Big Picture Big Sound

The Film

In the mid-1960's, Italian director Sergio Leone began crafting his vision of the U.S. film genre known as the Western. This staple of U.S. cinema was a landscape ruled by people like John Ford and John Wayne. In 1965 when Clint Eastwood's run on television's series Rawhide ended, he was approached by Leone to star in the filmmaker's Westerns, but the still-rising star had to be convinced.

Being filmed in Italy and Spain with supporting actors all speaking their parts in their native tongues -- whatever that happened to be -- these films did not go over well with critics here in the States who saw them as an affront to the institution that was the Hollywood Western. Labeling them with what was meant as an insulting term, Leone's films came to be called "spaghetti westerns."

Something odd occurred, however, when they finally made their way over to U.S. shores -- moviegoers actually enjoyed them. Leone's vision of the Southwest, his sense of realism and authenticity married with the inherently artistic eyes of the Italian cinematographers plus the avant-garde  film scores of Ennio Morricone offered audiences a new experience.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, part of Leone's so-called "spaghetti western trilogy" probably more than any of his other Westerns exemplified all of these things and, aided by the further fame and success of Clint Eastwood throughout the years, has caused critics to reconsider their initial take on these pieces of work.

In The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, Leone gives us three outlaws in the Southwest during the U.S. Civil War who are all searching for a cache of stolen Confederate gold. Forced to work together, Tuco (Eli Wallach) knows the cemetery where the gold is buried, Blondie (Clint Eastwood) knows the name on the grave where it's buried, and Sentenza (Lee Van Cleef) just knows about the gold and is ready to kill either one of them to get it.

Filled with slow-burning violence, humorous lines, beautiful cinematography and the unforgettable "coyote" motif from Ennio Morricone, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is signature Leone and Eastwood. This will be a guaranteed treat for any fan of Westerns.

The Picture

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly shows up on Blu-ray Disc in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio with an AVC/MPEG-4 1080p/24 high definition encoding from MGM. Given the nature of Techniscope and its tendency towards softness, this film will never look absolutely sharp and perfectly detailed, but MGM has done a pretty solid job on this restoration. There is some slight vertical judder early on and some occasional scratches and specks that make their ways into the picture, but grain structure is retained. Colors are vivid, blacks are solid and stable while contrast is good with no clipping. There is some slight red push noticeable in flesh tones, but other than that, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly probably looks the best it ever has with this Blu-ray Disc edition.

The Sound

This Blu-ray of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly comes with a remixed English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack, which has been spruced up with some re-recorded sound effects that blend well enough with the original recordings, in addition to the original English Mono (Dolby 2.0) mix.

The DTS-HD MA mix offers a bit more of an expansive soundfield, with good ambience in the surround channels and some slight discrete sounds panned into the rears. There is also some weighty low frequency response during cannon fire and dynamite explosions, but nothing excessive or what viewers might be accustomed to from big action films of today. There are some hard pans across the front that follow the action, but these feel more jarring that entertaining. In all, it’s an entertaining mix that retains the feel of the period without overdoing the modern sound.

The English 2.0 mix will offer up more authenticity for those who would prefer their films be tampered with the least -- barring, of course, the few re-recorded moments of dialogue over the newly restored scenes added back in to this extended English cut. This 2.0 mix is far thinner in its sound and lacks a little bit of depth, but dialogue is still intelligible even if the sound effects are less convincing.

The Extras

MGM does not seem to have added any exclusive extras to this Blu-ray release of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Instead, everything has been ported over from the extended English-language DVD release, and it all remains in standard definition.

The extras available on this release are:

• Audio Commentary from Film Historian Richard Schickel
• Audio Commentary from Christopher Frayling
• Leone's West (1.78:1; 480i/60)
• The Leone Style (1.78:1; 480i/60)
• The Man Who Lost The Civil War (1.33:1; 480i/60) -- A documentary about crucial Civil War battles in the Southwestern United States.
• Reconstructing The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1.78:1; 480i/60) -- This featurette takes a look that went into adding back in the missing scenes from the film's original Techniscope elements, which were originally edited out of the U.S. theatrical release.
• Il Maestro: Ennio Morricone and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly -- Part One (1.78:1; 480i/60) -- A discussion of composer Ennio Morricone's immediately recognizable score for The Good, The bad and The Ugly
• Il Maestro: Ennio Morricone and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly -- Part Two -- Music Scholar John Burling provides an in-depth analysis of Ennio Morricone's music and the long collaboration between Morricone and Leone in this audio-only extra.
• Deleted Scenes -- Further deleted scenes, including an extended "Tuco Torture Scene" in too terrible a condition to find its way back into the extended English-language cut.
• Trailers:
• Original Theatrical Trailer (2.35:1; 1080p/24)
• French Trailer (1.33:1; 480i/60)

Final Thoughts

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly offers up a young Clint Eastwood in one of his finest moments. Along with Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, this film helped to shift the idea of what a Western actually could be. MGM has done an excellent job with this Blu-ray release, using obvious care and effort on the video and sound. I definitely recommend this one to fans of the genre.

Where to Buy

• The Good, The Bad and The Ugly on Blu-ray Disc (Amazon.com)

Product Details

• Actors: Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef
• Director: Sergio Leone
• Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
• Language: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English Mono (Dolby 2.0), French Dolby Digital 5.1, German DTS 5.1, Italian Mono 2.0, Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, Thai Dolby Surround
  
• Subtitles: Cantonese, French SDH, German, German SDH, Korean, Mandarin, Portuguese, Portuguese SDH, Spanish, Spanish SDH, Thai, Thai SDH
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• Blu-ray Disc Release Date: May 12, 2009
• Run Time: 161 minutes
• List Price: $29.99
• Extras:
• Fully-Restored Extended Version
• Audio Commentaries
• Featurettes
• Deleted Scenes
• Original Trailers