Tape Time: The Teacher, The Buyer, and the Uglier (Part 2 of 2)

NOTE: This is the second part of a two part post. I chose this format because I didn't want these posts to be too big to read, so I split them up into two for better reading. Stupid, I know, but this is experimental, so changes can happen between now and the possible future.

This next tape is probably considered to be one of Eastwood’s finest roles… and after watching the movie myself, I can’t argue with that.

I don't think I need to say the title to this one.

This movie is fantastic, no doubt about it. This 1966 classic directed by Sergio Leone, takes place during the Civil War (making this the first of the Dollars Trilogy chronologically) and focuses on three people; Tuco- The Ugly (Eli Wallach), Angel Eyes- The Bad  (Lee Van Cleef), and The Man With No Name, otherwise nicknamed Blondie- The Good (Eastwood), as they all fight for a hidden Confederate treasure worth about $200,000 in gold. It’s a basic tale, yet the film’s characters make it very intricate.

You have two of the characters, Blondie and Tuco in a team in most of the film, but only because each character has half of the location of the gold. After the movie begins, Blondie backstabs Tuco after a deal between each other goes sour, and he leaves Tuco out in the dust. When Tuco eventually finds Blondie once again, he captures him, and sends him on a death march into through a desert, with intent to kill him. Before he can however, a wagon full of dead Confederate soldiers stops in their location, and only one soldier is still alive. This soldier tells Tuco about the gold, as well as its location- a cemetery, but demands water before he could give the exact grave to find it in. When he comes back, he notices Blondie next to the wagon, and the soldier dead. And when Tuco is just about to finally off Blondie, he holds over the fact that if he died, the name of the grave goes with him.

I just love this scene. It’s very pivotal for the story, not only because it just gets them involved, but shows off what makes these two great. With Tuco, who is a selfish bandit, it just shows he will do almost anything to stay on someone’s good side, if it all does something that will benefit himself, but will try what he can to take it all. Because of the fact Blondie knows the name of the grave, Tuco saves and helps Blondie, but only because what Blondie knows will make him rich, and can happily ditch (or kill) him once he has what he needs.

With Blondie, this scene makes him the holder of all the cards, not just with Tuco, but eventually with Angel Eyes later on. He knows enough to not trust Tuco all the way, but still enough to help him. He is the good character indeed, but can resort to doing some shady dealings (like with Tuco at the beginning of the film) in order to make a living, and even to protect his own skin. However, since this is a prequel to the other films, the character doesn’t have his full regalia in the beginning. He does start to gradually acquire his outfit sometime in the final half of the film, which all leads up to when he finally shows himself, badass poncho and all. It was very exciting to eventually see it all on him once more, and with a very cool reveal shot, a perfect fit for a badass character.

Angel Eyes on the other hand, is a man who doesn’t care what he has to do to insure he gets the gold. He resorts to vicious beating, torture, and even murder in order to get his way. At the beginning of the film, he is going around for information concerning a soldier who knows where the hidden gold is. (sound familiar?), Once he becomes aware of Blondie and Tuco while all are in a Union camp, he gets the location from Tuco, and eventually takes Blondie to help him find it, in exchange for half of the gold (although he probably would’ve killed Blondie in the end afterwards). Despite the fact he’s only in about 30 minutes in the film, Cleef plays this character exceptionally cool, although his villain could now be considered possibly cliche nowadays. (I mean, he wears all black for Pete’s sake)

The film was shot silently due to the director and some of the cast and crew’s lack of understanding English, so all the dialogue would have to be dubbed in afterwards. The dialogue  does sync up with the actors mouths at least 95% of the time, but sometimes the dialogue doesn’t seem to sync as well at times, but I barely noticed that issue throughout the entire movie. But outside of that, the rest of the film is well directed. It starts slow, but then it goes at a steady pace once things are set up. Which leads me to the inevitable final showdown with the three characters. Again, much like the climax in The LEGO Movie, it’s one of the most perfectly filmed scenes I’ve ever seen. The cinematography, the intense atmosphere, and the music, it all fits with this scene, you’re just waiting to see when they will draw their guns and shoot.

The 1993 copy I have is another “Roadshow” copy of tapes, separated into an hour and forty-two minute tape, and an hour and two minute tape, and both still run excellently without any issue. But depending on whatever media you have, whether it’s a VHS,  DVD or Blu-ray, I highly recommend checking out this film, as well as the earlier installments of the Dollars Trilogy. They each get better with each installment, and this is as good as it’s going to get.

Final Verdict: 9.5/10

Il sciupate (The Uglier):

And for the final tape of the day, the 1982 cult sci-fi hit directed by Ridley Scott- Blade Runner.

What..the..hell?

This sucker has a REALLY intense history, some can say even an ugly history.

The movie is based off a Philip K. Dick novel entitled Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and focuses on Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a man assigned to a special police force, known as “Blade Runners”. His job is to hunt down and “retire” human-like androids called Replicants, who return to Earth in order to find their creator. This film eventually became a bomb at the box office, and critics didn’t know what to think of it at the time of its release. Eventually, the movie’s reputation did rise, and now has become a cult classic as of today.

But here’s where things get really good: There were about FIVE different cuts of this film, (SEVEN if you count sneak previews or TV edits)  probably the most amount of versions of a motion picture to have ever been made. You have the regular film from 1982, the international cut (more violent), a “director’s” cut first shown at a film festival, and then to other theatres in 1990

(which was actually a workprint version), an ACTUAL director’s cut in 1992, and another director’s cut entitled The FINAL cut, in 2007.

The VHS tape I have is the 10th anniversary edition (1992), which contains the unrated international cut. It was released through New Line (Warner Bros.) and Columbia/Tristar Home Video. But again, here’s when things get weird.

Normal stuff here

First, I see New Line and Columbia/Tristar on the spine.

Getting weirder.

But inside the box, the tape says its from Nelson Entertainment.

Ok, now what's going on?

And when you put the tape in, it says it’s from Embassy Home Entertainment. What the hell kind of crap is this?

Apparently, Embassy, by the time of the film’s release in 1982, was owned by Jerry Perenchio (who presented this film with Bud Yorkin from the opening credits) and Norman Lear. This company had three separate departments dedicated to film, television and home video releases. Eventually, they were sold in 1985 to the Coca-Cola company, who also had control of Columbia Pictures at the time. They gave the theatrical department to the De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, and renamed their home video department Nelson Entertainment. Then in 1991, Nelson was sold off to New Line, which renamed it to New Line Home Video. Later, they would team up with Columbia/Tristar, which became independent from Coca-Cola, and became apart of Sony, would start to distribute New Line’s home video library, all until 1995 when Ted Turner would pick them up, and then their movies would be distributed from Turner Home Entertainment.

And thus... the weird distribution of THIS tape.

The tape itself runs fine, and it sounds fine. But out of the first few minutes I saw, the movie looked grainy, though could be because the film was shot like that, or the tape wasn’t made correctly. And do I have to mention the box? It just looks UGLY. It’s a horrible looking box, plain and simple. Why couldn’t they have just have the movie poster or something really cool on the box instead? The new releases of this film have better boxes than this, and they even have all the cuts.

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And from that, our maiden voyage is over. I do hope you enjoy reading about these tape collection diaries. Please understand that the format is still experimental, so any comments about it is just fine. And if anyone likes it, I will make more of these Tape Times EXCLUSIVELY on Always Delayed, along with the regular content.