Finally, it’s coming! You know you want it!
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Director: Sergio Leone
Starring: Charles Bronson, Henry Fonda, Claudia Cardinale
And a 2-disk special edition, too! Already available in Europe, just got mine at the supermarket. :D
However, in order to punish the Evil Empire of America for its SUV-driving imperialistic ways, the US release date has been delayed until 18th November. That’ll teach them!
I should be allowed to get mine early! No SUV driver here!
Man, I can’t wait for the closeup shots of flies… circling…
w00t. I’m tempted to just go to Scarecrow and get a PAL edition.
Favorite Western Evar.
Yep, best western ever.
I agree that it’s right up there. But better than The Searchers or Shane or Unforgiven? Kinda take your pick to me. Actually, even though it doesn’t qualify as a movie, I probably would just as soon watch the original Lonesome Dove mini-series from start to finish as any Western feature.
Well, I’ve watched it. Good image transfer, sound transfer is somewhat worse but probably the best they could scrape off the old reels. There’s a nice feature (3 x 20 min) with interviews with Leone’s crew and actors, such as are still alive (including Claudia Cardinale), colleagues such as John Milius and John Carpenter, and some archive snippets from Leone himself and Fonda.
Not much else in the way of extras, though – some stills galleries, a trailer, a short film on the history of American railroads, and very disappointing text biographies.
The film is the complete version, not the cut-down US release, but the scenes that Leone cut from all releases are apparently lost. There’s a running commentary with Leone’s biographer and others who also featured in the interviews but I haven’t listened to it yet.
Anyway, the film is as great as ever. The one bad scene is the fake fly at the start – they really should have waited for the live one to crawl across the right place on the bench. Everything else is simply sublime. Amusingly, the film tanked in America when it was released – everyone wanted another Dollars film, not an epic “art” Western…
Eh, don’t bother with the commentary, it’s horrible. A few nuggets of wisdom buried deep in the ramblings of clueless academics and a disappointing John Carpenter who are paraphrasing (sometimes incorrectly!) what we’re already seeing on the screen. Oh well.
This is great news. I love this movie and for years have been checking DVD sites trying to see if a DVD version was in available. This is the first time, no?
Yep, first DVD release of this movie ever, either in Europe or America. Took them long enough, too!