Man,
Pride and Vengeance (1968/Blue Underground Blu-ray)
Picture:
B+ Sound: B+ Extras: B+ Film: B
If
you're a fan of the Spaghetti Westerns or the classic tale of Carmen,
the 1968 film Man, Pride, and Vengeance is one you won't want
to miss!Packed with excellent cinematography, editing, and all around
fun. Starring Franco Nero (the original Django (reviewed
elsewhere on this site)) and whom also had a cameo in Tarantino's
Django Unchained), Tina Aumont, Lee Burton, and the infamous
Klaus Kinski of Herzog fame. Blue Underground has done a pristine
job of adapting this film to the Blu-ray format, bringing new life to
this Spaghetti Western classic!
The
premise of the film is a Spanish army officer,
Don Jose (Nero), stationed in Seville, meets and begins a
relationship with a mysterious gypsy, Carmen (Aumont). After he
discovers she has cheated on him with his Lieutenant, he kills the
officer and flees the city with Carmen. He recovers from his wounds
and is forced to begin the life of a bandit. His relationship with
Carmen is confusing but just - he doesn't know why he loves his woman
but he does. The film has all the classic thematic elements
of a western including robberies, smuggling, bandits, beautiful
women, and stagecoaches! Ironically, this film takes place in and
was filmed in Spain which seems to be pretty uncommon for most films
in this Western sub genre. Also, on a cool side note, this is the
first European filmed western in which his real
voice was used as post WWII Italy had a practice (until recently) of
post-recording all dialogue.
Despite
some grain throughout, which goes with the age of the film, it really
looks splendid on Blu-ray disc with a sharp 1080p high definition
transfer in a 2.35 X 1 widescreen aspect and a lossless, restored
DTS-HD MA 1.0 Mono track in Italian and English versions. The 2-perf
Techniscope film negative has been transferred beautifully to the
digital format, however is not without some artifacting, which
doesn't bother me.
Extras
include a feature length audio commentary by fans/journalists C.
Courtney Joyner & Henry C. Parke, an interview with Nero &
Vittoro Storaro (the future cinematographer genius was a camera
operator on the film in the featurette Franco,
Vittorio & Luigi,
as well as a Still Gallery and Trailers.
I
highly recommend this Blue Underground release, especially if you are
a fan of Nero's classic Django flicks!
-
James Harland Lockhart V
www.facebook.com/jhl5films
