Spaghetti Westerns
 

Judging by all the Share-the-Love I've recieved for TOMBSTONE I would think the Western genre was pretty popular, but there's a couple Spaghetti Westerns coming from Anchor Bay 12/18 that no one's even signed up for on the www.dvdtalk.com/stl page:

A BULLET FOR THE GENERAL (Staring Klaus Kinski and Martine Beswick)
FOUR OF THE APOCALYPSE (Lucio Fulci)

Don't these Italian gems get any love?

Anchor Bay is also re-releasing the DJANGO / DJANGO STRIKES AGAIN double feature for a lower price that day, but you'd be better off waiting until 4/2 when they put out DJANGO with an optional Italian language track and 16x9. Also coming on 4/2 is my personal favorite Spaghetti Western DJANGO, KILL! ...IF YOU LIVE, SHOOT! (see this review: http://www.algonet.se/~krig/djangokill.html )

Just today I purchased FISTFUL OF LEAD aka "Sartana is Here, Trade Your Pistols for Coffins" (or something) from Amazon for only 4.99! Does anyone have this disc?

And some other Spaghetti Westerns of interest on DVD:

VENGEANCE
THE GREAT SILENCE
KEOMA

Links:

http://www.imagesjournal.com/issue06.../spaghetti.htm
http://www.wildeast.net/spaghettiwestern.htm

I received a shipping email from DDD on 11/29 for:

DIRK BOGARDE COLLECTION, THE
BULLET FOR THE GENERAL, A
FOUR OF THE APOCALYPSE

I emailed DDD about carrying these titles and a couple of days later they had them for pre-order and now they shipped early!!! From my guess I should get them about the 12/10 or so.

THE GREAT SILENCE-
KEOMA-
are masterpieces

FISTFUL OF LEAD-
I too saw was at Amazon real cheap, and for $4.99 even if a less than great disc, I'd say its worth it for a viewing. Likewise, they have DEATH RIDES A HORSE real cheap, but being unsure of the quality and already having a letterboxed tape, I wont risk it until I hear word of the quality.

FOUR OF THE APOCALYPSE-
I've always heard stank.

A BULLET FOR THE GENERAL-
VENGEANCE-
and TEXAS, ADIOS-
I've always heard were pretty good

DJANGO-
Is groundbreaking, one of the first Spaghetti Westerns, helped set the tone of those that followed, and spawned hundreds of "unofficial" sequels and knockoffs. Must have for any true Spaghetti fan.

DJANGO STRIKES AGAIN-
The only official Django sequel, made in the 80's and is basically a bad, really, really low budget action movie, more Rambo than Django.

DJANGO, KILL! ...IF YOU LIVE, SHOOT! -
Probably the weirdest "unofficial" sequel. If Anchor Bay got the really trippy uncut long version, I'll be all over it.

You may also want to try out COMPANEROS.

The Anchor Bay website says DJANGO KILL! is "uncut, 16x9" but with them you never really know...

Death Rides a Horse=Unwatchable, plus the sound is very bad from what I remember but I only tried to watch it for about 5 minutes and gave up.

As for Four of the Apocalypse. I was going by what IMDB had on it. It did get a score of 6.8 by 12 people!! From what I have read there previous versions were cut alot. Not sure if AB is calling this uncut but they probably are.

Texas Addios, I heard was not to good but bought it anyways and found its so so. The voices were awful, I thought.

Decided to look for Fistful of Lead at a B&M today. I know I have seen it out before. I found instead a 4 movie set called The Gunfighters put out by Brentwood Home Video at Borders B&M for 9.99. I guess its probably the same as the single version of Fistful of Lead since it is from Brentwwod. If you can get past it being P&S and soft, I guess its okay, I have seen worse. the other titles are Cry Blood Apache, The Gunfighters and Territorial men. Did a quick look on the others and they all seem to be about the same quality.

Very very true. Well, according to the back cover... http://images.dvdempire.com/gen/movies/42599bh.jpg

...Anchor Bay will be presenting it uncut for the first time in America (unless you count the underground video market). Part of me is really intrigued, but most of me remebers the bad reviews I've read in cult magazines for it, plus the fact that I'm not big on Fulci and still regret buying The Beyond. I am curious what people will have to say about the Anchor Bay version, will keep an eye out.

Just a word or two in defense of <b>Django Strikes Again</b>...

Yes, the movie is bad and hardly a Western in any sense of the word, but the Anchor Bay release does include a 5 minute or so "prologue" (which AB touts as "long-lost") which makes up for the entire rest of the film, IMO. It's a dead-on perfect mock of the entire "sworn-enemies-for-life" concept from which so many Westerns take their storylines...A small gem, I tell you!

Which worries me, I contacted them about the running time, uncut nature, etc. when they first announced it. I've seen about four different running times for the film, and I think the uncut is supposed to be a tad over 2 hrs, the old average cut a lot of people saw has about 30 mins missing. Anyway, Anchor Bay just said "As far as we know its uncut", but didnt provide a running time of info about where they got their source, all of which I asked. So, once again, I'm waiting to read reviews and hopefully someone will be able to confirm if its really uncut or not.

My Name is Nobody
 

MY NAME IS NOBODY, co-written by Sergio Leone and starring Henry Fonda is a Canadian Exclusive DVD that Amazon carries as an Import. They charge a lot for it, but you may be able to find it for a lot less at one of the Canadian e-tailers...

Good to see some fellow Spaghetti fans around! :D

As we all have been witnessing lately, SW's are now beginning to swarm the market with their re-releases. But of course, there are still a bit of them that are nowhere to be found:

Once upon a Time in the West-Its DVD release has been in limbo for quite some time now. Anybody have info on when this baby will see the light of day?

Fistful of Dynamite (aka Duck, You Sucker)-Perhaps the most under-appreciated flick of the genre (IMHO). Who owns the rights to this one?

Cut-Throats Nine-The goriest of the SW's can now be ordered online. I have to re-look to see what company put it out, or unless one of you guys already know.


Yeah, you must've had your hands on the "Direct Source-Critic Picks"- Public Domain version which also released the TRINITY films. And I, too, could'nt bear watching that tape due to its terrible quality. Then TCM aired the film in widescreen back in June and now I could see why DRAH is a favorite of the genre. I recently saw a new print of it at SUNCOAST too. Give it a look.

As others have mentioned, THE GREAT SILENCE,BULLET FOR THE GENERAL,KEOMA,and COMPANEROS are indeed worth a look!

I got the AB disc already (wasn't this supposed to come out on the 18th?) and not only is it uncut, but it is even longer than the often bootlegged Japanese release. This actually is the first time it's been seen uncut in the US, even including the bootlegs. More gore, longer ending, etc. Great disc, with great extras.

That's one of those bootlegs put out by Luminous Film & Video Werks www.lfvw.com

The release date was 12/18. I got all my 12/18 releases today from DDD. Four of the Apocalypse, A Bullet for the General and the Dirk Bogarde Collection (The Mind Benders, The Servant and Accident). I'am happy.

The Man with No Name Trilogy
 

I was quite disappointed that there was not more care taken to making the first three Leone/Eastwood pictures look and sound great on DVD.

GBU looks teriffic but the sound comes out from only the center speaker.

The other two suffer from age deterioration badly.

I hope Paramount gived OUATIA a little more tender loving care when that is released in another year.

I found a webpage that seems to list every Spaghetti Western available on DVD:

http://home.earthlink.net/~scinema/west.htm

Re: The Man with No Name Trilogy
 

Well, part of me has always thought, that being gritty and rough around the edges in the first place, dirty prints of Spaghetti Westerns only help enhance that mood. I dont really mind them being worn out and grainy to a certain degree...but I understand where you're coming from.

On that note, apparently they are putting Good the Bad and Ugly under resoration, and plan to rerelease it theatrically. I think the same guy who resored Touch of Evil is handling it. They are editing back in the Italian scenes that were cut from the US version (and are extras on the DVD). I just hope they dont clean it up too much.

VCI will be releasing some Spaghettis soon...

In March:

TODAY WE KILL, TOMORROW WE DIE
FIND A PLACE TO DIE

In May:

STRANGERS GUNDOWN (aka DJANGO THE BASTARD)
A BULLET FOR SANDOVAL

And they've recently put out ANY GUN CAN PLAY

I ordered Bullet For a General a while back from DVD Planet but it hasn't shipped yet. I am looking forward to it. KEOMA was good but I have to say the music had me in stitches.I have a nice copy of A Fistful of Dynamite and a good double feature of The Apoloosa/My name is nobody on laserdisc. I sure would like to see a good copy of the Trinity movies. But once upon a Time in the West is my favorite.Morricone is the man.

Maliboo,

Are you sure Any Gun Can Play is out? All I see at www.vcihomevideo.com is a pre-order for the Dvd, I think. From past experience and what I have heard about them could mean in the next year or so.

I can not find it for sale or pre-order at any on-line store.

Bob Blair of VCI said hisself that ANY GUN CAN PLAY was recently released:

http://www.mhvf.net/forum/euro/posts/25609.html

They're probably shipping orders, but they just don't update their website very often so it still shows pre-order on the order page. Their new releases page only goes up to September...

It's Not a spaghetti western as such but another one I'd love to own on DVD is Pat Garret and Billy the kid.

I wonder if its an economy title since I cant find it listed at any on-line store or search engine.

I ordered Christmas Carol 1951 50th anniversary edition, a VCI title, 2 or 3 weeks ago for 7.20 from DDD. I saw one copy in a Samgoody B&M last week but as far as I can tell no on-line place has it yet. I think the initial release date was in October.

Will keep a look out for Any Gun Can Play.

www.image-entertainment.com just today listed ANY GUN CAN PLAY with a 1/29 release date and a 9.99 price tag.

www.wildeast.net have finally released a new disc in their Spaghetti Western collection: BOOT HILL

THE GREAT SILENCE,
A BULLET FOR THE GENERAL,
DJANGO, &
KEOMA

are all very good and available on DVD.

Here's a list of 15 very good non-Leone Spaghetti Westerns from the old Spaghetti Westerns in America website.

http://hometown.aol.com/Sartana/thebest.html

and here's their new website.

http://www.sartana.homestead.com/index.html

cheers, Tony Block