you've never seen the intensity of Terence Hill's blue eyes set into his impossibly tan face, then you can't begin to realize how much the color has faded. I remember watching Terence Hill in Boot Hill back at a drive-in and thinking "my gosh, he's darker than Woody Strode!"
As for Trinity, it holds up wonderfully 30 years later as a classic parody of Spaghetti Westerns. The two brothers are straight out of the more humorous work of Max Brand: gifted with extraordinary skill bordering on the supernatural with which they better their adversaries in outlandish ways. The sequel was just as good and I wish they had made ten more of them. Lacking that, somebody please restore these wonderful films!

Rating:
Summary: a darn good spaghetti western
Review: Terence Hill became an international superstar with this superb film, and so did Bud Spencer. They play gunslinging outlaw half brothers who end up trying to help protect a Mormon settlement from a band of Mexican desperado's. While the Mormon's turn the other cheek, the desperado's quickly learn the Trinity brothers will not. They follow the eye for an eye tooth for a tooth teaching. But it's not just the Mexican's who want the Mormon settlement, another band of cut throats want it too, and eventually team up with the desperado's to try and take it. With all these outlaws what's the two Trinity brothers to do? Well, I won't say, but I will tell you that this movie is packed with lots of hilarious comedy, great action, and a taste of suspense. One interesting twist to this movie is that Bambino (played by Bud Spencer) is sheriff of the nearby town. How he got the job is a laugh riot in itself. This is a movie the whole family can watch and enjoy, and the sequel (Trinity is still my Name) is equally entertaining .

Rating:
Summary: Witty and Unexpexcted Humor
Review: The wit and unexpected humor of "They Call Me Trinity" was sadly marred by poor color and audio, despite a strong plot and intriguing religious subtext.

Trinity is a fast, but relaxed gun fighter, and his brother is a lazy horse thief pretending to be a sheriff to hide his crimes. Both protect a community of Mormons (who act like Amish) who do not believe in violence.

Trinity is lot like Eastwood/Blondie in GBU, with a certain James Bond charm. He is not the usual brash gunman, but is twice and tough, and twice as sweet. A great character.

In the spaghetti western tradition, mimicking "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," this film has all Italian cast. The dubbing didn't cut it, as it seemed imposed on the movie more than it was integrated.

I'd like to see the series remade.

I recommend "They Call Me Trinity." The movie is funny, and worth renting, but buying it is only for the true fans of the genre.

Anthony Trendl

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Movie - Terrible Pan & Scan DVD
Review: This is certainly one of the best Bud Spencer-Terence Hill movies. It is actually much smarter than other Spencer-Hill pictures, because it contains a lot of intertextual references in its wonderfully portrayed western (parody/homage) moments. The music is magnificent too.

I saw this film in Bosnia for the first time when I was kid and I immediately fell in love with it. In a few years I owned over 30 Bud Spencer (and Terence Hill) movies. The version I had in Bosnia (on a pirated VHS tape)had wonderful colours and was rich in detail. Anybody can guess why? Yes, you're right - because it was a WIDESCREEN copy (possibly imported from Italy). This DVD, however, is released in a horrendous PAN & SCAN edition. Many nice details are lost, there is a lot of artificial panning, and in certain action sequences you cannot even decipher what is going on. There are a few moments in which only background is seen, because the characters on both sides of the original widescreen picture (ar: 2,35:1) have been cut off. Furthermore, this DVD has terrible image resolution. Pixillation is present throughout the film (I have some Real Video files on my PC that have better picture quality than this DVD). This DVD, nonetheless, is very cheap. I bought it for 7.99 Canadian dollars (around 5 American dollars). And, of course, this is the best copy of this brilliant film that is available in North America and the reason why everybody should own it. 5 stars for the movie, 1 star for the DVD. All in all, 3 stars from me. I just wish I had my Bosnian widescreen copy.

Rating:
Summary: TRINITY YES! DISK NO!
Review: Yes folks, just like a few of the other reviewers mentioned, this disk is pathetic. It almost looks like someone videoed a VHS copy off the TV and transferred to DVD. What's even more ridiculous is the "announcer" voice at the menu screen who actually mentions how good the quality is - I've never heard anything like it...I'm scratching my head as I type this. AARRRGH!!
I love this movie - what always has killed me is the way the "sheriff" brother bonks everyone on the head - priceless.
For you Trinity fans don't hate what I'm about to suggest. I think this movie would be an ideal candidate for a remake (I know, I know remakes are miserable and why tamper with genius). However, there are cases, notwithstanding the disk quality, that warrant a fresh coat of paint...and not what Smith/Klein did for Wild, Wild West. I would like to see what this movie would look like without some of the date score music and poor acting of the Marshall's goons. It's just a thought.

Anyway - this movie is a comedy classic that has been ruined by whatever is on that DVD. Enjoy if you can.