Ugly West, The

February 27, 2011 @ 2:54 am

*This rating was given before reviews were required*

February 27, 2011 @ 2:14 am

When I first read about this project I was filled with both excitement and intrepidation.
Not only are these two movies iconic legendary Westerns,
they are also personal favorites which I have viewed dozens of times over the years.

Thus, I was very curious what these two master fan editors could accomplish
and what my reaction would be to two movie I pretty much consider “perfect”.

So enough of my rambling, lets get to the heart of it.
WARNING! There may be SPOILERS in my review.

First off, the DVD Menu design is fantastic. Perfect in tone for these two Spagetti Westerns.
It is on par with any professionally produced dvd I have ever seen.
Well done.

The Bonus Features were all very nice. A mix of trailers, behind the scenes and About This Edit info.
The Blue Yoda feature was really cool, clearly demostrating the power of music in movies.
All in all, very enjoyable.

On to the main features….

HARMONICA:

The editting removal of Jason Robards is sheer brilliance. TMBM has cleanly excised the Cheyanne character from the movie, and the narrative does not seem to suffer too much from it. This an example of very talented and skilled editting. TMBM should be proud of this feat.

The reorganizing of the opening scenes works pretty well. Though having the McBain boy come running out after Frank and his men emerge seemed odd to me. Would he have not heard all the gunfire and peeked out the door earlier?

The newly restructured Train Station shoot out works well, though cutting immediately from the gunfight to gorgous Claudia Cardinale at another Train Station had me confused for a brief second. Was she at the same station? Did she see the gunfight? I almost thought an establishing shot would have been good there.

The new music when Cardinale views the McBain bodies is absolutely beautiful and greatly enhanced the scene. Great pick TMTM!!!
Though I think the lyric subtitles were an unnecessary distraction. The emotion in the singer’s voice carries the moment, I don’t think the audience needs the english translation. But the audio work here is excellent.

The narrative progresses nicely throughout, the cuts are all clean and transitions are smooth. Though I think through the editting process, Claudia Cardinale’s character now comes across as unsympathic and some what ill defined, and perhaps that was the intention. But some her best moments were definitely lost in this version, which is too bad.

The recut final showdown was well done. Clever use of Cardinale’s reaction shots to Robards inserted here, though it was the only time the cut felt somewhat “forced” to me. I do like the implications of this version. Again well done.

So on a technical level, I would score everything high 9′s and 10′s. Clearly the work of an editor at the top of his craft.

TWO GLORIOUS BASTARDS:

An edit by the legendary Boone is always a pleasure to watch. His creative choices in this edit are bold and innovative.
If you watch this edit for no other reason, watch it for the Audio Editting.
It is a technical masterpiece in terms of removing dialogue and background music, and then adding new music and sound f/x!
In fact, make certain you watch Boone’s bonus featurette on Inserting Johnny Cash,
it is an eye opener and entertaining. So a solid 10 for audio editing.

The removal of Lee Van Cleef from the storyline is perfect.
You would never known he had existed if you had not seen the movie before.
And like TMBM all other cuts are clean and smooth. Again, pefect 10 for technical editting.

Now on to the big issue, the Johnny Cash music!

First off, I must tip my hat to Boone to have the creative courage to edit out one of the most famous movie scores in cinema history!!!

But does it work?

The Ennio Morricone music in TGTB&TU is pivotal to the longevity and appeal of this movie. It is both a main character and the unseen narrator to the story. Thus, if you are going to remove it, you better replace it with something of equal weight and power.

And Johnny Cash definitely as both those qualities in spades. But does it fit the movie?

Honestly, for me, it was very hit and miss. I enjoying the opening, and the music while Eastwood and Wallace are pulling their Hangman Scam and even the music during the desert was clever. But once we arrive at the Civil War battlefield, the music felt forced and heavy handed, and the music completely did not work for me during the cemetary scenes.

But this may be in part because the original soundtrack is so ingrained into my brain that I am having a hard time seperating the fan edit from the original. An interesting side note, I watched TWO GLORIOUS BASTARDS with my daughter who has never watched the original movie and even she commented several times about the music about how much she liked it. So there there you go, two very different reactions.

So two great technical master edits. Definitely worth watching.

But on an entertainment level, how well do they work?

Interestingly, I always found Sergio Leone’s two big epic westerns to be a tad long. But now, after watching these two truncated versions, it gave me a better appreciation for his genius as a storyteller. His command over subtle character traits and long silences are the stuff of legend. And I found myself missing these elements in these new versions. Again, I may be having great difficulty seperating my love for the originals.

Do these new narratives work? Absolutely!!!

They are expertly crafted with a definitive beginning, middle and ending. I found them enjoyable and I am very happy I took the opportunity to watch them. But are they my preferred version? No, of course not. But the editors made it very clear, these edits are not meant to be improvements or replacements. But they are a wonderful showcase of what fan editting is capable of and what we can all aspire to.

So do yourself a favour, and check out THE UGLY WEST,
you won’t be disappointed.

If I had to give a final overall score:

HARMONIC 9/10 for Tech and 8.5/10 for Story/Entertainment

TWO GLORIOUS BASTARDS 10/10 for Tech and 8/10 for Story/Entertainment (sorry Mr. Cash)

Giving us a Grand Score of 8.8/10

February 23, 2011 @ 9:36 pm

Being a big fan of the TGTBTU full length movie and watched this with an open mind, as the cuts listed appeared to make it unwatchable, how wrong was I!

I really enjoyed the edit, it’s paced just right, you would never know that there’s any edits, even when you know there should be others in the scenes. It’s an 100% Eli & Clint movie, and I really like/admire these two actors. The sound track is good, however i thought the fade out on a couple of the tracks was too quick at fading out, and maybe should have been faded out much slower. Having said that the soundtrack is very well constucted, and a lot of work has been done to create it, and sounds great. Maybe a fan edit soundtrack release?

Really enjoyed it and I will watch it again, it’s a cracking take on the classic film, going to watch ‘Once Upon A Time In The West’ edit later and review shortly.

Review by chancer127 — February 27, 2011 @ 10:24 am

Having only seen Once Upon A Time In The West once many years ago i have very little recall of the original story.

First let me say that Henry Fonda plays one mean SOB and is truely menacing in this, due to the edit length he’s on screen quite a lot,he’s an actor that I never really thought about, he’s at the top of his game in this, well worth the veiwing to see him.

The two main actors Bronson and Fonda share most of the screen time in this edit, I enjoyed it very much, it played out like a TV western show (-the black fades outs i was expecting an advert to come on-)and purely because of it’s running time it felt like an episode of an old western tv show, to me anyway.(But far better content!)

I got a little confused in the last 10 minutes but once the edit played out and I worked out what had happened it’s genuis and very clever the way the edit has been constructed, but i did have to ‘think’ about it to work it out.

Enjoyed the movie and soundtrack THANKS.

February 1, 2011 @ 9:28 pm

I watched this edit based solely on the fact it was made by the two powerhouses of the site.

Quite honestly, I don’t feel the need to break down the technical aspects of the movie, as they are perfect. Absolutely no issues in either the video or audio areas to note.

I thoroughly enjoyed the short feature demonstrating the audio work that was done to the edit. Very informative. I could tell a great deal of thought and work went into the audio creation and it pays off for the viewer.

I enjoy the original versions of both movies, but because of the lengths of the originals, I really have to be in the mood to watch them – but once I start them, I get completely into them.

Completely centering the edit of Eli Wallach and Clint Eastwood works very well and makes for a tightly paced western for “Two Glorious Bastards”.

The re-focusing of “Harmonica” was exceptional – I thoroughly enjoyed this edit. (especially as I was very skeptical of it’s 1hr 11min run time). Bravo!

However, if you are very dedicated to the original “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”, then this may not be for you; especially as the soundtrack goes. This is an aggressive edit and the editor’s knife falls swiftly in many areas to make this movie 86 mins long.

COMPLETELY MY OPINION: I am a fan of Johnny Cash and really thought I was going to like the use of him in place of the Morricone soundtrack. In the long run, for some reason, I didn’t. It is NOT because I am so dedicated to the original soundtrack. For some reason I haven’t teased out yet; it just didn’t work for me. I am sure I will be the minority on this point. It did not effect my enjoyment of the edit overall, but the Cash songs didn’t do it for me. Even as much as I have always liked his version of “Hurt” and never liked his version of “I Won’t Back Down” (don’t like the Tom Petty version either).

Again, just my humble opinion.

This edit is still great nonetheless.