Originally published at: Why is For a Few Dollars More so criminally underrated? | Boing Boing
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Because the original US DVD had audio issues which made everyone’s lipsynch just a little off?
Or
Because that’s the one of the trilogy where Clint’s character is not morally “The Good”?
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Criminally underrated? 92% and 94% on RT?
Fistful is 96/91
Essentially even. On IMDb it’s ranked higher than Fistful (8.2 vs 7.9)
Good, Bad is higher on RT at 97/97 and on IMDB at 8.8.
Seems like a wash to me.
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There are two types of reviews in this world. Those that show The Good, the Bad and the Ugly its due respect; and those that come in by the door.
A film well worth watching, if only for the Ecstasy of Gold.
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While all three films end with an amazing gunfight, the finale of For a Few Dollars More is always my favorite.
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I’ll watch an old Clint Eastwood western if it’s on but I won’t seek it out.
A favorite of mine from the era but technically just barely Spaghetti Western is Two Mules For Sister Sarah.
I really enjoy that movie.
Josey Wales will also suck me in whenever it’s on.
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Growing up it was watched, along with the other two in my household several times, and I never cared much for them at the time. They were just ugly looking movies visually, the colors were saturated, everything with grainy and the image was cropped. It was only till I watched the cleaned-up restored version on Netflix where I really enjoyed these movies and found out why they were so popular. I think the original transfer to video of these movies was poorly executed years ago.
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I think they’re all great movies, but The Good, The Bad and The Ugly did gift us this gif
I don’t know there’s as remarkable a gif derived from A Few Dollars More.
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Also Ennio Morricone scores
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I also loved Trevor Noah’s recent spoof of that on The Daily Show (at 30:07):
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Something interesting I just noticed watching this duel back to back with the final duel in TGTBTU is that bits of the music box tune are brought back. It’s really great!
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For me the, it was having the good fortune of seeing The Good… on the big screen, at The Paramount in Austin.
(In spite of (or because?) the guys a couple of rows ahead of us kept fighting each other during the movie. )
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We could solve the lipsync problems with modern techniques. The thing I notice in the video is how bloodless some of the shootings are. I don’t want a gore-fest, but this looks too “bang, bang, pop, pop, you’re dead I’m not”. Modern TVs have most of the colour gamut and all the contrast range of the cinema, so the colour problems should be fixed.
Should we touch it? I think they would have done these things at the time if they could.
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The video mentions that the lip sync is intentionally off, and maybe not only for production reasons. Not sure if there are more out-of-sync things going on with the US DVD issue.
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The one I think is underrated is Duck, You Sucker!, likely due to having such a stupid name (the better alternate name is A Fistful of Dynamite). I don’t think I even heard of it until coming across it on I think Amazon Prime a few years ago. Doesn’t have Clint Eastwood, but James Coburn is no slouch.
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Don’t forget about Peckinpah.
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Watch the video. The explanation is there.
Or TL:DW - all dialogue on set was spoken in actor’s native languages. No dialogue was recorded on set. It was then all overdubbed in the studio for each language distribution. So depending on which language the actor/overdub was in and depending on how good each actor was at dubbing their own track… well, that’s where the lip-synch issues arise.
Also @Richard_Kirk
Also @LutherBlisset mentioned the above ahead of me (but not the explanation).
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I know how the dubbing of Italian movies works. However, the original US DVD had most of the audio out of sync. It was most noticeable in the lip sync but it was not a dubbing issue.
The DVD of For a Few Dollars More, actually a year old, is a frustration. It is the best presentation of the film so far available after decades of trimmed copies in a variety of versions. The bits still outstanding are fairly insignificant. But, painfully, much of the audio is out of sync.
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But I don’t think Leone did it exactly that way in his other films. Not sure all the others had no dialogue at all recorded on set. I feel an internet rabbit hole coming on…
I wonder why the US DVD in particular had that problem. Not sure I’ve ever watched UK/EU DVD versions, so no idea it this was a common DVD problem, though I had them on VHS once upon a time
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