El Topo WS?
 

I'm looking into picking up El Topo sometime, and have read good things about the Raro region 0 that came out last year.. However, it's fullframe (matted?)

I was looking around and came across this site that said they had a WS version for sale, and was wondering if anyone knew about the quality of this other disc. I couldn't find anything on the web about this version.. Here's the link. The listing is about 1/3 down the page.

<i>Removed link to booleg</i>
Thanks, Shagrath

No DVD-R Bootleg sites. RTFFAQ.:brickwl:

To the best of my knowledge, I am fairly certain that El Topo was shot, framed, and shown full frame. Holy Mountain, on the other hand, is in 2.35:1.

Get the Italian Raro DVD, from what I know about the history of the film, it's unlikely we'll see a better version ever. I'm not sure about the OAR, but I suspect it was matted if it was ever shown in widescreen.

That's kinda what I had been assuming, but wanted to make sure. I know these movies will probably never see better versions, but just wanted to make sure since they do run about 30 bucks a piece.

Thanks, Shagrath

IMDB says the OAR is 1.85:1... Probably OPEN MATTE if they're indeed correct, the framing looked good to me.

What's the cheapest/best place to get this from? Looking around, it seems like everywhere charges about 30 dollars for El Topo and Holy Mountain.. xploitedcinema will give you 5 bucks off if you order both, and I've had good luck with them.

Any other suggestions?
Shagrath

For what it's worth, the back of Raro's "El Topo" DVD says:
"The widescreen version is presented in a letterbox format, preserving the 1.33:1 aspect ratio of the original theatrical exhibition. Enhanced for 4:3 widescreen TVs."

Although I have no idea why they'd bother calling 1.33:1 "Widescreen" (unless any of you guys have a 1:1 TV ;) ) but they claim that 1.33 is the OAR. Whether they're right or not, I don't even pretend to know, however.

Shagrath, go for the 2 pack from xploited, I bought the two seperately from them before they offered the $5 off, the guy who runs the place is very knowledgable on film and will answer any questions you've got and if you've dealt with them before you probably know the service is excellent.

Raro DVD is cropped to 1:1.33
 

I saw El Topo about once every weekend for an entire summer in college, and if memory serves, the Raro DVD is missing information from both sides of the frame. I don't believe it adds anything to the top and bottom of the frame, so I don't think it was soft-matted to 1:1.85 - possibly it was hard-matted? For a quick reference if you have the disc - check the credits. Even if you have no overscan on your monitor, the names at the far left and right are cut off.

Yeah, EL TOPO is definitely cropped. And HOLY MOUNTAIN is cut to boot. At least they're not optically fogged like the Japanese releases, but they're nothing to write home about either. DVD.it has them for about $20 a piece.