The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1966/MGM Blu-ray)

 

Picture: B     Sound: B-     Extras: B     Film: B+

 

 

Now that MGM has issued the Sergio Leone Spaghetti Westerns in their best possible DVD editions, they are starting on Blu-ray with The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1966), which you can read more about starting at this link:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5859/The+Sergio+Leone+Anthology+(A

 

 

As produced in 2-perf Techniscope, an inexpensive, effective Italian imitator of CinemaScope/Panavision that offered less distortion at the cost of some definition, the 1080p 2.35 X 1 AVC @ 18 MBPS digital High Definition image is from the newly restored print that was based off of a three-strip Technicolor print among other elements.  Like the DVD, there are still softness issues, some motion blur here and some grain you would not get in a real Technicolor dye-transfer print.  A 35mm screening of the restored film I was lucky enough to catch still looked better, but this has its moments, surpasses the DVD versions (especially where black, white and red are concerned) and will impress fans.

 

Originally a monophonic film, MGM had upgraded the film to Dolby Digital 5.1 and now, we get it in an even better DTS-HD Master Audio (MA) lossless 5.1 mix and even a Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono mix for purists.  The DTS is definitely better than Dolby Mono, but the old sound was typical post-production dubbing Italian style, so only so much could be done.  This came out of WWII by the way, because live sound was often interrupted by airplanes among other things during the war and beyond.   Needless to say Ennio Morricone’s score is the biggest beneficiary here, though we do get some unexpected compression here and there, plus unusually loud noises a few times.  Extras are the same as the DVD Special Edition.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo