Film historian Richard Schickel provides an authoritative and engaging commentary on Disc 1. On the second disc there are featurettes on Leone's West (20 mins), The Leone Style (24 mins), Reconstructing The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (11 mins) and a documentary about the historical background of the Sibley campaign, The Man Who Lost the Civil War (15 mins). In addition, there's a two-part appreciation of composer Ennio Morricone, Il Maestro, by film-music expert John Burlinghame. Tuco's extended torture scene can be found here, along with a reconstruction of the fragmentary "Socorro Sequence". In short, exemplary bonus features that will satisfy every Leone aficionado. --Mark Walker
RRP: £19.99
Our Price: £2.69 (subject to change)
Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
This two-disc Special Edition presents the restored, extended English-language version of Leone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, now clocking in at almost three hours (actually 171 minutes on this Region 2 DVD as a result of the faster frames-per-second ratio of the PAL format). It includes some 14 minutes of previously cut scenes, with both Clint Eastwood and Eli Wallach returning to the editing suite in 2003 to add their voices to scenes that had never before been dubbed into English (Wallach's voice is noticeably that of a much older man in these additional sequences). The extra material contains nothing of vital importance, but it's good to have the movie returned to pretty much the way Leone originally wanted it. The anamorphic widescreen picture is now also accompanied by a handsome Dolby 5.1 soundtrack, making this the most complete and satisfactory version so far released.
Why Hollywood will eventually disappear up it's own money grabbing existence
Review date: 2008-11-15 Rating: 6 out of 10
The Good:
The original release of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
The Bad:
Hollywood studios insistence on continuously selling us what is essentially the same product over and over again on the pretence that we are getting something new and of value. Or more to the point, us snapping it up like idiots.
The Ugly:
Adding 15 minutes of previously deleted scenes that add absolutely nothing to the story but instead stop it flowing like the original masterpiece did. Also, dragging in Clint Eastwood and Eli Wallach to add new voiceovers to these added scenes because the originals had deteriorated but failing to spot that 70 year old codgers' voices change over time and thus merely creating a giggle fest.
With a gun to my head and being forced to make a decision on which was my favourite film of all time, I'd probably plump for The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. But not in this butchered state.