The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

[The_Gmork]

Am I alone in that I find the theatrical cut with its original audio far superior to the "Special Edition", with its extended run time and remastered audio? I was disappointed to find that when Leone's "Dollars Trilogy" finally received the Bluray treatment, the Theatrical Cut wasn't even an option. The terrible gunshots, the Lee Van Cleef sound-alike and the newly dubbed lines of what is clearly a much older Eli Wallach just stand out so badly to me. Such a shame =/

[Mongrel]

You are emphatically not alone on this. The changes ruin the pacing of the movie for me; the newly dubbed lines from Clint, El Wallach and Simon Callow (subbing for the late Lee Van Cleef) do not sound anything like the original performances, no matter what some Kool-Aid drinking reviewers have said; and the twangy gunshot effects are sorely missed. I'm glad I held on to my old DVD, even it is one of the worst looking ones remaining in my collection.

What I really loved was watching the restoration documentary and watching the guy try to justify HIS choice as to what material to leave in and what to omit. Like Star Wars, it wouldn't even have bothered me so much if I'd simply had the option to choose.