The Good, the Bad and The Ugly (International Cut v1.0)

Project Info:

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (TGTBATU) is my favorite film of all time and over the weekend I had a desire to watch the old International Cut/US Theatrical Cut. So, I popped in the 98 DVD and as I was watching, I lamented the fact it wasn't in HD.

So I decided to assemble the IC/TC so I could watch it in HD. I pulled out my old work, re-cutting the 4K to the IC/TC while re-grading to the Mondo's (the Italian Blu-ray restoration) colors. I wanted to use the 4K since it had the best detail and grain but in getting out the old files, I remember why I abandoned it. The 4K's picture is bad all around. Its not just the colors but the contrast, gamma, shadows, highlights....basically everything. So I went back to the Mondo and decided to use that as the main source. Although it has less detail then the 4K, the colors are vastly superior. The hard part, the audio, was already taken care by thehutt on the OT. He took his 4K mono soundtrack and synced it to the Mondo. That gave me an audio base to work with.

There is one problem. What cut represents the IC/TC? The 98 DVD/LD is itself a restoration of the film. Lil Brutto (Fanres' TGTBATU expert) found out in fact the 93 LD cut is in fact the truest version of the IC/TC.  Its shorter then the 98 version (itself a restoration), missing shots here and there. For example, close-ups of the bandits in the beginning, shots of Angel Eyes eating, shots from Tuco's gang sneaking up the stairs, shots from the Blondie hanging scene, shots from Tuco's bath, etc.

(I'll follow up this post with a cut list)

So the goal it to quickly throw together the 93 IC/TC using the Mondo, 4K and old Extended Edition BD and have it be a stop gap till the better TGTBATU project is released.

Video:
The Italian transfer from the Mondo BD cut down to sync with the 1993 laserdisc of the International/US Theatrical cut. Additional parts from the US 4K and older Extended Edition BD.

Audio:
The mono soundtrack from the 1993 laserdisc in PCM 2.0 format.

Pics:
MKV Pics (Final)


Thanks
Lil Brutto: for information on the various cuts and additional soundtracks
thehutt: for his original English audio sync to the Mondo.
Chewtobacco: for advice and additional video

This list reflects cuts made to the Mondo BD which is the Italian cut.

Cut List - Regular text is cuts to make the 98 and 93 versions, underlined is from the 93 version only

-Removed Italian credits and replaced with 4K's credits. Regraded 4K's credits to better match the Mondo (kept one Mondo shot)

-Removed shot of single gunfighter on horse in the intro. Remove close up of the two gunfighters

-Removed Italian "il brutto" title. Replaced with the 4K's English "The Ugly" shot and regraded to the Mondo's colors.

-Removed shots of Angel Eyes filling his bowl with food

-Removed shots of Angel Eyes eating

-Removed Italian "il cattivo" title. Replaced with the 4K's "The Bad" and regraded to the Mondo's colors.

-Kept extra shot of Blondie's gun after "rescuing" Tuco. Lil Brutto confirmed this was on the 98 LD but accidently left off the 98 DVD even though its the same master. Its on the 93 LD

-Kept "flip cut" transition from Tuco talking to Blondie to being hung.

-Removed Italian "Il buono" title. Replaced with the 4K's English "The Good" and regraded to the Mondo's colors.

-Removed shots of confederate soldiers leaving town. Removed shots of bandits sneaking up on Blondie. Removed shots of Blondie cleaning his gun

-Removed longer hold on Blondie when confronted by Tuco

-Removed shot of wall being destroyed by cannon fire

-Removed Angel Eyes's visit to the Confederate fort.

-Removed Blondie's and Tuco's interaction in the desert, where Tuco eats and taunts Blondie.

-Removed the Confederate guard post scene. The 98 and 93 masters have a longer fade in from black as the coach arrives at the monastery. I was originally going to use the 98 to recreate the longer fade in and although the DVD graded well to the Mondo (far better then the 4K), I ultimately used the Mondo and rebuilt the fade in. The DVD had too much damage (dirt, spots, hair) and too much EE to match the Mondo, even after upscaling.

-Kept fade out/fade in at the monastery from when Blondie passes out and Tuco is bringing him water.

-Removed additional dialogue scene in the coach between Blondie and Tuco.

-I re-cut the Mondo's arrangement of the "Tuco Torture" scene into its individual shots and rearranged them to match the IC/TC scene arrangement. I then added 6 shots from the old American Extended Edition that the Mondo was missing and regraded them to better match the Mondo's colors. I used the audio from the 4K and thehutt's audio restoration to sync the audio to the new arrangement.

-Removed Blondie meeting Angel Eyes' gang by the river. The shot of the train leaving the station is like the monastery fade in, it runs a little longer in the 98 and 93 version. Again rather then use the 98 DVD's shot, I recreated the cut using the Mondo and used the audio from the 98 DVD to better fit the images.

-Removed part of a shot of Tuco preparing his bath

-Removed the extra dialogue interaction between the Union commander and Blondie and Tuco.

-Removed extra scene extension of the Union commander moaning from his gun wounds.

-Removed extra scene extension of Blondie and Tuco setting up the dynamite on the bridge.

-Removed shot of Blondie chewing on his cigar while waiting for the bridge to blow-up

-Removed and replaced 4 shots from the Mondo with the old American Extended Edition's shots. This is the "Sorry Tuco" scene and not only that shot but the adjacent shots are different in the Mondo vs the 4K/98/93. Regraded to better match the Mondo's colors.

-Removed the end Italian il brutto, il cattivo, Il buono and replaced with the old American Extended Edition's The Ugly, The Bad and the Good. Regraded to better match the Mondo's colors.

-Removed Tuco's "Son Of A Bitch" Italian shot for the IC's version of the scene from the EE.

-Removed final Italian shot of Blondie riding off with the old American Extended Edition shot to get the English The End graphic. Regraded to better match the Mondo's colors.

-Removed restoration credits.

Interesting!  I did more or less exactly what you've done a while back and came to the same conclusions: it isn't worth using the 4k, and the Mondo is the better choice.  Detail isn't everything; color is more important to me.  I wasn't aware of the differences between the '98 DVD and '93 LD at the time though.

What concerned me was that the PCM had been cut to fit other transfers twice and had downmixed material inserted.  (It's not that there are lossy recompressions or anything: it's just that I'm a bit OCD about that sort of thing.)  I also came up against the little differences that you discovered and made similar decisions.  Ultimately, I decided that I'd rather make my own alternate cut but was tired of the sight of the film by then and deleted my files.

It's spooky that you posted this when you did. I very nearly watched my old DVD last night.  Kudos for making three versions!  

EDIT: Ah, this in the in progress section.  I missed that.

Cool! This should keep everyone on ice (including myself) until v1 of the 35mm preservation is released.

I haven't watched the Mondo BD in a LONG time so this will be a treat to watch. I'm leaning towards the 93 LD version since you can leave the PCM audio untouched.

^ I agree. As I've never seen that version, it's the one I'd be most likely to watch.

(2016-01-12, 07:36 PM)Chewtobacca Wrote: Interesting!  I did more or less exactly what you've done a while back and came to the same conclusions: it isn't worth using the 4k, and the Mondo is the better choice.  Details isn't everything; color is more important to me.  I wasn't aware of the differences between the '98 DVD and '93 LD at the time though.

What concerned me was that the PCM had been cut to fit other transfers twice and had downmixed material inserted.  (It's not that there are lossy recompressions or anything: it's just that I'm a bit OCD about that sort of thing.)  I also came up against the little differences that you discovered and made similar decisions.  Ultimately, I decided that I'd rather make my own alternate cut but was tired of the sight of the film by then and deleted my files.

It's spooky that you posted this when you did. I very nearly watched my old DVD last night.  Kudos for making three versions!  

EDIT: Ah, this in the in progress section.  I missed that.

Like minds, think alike.

You are right about detail vs colors, Chew. The Mondo is better overall then the 4K. I was able to match some of the shots from the 4K with the Mondo. There is the obviously difference in details and grain and maybe I should de-grain the 4K to match but I think it will be ok. The shots easiest to match are those in daylight since the 4K's grade at least has some leeway but the interior shots are a mess. Too dark and murky. I was able to get the Tuco torture shots close but not 100% where I like it. I might have to pull them from the old extended edition BD and re-grain those. It would only be a shot or two.

thehutt did work off a PCM capture I made from the 93 LD so he was in the lossless realm and most of the downmix matieral did get cut out in this edit, but I get your point.  I do have my 93 LD PCM capture and Lil Brutto's 98 LD PCM capture, so I can create fresh tracks for the 98 and 93 versions. In fact I'm beginning to feel that the 93 is the priority and the 98 second. I won't bother to put out the long version.

(2016-01-12, 08:18 PM)Lil Brutto Wrote: Cool! This should keep everyone on ice (including myself) until v1 of the 35mm preservation is released.

I haven't watched the Mondo BD in a LONG time so this will be a treat to watch. I'm leaning towards the 93 LD version since you can leave the PCM audio untouched.

Honestly, I consider this only a stopgap till the 35mm project is finished Lil Brutto. Hence the quick part. That's the version I really want to watch. And since I have the 98 LD's PCM you gave me I can create a track for the 98 also.

This project was born mostly as a matter of frustration at the lack of the IC/TC

(2016-01-12, 10:36 PM)Chewtobacca Wrote: ^ I agree.  As I've never seen that version, it's the one I'd be most likely to watch.

I completed the first two cuts (long and 98) but my personal goal was ultimately to get down to the 93 cut also. I figured might as well assemble the 98 (and the long cut) in the process. I had actually cut the 4K down to the 93 only to find out that it couldn't grade at all. Oh well. So it sounds like go with the 93 and 98. That way I can rebuild the soundtracks in PCM without too many edits.

(2016-01-13, 12:19 AM)PDB Wrote: I was able to get the Tuco torture shots close but not 100% where I like it.  I might have to pull them from the old extended edition BD and re-grain them.

I'll have a look through my archives.  I might have something better that you could use.  

Quote:That way I can rebuild the soundtracks in PCM without too many edits.

Why exactly would you need to edit the '93 PCM?  Obviously, there are the differences between the Italian cut and the others, but are there also many missing/additional frames?  I know that the Mondo and the first MGM BD differ greatly in terms of which frames they have and am curious to see how the former compares with '93 LD.

The Leone films are very peculiar in terms of frame-count.  There are usually a few missing/additional frames here and there when comparing two different releases, but the Leone films differ markedly.  When you scrub through the Mondo and the first MGM BD, they often change shots at the same point, but the frames within shots are out of sync.  In other words, when the two are are in sync, the shot-changes occur at different points, so they appear to be out of sync when scrubbing through the video.  It's bizarre.

I'm so looking forward to this, growing up was always the US theatrical cut for me. So the newly dubbed parts for the added scenes always bothered me since they obviously didn't match the younger versions of the guys. I was disappointed that all the editions after the dvd, didn't provide the theatrical cut. That's not to say i won't watch the other version, i just wannabe able to see this cut again.
So thank you PDB for taking on this project.

I also grew up with the US theatrical and the newly dubbed parts always messed me up. Granted, I loved seeing all the "extra" footage but it would have been nice if the voices would have a consistent sound to them. Maybe when technology improves a little they could be re-dubbed again using samples of their "original" voices (from the time of original release, that is) or I'm just a dreamer

Hey you never know, dream on Jerry, dream on.