The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Rating:
Summary: Great movie, great DVD
Review: This is one of the greatest "spaghetti western" ever shot, and probably much more than this. It is a great movie, and I bet most of you already know it. It is entertaining, sad, comic and serious. Great, unforgettable characters, awesome music, masterful cinematography. And most of those who are reading this review probably already know it, and are just trying to decide if they want to buy the DVD. Well, I think you should. I have seen this movie many times, but the extra material really added much to my enjoyment. You know that nowadays you can find many DVD's with one or more commentaries that you can listen to while watching the movie. Unfortunately, many of these commentaries are close to junk, being not much more than random chat with director/actors/screenwriter. Well, this is NOT true for this DVD. The commentary is really interesting, not surprisingly, given that the author is a well known film historian. It is informed and informative, and if you liked the movie when you first saw it, you will probably like it more after listening to the commentary. The extra material is also very interesting, and well done, even if not as good as the commentary. So, overall I am very happy I purchased this DVD. If you like good commentaries, you may also consider some of the criterion collection (almost all have a commentary, but some are not as good as others), like 8 1/2 (superb, both the movie, the commentary, and the extra material), or The Seventh Seal. I also very much enjoyed the commentaries in the 2-disc editions of Casablanca and Citizen Kane (which also contains the wonderful documentary on the making of the movie).

Rating:
Summary: Extra 13 mins - An editor's got to know his limitations
Review: The extended version boasts an extra 13 minutes of movie. After watching the extended version it is clear why the 13 minutes were left out. In the video extras the editor sheepishly trys to explain his obvious mistake by using Sergio Leone as a scapegoat. Skip this version and rent the orginal American version instead.

Rating:
Summary: awesome flick!
Review: Where do I start? Well, this film is nothing short of a classic. The fact that it has made an everlasting impact on our culture since the films release in 1967 and stood the test of time is on it's own amazing. The fact that people are still talking about this movie thirty some years later speaks for itself. And it's odd that this film that was perhaps looked at by some as a B-movie due to it's dubbing of italian into english and is now looked at as high art. Everything from the acting to the directing to the truly amazing musical themes throughout is truly stunning. The set pieces still look pretty good for how old it is too. I like that I can watch this film and feel the sense of adventure... that's my favorite thing about it. It has that same sense of excitement as perhaps an Indiana Jones film. It's an epic that takes place in many different locations as the characters cross throughout the Southwest(actually Italy...spaghetti westerns)And it is an adventure in watching them do so. This movie has inspired the likes of Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and most certainly Quentin Tarantino especially seen in Kill Bill vol.2(I think he even used some of Ennio Morricone's music from this film in his.) As for the dvd, it's loaded to the brim with extras. My favorite was the one where they showed the difficulty in restoring the film...that one is pretty cool! The added fifteen minutes of footage don't really add a whole lot to the picture but it is nice to see the directors true vision finally come to life with this release. Sergio Leone was a true genius!