The Good, the Bad & the Ugly (Extended Version Collector's Edition) (DVD)

If there was ever any doubt why DVDs have become so popular the answer seems to arrive all the time in forms of older movies being restored and brought to life on special edition DVDs and with Sergio Leone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly you get one hell of a prime example.

This is more than just an epic spaghetti western film, this is a piece of film history, which you can actually watch several times in a row looking for different things and you will find ways in which this film has inspired some of today's biggest filmmakers, most prominently Quentin Tarantino and his recent Kill Bill series of films, he is even quoted on the packaging saying this is "the best directed movie of all time," and it won't take you long to see or hear just how Tarantino was influenced as you become immersed in broad landscapes cut quicly to close-ups all dressed up with a one of a kind soundtrack.

The digital restoration of the film is magnificent as it now includes 18 minutes of rarely seen footage and has been returned to the original cut Sergio Leone would have wanted it to always have been seen in.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly follows Blondie (Clint Eastwood) and Tuco (Eli Wallach), two gunmen who respect each other professionally but despise one another personally, as they encounter a group of dying Civil War soldiers and learn of a buried Confederate treasure and as Tuco learns the location of the graveyard in which it is buried Blondie learns the exact grave. The two then set out in search of the gold not knowing they are also soon to be joined by the mercenary drifter Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef).

This film is more than just about enjoying the story and action, but it is an actual celebration of directorial style and the special features pay a lot of tribute to Leone's way of directing, starting with the feature-length commentary by Film Historian Richard Schickel, who also comments on a lot of the special featurettes on disc two. While this commentary is interesting I will have to warn you that this is a 3-hour film and you had better be ready if you plan to listen the whole way through, if you aren't flip to disc two and get your goods there and save the commentary for a day when you have a little more time, because you are going to need it.

Off to disc two we go were you are going to get seven special features, all of which range from about 10-20 minutes long and are very well done.

The first is called "Leone's West", which is a "making-of" documentary that involves a lot of commentary focused on things you would expect in a making-of featurette including acting, casting, directing, dubbing, looping and more and it is extremely interesting, especially since the original film was featured in Italian and dubbed to English, which you will see was not the easiest task in the world.

Next up you have the "Leone Style", which is pretty much self explanatory, but it is interesting to listen to certain people's take on his directorial style especially the long sequences he shoots, such as the 43 second showdown at the end of the film. This segment is as much as a commentary on Leone as it is a learning tool for studying other directors. So pay attention and maybe while you are watching the film again you will pick up on things you didn't see the first time, and maybe in other films you will do the same. You will be amazed at how much more is there if you actually know what to look for.

"The Man Who Lost the Civil War" documentary is simply a 15-minute documentary that sets out to prove that the time period Leone set his film in relation to the Civil War and what was going on actually did make sense and wasn't historically inaccurate. Now I couldn't really care less about this, but for those of you that have to have everything "just so" this one is for you.

I already told you that the film looks great, but the special feature "Reconstructing The Good, the Bad & the Ugly" goes into depth on how they cleaned up the film and the audio, and how they decided what was going to go back in and what was going to stay out. This is also a good lead in to the Deleted Scenes on the disc, which is really one extended scene, one deleted scene and the French Trailer.

The extended scene is of the Tuco Torture Scene, and in its full version it is about seven minutes long, but the additional footage was not put back into the film because it just looked too bad, but they put it all back here for you. Next the actual "deleted" scene is called "The Socorro Sequence: A Reconstruction" and this pretty much describes a lost scene of which they have descriptions of and a minimal amount of footage so it pieces the scene together using descriptions and what footage they have to give you a reconstructed version of what would have been if it had been possible to put it all together. It is actually really cool and almost plays like a silent movie of sorts, you will definitely enjoy it and the chance to use a bit of imagination. The final piece is the French trailer, which is included because it shows some alternate angles and scenes cut from the theatrical releases.

The final featurette available is a focus on composer Ennio Morricone called "Il Maestro: Ennio Morricone and The Good, the Bad & the Ugly". This was probably my least favorite section and it even got worse at the end as there are an additional 15 minutes of "audio only" commentary that really pushes it over the edge into the "too much information" category, but it is important because Leone and Morricone were considered two excellent collaborators when it came to film and the music associated with it, so it is worth a once over, but you can skip the second part if you feel you have had enough.

Also available is the theatrical trailer, which is cool to see, and a gallery of the posters for the film from around the world, which is cool but unnecessary since mini-prints are included with the set that way outshine looking at them on the TV screen.

That's right, I almost forgot along with the collector's edition of this film you also get five prints of the theatrical posters from Japan, Germany, US, France and Italy. These are really cool and a definite must have for any movie lover. On top of that the box that the film comes in is really cool as well and looks great on the shelf.

I recommend this to any classic movie lover, western lover, Eastwood lover, and so on. This is one great example of how collector's editions should be presented and proves that studios are finally learning that these collector's editions can't just be some fancy packaging with nothing on the inside. The last few collector's editions I have bought and reviewed have been a step above what they were only a year ago and I only anticipate them getting better.