Clint Eastwood Collection (1976)

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    The fairly generically-named Clint Eastwood Collection is a box set of 4 of Clint Eastwood's Westerns; The Outlaw Josey Wales, Bronco Billy, Pale Rider, and Unforgiven. The box set is presented as a gatefold package which includes the four discs and a cursory booklet which more-or-less replicates the back covers and chapter listings of the previously-released single disc versions of the movies, with one exception, which we'll come to shortly. The suggested retail price of $79.95 works out as considerably cheaper than purchasing the separate DVDs at $29.95 each, so if you have none of these movies and are interested in them, then this may well be right up your alley.

    Some specific comments about each of the above discs is in order with this package:

The Outlaw Josey Wales

    The disc included in this package is the remastered version of this DVD. We actually preferred the transfer afforded to the original release of this movie and felt that (most unusually) the remastered version was slightly inferior transfer-wise to the original release.

Bronco Billy

    This is the same dual-sided dual aspect ratio release as is currently available separately.

Pale Rider

    This is the same disc as is currently available separately.

Unforgiven

    The disc included for Unforgiven is Disc 1 of the two disc Unforgiven: 10th Anniversary Edition set. From a technical standpoint, this is excellent, as this transfer is FAR superior to the original single disc release of Unforgiven. It does, however, create a couple of anomalies; the back cover art in the booklet replicates the cover art from the original single disc release (whoops), and the disc itself promises "more extras on Disc 2" which is not included in this package.

    Notwithstanding the above minor quibbles, this package remains excellent value-for-money and is well worth considering if these movies hold any interest for you.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

The Outlaw Josey Wales (Remastered) (1976)

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General		Extras
Category	Western	Introduction-Clint Eastwood Listing-Cast & Crew Featurette-Eastwood In Action Featurette-Making Of-Hell Hath No Fury Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1976
Running Time	130:17
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (71:08)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Clint Eastwood
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Clint Eastwood Chief Dan George Geraldine Keams John Vernon Bill McKinney Paula Trueman Sondra Locke
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$34.95	Music	Jerry Fielding

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French Italian Dutch Arabic Spanish Portuguese German Romanian Bulgarian English for the Hearing Impaired Italian for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes, plus tobacco chewing
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    The Outlaw Josey Wales was made in 1976, when Westerns were distinctly out of favour with movie studios. Clint Eastwood convinced the studio to make it, and it succeeded, doing more than a little to resurrect the genre. Even so, this is not a typical Western, for several reasons. Perhaps the most obvious is its treatment of Native Americans - older Westerns (with the notable exception of Little Big Man) treated Native Americans as a natural hazard, like bears and cougars, rather than as people. This film is quite different in that respect - two of its central characters, and one of the more important lesser characters, are Native Americans (and played by real Native Americans), and none of them is a stereotype. One of them never speaks English - it is interesting to see an acknowledgment that not all Native Americans spoke English.

    Clint Eastwood makes the point in his introduction that this film is about war, and the evils that result from it. The war in question here is the American Civil War, and most of the film is set after the war, but dwells on evils that come to pass because of it.

    Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood, unsurprisingly) is a farmer, trying hard to scratch out a living in Missouri. He is neutral. The film opens with him ploughing some stony, unpromising, land. We see his son, and his wife in the distance. Clearly this is a loving family. Then a mob of raiding "redlegs" (they wear dull red gaiters) attack, killing his wife and child, and leaving Josey Wales with a long scar down the right side of his face. Wales buries his family, then starts practicing with a gun. There's a saying: "when you start out for vengeance, dig two graves" - he has just done so, but he put his wife and child into them. A group of men ride up, expressing sympathy by their stance rather than words. The redlegs are fighting for the Union, Wales learns, and so he joins this ramshackle bunch fighting for the Confederacy. The credits roll over scenes of them fighting.

    As you may recall, the Confederacy lost that war. The bunch is offered amnesty if they'll swear allegiance to the Union. All but Josey Wales accept the offer, carried to them by their leader, a man called Fletcher (John Vernon). Josey Wales is declared outlaw, because of his refusal. He must flee, pursued by the very redlegs who killed his family, led by Captain Terrill (Bill McKinney). As he flees, he collects a group of misfits who tag along, even though he doesn't want them. The first is an old Indian (enough of the politically correct "Native American"), called Lone Watie (Chief Dan George - obvious casting!). The second is a young Indian woman called Little Moonlight (Geraldine Keams).

    Josey Wales is an interesting man, with some strong internal conflicts. He is grateful for the simplicity of a gunfight, because it means he can simply react, and he is very good at that. He is driven into situations he doesn't want, where he is protecting innocents - having lost his own family he does not want further responsibility. He is a believable character, and a strong man. He has one unattractive trait: he chews tobacco, and spits the resulting juice (at some interesting targets).

    Despite being made during the Sondra Locke years (a dark period in Clint's career) she doesn't adversely affect the film - her part is small enough that even she can pull it off.

    This story has many elements, including some interesting thoughts on the subject of family, on vengeance, and on forgiveness. It may be cast as a Western, but the themes are universal. You could picture a Star Wars film made with a similar plot.

    Oh, an afterthought: the cover of this new version is part of the Clint Eastwood collection - I like the way these discs have consistent covers - I'm tempted to shelve them together.

Video

    This movie is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The image is beautifully sharp and clear with excellent shadow detail and no low level noise. There are some occasional touches of grain, though.

    Colour starts off quite muted. During the credits, when we're seeing the battle sequences in the Civil War, the picture is filmed in blue monochrome. Colour picks up from there, and seems to grow as the movie continues. The last hour or so is in full colour. This is an interesting effect, and one I am sure is deliberate, because it parallels the development of Josey Wales' extended "family".

    There are some traces of aliasing, but this is not the predominant artefact. There is no background shimmer at all, which is impressive. The sad thing is the very high level of minor film artefacts - there are constant flecks, blobs, and small hairs. There are larger film artefacts, too - there's a noticeable white fleck in the centre of the screen at 21:17, a white blob at 22:49, a white hair at 30:32, and even scuff marks at 70:09. Much more noticeable is the blue wash that covers the bottom third of the screen at 58:23 (frame 9, to be precise).

    Subtitles are provided in ten languages, plus captions in English and Italian - I checked both the English subtitles and captions. They are white with a black border, making them easy to read. They are accurate and well-timed.

    The disc is single-sided and dual-layered (RSDL-formatted). The layer change is at 71:08, and it's only obvious because the wind stops for a moment - there's no movement on screen at the time; the camera is pointing at blue sky.

    Apart from the film artefacts, this is not a bad transfer. This film deserves better - it deserves a full restoration.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are three soundtracks - the main soundtrack in English Dolby Digital 5.1, and French and Italian in mono. I listened to the English soundtrack.

    Dialogue is easy to understand. Audio sync is perfect. There's no problem at all picking up the moments of wry humour in the script.

    Jerry Fielding has produced a score that is well suited to this film. There are quite a few passages without music, and that feels right. Where there is music, it builds the atmosphere and tension. Nice work.

    The soundtrack offers some directional sound, but the surrounds aren't heavily used for things other than ambience and backing up the score. The subwoofer is used to support the score, and to back up the many gunshots.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The main menu is static and silent, but it is clear and easy to use - that's always good. The picture behind the menu is razor sharp.

Special Introduction by Clint Eastwood (0:44)

    This is another way to show Clint Eastwood's introduction to the film. Given that it is in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, not 16x9 enhanced, this makes more sense than having it at the start of the movie - when you're about to watch the movie you are probably set up for 16x9 enhanced viewing.

Cast and Crew

    A single page listing cast and crew - nothing more.

Featurette - Eastwood in Action (7:56)

    A short making of made at the time the film was made. It is interesting to watch. It is in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, not 16x9 enhanced. A little grainy, but not bad.

Featurette - Hell Hath No Fury (29:16)

    This is a much more recent making of documentary, made in 1999. The personnel involved are a lot older, and it shows. It provides some interesting information on Eastwood's style of directing, and some insights into how this film has been received over the years since it was made.

Theatrical Trailer (2:11)

    This is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced - it is in excellent condition.

    I do not have the original Region 4 disc, so I cannot compare it to this one, but I gather it offered no extras at all.

    Relative to the Region 1, the Region 4 disc is missing:

• cast and crew bios (from the same Cast and Crew page)
• Adapting the Novel - notes
• Casting - notes
• Shooting the Picture - notes
• trailers for eleven other films
• reel recommendations, including four more trailers for other films

    The Region 1 disc is missing:

• Italian soundtrack
• several languages of subtitles
• Eastwood in Action featurette
• Hell Hath no Fury featurette
• Introduction by Eastwood

    The notes are interesting, but the featurettes are more interesting. If you really like trailers, though, you have to prefer the R1.

    There are at least as many film artefacts in the R1 transfer, and it's not as sharp and clear. Direct comparison of the two leads me to recommend the R4, despite its flaws.

    This is a great film, presented imperfectly on DVD.

    The video quality is flawed by continual film artefacts, but otherwise is quite good.

    The audio quality is rather good.

    The extras are pretty good.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Bronco Billy (1980)

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General		Extras
Category	Western	Main Menu Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	1980
Running Time	111:38 (Case: 116)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Sided	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Clint Eastwood
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Clint Eastwood Geoffrey Lewis Scatman Crothers Bill McKinney Sam Bottoms Dan Vadis Sierra Pecheur Sondra Locke
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$34.95	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Full Frame	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French Italian Dutch Arabic Spanish Portuguese German Romanian Bulgarian English for the Hearing Impaired Italian for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Bronco Billy is a gently melancholy film. It's about a group of misfits scratching out a living running a Wild West show. It was made in 1980, and there is one thing that locks it into that time (no, I'm not going to tell you, because it would spoil the plot), but apart from that it could be happening today.

    Bronco Billy McCoy (Clint Eastwood) is slightly deranged (I just realised what a dreadful pun that is, given that he is a cowboy without a ranch - sorry 'bout that) - he lives a cowboy ethos that never really existed outside of movies. His companions Doc Lynch (Scatman Crothers), Lefty Lebow (Bill McKinney), Lasso Leo James (Sam Bottoms), Chief Big Eagle (Dan Vadis) and Lorraine Running Water (Sierra Pecheur) are more aware of the real world, but they humour him out of real affection and out of a lack of alternatives. They travel from town to town, putting on their show, and hoping to make enough money to be able to buy a ranch.

    Sondra Locke (yup, this movie comes from that era of Clint's films) plays (or tries to) Antoinette Lily, an heiress who must marry before her thirtieth birthday. She chooses to marry John Arlington (Geoffrey Lewis), but he deserts her on their wedding night. She's left without anything but her nightgown and robe. She runs into Bronco Billy while she's trying to get a dime so she can phone home for money. Through a strange sequence of events she doesn't get in touch, and her greedy step-mother (Beverlee McKinsey) and her lawyer (William Prince) arrange for her to be declared dead. She hates the circumstances she's in, and she takes it out on the people around her. She despises Bronco Billy and his troupe. But her problems go further than that. It is very hard to feel sorry for her, but whether that's because of the character, or Sondra Locke's "acting", is something I can't tell.

    Bronco Billy's car is quite something - it has "six-guns" for door handles. Beautifully appropriate to the character. I also like the fact that when he says grace at an orphanage, he hopes the children will be kept from hard liquor and cigarettes, rather than drugs - he is definitely living in the wrong century.

    There are some amusing elements, such as the continual search for an assistant for Bronco Billy for example. But these moments are counterbalanced by the sadness of their struggles to make ends meet. It's not maudlin, but it gets close. It is quite an interesting study of what happens when a mythic cowboy ethos is confronted with today's realities. It also concerns itself with hope, and dream fulfilment.

    If you are looking for a Clint Eastwood "man with no name" Western movie, you should keep looking. If you are looking for something rather different from Clint Eastwood, then I suggest you consider this one - it is quite a different movie from his usual work.

Video

    This film is presented on a double-sided disc, with a wide-screen version version on one side, and a pan-and-scan version on the other. I watched the wide-screen version, which is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced, and sampled the pan-and-scan version (1.33:1, not 16x9 enhanced). The back cover is a tad misleading, in that it claims both sides are 1.85:1, but at least it accurately describes side A as 4x3, and side B as 16x9. This film, unlike the majority of Clint Eastwood's Westerns, was made for an aspect ratio of 1.85:1. There are no obvious framing errors in the minor cropping that takes it to 1.78:1.

    The picture is quite sharp, but there is a lot of light film grain overlaying it. Shadow detail is very good indeed, and there's no low level noise.

    Colour is very good. Beautifully vivid colours, without any over saturation or colour bleed.

    There are some tiny film artefacts, but they are barely visible - the only notable one was the insect at 1:14. There are many instances of aliasing, but they are all small and momentary. There's no moiré artefacting, and no MPEG errors either, but there's some very light background shimmer.

    There are subtitles in ten languages, plus both English and Italian for the Hearing Impaired. I looked at both sets of English subtitles. They are easy to read, accurate, and well-timed.

    The disc is double-sided, single-layer on both sides. That means that there is no layer change, but it also means that there's very little room for extras.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are three soundtracks, in English, French, and Italian. I only listened to the English. It's Dolby Digital 2.0, surround encoded.

    The dialogue is clear and comprehensible, even with the assortment of American accents. There are no audio sync issues.

    The score is basically a sequence of country and Western songs. They're well suited to the film, with their melancholy tones.

    The subwoofer gets nothing to do, and the surrounds are not used for any directional sound, they provide a little depth to the sound, that is all.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There are no extras. The back cover claims Interactive Menus and Scene Access as special features - hmm.

Menu

    The main menu is static, with some theme music behind it.

    The Region 1 version of this disc is dual ratio, too. I have found two sources, one of which claims the R1 is 16x9 enhanced, the other claims it is not. If it is 16x9 enhanced, then there's nothing between the two. If it is not 16x9 enhanced, then the choice is easy: get the R4.

    Perhaps you are better off getting the R4 disc, because at least you know what you are getting.

    A gentle film, presented rather well on DVD.

    The video is rather good.

    The audio is quite good.

    The extras are missing.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Pale Rider (1985)

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General		Extras
Category	Western	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1985
Running Time	111:01
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Clint Eastwood
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Clint Eastwood Michael Moriarty Carrie Snodgress Christopher Penn Richard Dysart Sydney Penny Richard Kiel Doug McGrath John Russell
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$29.95	Music	Lennie Niehaus

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French Italian Dutch Arabic Spanish Portuguese German English for the Hearing Impaired Italian for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, in credits

    Pale Rider is your fairly typical story of a mysterious stranger riding into town to help the good townsfolk to overthrow the shackles of oppression from the local head honcho. Just your typical western really, but I suppose you want a little more than that, so here goes. A small mining village finds itself at the mercy of the local mining entrepreneur Coy LaHood (Richard Dysart) who wants their canyon to extend his mining operation. In order to persuade the community to give up and leave the canyon, the henchmen conduct a little raid on the village, wrecking homes and shooting a few innocent animals. After the raid, local miner Hull Barret (Michael Moriarty) heads to the local township to collect some materials to repair the damage. Whilst there he has an altercation with a few of the said henchmen and is only saved from certain serious injury by the timely intervention of the said mysterious stranger, known as the Preacher (Clint Eastwood). The Preacher returns to the village with Hull, where his presence restores the confidence of the beleaguered townsfolk. LaHood meets with the Preacher and offers to buy out the townsfolk to the tune of $1,000 per head, but the village votes no and vows to resist LaHood. In the end it boils down to the Preacher facing the hired henchmen of LaHood, and despite overwhelming odds, the Preacher emerges triumphant (hey, it is a western and it is Clint Eastwood, so the outcome was about as predictable as politicians lying). Add in a romantic sub-plot or two and you have your basic western packaged ready for viewing.

    Which is not to say that there is nothing to enjoy here - far from it, for it is a comfortable enough story. This is the sort of stuff that Clint Eastwood knocks together in his sleep, and this definitely comes across as very good quality B-grade film making. You either love or hate Clint Eastwood in this sort of role, and the rest of the cast do a decent enough job supporting him. As a director though, Eastwood is becoming quite adept, and this shows some early indications of his style. Overall, not too bad a film for two hours of entertainment, but it does make an interesting comparison with Silverado, released in the same year.

Video

    Presented in a aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and it is 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is a little variable, perhaps reflecting its age, but is generally sharp throughout and has good definition to it. It is not however an exceptionally clear transfer, and it is a quite dark transfer - at times I found it too dark and detail was lost as a result. The darkness has at times contributed to a lack of definition, with no real separation between foreground and background details. Shadow detail was decent enough at times, although it did on a few too many occasions lapse to being quite poor. There did not appear to be any low level noise problems with the transfer.

    The colours come up quite nicely rendered, although there was a degree of variability to the vibrancy at times. Some of the scenery came up very vibrant, nicely saturated indeed, whilst other portions of the film came up quite muted. At times there was a lack of contrast in the colours, which again contributed to a lack of foreground/background definition. I felt that this should have come up a lot more vibrant than it did overall.

   There were no apparent MPEG artefacts. There appeared to be minor film-to-video artefacts in the form of very minor aliasing a couple of times through the film. There was also a small amount of wobble during the end credits. Film artefacts were a bit of a problem during the film, but no more than I was expecting in a film of this vintage..

Audio

   There are three audio tracks on the DVD: the default English Dolby Digital 5.1, a French Dolby Digital 1.0 and an Italian Dolby Digital 1.0 soundtrack. I listened to the English default.

    The dialogue was clear and easy to understand at all times.

    There did not appear to be any audio sync problems with the transfer.

    The musical score by Lennie Niehaus is not especially memorable but is suitably western in style, and contributes well to the overall flow of the movie.

    This is a very nicely detailed and well balanced soundtrack, with some gorgeous detail out of the rear channels (just listen to the flowing stream in the rears earlier on in the film) that provide wonderful ambience. The overall soundscape is very natural sounding and very believable, and you feel a part of the soundscape throughout. The bass channel gets very little use, other than to support some of the explosions (and we are not talking audio demonstration here at all).

Menu

• Pan and Scan version of film
• Production notes
• Theatrical trailers

    The overall video quality is fairly good, but with problems.

    A very good audio transfer.

    Extras? Nope!

    A brief suggestion for Warners - can you at least get your cover designers to use font colours that stand out against the background picture on the cover? It is extremely difficult to read portions of the rear cover of this effort. (Ed. The back cover artwork has been redone and addresses this issue).

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Unforgiven: 10th Anniversary Edition (1 disc edition) (1992)

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General		Extras
Category	Western	Main Menu Audio Listing-Cast & Crew Audio Commentary Awards Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1992
Running Time	125:19
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (64:04)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Clint Eastwood
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Clint Eastwood Gene Hackman Morgan Freeman Richard Harris
Case	Gatefold
RPI	Box	Music	Lennie Niehaus

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French Italian Dutch Arabic Spanish Portuguese German Romanian Bulgarian English for the Hearing Impaired Italian for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes, it is a Western, after all
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Spaghetti Westerns have an interesting history to them, especially given that the term "Spaghetti Western" was coined by American critics as a put-down for the Western films that were produced in Italy. However, audiences became tired of the formulaic John Wayne approach, and Italian films such as Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo heralded a new philosophy towards recreating the bad old days of colonial America. No one has ever used widescreen ratios in a more dynamic manner than Sergio Leone, and the unflinching approach to depicting violence has ensured a place for the Dollars trilogy in cinematic history. All this is relevant because if it weren't for those three ground-breaking films, there's a good chance that Hollywood may never have heard of a rugged actor by the name of Clint Eastwood.

    So, twenty-eight years after he made a career-making decision to appear in Per Un Pugno Di Dollari, Clint Eastwood decided to make a homage to the Spaghetti Westerns by making one of his own. Unforgiven follows much of the same style as the Italian-made Westerns, in that it features an utterly bleak, ugly look at colonial America which few American directors would dare to put on the screen, especially in today's political climate. David Webb Peoples' script revolves around a whorehouse in the town of Big Whiskey. One of the staff there has made the unfortunate mistake of laughing at a customer, who in turn has taken offence and slashed her face apart, which prompts the other women in said establishment to put a bounty on the man's head.

    William Munny (Clint Eastwood) used to be a gunslinger, but he retired, got married, and started up a farm, which didn't go all that well since the story finds Munny with a shortage of funds and his wife dead from smallpox. Naturally, he needs money to feed himself and his two children, so when he hears from a young upstart calling himself the Schofield Kid (Jaimz Woolvett) of the bounty being offered, he takes his friend Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman) with him in an effort to collect. Together, the three of them travel across colonial America while Big Whiskey's sheriff, Little Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman) is doing everything in his power to discourage bounty hunters from coming to his town more out of social prejudice than any good reason. His measures requiring people to turn in all guns to the deputies whilst in town are merrily ignored to the detriment of a lot of gunslingers, including one English Bob (Richard Harris).

    It's a pretty simple plot, granted, but it works well because of the manner in which beautiful scenery and well-crafted characters are used to draw the viewer into it. It ain't the fourth episode in the Dollars trilogy, and it isn't the greatest Western ever made, but it was well worthy of the four Academy Awards that it won, and a rare example of a worthy winner at that. The end credits even contain a dedication to Sergio Leone and Don Siegel, two exceptionally important people in Eastwood's career - I cannot think of a better thing to dedicate to anyone than one of the best films ever made in America.

Video

    Sergio Leone's influence is also easily apparent in Clint Eastwood's shots, with one of Anna Levine and Eastwood himself in conversation at 84:45 looking like it was patterned after A Fistful Of Dollars without being lifted straight out of that film.

    As you would expect of a transfer of a film that has been influenced by the great Sergio Leone, Unforgiven is presented in the proper aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and it is 16x9 Enhanced.

    This transfer is unrelentingly sharp, occasionally to its own detriment (more about this in a moment), with a certain harsh, glaring look that beautifully reflects the desolate colonial landscape. The shadow detail is fairly ordinary - most of the night sequences appear to have been shot with whatever light was available, such as a flaming torch, and this limits the discernable detail in dark sequences, albeit in quite a random and artistic manner. No low-level noise was noticed during the transfer.

    The colours in this transfer are well-saturated, with a rich palette of greens and browns giving the overall look of the film a certain oil-painting quality, a touch that reminds us all of why we bought DVD players in the first place. No composite artefacts or smearing was in evidence.

    MPEG artefacts were not noticed at all in this transfer; gone, in fact, is the grainy, pixelated look of certain outdoor night-time sequences that sullied the original single-layer version of this disc. In its place we have a smooth, clean, detailed transfer that, while not perfect, renders the film in the manner that I spent much of my previous review crying that it deserved. Film-to-video artefacts, unfortunately, are where the transfer comes unstuck, with guns and hats in particular bringing up some very distracting and annoying aliasing. Hats were the worst offender, with examples of hats showing up the interlaced nature of the format at 32:44, 34:48, 44:31, 86:34, 88:10, and 99:22. This was by no means the limit of the aliasing on hats in the transfer either, but the one at 86:34 was quite notable for a combined aliasing effect on a gun and a hat. Whether this is directly related to the sharpness of the transfer or not is unclear, but it is a terrible disappointment. Film artefacts were occasionally present in the transfer, but no more than one would normally expect from a ten year old film.

    English for the Hearing Impaired subtitles are present on this DVD. They contain frequent subtle variations from the spoken dialogue, but they are more than serviceable if a general, rather than total, understanding of the dialogue is required. Italian for the Hearing Impaired subtitles are also available, although I did not test these.

    This disc is RSDL formatted, with the layer change taking place between Chapters 16 and 17, at 64:04. This is in the scene change just before Gene Hackman says "Give these keys to the conductor", and while it is noticeable, it doesn't interrupt the flow too much.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    It appears that Warner Home Video have also gone right back to the mastering stage with the soundtrack, creating a new one that is much more immersive and theatrical than the previous Region 4 DVD.

    A total of four soundtracks are on this DVD. The first, and default, soundtrack is the original English dialogue in Dolby Digital 5.1 at 384 kilobits per second. The other three soundtracks, all encoded in Dolby Digital 2.0 with surround-encoding and a 192 kilobit per second bitrate, are a French dub, an Italian dub, and an English Audio Commentary. Out of sheer perversity, and because my girlfriend is Italian, I listened to both English soundtracks and the Italian dub.

    The dialogue is clear and easy to understand at all times, even during sequences where it shouldn't be, such as when our three heroes are riding into Big Whiskey during a storm. No audio sync problems were noted, except during the Italian soundtrack, when the audio sync took on more of a For A Few Dollars More feel, naturally.

    The score music in this film is credited to Lennie Niehaus, with an additional cue called Claudia's Theme by none other than Clint Eastwood. The score music is not as powerful or dramatic as some other Clint Eastwood Westerns I could name, but it fits the visuals well, and it keeps the appropriate sense of irony and sorrow in the scenes where it is most needed.

    The surround channels are constantly and aggressively used throughout the film to provide a wider soundstage for rain, gunshots, insects, and just about any other noise you'd care to name that one would hear around rural America. Directional effects such as placing a cricket in the right surround channel at 22:56 were occasionally used, and birds could be heard flying around the surround channels at 81:17. Overall, this is a tremendous improvement over the front-centric mix that appeared on the original Region 4 DVD (oh, those were early days, my friend).

    The subwoofer was used sparingly to support the sounds of thunder and gunfire. Although it was called into action surprisingly few times in the film, it did jump in without calling attention to itself.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    Another complaint about the original Region 4 Unforgiven was that there was an appalling lack of extras for such a well-regarded, landmark film. This release has fixed that.

Menu

    The menu is static, and accompanied by Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. It is 16x9 Enhanced.

Audio Commentary - Richard Schickel (Clint Eastwood biographer & film critic)

    This audio commentary is not the best I have ever heard, and it could have benefited enormously from the participation of other speakers, preferably Clint himself or someone else who worked on the film (or both). It does confirm some of my pet theories about how the film was lit, but the frequent pauses and statements of what should be self-evident to any intelligent viewer of the film limit the interest factor.

Cast & Crew Listing

    This is only a listing of the four leads and the director at that, which is a poor effort.

Awards List

    This six page listing goes through all of the awards that Unforgiven has won since 1992.

Theatrical Trailer

    This one minute and fifty-three second trailer is presented in the aspect ratio of 2.35:1, 16x9 Enhanced, with Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded audio. It has received a transfer that is of slightly better quality than the film, although the jump-cutting makes it hard to tell how aliasing-prone it really is.

    Unforgiven has been re-released as a two disc 10th Anniversary Edition, which is essentially equivalent to the Region 1 version. This single disc variant is simply Disc 1 of the aforementioned two disc set and is the disc included in the Clint Eastwood Collection, a box set which also includes The Outlaw Josey Wales, Bronco Billy, and Pale Rider. If you wish, you can read my review of the two disc set here.

    Unforgiven proves that even in Hollywood's money-oriented studio system, it is possible to make something beautiful. Everything about the film answers the question of how some timeless classics would look or sound if they were made using relatively modern techniques. As simple and straightforward as the plot is, one can never get tired of seeing it play out when the beautiful sound design and cinematography are allowed to take effect.

    The video transfer could have been of reference quality if not for all the aliasing.

    The audio transfer is excellent, and borders upon reference quality.

    The extras are a bit light on, and the commentary is a bit boring.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall