The Dollars Trilogy

[andyli]

Even though specs for TGTBATU wont be announced till March I'm glad to see that the product photo shows 4 discs hopefully meaning both versions of the film are being offered

Yes if you look closely at the disc art the first two discs show "International Cut" and "Extended Cut", respectively. Disc 3 is "Extras". Disc 4 I suppose is housing at least one long documentary. I can't guess the words exactly but it seems to be something "Remembered".

[hearthesilence]

That reminds, anyone here see the Eastwood retrospective at Lincoln Center summer of 2010? (All 35mm prints, I regret not making a greater effort to see more. I probably saw like five or six films at best.)

Eastwood had some back issue so instead of showing up in-person like he had hoped (something he'd soon do a few months later at the New York Film Festival), he sat in on Skype for a discussion and Q&A following a screening of A Fistful of Dollars. Charming guy, but he did open with some confused attempts at humor that gave us a preview of his infamous "chair" speech at the RNC two years later - at one point, he seemed to be under the impression that it was early in the morning in NYC because we were way behind the west coast. But that was at worst a few minutes of probably half an hour's worth of discussion, and I wish I had taken a recording because it was pretty much everything you'd expect and hope for from an Eastwood discussion. The retrospective was focused mainly on his directorial work so in hindsight, it's surprising they scheduled him for a film he didn't direct, but the film definitely gave him the career he wanted when it was clear Hollywood was never going to give him better opportunities.

[Matt]

Why no comprehensive box for the 1st 3000?

The lack of a box set doesn't bother me. Perhaps the individual releases were a stipulation from the licensor?

Correct. MGM said no.

[tenia]

Yes if you look closely at the disc art the first two discs show "International Cut" and "Extended Cut", respectively. Disc 3 is "Extras". Disc 4 I suppose is housing at least one long documentary. I can't guess the words exactly but it seems to be something "Remembered".

It's the 2017 documentary "Sad Hill Unearthed".

[Orlac]

Weirdly, it appears FISTFUL OF DOLLARS will have the option to watch the Italian version, but FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE is English only.

[TMDaines]

There's always a "but" with Leone releases.

[andyli]

The initial announcement only revealed full specs for the first movie. Is the second leaked already? I thought the announcement is still a few hours away.

[tenia]

They're up on Arrow's webstore (though it has only been recently updated) :

4K ULTRA-HD LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella
• Perfect bound collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Glenn Kenny, Priscilla Page, Ariel Schudson and Amy Taylor
• Double-sided fold-out poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella

DISC 1 – FEATURE (4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY)
• New 4K restoration from the original 2-perf Techniscope negative
• 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
• Newly restored original lossless English mono audio
• Optional newly remixed lossless English DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Audio commentary by film historian and Leone biographer Sir Christopher Frayling
• Audio commentary by film historian and critic Tim Lucas
• Original Italian credits and intermission break (separate from main feature)
• Trailers, TV spots and radio spots

DISC 2 – EXTRAS (BLU-RAY)
• A Violent Tale of Vengeance, a newly filmed interview with film historian and critic Fabio Melelli
• No One Shoots at the Colonel, a newly filmed interview with filmmaker and Lee Van Cleef biographer Mike Malloy
• Crafting the West, a newly filmed interview with Giuditta Simi, daughter of set/costume designer Carlo Simi
• Cuts and Rhythm, a newly filmed interview with editor Eugenio Alabiso
• Western Strings, a newly filmed interview with guitarist Bruno Battisti D’Amario
• Timeless Voice, a newly filmed interview with singer Edda Dell’Orso
• For a Few Notes More, a newly filmed interview with Morricone biographer Alessandro de Rosa
• For Ennio's Dollar Score, a new visual essay exploring the film’s iconic soundtrack by musician and disc collector Lovely Jon
• Career-spanning hour-long interview with Sergio Leone, never released in full before, filmed by Large Door Productions in 1983
• On Location in Almería and Granada, an archive featurette produced and presented by filmmaker Alex Cox
• The Frayling Archives and A New Standard, two archival interviews with Sir Christopher Frayling
• Back for More, an archival interview with Clint Eastwood
• Tre Voci, an archival featurette with Leone collaborators Mickey Knox, Sergio Donati and Alberto Grimaldi
• Restoration Italian Style, an archival featurette on the film’s remastering for DVD
• The Original American Release Version, an archival featurette
• Location Comparisons 1965–2004, an archival featurette
• Alternate credits sequences
• Four comprehensive image galleries

[Stefan Andersson]

Re: Arrow and GBU --

I hope Arrow has seen these video comparisons of editing differences between various editions of GBU, especially this video detailing four different edits of the scene of Tuco´s gang approaching:

https://theeditroomfloor.blogspot.com/2 ... -ugly.html

Relevant quote:

"as Tuco's gang approaches, you can see "one of these /cuts/ is not like the others" and it's the MGM 1998 dvd. For some reason, not only does the 98 dvd incorporate some (but not all) of the Italian version shots into the American version - it actually re-orders a few of them. So effectively someone at MGM recut their own version of the scene, and it matches neither the 1966 Italian cut, nor the 1967 International (U.S) cut. Hopefully Kino will see the errors of their ways and match the 1967 International (U.S.) cut as seen here on a 1967 35mm print and a 1990 laserdisc reference, as that is Leone's approved shorter version."

Hopefully Arrow will take the info above (and other info I linked to below) into consideration.

https://theeditroomfloor.blogspot.com/2 ... ly_15.html
https://theeditroomfloor.blogspot.com/2 ... ly_80.html
https://theeditroomfloor.blogspot.com/2 ... -ugly.html
https://theeditroomfloor.blogspot.com/2 ... rived.html

Also relevant:
https://blah-ray.blogspot.com/search/la ... %281964%29
https://blah-ray.blogspot.com/search/la ... %281965%29
https://blah-ray.blogspot.com/search/la ... %281966%29

[Stefan Andersson]

Interesting comments about the Dollars Trilogy on Kino Lorber 4K, and some other comments from various posts here:
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.ph ... 76&page=29

"A Fistful of Dollars:
-Theatrical mono mix is excluded, the mono track on it is rather a new mono mixdown that not only has missing dialogue but also miscued music and other missing music cues. The authentic English mono mix has been out of circulation since the 2005 DVD, which instead has a downmixed version of the 5.1 remix and the MGM BD's are identical. As of now, the last home video release to have the authentic English mono mix is the 1999 MGM DVD.
-Regraded Ritrovata master used so despite having the color issues reduced, some of the color issues remain along with the disc only being in SDR, since the master itself was completed in SDR.

For a Few Dollars More:
-Theatrical mono mix is authentic but uses a very poor mastering and sounds terrible as a result.
-Two instances of missing footage, one of them involves a fade that occurs too early.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly:
-Laserdisc mono was in fact used as basis for the mono track on this release, but while it sounds miles better than the mono on the 2017 BD, it still went through a DNR bypass so doesn't sound as good as the laserdisc itself due to this.
-Regraded Ritrovata master used so despite having the color issues reduced, some of the color issues remain along with the disc only being in SDR, since the master itself was completed in SDR."



"Fistful was graded from the log restored files (so it's not working with Ritrovata's terrible grade at all) and could have been HDR, but was kept SDR for consistency's sake. For a Few Dollars More may have actually avoided the usual Ritrovata treatment; according to BigBMaster it was graded by MGM/Park Circus. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was a regrade of Ritrovata's work because the log files couldn't be located at the time."


"Leone's Westerns /.../ did have a warm straw-colored/golden appearance on 35mm. The main problem with the Ritrovata grades aside from the terrible gamma isn't so much the yellow as it is the green."

[Finch]

full specs for TGTBTU updated as of 3/28/25:

4K ULTRA-HD LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella
Perfect bound collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Abbey Bender, Anton Bitel, Howard Hughes and Tambay Obenson
Double-sided fold-out poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella

DISC 1 – INTERNATIONAL CUT (4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY)
New 4K restoration of the 162-minute International Cut using the original 2-perf Techniscope negative
4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
Newly restored original lossless English mono audio
Optional newly remixed lossless English DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Audio commentary by film critic and historian Tim Lucas
Theatrical trailers, TV spots and radio spots

DISC 2 – EXTENDED CUT (4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY)
New 4K restoration of the 179-minute Extended Cut, using the original 2-perf Techniscope negative
4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
Newly restored original lossless English mono audio
Optional newly remixed English DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Audio commentary by film historian and Leone biographer Sir Christopher Frayling
Audio commentary by film historian and Eastwood biographer Richard Schickel
Seamless branching options to watch the Extended Cut with the uncut torture scene (mono only) and/or without the ‘grotto’ scene originally removed after the premiere
Deleted and alternate scenes

DISC 3 – EXTRAS (BLU-RAY)
A Circular Trilogy, a newly filmed interview with film historian and critic Fabio Melelli
The Laughter Behind the Epic, a newly filmed interview with Giacomo Scarpelli, son of co-writer Furio Scarpelli
Three Colors, a newly filmed interview with Stefano Delli Colli, son of cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli
Sergio and Sergio, a newly filmed interview with camera assistant Sergio Salvati
The Hand That Drew The West, a newly filmed interview with Giuditta Simi, daughter of set/costume designer Carlo Simi
They Call Him Angel Eyes, a newly filmed interview with filmmaker and Lee Van Cleef biographer Mike Malloy
From Falls to Fame, a newly filmed interview with stuntman Fabio Testi
The Man, The Cut, The Masterpiece, a newly filmed interview with editor Eugenio Alabiso
Frames of Glory, a newly filmed interview with post-production supervisor Enzo Ocone
That Magic Sound, a newly filmed interview with guitarist Bruno Battisti D'Amario
The Voice Behind the Gold, a newly filmed interview with singer Edda Dell'Orso
Call of the Coyote, a newly filmed interview with Morricone biographer Alessandro de Rosa
The Good, The Great and the Moody, a new visual essay exploring the film's iconic soundtrack by musician and disc collector Lovely Jon
Leone’s West and The Leone Style, two archive featurettes with Eastwood, Wallach, Schickel, Alberto Grimaldi and Mickey Knox
Reconstructing the Film, an archive featurette on the assembly of the Extended Cut
Il Maestro Parts One and Two, two archive featurettes with film music historian Jon Burlingame
The Socorro Sequence: A Reconstruction, a featurette on a deleted scene
The Man Who Lost the Civil War, an archive featurette on the film's depiction of the Civil War
Vignettes (Easter Eggs), four short interviews with Eastwood and Wallach
Alternate credits sequences
Four comprehensive image galleries

DISC 4 – SAD HILL UNEARTHED (BLU-RAY LIMITED EDITION EXCLUSIVE)

High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation of Sad Hill Unearthed, a 2017 documentary by Guillermo de Oliveira following fans’ efforts to restore the graveyard set
Original 5.1 DTS-HD MA surround and lossless stereo audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
Lost in the Editing Room
The Making of the Film
The Making of the Original Soundtrack
World Premiere Q&A
Sad Hill in January 2020

[ChunkyLover]

A Fistful of Dollars has been pushed back to May 12th due to “production delays”.

[Matt]

What can we expect the eventual standard editions of these to look like? No box, no booklet, no poster, obviously. But will the Blu-rays with the extras be included?

[Finch]

Probably. As far as I can recall, they only dropped alternative cuts of the films for the regular editions.

[domino harvey]

They'll usually say if an additional disc is a limited edition exclusive (like with That Cold Day in the Park)

[Stefan Andersson]

Interesting details about the Fistful of Dollars soundtrack on the Kino 4K:

"the mono mix on Kino's 4K of Fistful is a brand new mixdown created by Film Foundation (the 5.1 track included on the disc is based off of the same mixdown but spread out) and while it's better than the old 5.1 remix and the closest thing we had to an audio track resembling the original mono since the 1999 DVD, it does have some issues like missing or mistimed music cues and missing dialogue.

Here are reported differences in Kino's mono track compared to the original mono track, timecodes based off the Kino 4K:

14:48: After Eastwood says "I don't think it's nice, you laughin'", the other men immediately stop laughing in the original mono mix. In the new remix, they continue laughing for two seconds.

40:29: A final "ya!" is missing in the remix.

41:58: The line "Who is there? Come out!" is missing in the remix.

1:06:41, 1:06:49: During the chase sequence, two loud instrumental whistles are missing from the score in the remix.

1:24:55: Eastwood's first gun cocking sound is missing in the remix.

1:38:37: After Silvanito says "Adios" at the end of the film, the score in the original mono mix slowly gets louder over about 30 seconds, but in the remix it starts loud and stays loud.

1:38:50: The undertaker's final (very faint) words are missing in the remix."

Hopefully the above will be fixed by Arrow.

Source:
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.ph ... 56&page=52

[Tuppence]

What can we expect the eventual standard editions of these to look like? No box, no booklet, no poster, obviously. But will the Blu-rays with the extras be included?

The only disc listed as limited is the "Unearthing Sad Hill" doc on TGTBATU, so everything else disc-wise should be intact.

[tenia]

Wait, do you mean preordering through Paypal can cause specific issues with Arrow's webstore ? I always use Paypal but havent preordered stuff since years there.

Aaaaaaaaaand I had to update my payment and switch to credit card because of a "payment issue". Oh well. I just hope I won't be charged twice.

[Finch]

That's why I went with a credit card for ordering all three. I didn't want to have to deal with this nonsense when the discs were originally going be released over a period of three months. I did get a dispatch notice for the first film this morning.

[tenia]

It was a long time since I pre-ordered anything from Arrow, and wasn't aware of the Paypal issue. The more you know...

[Stefan Andersson]

Fistful of Dollars -- Reactions and restoration information scanned from the booklet:
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.ph ... 56&page=70

[Yakushima]

Received and watched Arrow's Fistful of Dollars 4K last night, and it looked and sounded stellar. Very fine restoration and encoding. I am looking forward to diving into the extras.

[Stefan Andersson]

Arrow edition of For a Few Dollars More compared with a German bluray:
https://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=518129

Discussion about truncated main title music on Fistful of Dollars:
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.ph ... 56&page=94
See post 1865, then post 1889 onwards.

For Jordan Krug´s video about audio and video differences (wrongly placed sound effects etc.) between various home video editions, see post 25 here:
https://www.hometheaterforum.com/commun ... 039/page-2
Wonder if the sound effects are now correctly placed.

[colinr0380]

In terms of the packaging, I do really like that at the bottom of the spines we have a circular sweep design with a figure that appears as if it is going to be carrying across all three releases. A Fistful of Dollars has Eastwood on the spine and For A Few Dollars More has Lee Van Cleef. So I presume we will be getting Eli Wallach's silhouette and the curving back down of the circle on The Good, The Bad and The Ugly's spine.

[Finch]

The third film got pushed back to August 11, Arrow citing production delays.