7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
After his sister is kidnapped and murdered, a gunslinger’s plans for vengeance involve assassinating two generals to prolong the Civil War.
Starring: Craig Hill, Lea Massari, José Manuel Martín, Andrea Bosic, Licia CalderónForeign | 100% |
Western | 28% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Italian: LPCM Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: LPCM Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English, English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of Arrow Video's Savage Guns: 4 Classic Westerns collection.
Arrow may be engaging in just the slightest bit of PR hyperbole with their description of the quartet of offerings in Savage Guns as
"classic westerns", as even some of the commentaries included on this set get into. The sheer glut of what have alternately been called Spaghetti or
Euro (as well as in one case on a disc in this set, Taco) Westerns throughout the sixties and seventies in particular probably unavoidably led to rather
wide variances in quality, and if, as again the very
commentaries on some of these discs overtly mention, some of the films in this set are probably not "top tier", they can be rather interesting in their
own ways,
and as usual Arrow has assembled an impressive array of supplements to augment things.
I Want Him Dead is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Arrow's insert booklet offers technical information on all four films in the set in a somewhat haphazard fashion on one page, so I'm "cutting and pasting" as necessary to offer data on each film separately:
I Want Him Dead / Lo voglio morto is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with Italian and English mono sound.This is often a very nicely detailed presentation, though there are some noticeable ebbs and flows to the grain field (contrast screenshot 1 with screenshot 2), and at times grain can be rather gritty and even dirty looking. Color timing struck me as just a bit skewed toward yellows, but on the whole things look healthy and well suffused. The glut of outdoor location work provides a lot of brightly lit environments that can help support fine detail levels. There's a certain amount of fuzziness and/or blurriness that shows up on occasion that might be attributable either to lenses or perhaps even some momentary focus pulling anomalies. I noticed no major signs of age related wear and tear.
The film was restored by Rewind Films from the original camera negatives. Audio was sourced from the optical sound negatives.
I Want Him Dead features LPCM Mono audio in either Italian or English, and while Arrow has authored this disc so that toggling isn't allowed (something that frankly aids me in being able to do quick "side by side" comparisons, in playing and then replaying several sequences in each language, I found that both tracks sound very similar if not downright identical in terms of mixes and overall amplitude. Nico Fidenco's score sounds full bodied though perhaps encounters just the slightest hints of distortion at the loudest volumes. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.
The supplements included with this feature are kind of interesting in that several participants on the film's production crew are still among the living, which helps to give some "first person" authenticity to the reminiscences offered. The film itself is intermittently quite visceral, and at times extremely scenic (even if the scenery may not exactly evoke the American landscapes it's supposed to). Technical merits are generally solid for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.
(Still not reliable for this title)
The Reward's Yours... The Man's Mine
1969
I quattro dell'apocalisse
1975
Trinity Sees Red
1970
E Dio disse a Caino...
1970
1967
ˇMátalo!
1970
Per 100.000 dollari t'ammazzo
1967
10,000 Dollars for a Massacre / 10.000 dollari per un massacro
1967
Se incontri Sartana prega per la tua morte / Gunfighters Die Harder
1968
Ballad of Death Valley / The Angry Gun / Ringo the Killer / Una Pistola per Ringo
1965
Due once di piombo
1966
Le colt cantarono la morte e fu... tempo di massacro / The Brute and the Beast
1966
Gli Specialisti
1969
Special Edition
1966
Joe... cercati un posto per morire!
1968
Una nuvola di polvere... un grido di morte... arriva Sartana / Gunman in Town
1970
C'č Sartana... vendi la pistola e comprati la bara! / A Fistful of Lead
1970
Goodbye Texas
1966
1971
La resa dei conti
1966