Duck, You Sucker (Fistful of Dynamite) (1971)
Giù la testa
Western • 2h 37m
Overview
At the beginning of the 1913 Mexican Revolution, greedy bandit Juan Miranda and idealist John H. Mallory, an Irish Republican Army explosives expert on the lam from the British, fall in with a band of revolutionaries plotting to strike a national bank. When it turns out that the government has been using the bank as a hiding place for illegally detained political prisoners -- who are freed by the blast -- Miranda becomes a revolutionary hero against his will.
Director: Sergio Leone
Cast: Rod Steiger, James Coburn, Romolo Valli, Maria Monti, Rik Battaglia, Franco Graziosi, Antoine Saint-John, Vivienne Chandler, David Warbeck, Giulio Battiferri, Poldo Bendandi, Omar Bonaro, Roy Bosier, John Frederick, Amato Garbini, Michael Harvey, Biagio La Rocca, Furio Meniconi, Nazzareno Natale, Vincenzo Norvese, Stefano Oppedisano, Memè Perlini, Goffredo Pistoni, Renato Pontecchi, Jean Rougeul, Corrado Solari, Antonio Casale, Benito Stefanelli, Franco Tocci, Rosita Torosh, Aldo Sambrell, Florencio Amarilla, Sergio Calderón, Simon van Collem, Paolo Figlia, Alberigo Donadeo, Tony Casale, Romano Milani, Luigi Tripodi, Claudio Mancini, Riccardo Pizzuti, Franco Ukmar, Antonio Montoya, Freddy Logart
251 min cut (Extended): Fox Blu-ray. Eagle Pictures has forced Italian subs in some parts
Eagle Pictures 4K Blu-ray, caps
The 4K includes both theatrical and extended cuts. It's overall a solid upgrade over previous discs, but some will strongly dislike the color grading.
There are some issues with encoding and grain management.
Nic's review:
Some definitely messed with it as there’s grain management going on that resulted in magnetic, squishy grain movement. Both cuts (4K discs) are affected and it doesn’t look like an encoding issue to me as the bitrates don’t drop down to single digits á la Paramount or StudioCanal. During opticals, the lowest I’ve noted on the Extended 4K was around 30 MB/s vs. ~5 MB/s more for the theatrical cut.
Darker scenes are mostly (but not always) better but when it gets brighter, particularly in exteriors or scenes like the Jennifer Connelly dance scene at minute 38, I can’t unsee the digital tinkering as it does some damage texturally.
I compared it with the Eagle Pictures and Warner Bros Fox Blu-ray of the extended cut and they all look fine without grain management like that. Eagle Pictures’s Blu-ray is an older one if anyone’s curious and credited to another authoring house than 64Biz, which did the 4K.
Other than that, except for some encoding-related chroma noise that peeks through in the DV layer, Eagle Pictures did everything right. They corrected the framing to 1.85, kept the original English titles, the English restoration note, subtitles, HDR/DV is gentle and respectful of the source black levels are better than on the Warner Bros/Fox Blu-ray. Without that grain management, this would’ve been the all-timer release we all longed for.
251 min cut: Fox Blu-ray (24-bit, Eagle Pictures is 16-bit, not audible)
229 min cut: Warner Bros LaserDisc (missing 2 minutes, but original mono mix was never released on DVD/Blu-ray)
Extended edition adds scenes cut from the theatrical, but from a much lower quality source. It's intended to approximate the original cut, but to what extent that is true is debatable.
US theatrical cut is infamously bad, was panned at release and never re-released on home video.
251 min cut (Extended): Fox Blu-ray. Eagle Pictures has forced Italian subs in some parts
Eagle Pictures 4K Blu-ray, caps
The 4K includes both theatrical and extended cuts. It's overall a solid upgrade over previous discs, but some will strongly dislike the color grading.
There are some issues with encoding and grain management.
Nic's review:
Some definitely messed with it as there’s grain management going on that resulted in magnetic, squishy grain movement. Both cuts (4K discs) are affected and it doesn’t look like an encoding issue to me as the bitrates don’t drop down to single digits á la Paramount or StudioCanal. During opticals, the lowest I’ve noted on the Extended 4K was around 30 MB/s vs. ~5 MB/s more for the theatrical cut.
Darker scenes are mostly (but not always) better but when it gets brighter, particularly in exteriors or scenes like the Jennifer Connelly dance scene at minute 38, I can’t unsee the digital tinkering as it does some damage texturally.
I compared it with the Eagle Pictures and Warner Bros Fox Blu-ray of the extended cut and they all look fine without grain management like that. Eagle Pictures’s Blu-ray is an older one if anyone’s curious and credited to another authoring house than 64Biz, which did the 4K.
Other than that, except for some encoding-related chroma noise that peeks through in the DV layer, Eagle Pictures did everything right. They corrected the framing to 1.85, kept the original English titles, the English restoration note, subtitles, HDR/DV is gentle and respectful of the source black levels are better than on the Warner Bros/Fox Blu-ray. Without that grain management, this would’ve been the all-timer release we all longed for.
251 min cut: Fox Blu-ray (24-bit, Eagle Pictures is 16-bit, not audible)
229 min cut: Warner Bros LaserDisc (missing 2 minutes, but original mono mix was never released on DVD/Blu-ray)
Extended edition adds scenes cut from the theatrical, but from a much lower quality source. It's intended to approximate the original cut, but to what extent that is true is debatable.
US theatrical cut is infamously bad, was panned at release and never re-released on home video.
Arrow 4K Blu-ray > Kino Lorber, see caps https://slow.pics/c/P4E9uTHR
Arrow 4K Blu-ray for English dub, Kino Lorber 2017 Blu-ray for Italy dub
Arrow 4K Blu-ray > Kino Lorber, see caps https://slow.pics/c/P4E9uTHR
Arrow 4K Blu-ray for English dub, Kino Lorber 2017 Blu-ray for Italy dub
Arrow 4K Blu-ray > Kino Lorber, see caps
1984 Key Video Hi-Fi VHS
Arrow 4K Blu-ray > Kino Lorber, see caps
1984 Key Video Hi-Fi VHS
Director: Sergio Leone
Arrow's English mono is from the soundtrack negatives, with light noise reduction but still the highest quality anywhere. The main title is restored from the 1985 LaserDisc analog mono.
The 1985 CBS/Fox LaserDisc for untouched English mono despite element defects and an incomplete print used. The main title on this LaserDisc is the highest quality version known to exist.
The Arrow 5.1 is a careful upmix from their mono restoration to create a purist multichannel mix.
The Italy mono exists in lesser quality but Arrow performed additional restoration work to improve what they could.
Director: Sergio Leone
Arrow's English mono is from the soundtrack negatives, with light noise reduction but still the highest quality anywhere. The main title is restored from the 1985 LaserDisc analog mono.
The 1985 CBS/Fox LaserDisc for untouched English mono despite element defects and an incomplete print used. The main title on this LaserDisc is the highest quality version known to exist.
The Arrow 5.1 is a careful upmix from their mono restoration to create a purist multichannel mix.
The Italy mono exists in lesser quality but Arrow performed additional restoration work to improve what they could.
Director: Simon Wincer
Kino Lorber Blu-ray > 4K Blu-ray
4K is disappointing with color space issues and poor encoding, disc replacement program for the 4K disc has been put out with the correct color space.
Director: Simon Wincer
Kino Lorber Blu-ray > 4K Blu-ray
4K is disappointing with color space issues and poor encoding, disc replacement program for the 4K disc has been put out with the correct color space.
Director: Maurice Cloche
Director: Maurice Cloche
Director: Michael Gordon
Director: Michael Gordon
Director: Alan Crosland
Director: Alan Crosland
Director: Melville Shavelson
Kino Lorber Blu-ray 6K master from Paramount
Director: Melville Shavelson
Kino Lorber Blu-ray 6K master from Paramount
Director: Kenneth MacPherson
Director: Kenneth MacPherson
Director: Richard Bartlett
Director: Richard Bartlett
More Western on Blu-ray
Director: William Nigh
Director: William Nigh
Director: Edward L. Cahn
Kino Lorber Blu-ray 4K restoration
Director: Edward L. Cahn
Kino Lorber Blu-ray 4K restoration
Director: King Vidor
Kino Lorber Blu-ray 4K restoration
Director: King Vidor
Kino Lorber Blu-ray 4K restoration
Director: John Ford
1988/1990 WB Hi-Fi VHS, crystal clear, albeit with some distortion in louder areas
The 4K Blu-ray reuses the same poor mastering used on the 2006 WB Blu-ray, only with a completely unnecessary bass cut and extra noise reduction.
Even putting resolution aside, the Warner Archive 4K Blu-ray has the best video. The old Blu-ray master and earlier DVD both had massive issues with colour.
That said, picture on the 4K Blu-ray isn't perfect, with strange posterized magenta glints and some instances of DNR: https://bsky.app/profile/dagscott.bsky.social/post/3leahavqi7k2l
Director: John Ford
1988/1990 WB Hi-Fi VHS, crystal clear, albeit with some distortion in louder areas
The 4K Blu-ray reuses the same poor mastering used on the 2006 WB Blu-ray, only with a completely unnecessary bass cut and extra noise reduction.
Even putting resolution aside, the Warner Archive 4K Blu-ray has the best video. The old Blu-ray master and earlier DVD both had massive issues with colour.
That said, picture on the 4K Blu-ray isn't perfect, with strange posterized magenta glints and some instances of DNR: https://bsky.app/profile/dagscott.bsky.social/post/3leahavqi7k2l
Director: Terence Young
US Arrow > UK StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray, better color grading
Director: Terence Young
US Arrow > UK StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray, better color grading
Director: Enzo G. Castellari
German Plaion 4K Blu-ray see caps but doesn't have EN subtitles
Director: Enzo G. Castellari
German Plaion 4K Blu-ray see caps but doesn't have EN subtitles
Director: Martin Ritt
Director: Martin Ritt
2022 Paramount Presents Blu-ray disc included in 4K Blu-ray set
2022 Paramount Presents Blu-ray disc included in 4K Blu-ray set, same master, but less bitrate starved.
The encode on the BD is preferable to the UHD. Same master, but less bitrate starved: https://x.com/SadHillDevan/status/1530057783885721607?s=20 and see caps
2022 Paramount Presents Blu-ray disc included in 4K Blu-ray set
2022 Paramount Presents Blu-ray disc included in 4K Blu-ray set, same master, but less bitrate starved.
The encode on the BD is preferable to the UHD. Same master, but less bitrate starved: https://x.com/SadHillDevan/status/1530057783885721607?s=20 and see caps
Director: James Mangold
Director: James Mangold
Director: Delmer Daves
Criterion 4K Blu-ray see caps
All audio tracks originate from the same DVD-era master, no real audible differences between them, but Carlotta is least filtered out of all
Director: Delmer Daves
Criterion 4K Blu-ray see caps
All audio tracks originate from the same DVD-era master, no real audible differences between them, but Carlotta is least filtered out of all
Edit History
