Trinity Is Still My Name! Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Trinity Is Still My Name! Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 5, 2018

Note: This film is available as part of the Trinity Twin Pack.

According to the frequently questionable Wikipedia, over six hundred so-called “European westerns” were made between 1960 and 1978, though in typical Wikipedia fashion it’s left unclear as to how many of these were so-called “Spaghetti westerns”, i.e., Italian made efforts that became legendary with the now iconic collaborations between Sergio Leone, Clint Eastwood and Ennio Morricone (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly). Fans of this kind of odd subgenre will probably know that many Spaghetti westerns are not exactly masterpieces, and in fact quite a few of them seem to have been made simply to cash in on the box office phenomenon created (or at least encouraged) by Leone and Eastwood’s contributions. Two of the more successful films in this particular niche, though, both in terms of audience approval and just overall sensibility, are They Call Me Trinity from 1970 and its follow up, Trinity is Still My Name from 1971. This appealing duo is considerably lighter in tone than most of Leone’s oeuvre, offering Terence Hill as Trinity, a man with a name (so to speak), but a gunslinger who has a kind of amiably goofy personality, one which tends to make both Trinity films play a good deal more comically than The Man with No Name Trilogy. The films have had a somewhat spotty history in terms of home video releases, due perhaps in part to the fact that at least They Call Me Trinity reportedly lapsed into public domain status. Hen’s Tooth Video has now released both Trinity on films on Blu-ray for domestic consumption (there are evidently some previous global releases, none of which have received very good marks from videophiles), allowing longtime fans and new “initiates” to discover a somewhat different “take” on Spaghetti western tropes.

While Trinity is Still My Name has much of the same free wheeling charm that made They Call Me Trinity so generally enjoyable, there’s a noticeable dropoff in quality and especially narrative cohesion in this sequel. The film begins with an overlong sequence which seems to be aiming for almost Three Stooges levels of silliness, but which instead tends to play out as one of those too extended skits that often populate the last half hour or so of Saturday Night Live. In this case, Bambino (Bud Spencer) comes across some outlaws having a bit of a rest in the desert, and promptly fools them out of both their loot and their horses, while leaving one of the bad guys stupefied after Bambino punches him over the head. That is followed by Trinity (Terence Hill) showing up a few minutes later and basically repeating the scenario. It’s gently amusing, but it’s labored, something that continues to be an issue with Trinity is Still My Name.

This is a somewhat more vignette driven enterprise than the first film, and the next scene involves the admittedly humorous extended clan of Trinity and Bambino, including Harry Carey, Jr. as the boys’ father and a pulchritudinous Jessica Dublin as their blowsy mother, Farrah. Once again the bad guys from the first scene show up, only to be rapidly taken care of by Farrah, in just one example of how this film tends to plop down incidents only to whisk them away again just about as quickly.

The bad guys’ reappearance augurs a technique of utilizing running gags throughout this film, many of which tend to offer diminishing returns. When the boys’ father tries to get them to work together instead of squabbling all the time, the two decide to become a gang of sorts, though of course their first “victims” turn out to be a family in need, something that sparks the nobler instincts of both of them. The family has a beautiful young daughter (Yanti Somer) who becomes Trinity’s love interest in the film, though this outing like its predecessor is on the chaste side.

The film just kind of wanders from vignette to vignette, kind of like Trinity or Bambino stumbling through the desert, with the “ultimate” plot involving a monastery where all is not as it seems. Trinity is Still My Name continues to offer at least some of the baseline pleasures that the first film did, but it’s a decidedly more haphazard affair, one which tends to revisit some of the plot points of that first film (as so many sequels tend to do) without ever offering anything new. Hill and Spencer’s repartee is still probably the highlight of the film, and the two would go on to work together numerous times again over the subsequent years.

Trinity Is Still My Name! Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Trinity is Still My Name is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Hen's Tooth Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. This transfer offers many of the same attributes I mentioned in the They Call Me Trinity Blu-ray review, though perhaps ironically given the fact that this is at least a little more recent film, this particular element shows a bit more damage than that seen in the first film. As with the first film, it's obvious that there has been no real restoration work done here, meaning everything is in its "natural" state, for better and/or worse. There are still quite a few flecks, specks, scratches and other damage, but there are also a couple of curious blemishes that crop up toward the center of the frame that almost look like reel change markers except for their placement. There's also just a bit more image instability on display here, with what looks like a couple of misaligned frames snapping into place. The palette is generally quite nicely suffused, though it does have the same slightly faded look that the first film also had. Clarity and sharpness are also somewhat less generally pleasing than in the first film, with even some midrange shots not looking overly detailed. Grain is also arguably a bit more "chunky" looking in this transfer than on the first film.

Trinity Is Still My Name! Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Trinity is Still My Name features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track which, like the video element, is at least somewhat less pleasing than the track heard on the first film. There's some peculiar (and loud) popping going on, to the point that it almost sounds like someone tapping a microphone on a couple of occasions. There's also more prevalent hiss on this track than on the first film, and more noticeable (if still slight) distortion when amplitude is even slightly upped. That said, dialogue is generally clearly delivered, and effects and score are also decently rendered.

Trinity Is Still My Name! Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 3:52) has the same "stairstepping" anomalies on text as seen in the Trailer for They Call Me Trinity, but which is perhaps slightly less noticeable since some of the fonts in this trailer aren't as large.


• Photo Gallery (1080p; 1:07)

Trinity Is Still My Name! Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Trinity is Still My Name manages to coast by on the considerable charisma of Hill, as well as the frequently amusing interplay between Hill and Spencer, but narratively it's a pretty drastic step down from the already none too innovative first film, with a vignette driven screenplay that tends to miss about as frequently as it hits. Technical merits are less fulsome than on the first film, but fans of the film will probably be willing to overlook any shortcomings.