7.1 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
El Chuncho's bandits rob arms from a train, intending to sell the weapons to Elias' revolutionaries. They are helped by one of the passengers, Bill Tate, and allow him to join them, unware he is an assassin working for the Mexican government.
Starring: Gian Maria Volontè, Klaus Kinski, Martine Beswick, Lou Castel, Jaime FernándezForeign | 100% |
Western | 62% |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.34:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
English: LPCM 2.0
Italian: LPCM 2.0
English, English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Damiano Damiani's "A Bullet for the General" (1966) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Cult Films. The supplemental features on the release include archival program with Damiano Damiani and archival introduction to the film by Alex Cox. In English or Italian, with optional English and English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.
Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.34:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, A Bullet for the General arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Cult Films.
In America, A Bullet for the General made its high-definition debut with this Blu-ray release from Blue Underground in 2012. It was sourced from an older master with some obvious issues. The biggest one was the presence of scanner noise, but there were other issues that affected the overall quality of the presentation as well.
This release offers a different presentation of the film. It also has some issues, but there are different areas that are affected. For example, the windowboxing is eliminated. Also, while not perfect, the surface of the visuals looks different. A lot of close-ups, for instance, reveal marginally better delineation, and in some areas depth is a tad better. However, grain exposure is still not optimal, and it is pretty easy to tell that some sort of work was done to suppress the effects that are typically associated with scanner noise. It is why delineation is not as good as it needs to be. Some of the primaries and some of the supporting nuances here are balanced differently as well, though the overall temperature of the visuals remains very similar. Image stability is good. While viewing the film, I did not see any distracting large cuts, damage marks, warped or torn frames to report. All in all, A Bullet for the General still needs to be properly restored so that it has a strong and convincing organic appearance. However, this presentation of it is pretty decent. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your geographical location).
There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 2.0 and Italian LPCM 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the English track. Optional English subtitles are provided for the Italian track. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.
I prefer to use the English audio track, since the majority of the actors utter their lines in English. As you would expect, it features overdubbing, which is quite entertaining. The overall quality of the English track is very good. However, you should expect to notice some dynamic unevenness. Also, I think that if fully remastered, the English audio track could produce even better dynamic contrasts.
It would have been great if A Bullet for the General was fully restored, like Django and Keoma. However, despite some issues, the current presentation of it is pretty decent. In fact, I think that I prefer how A Bullet for the General looks on this release, not how it looks on Blue Underground's release. The difference is not big, but I liked how certain areas of the film looked on my system better. A Bullet for the General is included in Cult Spaghetti Westerns, a three-disc set. RECOMMENDED.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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