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Info: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly - 4k nightmare

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Apparent best source we could have...and then this. WTF were they thinking?? Can GBU ever be done right???

VADER!? WHERE THE HELL IS MY MOCHA LATTE? -Palpy on a very bad day.
“George didn’t think there was any future in dead Han toys.”-Harrison Ford
YT channel:
https://www.youtube.com/c/DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader

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In my opinion it was done right in the Italian release. It looks fantastic. This new one is truly horrible and I hope all fans of this film will simply boycott it.

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stick with the italian bd. it's overall the better source in terms of video quality.

against it is the lack of the english audio and italian on-screen-text.

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The Italian BD certainly looks better in terms of color.  It's also noticeably brighter throughout.

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The italian blu ray looks like a video, this one looks like film. Agree it's a bit to crazy on the gold hues, but it's the best PQ detail of this film ever released.

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It is a shame not to be able to use the superior detail from the new BD.  I wonder if the colors can be restored or if the situation is like FotR and the damage can be only partially undone (as Spaced Ranger demonstrated in one of his posts, which I can't find it).  Obviously, one can color-correct what is there, but that's not the same thing.

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I would love to see kk650 have a shot at removing the tint! :)

“Stargazing wizards, stare into the night,
Hurricanes and blizzards, here comes the final fight”

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Memorex said:

I would love to see kk650 have a shot at removing the tint! :)

I'm just waiting for my UK amaray order to be dispached (it comes out on the 2nd of June).

While I wait for that i've been keeping myself busy working on a regraded Mad Max 2. It should be up on tehparadox later on today. :)

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kk650 said:

Memorex said:

I would love to see kk650 have a shot at removing the tint! :)

I'm just waiting for my UK amaray order to be dispached (it comes out on the 2nd of June).

While I wait for that i've been keeping myself busy working on a regraded Mad Max 2. It should be up on tehparadox later on today. :)

 Regraded MM2, that's great kk650! Can't wait to get a copy. Can I ask what software you use to do the regrading? 

Does anyone know if the current TGTBTU Italian disc is AVC? The first one was VC-1. I was curious if they did a reencode with the newly released disc that came out with FOD and OUATIW.

The thing is that all the VHS tapes, laserdiscs, DVDs, 35mm prints (I've seen a few), that 35mm print that was on ebay and the previous BD all looked very similar (blue is blue). This is the first time this movie has looked like this. It just screams revisionist history.

Re-creating the International cut in HD is going to be a hard piece of work for whoever takes it on. Its not just removing the Italian scenes, there are a ton of 1 or 2 second shots to remove also. And then putting in the tiny bits from the International cut. There is a lot to work to do. Shame that 35mm print is not on Ebay anymore. It would of been cool to see if poita could scan it.

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kk650 said:

Memorex said:

I would love to see kk650 have a shot at removing the tint! :)

I'm just waiting for my UK amaray order to be dispached (it comes out on the 2nd of June).

While I wait for that i've been keeping myself busy working on a regraded Mad Max 2. It should be up on tehparadox later on today. :)

 You do gods work sir

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PDB said:  Re-creating the International cut in HD is going to be a hard piece of work for whoever takes it on. Its not just removing the Italian scenes, there are a ton of 1 or 2 second shots to remove also. And then putting in the tiny bits from the International cut. There is a lot to work to do.

It's not too bad actually.  In terms of frames, the Mondo seems to be closer to the 2014 BD than it was to the previous MGM one.  Most of the time, the Mondo has more frames, so deleting them syncs the two quite nicely.   I've almost finished a script that does that.  (It duplicates a few frames in places in which they would not be noticed, but these can be deleted easily enough if necessary.)  The script also recuts the beating scene, which is the only major difference between the Italian theatrical cut and the extended cut; obviously, the missing shots will have to be color-corrected and inserted from another source.

Apart from that, the English credits can be spliced in easily enough.  The shots that have Il Buono, Il Brutto and Il Cattivo can be replaced.

All of this is, of course, if people decide that the Mondo is the best source.  If the 2014 BD can be color-corected to people's satisfaction, then the work is even easier.  But I'm not yet convinced that it can be.

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Chewtobacca said:

PDB said:  Re-creating the International cut in HD is going to be a hard piece of work for whoever takes it on. Its not just removing the Italian scenes, there are a ton of 1 or 2 second shots to remove also. And then putting in the tiny bits from the International cut. There is a lot to work to do.

It's not too bad actually.  In terms of frames, the Mondo seems to be closer to the 2014 BD than it was to the previous MGM one.  Most of the time, the Mondo has more frames, so deleting them syncs the two quite nicely.   I've almost finished a script that does that.  (It duplicates a few frames in places in which they would not be noticed, but these can be deleted easily enough if necessary.)  The script also recuts the beating scene, which is the only major difference between the Italian theatrical cut and the extended cut; obviously, the missing shots will have to be color-corrected and inserted from another source.

Apart from that, the English credits can be spliced in easily enough.  The shots that have Il Buono, Il Brutto and Il Cattivo can be replaced.

All of this is, of course, if people decide that the Mondo is the best source.  If the 2014 BD can be color-corected to people's satisfaction, then the work is even easier.  But I'm not yet convinced that it can be.

 Glad to hear it Chewtobacco! That's exciting. I assume you are also working with the laserdisc's mono soundtrack also? It appears the mono on the new 4K BD is a downmix (according to people on blu-ray.com)

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You_Too said:

In my opinion it was done right in the Italian release. It looks fantastic. This new one is truly horrible and I hope all fans of this film will simply boycott it.

 As soon as I found out about the missing original mono track, I cancelled my pre-order. I already have the Italian BD synced up with English audio, so that is that, as they say.

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PDB said:It appears the mono on the new 4K BD is a downmix (according to people on blu-ray.com)

I read that too but have been waiting for someone I trust here to verify it.  If true, it's a real shame: even though a lossless track would have been preferable, DD 1.0 at 192kbps would have been more or less transparent to the source.

Re: the mono

I'm not working on it at the moment.  Syncing without a visual guide would be a new thing for me, so perhaps someone here might handle the mono.  In the first instance, I planned to make a synced English DTS-HD MA 5.1 track, which could be used as a guide track for the mono. 

At the moment, everything apart from the script that I mentioned above is just an idea though.

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I just bought the German BDs of Fistful and Few Dollars More. The Italian Mondo release for GBU looks like it's no longer available on Amazon.it. Does anyone know if the Italian master is available for sale somewhere?

kk650, I dig your work. Thanks for Terminator and Conan. Bad color timing I can live with (except for FOTR EE), but not bad audio, and I was coveting those restored audio mixes. I take that back, I can't live with bad color timing.

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Someone at HDBits has already 'recreated' the theatrical cut from the new blu-ray -- Chewtobacca, if you'd like to take a look at the script used, let me know and I can get it for you. :)

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It looks absolutely fantastic to me, especially looking at the comparisons from caps-a-holic. Unlike The Great Escape, it doesn't need to be regraded. I'd rather have MGM do 4K transfers for all Sergio Leone films they distribute. Paramount did an excellent job for the Blu-ray release of Once Upon a Time in the West. Outdated transfers ought to die. If it's damn close representation of the answer print as Leone intended, I'll be buying this anyway.

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As the original mono has been botched for this (and last) release of GB&U on BluRay (the included mono track is a downmix of the 5.1 upmix with new replaced sounds etc.) I was wondering:

Has anyone undertook the effort to restore the English mono track for MGM's Extended cut of the film already?

If not, I would probably give it a try.

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Got my UK steelbook today....so disappointed.  They just can't get my favorite movie right....I have the Mondo version synced with the English 5.1 mix....but it would be SO nice to have a mono mix without all the crappy newer sounding effects!

At least the Steelbook looks nice

And here's some yellow tint to go along with the movie lol

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It has become quite clear that this original audio extinction which began in the DVD-age is definitely here to stay. Fucking sad but then again, the stupid masses don't really know the difference or care anyway. As long as there's any audio heard on all speakers on their new audio systems everything is all right. 

An original monaural mix redone in 5.1 or 7.1 is pretty much the equivalent to coloring black & white films so why don't go all the way when they are at it? I think the studios should go all out and really reinvent every classic movie out there. Oh damn, I forgot there are boundless of sequels and remakes being worked on at the moment.

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

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dvdmike said:

kk650 said:

Memorex said:

I would love to see kk650 have a shot at removing the tint! :)

I'm just waiting for my UK amaray order to be dispached (it comes out on the 2nd of June).

While I wait for that i've been keeping myself busy working on a regraded Mad Max 2. It should be up on tehparadox later on today. :)

 You do gods work sir

 Gods work Indeed!!!

Aside from the terrible colour timing issues on this new transfer (which could probably be negated by immensely talented people like kk650 and the other members here) its the contrast changes that bug me even more.

There is no doubt that this 4k scan offers superior detail than the Mondo release but that extra detail is often blacked out and crushed due to this new Tony Scott-esque contrast treatment. Even more annoying is that the new 4k restoration of Fistful appears to have similar( but perhaps not as grievous) problems with regards to contrast and colour!

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So, would anyone happen to have a 35mm print of this film? Damn annoying when people are basing this release on how the rest of the VHS, DVD, & the prior Blu-ray releases. At least it isn't as getting as royally angered over regarding another particular trilogy I won't mention.

Andrea would be the best person to handle some color retiming if necessary, but for me, I'd rather have a LPCM 1.0 English track derived from a Laserdisc. Are there any new features regarding the remaster?

The 4K Blu-ray release appears perfect to me in regards to its heavily film-like appearance. Yes, including to how it looks. Especially being it's a Spaghetti Western.

I'm finished with this thread.

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Quoting myself, April 16/13:

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.

Take from that what you will (if anything). I'm not sure what to think but if they show it again I'll definitely keep the new release in mind.