Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: THE MAN WITH NO NAME trilogy on Blu-Ray

This is topic THE MAN WITH NO NAME trilogy on Blu-Ray in forum The Afterlife at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 12-08-2010, 03:46 PM:

I have seen all three of Sergio Lione's "The Man with no name" films in a theatre and on VHS, laserdiscs and DVDs and I was never impressed with the image quality. Most of the presentations I had seen were very grainy with kind of drab looking color even on the recent special DVD collection of the three films.

When the trilogy on Blu-Ray went on the shelf at Costco for $24.95 a few weeks ago. I wanted to get it but remembered how unimpressed I was with the special edition DVD collection so I decided to read the BD reviews for the movies and learned it got five star rating for the image and sound quality by many critics so I decided to get it and I did last night. I watched bits and pieces of all three movies last night after I watched SHREK and agreed with the critics. What I saw was absolutely gorgeous with beautiful color and fantastic sound. The only thing I missed was the original Italian mono track that was on the DVD. The discs only have a English DTS HD Master Audio , Spanish Mono and French DTS 5.1 track. In addition to watching SHREK #2 tonight, I will also watch A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS . It should be an exciting evening [Smile]

-Claude

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 12-09-2010, 04:04 PM:

I saw A FIST FULL OF DOLLARS last night and what a treat that was. After seeing it many times including once at a theatre, I never saw it look as good is the way the Blu-Ray disc look. The color is very vibrant with excellent contrast and the the remixed audio in 5.1 sounds fantastic compared to the original mono. As a person who was very impressed with the picture quality of laserdiscs and DVDs, they are both very pale in comparison to Blu-Ray with "The Man with No Name" triology. The previous versions of the trilogy I saw on LD and DVD was very good but the difference between the earlier video disc formats and Blu-Ray is like night and day. I am already looking forward to watching FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE tonight and THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THEY UGLY tomorrow and really looking forward to it.

-Claude

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 12-10-2010, 05:15 PM:

Blu-Ray is just amazing when it can make a film that was released over forty five years ago on very grainy film stock look absolutely gorgeous. I watched FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE last night and like A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS the night before, the image quality on the BD was gorgeous and not what I saw in a theatre when the movie was first released. I was never impressed with the print quality of Italian sword and sandal and spegetti western films in theatres such as the Steve Reeves Hercules and the Sergio Leoni's films because of the cheap quality look they had. The Italian motion picture industry used to call Eastman Color Fariniacolor or something like that but Leoni had Technicolor do the the Eastman Color processing and prints. It is very obvious, three strip separation elements must have been made from the negatives for the Clint Eastwood trilogy and Leoni' other classic film ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST. I hope to see that movie on Blu-Ray eventually because it too has been a favorite of mine ever since I first saw it.

-Claude

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 12-10-2010, 05:49 PM:

Claude, Remember the Man With No Name trilogy and Once Upon a Time in the West were all shot in 2 perf Techniscope. And Technicolor Rome created the scope release prints from the 2 perf negs.

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 12-10-2010, 08:09 PM:

Bill, I just assumed Sergeo Leone's films were photographed in TotalScope because of the first letter 'T' but you are right, they were all photographed in two perf Techniscope with spherical lenses. This make the Blu Ray of The Man With No Name trilogy even more amazing because of the fantastic image quality from a very small original camera negative. I know now why the image quality was so grainy when I saw the film in a theatre and on various home video formats. For some reason, none of the grain is visible when I watched the first two movies on Blu-Ray. I do not have a large HD screen and I am kind of curious if if viewed on a large HD screen, one will be able to see film grain. The BD review I read for THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY did not mention anything about excessive grain.

-Claude

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 12-11-2010, 08:25 PM:

What a shame the original mono mix is not included. [Frown]

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 12-11-2010, 09:13 PM:

John,

I do not know if it is the original mono mix or a restored track but all three films in the collection has them in addition to the new stereo tracks. In addition to a DTS Master Audio track on all three films, A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS and FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE has only a mono track in Spanish as well as the English along with English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles. THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY has everything including the original Italian track and English in mono. A 5.1 track in French and Spanish as well as Spanish,Portuguese, Korean, Cantonese, Mandarin, Thai, and English SDH subtitles.

Because I wanted to watch the final STREK movie last night, I did not watch THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY due to it's it's almost three hour running time (175 min) but plan to watch it early next week when I will devote an entire evening to it.

-Claude