Customer Reviews

The Clint Eastwood Star Collection (Fistful of Dollars / For A Few Dollars More / The Good, The Bad and The Ugly / Hang 'em High)

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The 4-movie "Clint Eastwood Collection" is a nice DVD set for the casual Eastwood fan or the Eastwood novice. Three of the four films are Sergio Leone's acclaimed "Dollars Trilogy" or "Man With No Name Trilogy". These Italian-produced films include A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS (1964), FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE (1965), and THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (1966), all starring Clint Eastwood as a cigar-chomping wayward gunslinger. The fourth film in this set is HANG 'EM HIGH (1968).

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About the DVDs:

The movies are packaged in a normal (clear) plastic keepcase, which is slipped into a cardboard box. The case holds all 4 discs (one for each film) on two double-sided hinged trays. A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS shares a tray with FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE, and the other two films share the second tray, one disc on each side.

The discs themselves offer little else except the movies. Other than theatrical trailers, the only bonus feature in the set is an audio commentary for THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY.

A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS (1964) and HANG 'EM HIGH (1968) come on double-sided discs, with the widescreen presentation on one side and the cropped fullscreen version on the other. The other two movies come on single-sided discs (widescreen format), with a picture on the top side.

I've done research and found out that THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY is the new 178-minute version, featuring a few restored original scenes that were missing from English-language versions of the film and had to be dubbed in 2003 by the older actors. Although the box gives the running time of 161 minutes, the DVD version IS the 178-minute "restored" version.

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About the films:

Leone's "Dollars Trilogy" is pretty popular. Some of the classic "spaghetti westerns" of the 1960s, filmed without sound by Italian production companies and then dubbed in various languages for international release. The movies in the trilogy get bigger and better each time.

FISTFUL OF DOLLARS has Eastwood as a mysterious poncho-wearing traveler who plays two rival families against each other in a small southwestern town.

FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE has a poncho-clad Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef as mysterious bounty killers after the same man, a ruthless bandit who's escaped from prison.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY, currently ranked #4 on IMdB's Top 250, follows three men (Eastwood, Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach) through the southwest during the Civil War in their search for buried gold.

The movies are gritty and violent and full of expert gunslinging and epic showdowns. But they're also entertaining watches. (UGLY, in particular, is full of dark humor.) And the films include memorable scenes and feature Ennio Morricone's iconic music.

I have not seen HANG 'EM HIGH (yet), but I understand that it is an American production and another one of Eastwood's classic westerns.

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Conclusion:

"The Clint Eastwood Collection" contains four of Eastwood's classic westerns, most notably the entire "Dollars Trilogy", and should make a nice gift for the casual Eastwood fan or the Eastwood beginner. But the DVDs don't offer anything special. I know each of the Leone movies has its own 2-disc DVD featuring audio commentaries and a second disc of bonus documentaries and featurettes. A true Eastwood collector might prefer the 2-disc DVDs, offered separately. But for someone on a budget, this affordable set contains four movies for the price (and space) of one. It's a pretty good set, as long as you understand what you're getting.

The three Spaghetti Westerns in this collection don't need additional reviews, since most folks are familiar with them. Hang'em High is just OK and nothing special. Please note that the cover of the box set states that the running time for The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is 161 minutes; however, this is not true. The actual running time of this film on this DVD set is 180 minutes, which apparently is the restored version of the original film. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly in this set is a 2.35:1 widescreen with excellent picture and sound quality and enhanced for the widescreen TVs. For a Few Dollars More is also a 2.35:1 widescreen, but it is not enhanced for widescreen TVs.

This set includes the following films:

A Fistful of Dollars (1964)
For a Few Dollars More (1965)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
Hang 'Em High (1968)

The first three in the list are Eastwood's Sergio Leone Trilogy and come in two disc editions if you are up for something higher priced in The Sergio Leone Anthology (A Fistful Of Dollars / For A Few Dollars More / The Good, The Bad And The Ugly / Duck, You Sucker), and in single disc editions in The Man with No Name Trilogy (A Fistful of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly).
Hang 'Em High is the film Eastwood did after the Sergio Leone films made him famous. He is a man who is hung for a theft he did not commit and who is rescued from death by a passing sheriff. Most of the remainder of the film is Eastwood's strong silent type tracking down the men who did him wrong. It is a good film, but not as strong as the Sergio Leone Trilogy, so you may or may not think this set is a good bargain.

Since all of these films have been released before, that is probably the reason for the low price and for the fact that the films are on four discs instead of just two. This is the all too familiar boxset created by a repackaging of stock in these slim economic times that have become even slimmer for classic film releases.

The sound on this dvd set is really bad. I mean "turn on your old AM radio bad". You can't even enjoy the soundtrack music.
The other reviews about no labels and discs not being set up for big screen tv's should be considered also as they are correct. These issues together with the bad sound quality really let you know why this disc set is so cheap. Yes you get the movies but I will probably only watch them once because the quality is so bad.
Definitely coaster material.

Classic early Clint Eastwood. Must have for collectors. Now I have to get the Dirty Harry movies.

Great. No complaints. All four movies were excellent. Glad to have gotten them. They were enjoyable to watch. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly was the best.

Came very quick. Very low price for amazing quality. Absolutely pleased with this purchase, anything with Clint Eastwood is amazing

I ordered this for my husband for Christmas. We received them and he just fell in love with them. He has learned so many lines from the movie. That is how much he has watched them.

I purchase this DVD because my husband is a Clint Eastwood fan. He especially like the movie the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. He also enjoyed the other movies too.
Great product, and great price too.

Being a fan of both Dirty Harry and Walt Kolowski, I thought it was time to get acquainted with some of Clint's original characters. I was pleased to see they had a 4 pack for such a decent price, including the Man With No Name trilogy and the classic Hang 'Em High.
The movies are pretty good with the old-fashioned plot lines and acting. If you're a typical modern day kid there might not be enough special effects/"strong" women (feminists)/girly men with cheese-filled muscles, etc. for you to enjoy.
However I can only give the set 3 stars because of technical blandness. In more than one of the films the audio and video dont seem to quite match in timing. It's close but several frames off most of the time. (However it always seemed to match up when Eastwood was talking ha).

I guess you get what you pay for, and for a 20-something dude who likes to save his money, and is content playing a classic film on an old non-HD television it's a worth-while buy.