The Good, The Bad and the Ugly comparison *PIX* - Page 18

I was alerted to this BD reissue (EAN 5050582921335 vs. EAN 8032442218752 for 2009 release) over a week ago and have been searching for days but can't find any reliable info on whether or not it includes "Inglese" audio. The specs provided on various (but not all) sites list English audio in addition to Italian audio. Prior to the 2009 release of the BD, the specs listed English audio – which obviously wasn’t the case – so this mistake has been made before:

http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=108239

Although I would love for this to be true, I’m not very optimistic since the English soundtrack cannot simply be added to this reissue because of the extensive differences between the Italian and International cuts of the film.

As stated above, Rigby Reardon already sync’d the MGM SE 6-channel DTS audio with the Italian Mondo/Moviemax video and it was clearly a lot of work. He had to edit the audio extensively to sync with the video and on top of all that he had to deal with two totally different cuts of the beating scene.

I am currently working on a similar project syncing the original PCM mono audio (sourced from the MGM laserdiscs) with the vastly superior video of the Mondo/Moviemax BD. If this reissue already includes the correct (i.e. mono) English audio, I might not have to go through all the work.

I'm surprised this hasn't garnered more interest given this is such a popular film and the MGM SE BD is pure crap in my opinon. It would be the ultimate version of this film.

Can anyone confirm the inclusion of English audio in this reissue?
Edited by eurospec19 - 2/20/13 at 12:42pm

Here's the release info directly from Mondo/Moviemax:

http://www.homevideo.moviemax.it/bluray/scheda/63/%20il_buono_il_brutto_il_cattivo If you want to be absolutely sure, you can contact Mondo directly via email (you can find the address on their home page). When I did this in 2009 they replied within a week. But I'm 99% certain that this is just a re-release of the same disc.

Hi Rigby,

I sent Mondo/Moviemax two emails in the last 10 days and have not heard back. The specs provided on their website are for the 2009 BD release (EAN 8032442218752) not the 2012 reissue (EAN 5050582921335).

By the way, thanks for your all your effort in syncing the Mondo BD with MGM SE audio.

Hm, I'm not sure if it's the same people anymore since the Moviemax takeover ... Well, I did it mostly for myself. It is really not that difficult if you have access to a professional editing system. Your project sounds quite a bit more difficult, since you will not have a digital video stream along with the Laserdisc-sourced audio (I mostly used the video to quickly identify the points where the two versions diverged).

Here's the scoop from a bluray forums member on the Mondo/Moviemax BD "reissue"...

Can't remember whether there was discussion of the color timing on this or not, but I watched a 35mm print of the 2003 restored Extended cut last night in Vancouver. It varied a bit by the reel, but at the start the clouds were yellowish and skies cyan. Skin tones looked more ordinary than the Italian screencaps though. Sunbaked but not yellowed. "The End" didn't look white. The print started with a BBFC rating card, but I was too busy reading it to note the white balance there. It was pretty blurry; not sure if that's down to the print or the optics at the Pacific Cinematheque.

All of the opticals looked godawfully dirty. Wow.

I just watched 'Once Upon a Time in the West' BD (Paramount) from the same director with the same cinematographer as on the more famous films and there was not the strange color grading choices as on the MGM owned trilogy. Maybe somebody could prove me wrong, they were sun-baked but I suspect that was intended.