Reviews (167)

Pulp Fiction Meets Fright Night
I'm a big fan of Tarrentino's work, though he gets alot of bad rap I believe him to be one of the most talented writers alive, starting with Resevoir Dogs, he wrote Natural Born Killers, and Four Rooms, Desperado, and finally coming to From Dusk Till Dawn. This movie was a rocker, holding any clues or hints that there would be deradful horror in the last hour. Teaming up with horror man Robert Rodriguez, they put together this very well made horror movie about two criminal crazy boys [George Clooney, Quentin Tarrentino] who are on the run for Mexico, They kidnap a family on road [Harvey Keitel, Juliette Lewis, and the son]and they come to a bar called the T**ty Twisters, they find that the bar is infact an eledged trap for feeding time for the vampires that inhabit it, they have to become a team with their hostages to survive, not to mention a couple other cast members; Fred Williamson, and the Sex Machine. You actually grow to admire the Gecko brothers [Clooney, Tarrentino]and Tarrentino's fine writing, alot of sick and twisted but also real features you'll see, along with bloody vampires nawing on humans, and a sided 4 man battle over a bloody severed body part battle ground, that turns to chaos. The movie was very well put together, starting out with 2 Pulp Fiction guys that run into a bunch of Fright Night vampires, the idea was to act upon the impressionable idea that Stephen King does himself in his novels, that to draw the audience into the story so that they indeed care about the characters and them BAM! vampires come along, you put the characters in this altered world of life and death. This movie is especially good on DVD, the sound is ausome along with the bonus materials, and the wide screen.

Vampires Might Be Hear To Stay With Cult Classic
In the early months of 1995, talented Mexican director Robert Rodriguez (El Mariachi, Desperado, The Faculty) and cunning cinematic guru Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown) merged artistic passions to compose an intricate genre hybrid that evokes both the artists unique sensibilities, emanates mind-bogglingly unthinkable comical insights, and reveals an abrasively hip yet sophisticated screen persona that supplies unforeseen drama within the forum of an exploitation film. Surging with distinctive Tarantino culture dialogue and references, Rodriguez's go-for-broke action sequences, marvelous performances from Harvey Keitel, George Clooney, Quentin Tarantino, Juliette Lewis, Salma Hayek, John Saxon, Tom Savini, and Cheech Marin (in three supporting roles!!!), an unyieldingly concentrated pace, spectacular comedic splicing with its horror elements, splendid gore and make-up effects, and a predominantly mischievous ambiance of unpredictability that leaves any first-time viewer totally in hands of Rodriguez and Tarantino, From Dusk Til Dawn persists in being a heavily entertaining dual genre piece that attains dramatic grandeur, profound performances, and even moving pathos within the framework of exploitation piece.

The film depicts the story of the infamous Gecko Brothers', Seth (George Clooney) and Ritchie (Quentin Tarantino), odyssey from their violent southern Texas exploits to their arrival at the unforgettable Titty Twister bar. Along the way, the Gecko brothers inadvertently blow up a liquor store, hallucinate flirtations and verbal taunts, "accidentally" rape and murder a seemingly docile hostage, and kidnap a disillusioned pastor's family and their motor home on their way to their bar rendezvous across the Mexican border. Though these characters may seem to be the most unsympathetic characters to be rooting for. Tarantino's knack for instilling humanity into his criminals is second to none, and along the way towards the bar and the film's personality switch, through absorbing dialogue, gritty performances, and realistic plot developments (in the Tarantino half), we are given unusually affable characters that allow the audience just enough audience identification with the characters before they are literally placed into hell incarnate. While watching From Dusk Til Dawn, it crucial to note the film's story arc is essentially one-half Tarantino crime tale/ one-half gory horror gore opus. This was done I believe to introduce the characters, personality dynamics, and innate personal tendencies of the people in their real environments before establishing the horror. What happens quite often in horror films of the last two decades is we, the audience, are immediately transported to the improbable before we even really know our characters. The characters of a movie are our conduits into the realm and the story of a movie. Doesn't it seem probable that if we have an enhanced understanding of the characters we might enjoy the film's narrative a lot more? From Dusk Til Dawn follows this mentality to its most logic summation as character and style overcome commercial convention.

Since it release, From Dusk Til Dawn consistently besieges it audiences with an intoxicatingly visceral affront of violence, mayhem, elaborate chaos, and inventive havoc that entertains and delights beyond anyone's expectations. Though definitely not Academy Award material so to speak, From Til Dawn remains a superlative horror extravaganza.

As for the film's new DVD Collector's Series edition, FDTD contains an informative Rodriguez/Tarantino commentary track, a feature length documentary entitled "Full Tilt Boogie", extensive outtakes, deleted scenes, two music videos, the theatrical trailer, and much much more. A Definite Must for any Horror Fan.

Tarantino and Rodriguez? Excellent!
I've watched a couple Quentin Tarantino movies, and I absolutely loved them. I also liked 'Once Upon A Time In Mexico' from Robert Rodriguez. So as you can imagine, when I heard about this movie, I was very excited. Tarantino is a masterful screenwriter, and Rodriguez definitely has decent skills behind the camera.
After watching the movie, I have to criticize one thing. The first half (about) of the movie was flawless, with QT and George Clooney as two Convicts, the Richie and Seth Gecko. When they embark from the first scene on, it seems as though the movie could go any direction and still be entertaining. However, when you throw in a night club that is flocking with vampires (fitfully so, the club is open dusk till dawn), you can't keep the same movie that you had. I give the story a lower score due to the fact that it doesn't fit well. If you couldn't guess from the title, and you hadn't seen the trailer, you would be oblivious to the fact that the second half of this movie is all vampires. I believe it would've worked better as a full movie of either type. Crime or Horror. But nevertheless, I couldn't resist the acting from QT and Clooney, along with Harvey Keitel and Juliette Lewis. Other than my single complaint, I really enjoyed this movie. As bloody and violent as it is, it's just so fun.

queten tarentino-another excellent director
3 people get abducted by an escaped con and his brother and go to mexico.they hang out in a bar full of vampires all night.george clooney is in it.he does an outstanding job as a escaped prisoner.then theres some freaky sex offender type-not necessary!and the 3 hostages.they are some old preacher dude,juliette lewis and some mexican kid.this is not for children.it is by far and away the best of the from dusk till dawn set.there is a post rape scene at the front that could turn a few heads.thier is a mexican stripper who.........well.....strips and of course the always awesome julieete lewis to look at.every role ive ever seen her play she did an excellent job.she is my favorite actress.the hype says this movie rocks and it does.there is a special apperance by cheech also.filthy and brief.juliette lewis and george clooney both do an excellent job but have better films out there.

sucked
this movie was good for the first 40 minutes....after that it just blew REALLY hard. vampires? come on! i felt like i was watching "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." it had the potential to be a very good movie, but instead pussied out. don't even bother renting this. or option number 2: rent it for the first forty minutes of it, and laugh at the rest. ... Read more

Amazon.com essential video

Clint Eastwood's second film as a director (and his first Western) is a variation on the "man with no name" theme, starring Eastwood as the drifter known only as "the Stranger." He rides into the desert town of Lagos and is quickly attacked by three gunmen. Recovering with the aid of a local dwarf (a memorable role for Billy Curtis), the Stranger is hired by the intimidated townsfolk to fend off a band of violent ex-convicts. After teaching the citizens self-defense and instructing them to paint the entire town red and rename it "Hell," the Stranger vanishes. He reappears when the marauding criminals arrive, and delivers justice and teaches the townsfolk a harsh lesson about moral obligation. Is he a figure from their past or a kind of supernatural avenger? Combining humor with action, High Plains Drifter is both a serious and tongue-in-cheek tribute to the Westerns that made Eastwood a household name.--Jeff Shannon ... Read more

Reviews (53)

The "Man with No Name" returns
This movie is one of the best Eastwood Westerns that I have seen and is right up there with "Pale Rider" is supernatural quality. Clint plays almost an avenging spirit who returns to seek justice for a past crime and does so with his usual coolness. The movie offers a red painted town named "Hell", flashbacks showing a crime committed against Clint in the past and some awesome action scenes. Eastwood is wonderful throughout the whole film and even sports a pistol with a Cobra painted on the handle (cool! ). This is a great Western to add to any collection.

Last of the Spaghetti Westerns
Once again Eastwood does it with great style. The man with no name rides into town and wreaks havoc on the bad guys. An unusual dream of a sheriff that was whipped to death haunts him. As the story unveils itself we are drawn further into the past of the towns people. Not quite like his previous spaghetti westerns but still a hint of his character remains like a ghost that has come to see that justice is metered out. The fact that he rapes and kills does not seem to make us hate him, just accept him and know his final goal is as close to justice as we will see. The supporting cast is very good and the sets and music are great. Well worth adding to anyones western DVD collection. The quality of the picture and sound is excellent. Extras include notes, bios, highlights, and theatrical trailer.

Excellent!
I remember seeing this for the first time back in the day. It was probably the fascination with the "man with no name trilogy" but this film is just as classic as those. The story is your typical "revenge" tail but this adds a bit more to it. First of all the character is dark and aloof which really helps set the mood for this film. Its dark its fun its ultra cool! If you liked the man with no name trilogy, hang em high or pale rider see this!

Vengence rides into town
In "High Plains Drifter", Clint Eastwood stars and directs this really dark western. He plays an amoral drifter known only as 'The Stranger". He rolls into Logo and quickly kills three losers and seemingly rapes a local lady. He is then asked to be sheriff to protect the town cowards (the whole population) from three killers the town wronged years ago. Who the Stranger is is a major part of the mystery of the movie. Eastwood is pretty good as 'the man with no name' taken the millionth degree. He is cold and eccentric as he's givin free reign, then leaves at the moment they need him mst. The town's people are horrible people, who's corruption reaches into the collective conscience; not only is it rotting them to death, they have gladly sold their souls for gold. The vengence at the end is grim, but then so is the whole movie. It is not your John Wayne western; in fact Wayne himself walked out of the movie saying Eastwood owed his fans an apology. But that is not so, it wasn't that bad. But they still don't make movies this grim ofter. Not for everyone, but OK.

Eastwood turns in his typical performance

This gives the old saying, "painting the town red," a whole new meaning.

Eastwood is portraying a gunman wreaking vengeance on an entire Western town for standing by while a gang of nasties brutally kills the sheriff. One gets the impression, at the end, that he is the reincarnation of the murdered sheriff, himself.

This is, in no way, intended as a criticism: Eastwood, like John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable and a host of other fine actors, always plays himself. His stock in trade is his "tough guy" impression, and he does it flawlessly.

His films are always well-done, and he always plays the same basic part, which his audience obviously loves.

Joseph (Joe) Pierre

author of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenance
and other books ... Read more

Amazon.com

Clint Eastwood (the Man with No Name) is good, Lee Van Cleef (Angel Eyes Sentenza) is bad, and Eli Wallach (Tuco Benedito Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez) is ugly in the final chapter of Sergio Leone's trilogy of spaghetti westerns (the first two were A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More). In this sweeping film, the characters form treacherous alliances in a ruthless quest for Confederate gold. Leone is sometimes underrated as a director, but the excellent resolution on this digital video disc should enhance appreciation of his considerable photographic talent and gorgeous widescreen compositions. Ennio Morricone's jokey score is justifiably famous. The digital video disc includes about a quarter-hour of footage not seen in the original release. ... Read more

Reviews (185)

A few scenes more
Sergio Leone proudly served up his finest spaghetti Western to a Roman audience in the final days of 1966. The premiere print of "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" sprawled over three hours in telling its tale of three desperados in search of gold amid the chaos of the Civil War.

The men from United Artists also were on the trail of treasure. American audiences, they knew, would not sit for a 178-minute Western, especially not an import starring a TV actor (Clint Eastwood).

Out came 17 minutes, and so was breach-born the version of "Good, Bad, Ugly" that has endured as a male-bonding touchstone for four decades. Looking to make things right (and to mine more gold), MGM a few years ago decided to re-create the storied film that unspooled in Rome that night. The restored, full-length English version of Leone's epic is worth every dollar in this two-disc DVD Collector's Set.

Sure, Leone's film loses much on the small screen -- its borderline-surrealistic vistas shot in Spain are legendary -- but the DVD's visuals are clean, with decent contrasts (anamorphic widescreen, 2.35:1). Compared to MGM's 1998 release, there's a dramatic reduction in flatness, speckling and miscellaneous wear. The 5.1 Dolby Digital audio has its moments but isn't up to the standards of the imagery.

The DVD medium is, of course, unrivaled at presenting the history of complicated productions like these. MGM's set gets that job done, for the most part. Eastwood biographer Richard Schickel does the heavy lifting in a commentary that, amazingly, runs on fumes only near the end of three hours. The 2002 restoration project is covered in an 11-minute docu that goes over the added/restored scenes. They mostly just smooth out the narrative, but it's hard to reimagine the film without them.

"Good, Bad, Ugly" is as closely associated with composer Ennio Morricone as with Leone. Film music historian Jon Burlingame talks about the maestro in a short featurette and in a more-detailed audio lecture. No explanation is given for Morricone's lack of participation on the DVD, and you get the feeling he's been downplayed for not playing along.

There are two types of people, my friend......
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is the classic spaghetti western that completes Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy. This is personally my favorite over the other two, although all three are great. The movie follows three men in their pursuit of $200,000 in gold. The story is set in the Civil War in southern Texas. The adventures of the three characters include a Union prison camp, a huge battle reminiscent of World War I, and of course the famous showdown in the Sad Hill Cemetery with Tuco running frantically around the graves looking for the one marked "Arch Stanton."

All three main characters give excellent performances here. Clint Eastwood stars as Blondie, Eli Wallach as Tuco, and Lee Van Cleef as Angel Eyes. The fourth star has to be Ennio Morricone's soundtrack. The music is fabulous throughout and well worth buying the soundtrack. Also starring are Mario Brega, Luigi Pistilli, and Aldo Sambrell. Leone's use of extreme close-ups and epic landscapes are excellent throughout.

The DVD is awesome and well worth the purchase. It contains the widescreen presentation, excellent color and sound, theatrical trailer, and 14 minutes of never-before-seen footage with English subtitles. This footage includes scenes that help explain how Angel Eyes ends up in a Union prison camp and also how Blondie later joins up with Angel Eyes' gang. After seeing the movie so many times without this footage, it was odd to see it, but still very entertaining. A must have for Spaghetti western fans!

Brilliant Restoration!
"The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" is Sergio Leone's magnum opus. An audacious undertaking, it would have flopped miserably in any other director's hands. Only someone so commited to his artistic vision as Leone could have pulled off this bombastic pageantry of human nature in all its facets, its capacity for cynicism, greed, bloodlust, revenge, heroism, redemption and honour.

This movie must be *experienced.* Put the DVD in, turn the stereo all the way up and let it pummel you from the moment the Lardani titles blast onto the screen in a blaze of Technicolor fury. The montage of colour, interspersed by stark black and white visages of Eastwood, Van Cleef and Wallach is a tough act to follow, like Saul Bass' mesmerising titles for Hitchcock's "Vertigo."

The wait is now over! Last year, MGM/UA issued a restored 35mm print, which showed at the Film Forum in Manhattan. First restored in Italian by Cineteca Nazionale, the English-language restoration was spearheaded by Martin Scorsese, whose efforts with the Film Preservation Foundation have helped fund preservation of America's celluloid heritage. Both Eli Wallach and Clint Eastwood returned to the sound studio to dub new dialogue for approximately 20 minutes of restored footage. Both sound a little older and scratchier, but these added scenes help to explain both Tuco's and Angel Eyes' gangs and some plot points that were previously unclear. However, they both sound great! (Van Cleef's voice was dubbed by a professional voiceover artist, and sounds almost on target). The movie now has the true feel of a sprawling epic, one that's earned its right to take its time.

This special edition DVD features the movie restored to its original length in the Italian version, and comes jam packed with interviews with Eastwood, Wallach, producer Alberto Grimaldi and -- most importantly -- Mickey Knox, who wrote the English language dialogue. Knox crafted lines that lived up to the larger than life screenplay. You'd swear the original was in English, the dialogue is so perfectly tailored!

But the vision is singularly Leone's. It starts slowly, as a band of bounty killers home in on their prey, small-time bandit Tuco Ramirez (THE UGLY, played by the venerable Eli Wallach). They pile through a saloon door, then the camera imediately pans away laterally. Suddenly, his body hurtling through the front window in a rain of glass, Tuco bursts onto the street -- in what has to be the most absurd grand entrance in screen history -- revolver in one hand, a chicken leg in the other. It's total chutzpah on Leone's and Wallach's part.

If you think *that* can't be topped, watch Wallach's entire performance. Animated is putting it mildly. More than a performance, Wallach is a one-man band, nay, Army. Never has such a selfish, petty, ratty and shifty little man been played so larger than life. Wallach smirks, scurries, grimaces, chuckles, shouts, bellows and slyly oils his way across the screen in what has got to be the hammiest performance ever by a method actor. Or *any* actor: He makes Orson Welles, Burt Lancaster and Charles Laughton look like the grey and sullen cast of Woody Allen's "Interiors," he's so alive with passion that he literally sweats his performance out through the filthy pores on his stubble-ridden face. And he's wonderful!

If that's a tough act to follow, you haven't met the bad. They don't come any badder than Angel Eyes, Lee Van Cleef's hired killer who's got ice water running through his veins. Van Cleef is ruthless, bold and heartless. Riding out of nowhere onto a doomed man's rancho, Angel Eyes pays a visit, carrying out a murder for hire. The price: $500. But the victim offers him $1000 to look the other way. No dice: Angel Eyes isn't in it for the money. Rather, he's a man who loves his work, and always sees the job through. So, the poor sod dies anyway.

Clint Eastwood is as cool as a cucumber as The Man With No Name (but really one with sort of a name, in this case "Blondie," which is Wallach's moniker for him). It's fun watching the ongoing relationship between Blondie and Tuco as bounty hunter and prey. In another life, they would have been great pals, but in this life ("we're all alone in this world," Tuco confesses to Blondie, half seriously, half cynically) their love of money is thicker than friendship. So, they invent ingenious and cruel ways to exact revenge of each other.

It's during one of Tuco's sadistic plots - in which he marches the pale-skinned Eastwood across 100 miles of scorching desert - that the plot finally comes to a head: A driverless stagecoach full of wounded Confederates happens across their path, and through a twist of fate, Tuco and Blondie each have two halves of a secret which, if put together, will make them a quarter of a million dollars richer. But, without each other the two halves are worthless. Thus does Tuco do a 180 from brutal executioner to Blondie's would-be saviour. Now that he could be rich, he suddenly realizes how valuable their friendship is.

It's not before long that they wind up with Angel Eyes, as they're captured by Union soldiers. At the prisoner of war camp, a deadly game of cat and mouse begins. Van Cleef is now more restrained and less thuggish as he deals with Tuco to extract the secret; his henchman Wallace (Mario Brega, a Leone stalwart), pummels it out of Tuco.

In epic fashion, after a shootout in a deserted town and a bridge demolition that explodes across the screen, Tuco, Blondie and Angel Eyes make their way to the cemetery where the treasure is buried. In a fanfare of brass, percussion and chorus, the three face each other down in the cemetery plaza. It's a gorgeous and cathartic set piece. Credit must go not only to composer Ennio Morricone but also to musical director Bruno Nicolai, who conducts the score con fuoco.

The West as it never ws
It took an Italian to revolutionize the American Western. Everything was strange and new about the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Perhaps the strangest was that it was not a contest between good and evil -- the white hats and the black hats -- as was the typical western, but instead had a plot driven by the greed of the three characters -- one of whom is charitably called good, the other two certifiably bad and ugly.

The music is extraordinary -- one of the best and most original soundtracks ever. The photography is weird -- no one had ever focused so close-up on people's eyes or the pores in their skin. The violence is brutal and surreal. The three-cornered gunfight is one of the great scenes from cinema. The scenery is off. It doesn't look like the American west -- and in fact it isn't. The movie was made in Spain. The characters are incredibly seedy. Most of them look like they took a bath about a decade ago and haven't changed their clothes since. And nobody gets the girl -- because there isn't any girl.

I love this movie! It makes my all-time top ten list. Clint Eastwood is cool beyond belief; Eli Wallach is a hoot; and Lee Van Cleef is really, really bad.

"Such ingratitude after all the times I saved your life..."
"The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" is Sergio Leone's epic masterpiece. While it is part of his Spaghetti Western Trilogy( all three films have different characters and plots), the film stands on its own and really shows you how good a movie can really be. This movie has it all. It has action, drama and even some comic relief in it. It is a timeless classic that is unforgettable. When I first saw it, I was a little kid and couldn't truly appreciate it as I can now at age 22.

Blondie (The Man with No Name) isn't your typical good guy. He mainly does things that suits his own agenda. However, when compared to the murderous Angel Eyes and the greedy Tuco, Blondie is saint. This tale involves bloodshed, shoot-outs, search for treasure, and double-crossing. And it all takes place while the Civil War is going on, which makes things a lot more "interesting" for the notorious three. The West has never been wilder or more unpredictable than it is now. With an incredible score, excellent acting, and superb story-telling, this is one memorable film that you will never forget.

As I said in the beginning, the first time I saw this was when I was a little kid. When I just recently purchased this new edition of the movie, it truly was like I was watching it for the first time. Coming from a guy who isn't a big fan of Westerns (I don't mind them, but I don't watch too many of them), I absolutely LOVED this film. In fact, I wanted to give it a standing ovation when it was all said and done due to how moved I was by it. This really is filmmaking at its finest. I wasn't terribly impressed with Leone's "Once Upon a Time in America," but he is absolutely flawless with this amazing and timeless Western. It is slower than the second film ("For a Few Dollars More"), but I think that makes this all the better. The build up of tension is much more present in this film, and you really get the sense that these characters are real people. Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach are brilliant in their roles, and a lot of props need to go to Lee Van Cleef as he is absolutely chilling in his role.

This new edition really does the film the justice it deserves. The film has been restored to the director's original vision as much as possible, giving you an extra 18 minutes. You will notice the added scenes as the voices have been re-dubbed (the first time you will notice this will throw you, as I think that specific part has the worst re-dubbing, but the other added scenes are done a lot better, even if you still notice it). The picture looks incredible and the sound is great. Extras included are commentary from Richard Schickel, a couple of documentaries and featurettes, poster gallery, deleted scenes and the original theatrical trailer. Along with the nice packaging, you get an 8-page booklet that includes pictures from the film along with Roger Ebert's most recent review of the film. And, you get some mini-posters included inside the packaging as well. A superior edition of the movie, without question.

"The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" is a pure triumph in filmmaking and should be seen by everybody at least once. Don't let the fact that this is a Western throw you. I think this can be enjoyed by everybody, and even by those who are not big fans of Westerns. A film filled with authentic emotion and action, this is one that shouldn't be missed by anyone. I LOVE this movie, and I cannot express that enough. -Michael Crane ... Read more

Amazon.com essential video

A ringing instance of a sequel far outstripping its predecessor, Sergio Leone's For a Few Dollars More takes the lethal antihero from A Fistful of Dollars, gives him both a rival and an adversary worthy of sharing a gun-blazing corrida, and ratchets up the stylization to something approaching grandeur. This time the Man with No Name (Clint Eastwood) is a bounty hunter whose desert Southwest killing ground is suddenly crowded by the presence of an older, black-clad shootist (Lee Van Cleef). Individually and together, they terminate sundry grotesques while closing in on their biggest quarry, a memorably insane bandit called El Indio (Gian Maria Volonté is brilliant). There's just enough plot to imbue Van Cleef with genuine mystery, a dark avenging angel from a lost past whose pull would supply the emotional core of Leone's later masterworks Once upon a Time in the West and Once upon a Time in America. Leone's bravura widescreen compositions are breathtaking, and Ennio Morricone's music score--tinged with lunatic religiosity--is his first great one. --Richard T. Jameson ... Read more

Reviews (55)

For A Few Dollars More - An outstanding sequel!
For A Few Dollars More is, in my opinion, by far the best of the "Man With No Name" trilogy! In "A Fistful of Dollars," director Sergio Leone bowled the viewers over with Clint Eastwood's character being a gruff gunslinger of few words and lots of action. In this sequel Eastwood's character has a lot more depth and even a little bit of humor. I am highly impressed with the script and acting in this particular film, especially in comparison with its predecessor. One can even consider it funny but useful that a few of the villains from the first film that were quite dead at the end of that one, are back now with new names! Magnificent performances by both Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef serve to enhance this movie's style.

The premise:

This movie has a wonderful beginning as we are introduced to Lee Van Cleef's character while he's in the performance of his role of a bounty killer. We are then treated to the reintroduction of Clint Eastwood's character, which actually does have the name of Monco, while he is taking care of his business as a bounty killer as well. Once the director has shown these two acts, he deftly shows how they end up on the same path as they both find out that they can score it big by killing Gian Maria Volonte's character, Indio and his gang. From there, we're taken to El Paso where the film's intrigue and suspense kick into high gear as both Eastwood and Van Cleef's characters meet.

If you've never seen this movie or its predecessor, I highly suggest you check these movies out as they're basically the mold for many of the westerns that followed. Prior to this movie and "A Fistful of Dollars," westerns were much tamer, which lends to the popularity of these movies which have a lot more grit and realism to them.

Special Features:

Just like "A Fistful of Dollars" this movie is jam packed with hours and hours of special features, documentaries etc... This DVD is all about what it's supposed to be, the movie! It does include a great theatrical trailer and an exceptional 8 page booklet that gives a lot of great information about the movie and the people involved. {ssintrepid}

A great sequel to A Fistful of Dollars
I liked this movie mainly because of the pairing of Eastwood and Van Cleef. Eastwood reprises his role as the "The Man with No Name" and this time he partners with Colonel Mortimer (Lee Van Cleef), a fellow bounty hunter who has a personal reason for tracking down the notorious bankrobber Indio, who is worth $10,000 dead or alive. It is interesting that many of the actors who played the villains in "A Fistful of Dollars" are seen again here (e.g. Gian Maria Volonte as Indio)and the location seems to be very similar to that of the first movie. I liked the character of Colonel Mortimer because not only is he a great sharpshooter but he displays himself as a man of principle, in contrast to Eastwood's character, who is only in it for the money. Lee Van Cleef steals many of the scenes. In this movie he plays a good character while in the sequel, "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," Van Cleef plays the "Bad" guy. The music by Ennio Morricone is classic. The only drawback in this movie is that much of the gun battles seem cartoonish and many of the people who are shot have no sign of blood to show for their wounds! However, if you are a fan of Eastwood and of Spaghetti Westerns, you'll like this movie a lot.

great story
This time for a few dollars more,the story revolves around a new bounty hunter called angel eyes,CLint returns and is not as comical as he was in the first.I think he's showing us that he has become more of a serious bounty hunter since he got messed up in fistful.LEE van Cleef is on a revenge mission while eastwood is playing angel eyes and the bandits for a few dollars more.It's worth owning,so is the score.thanks

MGM gets a few dollars more from me
Most people reading these reviews already know how great these Eastwood - Leone spaghetti westerns are, so I won't talk about the film itself here. I enjoyed this movie when I first bought it on VHS in 1989 but always hated the brittle, tinny sound, the opening theme music was excrutiating, when we all know that Morricone's soundtracks for these movies was excellent. So here it is in 2004 and I've got the $10 DVD and nothing has improved in the sound. Also the torture scene is missing a few seconds at the end where one of the gang asks Indio: "Why let 'em live?" and he replies: "All in due time". Hmm, let me make a wild guess here: MGM will finally fix this movie the way they should have for the first DVD but it will come out in a "Special Edition" 2-disc set with a bunch of extras for $25 (think The Great Escape here). You know those "Proof of Purchase" UPC's you see on the back of the DVD case? Just once I'd like to see MGM offer a rebate on a new "Special Edition" via a P.O.P. from an earlier DVD version. That's why I'm glad I don't have the first DVD of "The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly" already and that's why I won't yet buy John Wayne's "The Alamo". Unfortunately I already bought MGM's DVD of "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World", another sub-standard MGM DVD release.

One Of the Three Best Westerns Ever
Along with The Good The Bad and The Ugly, and Once Upon A Time In The West, this is a western masterpiece and one of the best ever made. While not as polished as the above mentioned, For A Few Dollars More contains some of the best scenes in the history of westerns. Col. Mortimer gunning down Guy Callaway, Clint riding in to Aqua Caliente alone, and my favorite, Mortimer lighting a match on Wild's suspenders. Like GBU, I have seen this movie at least a hundred times, and have enjoyed it since I was a 7th grader. A classic western in the Italian style, boasts a superb soundtrack to boot. ... Read more

Amazon.com essential video

A Fistful of Dollars launched the spaghetti Western and catapulted Clint Eastwood to stardom. Based on Akira Kurosawa's 1961 samurai picture Yojimbo, it scored a resounding success (in Italy in 1964 and the U.S. in 1967), as did its sequels, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The advertising campaign promoted Eastwood's character--laconic, amoral, dangerous--as the Man with No Name (though in the film he's clearly referred to as Joe), and audiences loved the movie's refreshing new take on the Western genre. Gone are the pieties about making the streets safe for women and children. Instead it's every man for himself. Striking, too, was a new emphasis on violence, with stylized, almost balletic gunfights and baroque touches such as Eastwood's armored breastplate. The Dollars films had a marked influence on the Hollywood Western--for example, Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch--but their most enduring legacy is Clint Eastwood himself. --Edward Buscombe ... Read more

Reviews (55)

Great Eastwood,Leone spaghetti western
A Fistful of Dollars is a great western.It stars Clint Eastwood,and was directed by Sergio Leone,who also directed the excellent westerns For a Few Dollars More;The Good,the Bad,and the Ugly;and Once Upon a Time in the West.Eastwood plays a drifter who comes to a small Mexican town run by two separate families-the Rojos and the Baxters,and he plays both sides.(he makes a great deal of money in the process!)I won't say anymore about the plot.The film was made on a very small budget,but Leone did an excellent job with what he had to work with.The musical score by Ennio Morricone(under the name Dan Savio)is outstanding,nobody scores a western,spaghetti or otherwise,like him!This film was a remake of a Japanese film called Yojimbo,I think,but I've never seen it before.It was also remade a few years ago,starring Bruce Willis,called Last Man Standing,and that wasn't as good as A Fistful of Dollars,but it wasn't bad.Overall,A Fistful of Dollars ranks very high on my list of favorite westerns.I'd really like to get this film on DVD sometime,because my VHS copy is about twelve years old and is showing some wear!Besides,I think this film would be better viewed in the widescreen format.

THE SAMURAI AND THE GUN
Astonishing remake of Akira Kurosawa's YOJIMBO, FISTFUL OF DOLLARS, directed by italian director Sergio Leone, deserves to be in every movie lover's library. In Toshiro Mifune's role, Clint Eastwood gave a performance that established him as one of the greatest american star of the next forty years.

With an international cast of german, italian, spanish and american actors, FISTFUL OF DOLLARS could have been only an ordinary B-movie of the early 60's. On the contrary, this movie has become the symbol of the revival of a dying Hollywood genre - the western - and will be followed by dozens of imitations until the definitive burial of the genre by Clint Eastwood with the masterpiece UNFORGIVEN.

The villain, played by Gian-Maria Volontè, is so terrific that Sergio Leone will hire this wonderful italian actor to play the role of Indio, the bad guy of FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE, with the result we all know.

I was a little bit anxious before playing the DVD ; the bad quality of the image of FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE was still on my mind. But, don't worry - be happy, the copy was in almost perfect state and the transfer well done. Subtitles and a trailer as bonus features.

A DVD for your library.

Good Movie Bad Dvd
This is in my opinion the best in the man with no name series.
But The good, the bad, and the ugly got the animorphic widescreen extended treatment. This movie deserves to get better treatment on dvd, for Eastwood fans. Heck, the whole trilogy could use an overhaul and then the lousy minimal box set they already put out would be obsolete. The second film For a Few Dollars More also deserves to be remastered. I don't care what people say for me clint was the best of the gunslingers in the history of hollywood, (move over john wayne) and made the best westerns, other than John Ford's Masterpiece stagecouch.

first of it's kind
Sergio Leone's A fistful of Dollars, is a great film to watch.
The opening titles jump at you and the music by Ennio Morricone
Is worth owning as well if you can get it.This film shows Clint Eastwood in his best role to date I think,A bounty hunter.this alone made me want to watch this movie.Though the movie Clint fights of bandits with the legendary QUICK draw, which he is best at....this movie is the first of the classic "dollars" trilogy.once you watch this you will love spaghetti westerns.
thanks.

Great movie...Good DVD
Without a doubt this movie is classic. This movie is the first in wonderful series of movies by Sergio Leone starring Clint Eastwood as the "Man with no name"(even though he had a name in all three movies). This movie is just fantastic from start to finish. My only problem is that the transfer to dvd was good but not great. It does include a behind the scenes booklet with a ton of facts and notes and the original trailer is a nice touch. Even though there are no special features on the disc, the movie looks and sounds great and you DO get more than you pay for. ... Read more

Reviews (18)

Very Likeable 70's Movie
Two of the most likeable and enduring actors of the 1970's, Jeff Bridges and Sam Waterston, teamed up for this 1975 gem. They play a pair of modern day, small-time cattle rustlers. The film is mostly a comedy and mostly a character study, although the plot is quite funny also. The rancher from whom they rustle cattle is quite befuddled and hires Slim Pickens to solve the case. This is the kind of overlooked 1970's movie that has become a bit of a cult classic but deserves greater recognition.

Bridges and Waterston also had roles in the disaster "Heaven's Gate," but fans of the actors would be much better off checking out "Rancho Deluxe." Fans of Jimmy Buffet should appreciate his music in the film; he also appears as a singer in a bar scene. This film is also the last good one from director Frank Perry. Before this movie, he directed "David and Lisa," "The Swimmer," and "Last Summer." He later bombed with duds such as "Hello Again" and "Mommie Dearest." A very good, enjoyable movie that 70's film buffs should check out.

Amazing, but you need a very dry sense of humor.
How can I describe this movie in a nut shell? Odd and dated but with a very good heart- and dry dry dry!

It is a pseudo-western, featuring actors who would now be too "good" for a small cultish movie like this one. Can you picture a Law & Order T.V. star in this?? This could be viewed as a great piece of 70's era B movie making with slumming A list actors. Or how about one of Jimmy Buffet's first appearances in popular culture- a must see for parrot heads!

Listen for the one liners from Cecil (Sam Waterson), they could definately enter into your movie quote lexicon. Also, if you know any cowboys, watch it with them and check out their reaction to Cecil's Father's monolouge about the disease of "pickup truck debt" for which there is still "no cure in sight".

Not likley to please everyone, this movie is for people with a twisted sense of humor but if you like stuff like Space Ghost you will love.

Ramblin' Around Big Sky
A quirky look at stereotypical (although not too far fetched) characters around Livingston, Bozeman and Paradise Valley before the onset of present day contemporary "Californication". Looking for a way to "keep awake", Jeff McKee (Jeff Bridges), a bored rich kid from the east who has run away from a looney girlfriend, and Cecil Colson (Sam Waterston), a local Indian drifter, take up together as chainsaw rustlers looking to make a few bucks to put down on their own spread, Rancho Deluxe. In the process, they prey upon a local cattle baron (Clifton James) and his flurtatious wife (Elizabeth Ashley), recent transplants with lots of loose cash and plans to be the next cattle king of Montana. After some steer tossing and bull-napping for beef and front money, the rustlers plan the big one with some inside help only to get knabbed in the end by the hired regulator (Slim Pickens) and his mischevious niece (Charlene Dallas).
Jimmy Buffett's lively score and the scenery (natural and man made) contributes to the mistique and rough edge of the wild good old times.
Rancho Deluxe struck a nerve of interest when it was initially released and the film reached cult status in Montana. The phenomena might be partially attributed to the perception many young Montanans had at the time of being rather disconnected from the rest of the country (not that that was necessarily a bad thing). The film helped open up Montana to Hollywood movie makers who soon followed to make Thunderbolt & Lightfoot (1974) and The Missouri Breaks (1977). Big Sky Country would never be the same, what a shame.

A Bad 70's "Western"
Encouraged by many positive reviews, I purchased this DVD for viewing at a "movie nite" with a group of friends. Unfortunately, the film was a great disappointment - one of the least entertaining films I have seen, and often painful to watch. Even Slim Pickins couldnt save this artifact of the 70's. None of us found this film funny, and it is perhaps the only film in recent memory that was so awful and dated that I found myself hoping it would just hurry up and end starting painfully early-on in the film. Viewed on a 10' home theater screen, the video quality was only fair at best. Audio quality is similary only fair, and despite my like of Jimmy Buffet, his music did not make this film more tolerable.

RENT IT
It is interesting for the first 45 minutes but after that the plot dies. I did enjoy watching it so I gave it a honest 3 stars but I don't want to watch it again. The ending ruined the movie for me. People totally overrated this movie so I bought it. I waisted my money but it was not a total loss. I made note of their names and I will never trust their judgement again because I know they are insipid. ... Read more

Reviews (91)

"Campy Shoot-em-up Western that's just flat fun to watch!"
Let me make sure I understand...a shoot-out 'tournament' with and old-west setting....why didn't someone think of this before?

This is just a great flick to watch. It's 10% 'camp', and 90% action. Gene Hackman is the only legitimate highly-skilled actor in the action, but the script is so good it makes even Sharon Stone and Leonardo deCaprio look good in thier roles. Gary Sinese and Russell Crowe are great, though Sinese's role is minor.

The zooming cinematography, and the sub-theme of a little girl traumatized keep the plot on the roll! Killing is done with little or no thought to the value of human life, so screen the kids. DeCaprio's death scene will wrench the heart of every teenage girl.

The film is strange at times, and the performances are nearly as methodical as characters from Batman, but it all works. Good does triumph, and there is enough explosion at the conclusion to satisfy the hard-core sensation freaks, so the hour and a half never drags.

I liked this film--even if the plot is as unbelieveable as the fact that Sharon Stone has a great performance!

The Quick and the Dead - A marvelous western!
The Quick and the Dead is an old time favorite of mine that is of course if you can count an eight year old movie as an "old time" favorite. One thing is for sure, it couldn't go wrong with this phenomenal cast; Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe, Leonardo DiCaprio, Gary Sinise and a Sci-Fi favorite of mine, Lance Henriksen. This wonderful western is also quite blessed with the original idea of having a heroine in Sharon Stone, given the rarity of a female lead in a western. Given her exceptional beauty and her extraordinary acting skills, she melds into this role with perfection.

The premise:

Welcome to Redemption, your typical old west town. Herod, played by Gene Hackman, is in the villain role, which befits his talents well, since he's at his best as the villain. Herod is a long time criminal who controls Redemption from the ground up. He's arranged for a "Quick Draw" contest for gunslingers. Ellen, played superbly by the ever beautiful Sharon Stone comes to town with more than just a quick draw competition on her mind. Cort, played by the then burgeoning superstar, Russell Crowe is a former outlaw and friend of Herods, who has found the lord. Kid, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, prior to his huge break in "Titanic" does an acceptable job as the Herod's son and competitor. Let the competition begin! Also mentionable along with these outstanding actors are several others, and a number of actors that always to seem to find their small parts in westerns, with an outstanding script, a traditional "western" score and here we have a fantastic western.

I highly recommend this exceptional film to any and all fans of the western genre or to those that rarely allow themselves to be taken back to the wild, wild west, for it is indeed a wonderful trip and just a plain old fun western.

Special features: If you're a special features hound, this one will leave more than disappointed, as its one and only special feature is a theatrical trailer. For me, as far as this movie is concerned, who cares because this one is just about the escapism of the movie itself! {ssintrepid}

Great cast and terrific apadtation from the original
One of the most recognizable westerns is 'the quick and the dead', this is one of the best westerns i've seen, not that i like westerns but this one is different, with the greatest cast ever and that tournment that happened, like kid (DiCaprio) vs. Harrod (Hackman), then Cort (Crowe) vs. lady (Stone) AND FUNNY CHARECTERS LIKE Ace, with great plots, directing and script, this one outbeat the original, this is a must see for western drama action lovers. 10/10.

Classic
The Quick And The Dead is my favourite film of all time. It is a classic film, with an amazing narrative and an incredible cast. Sharon Stone is fantastic in it.

Please pass the popcorn
Frankly, I have certain reservations about the postmodern (name your "pasta") western and yet I enjoyed this film which has an outstanding cast, featuring Sharon Stone (Ellen), Gene Hackman (Herod), Russell Crowe (Reverend Cort), and Leonardo DiCaprio (the Kid). The supporting cast includes Gary Sinise (Marshall) and Pat Hingle (Horace the bartender). Herod is the corrupt mayor of Redemption (I'm not making this up) who has organized a quick-draw competition for gunfighters. Ego and greed motivate most of the contestants. Ellen is motivated by revenge. Once an associate of Herod's, Cort is a pacifist and refuses to participate. (Of course, he's also renowned as the quickest draw.) Through a process of deadly elimination, two "finalists" will soon face each other in the streets, probably without hope of redemption, and then....

As directed by Sam Raimi, my only significant criticism of this film is that we learn almost nothing about the background of the major characters prior to their participation in the competition. (Perhaps I have been spoiled by Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai, John Sturges' The Magnificent Seven, and more recently, Jeff Blitz's Spellbound.) The Kid is a case in point. Whose son is he? (Herod's?) Raimi raises even more questions about Cort. For example, is he really a clergyman or merely assuming the identity of one such as Robert Mitchum's character in The Night of the Hunter or Clint Eastwood's in Pale Rider? At this point, I ask "What difference does it make?" So I settle back with some refreshments and stop analyzing the film. (My wife would claim "over-analyzing" it.) It is what is so I enjoy it for that rather than rattle on about what it is not. Roll it! ... Read more

Reviews (61)

From Dusk Till Dawn 2 - Not as Good as Original
It seems Quentin Tarantino & Robert Rodrigues wanted to make a franchise series without any thought apart from trying to milk money out of unsuspecting filmgoers. This and the 3rd installment went straight to video so they knew the sequels were not up to par with the original. FDTD 2 is very predictable so there are no surprises, not even the gory vampire killings. The only reason to watch this movie (especially if you're a male) is to see Playboy Playmate Maria Checa in a brief supporting role in which she is killed in a shower scene directly ripped off from Hitchcock's PSYCHO.

A fun waste of time.
This one is not serious, not for a bit. There's gory slaugther, there are cool characters and there's not even a little tiny piece of a story that isn't forgotten after half the movie.

Still I liked it. I liked the wacky camerawork that reminds me of Sam Raimi (Evil Dead) when he is in his most playful mood. I liked the actors interaction (before they became vampires) and I liked the ending scene.

What I didn't like was the second half of the movie where there was only fighting, and not interesting fighting. Four criminal vampires just slaughtering polices can be fun for a bit, but not for too long. If you want a stupid movie with high budget where crazy vampires tries to kill other people with no thought of consequences or really no thoughts at all, this is a film for you.

Vampire Bank Robbers
This is a sequel to From Dusk Till Dawn but it could just as easily be set before the first film. This one involves a bank robbery South of the border. The team is put together and they all head for a motel near the target. But one member is a little late and runs afoul of a vampire.

As a vampire, he joins the rest of the team and starts converting them to vampires. For some reason they continue with the bank robbery. This is not really explained and is not like the vampire mobsters in Innocent Blood.

In the end we have a final showdown when hordes of police arrive including one policeman who has a vendetta against the one thief not to get converted. Some of this action is rather interesting. At one point in the film there is a convenient solar eclipse. This one is odd as it totally blocks out the sun and the corona and then it lasts way too long. It would have been better to leave this one out.

Although this one is not quite as good as the original it is a rather good film. The characters are really quite interesting (both good guys and bad guys) and the film wraps up in a satisfying way (even if it has been used in countless films).

Raymond Cruz
Being a teenager and a boy I like my horror movies. This one is an okay vampire movie. The person that caught my eye was Raymond Cruz, he is so hot. Look at his muscles and that hot bad boy face. The scene with him and the girl in the hotel room was the best part of the movie. Don't miss the rear view that we get to see of both of them.

ok
I recorded this on TV with my Tivo system because it said it was starring Bruce Campbell. It pissed me off when I found out that the only part with Bruce Campbell is a pointless scene in the beginning with Bruce and and the girl from Saved by the Bell. It was also directed by Sam Raimi afiliate Scott Spiegel. I liked the ideas with the camera movement and the scene near the end with the mustard gas and the main character with a cross. Over-all this is a pretty good movie. If it had some better writing and a higher budget it probably would have been better but I guess not. Buy it so you can support these guys. ... Read more

Amazon.com

From a match made in heaven comes a movie spawned in hell! Young hotshot director Robert Rodriquez (El Mariachi, Desperado) teamed up with Pulp Fiction auteur Quentin Tarantino (offering his services as writer and co-star) to make this outrageous, no-holds-barred hybrid of high-octane crime and gruesome horror. QT plays Richard Gecko, a borderline psychopath who breaks his career-criminal brother, Seth (George Clooney), out of prison, after which they rob a bank and leave a trail of dead and wounded in their bloody wake. Then they hijack a mobile home driven by a former Baptist minister (Harvey Keitel) who quit the church after his wife's death and hit the road with his two children (played by Juliette Lewis and Ernest Liu). Heading to Mexico with their hostages, the infamous Gecko brothers arrive at the Titty Twister bar to rendezvous for a money drop, but they don't realize that they've just entered the nocturnal lair of a bloodthirsty gang of vampires! With not-so-subtle aplomb, Rodriguez and Tarantino shift into high gear with a nonstop parade of gore, gunfire, and pointy-fanged mayhem featuring Salma Hayek as a snake-charming dancer whose bite is much worse than her bark. If you're a fan of Tarantino's lyrical dialogue and pop-cultural wit, you'll have fun with the road-movie half of this supernatural horror-comedy, but if your taste runs more to exploding heads and eyeballs, sloppy entrails and morphing monsters, the second half provides a connoisseur's feast of gross-out excess. Bon appétit! --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

Reviews (167)

Pulp Fiction Meets Fright Night
I'm a big fan of Tarrentino's work, though he gets alot of bad rap I believe him to be one of the most talented writers alive, starting with Resevoir Dogs, he wrote Natural Born Killers, and Four Rooms, Desperado, and finally coming to From Dusk Till Dawn. This movie was a rocker, holding any clues or hints that there would be deradful horror in the last hour. Teaming up with horror man Robert Rodriguez, they put together this very well made horror movie about two criminal crazy boys [George Clooney, Quentin Tarrentino] who are on the run for Mexico, They kidnap a family on road [Harvey Keitel, Juliette Lewis, and the son]and they come to a bar called the T**ty Twisters, they find that the bar is infact an eledged trap for feeding time for the vampires that inhabit it, they have to become a team with their hostages to survive, not to mention a couple other cast members; Fred Williamson, and the Sex Machine. You actually grow to admire the Gecko brothers [Clooney, Tarrentino]and Tarrentino's fine writing, alot of sick and twisted but also real features you'll see, along with bloody vampires nawing on humans, and a sided 4 man battle over a bloody severed body part battle ground, that turns to chaos. The movie was very well put together, starting out with 2 Pulp Fiction guys that run into a bunch of Fright Night vampires, the idea was to act upon the impressionable idea that Stephen King does himself in his novels, that to draw the audience into the story so that they indeed care about the characters and them BAM! vampires come along, you put the characters in this altered world of life and death. This movie is especially good on DVD, the sound is ausome along with the bonus materials, and the wide screen.

Vampires Might Be Hear To Stay With Cult Classic
In the early months of 1995, talented Mexican director Robert Rodriguez (El Mariachi, Desperado, The Faculty) and cunning cinematic guru Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown) merged artistic passions to compose an intricate genre hybrid that evokes both the artists unique sensibilities, emanates mind-bogglingly unthinkable comical insights, and reveals an abrasively hip yet sophisticated screen persona that supplies unforeseen drama within the forum of an exploitation film. Surging with distinctive Tarantino culture dialogue and references, Rodriguez's go-for-broke action sequences, marvelous performances from Harvey Keitel, George Clooney, Quentin Tarantino, Juliette Lewis, Salma Hayek, John Saxon, Tom Savini, and Cheech Marin (in three supporting roles!!!), an unyieldingly concentrated pace, spectacular comedic splicing with its horror elements, splendid gore and make-up effects, and a predominantly mischievous ambiance of unpredictability that leaves any first-time viewer totally in hands of Rodriguez and Tarantino, From Dusk Til Dawn persists in being a heavily entertaining dual genre piece that attains dramatic grandeur, profound performances, and even moving pathos within the framework of exploitation piece.

The film depicts the story of the infamous Gecko Brothers', Seth (George Clooney) and Ritchie (Quentin Tarantino), odyssey from their violent southern Texas exploits to their arrival at the unforgettable Titty Twister bar. Along the way, the Gecko brothers inadvertently blow up a liquor store, hallucinate flirtations and verbal taunts, "accidentally" rape and murder a seemingly docile hostage, and kidnap a disillusioned pastor's family and their motor home on their way to their bar rendezvous across the Mexican border. Though these characters may seem to be the most unsympathetic characters to be rooting for. Tarantino's knack for instilling humanity into his criminals is second to none, and along the way towards the bar and the film's personality switch, through absorbing dialogue, gritty performances, and realistic plot developments (in the Tarantino half), we are given unusually affable characters that allow the audience just enough audience identification with the characters before they are literally placed into hell incarnate. While watching From Dusk Til Dawn, it crucial to note the film's story arc is essentially one-half Tarantino crime tale/ one-half gory horror gore opus. This was done I believe to introduce the characters, personality dynamics, and innate personal tendencies of the people in their real environments before establishing the horror. What happens quite often in horror films of the last two decades is we, the audience, are immediately transported to the improbable before we even really know our characters. The characters of a movie are our conduits into the realm and the story of a movie. Doesn't it seem probable that if we have an enhanced understanding of the characters we might enjoy the film's narrative a lot more? From Dusk Til Dawn follows this mentality to its most logic summation as character and style overcome commercial convention.

Since it release, From Dusk Til Dawn consistently besieges it audiences with an intoxicatingly visceral affront of violence, mayhem, elaborate chaos, and inventive havoc that entertains and delights beyond anyone's expectations. Though definitely not Academy Award material so to speak, From Til Dawn remains a superlative horror extravaganza.

As for the film's new DVD Collector's Series edition, FDTD contains an informative Rodriguez/Tarantino commentary track, a feature length documentary entitled "Full Tilt Boogie", extensive outtakes, deleted scenes, two music videos, the theatrical trailer, and much much more. A Definite Must for any Horror Fan.

Tarantino and Rodriguez? Excellent!
I've watched a couple Quentin Tarantino movies, and I absolutely loved them. I also liked 'Once Upon A Time In Mexico' from Robert Rodriguez. So as you can imagine, when I heard about this movie, I was very excited. Tarantino is a masterful screenwriter, and Rodriguez definitely has decent skills behind the camera.
After watching the movie, I have to criticize one thing. The first half (about) of the movie was flawless, with QT and George Clooney as two Convicts, the Richie and Seth Gecko. When they embark from the first scene on, it seems as though the movie could go any direction and still be entertaining. However, when you throw in a night club that is flocking with vampires (fitfully so, the club is open dusk till dawn), you can't keep the same movie that you had. I give the story a lower score due to the fact that it doesn't fit well. If you couldn't guess from the title, and you hadn't seen the trailer, you would be oblivious to the fact that the second half of this movie is all vampires. I believe it would've worked better as a full movie of either type. Crime or Horror. But nevertheless, I couldn't resist the acting from QT and Clooney, along with Harvey Keitel and Juliette Lewis. Other than my single complaint, I really enjoyed this movie. As bloody and violent as it is, it's just so fun.

queten tarentino-another excellent director
3 people get abducted by an escaped con and his brother and go to mexico.they hang out in a bar full of vampires all night.george clooney is in it.he does an outstanding job as a escaped prisoner.then theres some freaky sex offender type-not necessary!and the 3 hostages.they are some old preacher dude,juliette lewis and some mexican kid.this is not for children.it is by far and away the best of the from dusk till dawn set.there is a post rape scene at the front that could turn a few heads.thier is a mexican stripper who.........well.....strips and of course the always awesome julieete lewis to look at.every role ive ever seen her play she did an excellent job.she is my favorite actress.the hype says this movie rocks and it does.there is a special apperance by cheech also.filthy and brief.juliette lewis and george clooney both do an excellent job but have better films out there.

sucked
this movie was good for the first 40 minutes....after that it just blew REALLY hard. vampires? come on! i felt like i was watching "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." it had the potential to be a very good movie, but instead pussied out. don't even bother renting this. or option number 2: rent it for the first forty minutes of it, and laugh at the rest. ... Read more

Amazon.com

The Shooting, perhaps the most famous Western hardly anybody ever saw, takes deadpan survey of the fallout from a casual atrocity, or perhaps only a ludicrous accident, in a nameless town. We never see the atrocity/accident, or even the town. Word simply reaches a prospector's camp, a wood-and-canvas pimple on the blankness of the wasteland, that someone "rode down a man and a little person... maybe a child." Was the someone Willett Gashade's brother Coin, who has gone missing? Was it Leland Drum, Coin's companion, who gets shot from ambush at his fireside--perhaps by an unknown avenger, perhaps by Coin? The death of Drum explains the film's title, but there's a long list of things we never know in The Shooting, and most (all?) of the characters in the movie never know them either. Still, the small, relentlessly enigmatic cast of characters gets into motion and keeps moving--chasing something, running from something, headed for somewhere that may turn out to be nowhere, or deep inside themselves.

Monte Hellman made The Shooting (and a second movie, Ride in the Whirlwind) during one brief trip into the desert, anonymously financed by Roger Corman, in the summer of 1966. His material was a script by Adrien Joyce (later of Five Easy Pieces fame), the patient camera of Gregory Sandor, and the faces, voices, and brazenly modern presences of Warren Oates (Gashade), Jack Nicholson (a white-collar killer), and Millie Perkins (a pinched Medusa, freckled with trail dirt, bitchy light years from Anne Frank). Over the intervening decades the Beckettian movie has been sporadically available only on late-night TV or via scrappy 16-millimeter prints at film societies. That now triumphantly changes with this crisp, color-saturated DVD release, whose modest letterboxing eloquently enhances the unsettling power of Hellman's compositions and eerie long takes. --Richard T. Jameson ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Duel In The Dust
THE SHOOTING (1966): Willet Gashade (Warren Oates) and his dimwitted friend Coley (Will Hutchins) are in a state of growing paranoia after their partner is inexplicably shot to death by an unseen assassin at their small mining camp. The murder may have been in retaliation for the accidental trampling death of "a little person" in town, ostensibly by Gashade's brother, who had left camp in a great hurry immediately prior to the shooting. The next morning, while the two remain confused and suspicious over this disturbing mystery, a strange young woman (Millie Perkins) shoots her horse to death outside of the camp and then offers Gashade a thousand dollars to lead her to a place called Kingsley. He accepts even though he makes no attempt to hide his distrust. Intrigued by The Woman, Coley offers to tag along. On their journey, the trio are tracked at a distance by a black clad stranger, Billy Spear (Jack Nicholson). Meanwhile, The Woman laughingly toys with Coley's emotions and refuses to answer any of Gashade's questions. Spear eventually joins them and proves to be a most despicable companion. Hostile and abusive in the extreme, Spear is a gunslinger cohort of The Woman, who is herself quickly revealed to be every bit as wicked as Gashade had suspected from the beginning. Eventually, the strange journey ends in bloody disarray at the foot of a rock-strewn mountain, where Gashade comes face to face with the answer to the mystery, at great cost.

One of the most celebrated of all cult movies, and deservedly so, THE SHOOTING is a truly great example of the once vital western form, a triumphant dying gasp for the genre. This compelling tale of weird vengeance is directed with icy cold brilliance by Monte Hellman. The perennially underrated Hellman works wonders on a lowbudget, with stunning cinematography (by Gregory Sandor) provoking a strong aura of the mysterious and uncanny even in the most realistically detailed scenes.

A small but terrific cast helps brings the occasionally mystical narrative to life. Warren Oates plays the world weary and wise Grashade with his usual gritty style, making him a suitable anti-hero for this dark tale. He's an excellent foe to Jack Nicholson's irredeemably evil Billy Spear, one of the most repulsively mean of all movie villains. As bad as he is, Nicholson is ultimately simply a well armed servant at the beck and call of The Woman, who is beautifully played by Millie Perkins for maximum hissability. Both Spear and The Woman engineer the destruction of Oates' foolish sidekick Coley, whose decency earns him an undeserved fate; Will Hutchins' charmingly sweet performance provides the film with its only moments of gentleness.

Richly ambiguous and by turns realistic and dreamlike, THE SHOOTING is a sporadically baffling but undeniably heady ride into the desert. The creepy ending makes this one of those rare movies that will compel you to immediately rewatch the whole thing from beginning to end, if only so you can try to satisfy your curiosity about what it just might REALLY be all about. Its THAT great of a movie.

The VCI DVD presents THE SHOOTING in a fine, modestly letterboxed transfer that captures the film in all its eerie widescreen glory. Since the film never received a theatrical release and has been shown only rarely on television, this is the first time most people will have ever had the chance to see this film in its intended aspect ratio. The only extra is a terrific and highly informative audio commentary from Hellman and Perkins, who vividly recall with candor and humor the filming of this ultra-cheap, high-class production.

Doesn't make a lot of sense, but interesting
Not sure what to make of this film. It doesn't make a lot of sense.

Summary:
While Willett Gashade (Warren Oates) was gone for supplies for his mining operation (very small mining operation of only a couple of people in the middle of the desert) his brother and one of their friends got into some trouble in town. They both return to the camp but Willet's brother flees the camp and the friend is gunned down in the middle camp. Another friend, Coley Boyard (Will Hutchins), sees what happens, but it upsets him so much that he hides in the mine with his gun. When Willet finally returns he has to talk Coley out of the cave. Not long after he does, a woman (Millie Perkins), whose name we never find out, appears and hires Willet to guide her across the desert to a city. Willet agrees to go but only if Coley can come.

So they set out, with Coley as something of an errand boy and Willet as the rough and tumble tracker. What Willet and Coley don't realize is that the woman has already hired a gunmen that is riding behind them and trying to stay out of sight to kill the person they are tracking. Though they were told they were just helping the woman across the desert, they are actually tracking someone, and the woman wants that someone dead.

When Coley accidentally sends the wrong signal to the hired gun, Billy Spear (Jack Nicholson), Billy appears at their camp then joins the entourage. As they finally catch up to the person they are 'hunting', Billy kills Coley for trying to warn Willet that Billy is likely just going to kill them all in the end. When Billy passes out from the heat, Willet beats him up then crushes his gun hand with a rock, preventing him from being able to accomplish his mission.

While Willet and Billy are fighting, the woman chases the prey up a mountain side. Once Willet finishes with Billy he enters the chase and reaches the woman in time to ?

Sorry about the question mark there. The truth is, you aren't exactly sure what happens. You hear gun shots and it seems like the prey (whom I believe is Willet's brother), the woman, and Willet all die. But you can't be sure. The only person that looks to be alive when the movie ends is Billy.

My Comments:
I must admit, even though nothing is ever really happening, that the set up of the movie is good enough to make you want to keep watching it. You don't ever really know what is going on and you never actually find out, either. But, because we are human, we want to try to figure it out. So, we keep watching, hoping to pick up on some detail that will help the movie make sense. None are forthcoming.

The soundtrack reminds me of the original The Planet of the Apes, where the music just doesn't seem to fit the action, and there are long periods of time when you would think there should be music, but there isn't any. I guess, if the intent of the director was to give the impression that this story was taking place over an indeterminate period of time, he accomplished his goal. To the viewer, the movie seems to go on forever and it feels like they spend months out in the desert.

Overall, the movie kept my interest most of the time just because I wanted to figure out what was going on. It never made much sense, which I guess is okay. I definitely don't think this movie is for everyone. I didn't think it was too bad, but I didn't really love it either.

SEE THIS WITH "RIDE IN THE WHIRLWIND"
In the spring of 1965, Roger Corman, the king of profitable, low budget movies, helped produce (without credit) two amazing films that have achieved legendary cult status. Now, thanks to VCI Home Video, Monte Hellman's "THE SHOOTING" and "RIDE IN THE WHIRLWIND" are available on DVD in pristine, widescreen transfers. The films are subtly interconected.

Both films star a then unknown Jack Nicholson and super starlet Millie Perkins and were shot simultaneously on location in Utah for the modest amount of $150,000. Nicholson also wrote and co-produced "Ride in the Whirlwind" which is a straightforward tale of the making of a bad man and features sharp performances from Cameron Mitchell, the great Harry Dean Stanton, Rupert Crosse and Katherine Squire among others.

After accidentally happening on a group of outlaws, and getting caught in the crossfire by a sheriff and his posse, Wes (Jack Nicholson) is mistaken for one of the gang and escapes. But, in order to defend himself during his flight, has to start killing. By the end of the film he has become a legendary and mythic figure. Quentin Tarantino, a big fan of Hellman, has called this "one of the greatest films ever made."

In the "The Shooting," former bounty hunter turned miner Gashade (Warren Oates) returns to his diggings to find one of his partners, Leland, dead, his brother Coigne gone, and his third partner, Coley (Will Hutchins) holed-up in a nearby cave. Soon, a mysterious woman (Millie Perkins) materializes out of nowhere and offers Gashade a huge sum of money to guide her on a journey he soon realizes is a manhunt.

The quirky screenplay is by Adrien Joyce, the odd pen-name of the brilliant screenwriter Carole Eastman who wrote the acclaimed "Five Easy Pieces" which also stars Nicholson.

What "The Shooting" is actually about is anybody's guess. It has been called an existential western, or anti western. The super low-budget enforced a minimalist, almost surrealistic style that is terrific and timeless. The stark outdoor locations add immensely to the mood and of this this strange, enigmatic story that seems to reflect mid 60's paranoia and disillusionment.

Since their initial release, both films, though seldom seen, have become critical favorites, and have attained cult film status here and in Europe. Both discs include an entertaining and revealing commentary by director Monte Hellman and actor Millie Perkins with additional informed commentary by American Cinematheque programmer Dennis Bartok.

Millie, what an ice woman
Good movie, although the cowboys in the movie ought to have had less hesitation in slapping that "Woman" Millie Perkins to the ground. What a horrible woman.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE DESERT
If director Monte Hellman's THE SHOOTING is not the cult movie by excellence, I'm ready to watch the whole production of Jackie Chan available here at ... . DVD's and VHS. Without fast forwarding.

Shot entirely in the gorgeous Utah desert sceneries, THE SHOOTING relates the story of a hunting. Who is hunted and who is hunting is one of the multiple unanswered questions of this unusual western. The name of the character played by Millie Perkins is never uttered, she is only credited as "The Woman". Is she the mother of the child Warren Oates's brother would have hurted during a ride into town ? Just guess.

Monte Hellman and Jack Nicholson were both part of producer Roger Corman's unbelievable nest of future stars, they teamed up in 1967 for THE SHOOTING and RIDE IN A WHIRLWIND shot simultaneously. All I can say is that THE SHOOTING is a kind of UFO in the american production of this period and deserves to stay in your collection as an example of what can be done with a restricted budget and a lot of good ideas. Simply amazing.

I had a few problems with the menus of the DVD, never knowing where I was because the different available features were not lightened. But fortunately I know how to count until ten and made my way through the menus where I discovered filmographies, a picture gallery, different trailers and a very informative commentary said by Monte Hellman and Millie THE WOMAN Perkins. I eventually learned that Jack Nicholson was helped by a technical trick when he had to draw his gun. Simple but efficient.

A DVD for your library. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Legendary producer David O. Selznick dreamed of another magnum opus like his 1939 production ofGone with the Wind; he also purposed to make Jennifer Jones, hisladylove and eventually second Mrs. Selznick, a megastar. Accordingly, he micromanaged the making of Duel in the Sun (Lust in the Dustto some), an extravagant Technicolor epic about the collision of the old Westwith the new, wide-open spaces with railroads and barbed wire, and hot-bloodedoutlaws with civilized folk, often wimpy or unwell. Beginning among giantrocks drenched in a blood-red sunset, with velvet-voiced Orson Welles intoningthe leibestod legend of doomed Pearl Chavez and her demon lover, Duel neverstrays far from lush romanticism, spiced with a dash of S/M. Orphaned Pearl (Jones) comes to live at Spanish Bit Ranch, where frail Laura Belle McCanles (Lillian Gish) tries to make a lady of her, despite her questionable originsand insistent voluptuousness. Sexual license versus law--Pearl's choices--aresymbolized by the McCanles brothers: dark, undisciplined Lewt (a lubriciouslywicked Gregory Peck) and reasonable, forward-looking,repressed Jesse (Joseph Cotten). The cast is huge(Lionel Barrymore, Walter Huston, Harry Carey, Herbert Marshall, CharlesBickford, Butterfly McQueen) and there are unforgettable set pieces: summonedby a cacophony of bells, the gathering of McCanles cowboys from the fourcorners of the earth; Pearl in heat, clutching Lewt's leg and being dragged across thefloor as he makes his getaway to Mexico; and the lovers' final shootoutamong those red rocks, as orgiastic a finale as you could ask for. --Kathleen Murphy ... Read more

Reviews (26)

Sprawling western, silly plot
Duel in the Sun was supposed to be the next Gone with the Wind for David O. Selznick. The hyped film boasts an all star cast: Jennifer Jones, Gregory Peck, Joseph Cotton, Lionel Barrymore, and Lillian Gish. The acting is over the top, especially Jennifer Jones' sultry Pearl. Gregory Peck seemed to enjoy his change of pace role as Lewt and enacts the role with gusto. It was a change from his heroic characters that he played in his earlier films. Joseph Cotton is the virtuous brother, Jesse, who does not choose to "forget" that he catches Lewt with Pearl, much to Pearl's hearbreak.

The ending of the book had Jesse and Pearl vanquishing the evil Lewt and riding off into the sunset. Looking at the over the top finale of this movie, I wish the producer had stayed with the ending of the book. The lines are laughable ("You know I had to shoot you," cries Pearl. "Yes, dear, I know you did," answers Lewt.)

There are many cliches: Lewt catching Pearl swimming in the nude and not allowing her to leave the water and get her clothes. Pearl throwing herself at another man to make Lewt jealous. Pearl's transformation, where she decides to become a wanton, her facial expression changing to reflect this.

I understand the "dance of the sump" was left out of the film, where Pearl dances for Lewt. It was supposed to be "indecent" but in retrospect might have been a source of amusement to contemporary audiences.

If you are looking for representative films from the Selznick studio, consider the following instead: Gone with the Wind, A Star is Born, Portrait of Jennie, and The Prisoner of Zenda. For MGM, Selznick produced such standout films as David Copperfield and Anna Karenina. For better films pairing Jones and Cotton, look for the films Love Letters and Portrait of Jennie. The two are at their best in those.

Epic, Sprawling Horse Opera (Roadshow Edition Review)
Sweeping! Magnificent! Corny! Romantic! A west that never existed is splashed across the screen as only David O. Selznick, the master of such gargantuan Hollywood classics as "Gone With the Wind", "Since You Went Away" and "Rebecca" could give us.
This is not the revisionists west of the 1990's, nor that West of the gritty operatic glamour of Sergio Leone's "Once Upon A Time In The West." You will not find the spare clean and lean beauty of John ford's West. What we have here is the epic telling on a screen that screams to be stretched into widescreen and spills out over the audenience the lush and romantic horse Opera of Pearl Chavez, the McCanles clan and the coming of the railroads in the 1880's.
From the moment the overture replete with unneeded narration begins you know you are in for a melodrama of purple emotions and blood red vendettas. The opening scene is set in a saloon on a scale of a modern Vegas casino. There amidst the wild gunfire of overheated cowboys and insanely spinning faro wheels we are introduced to the Scarlett O'Hara of the West, half-breed Pearl Chavez. As played by Jennifer Jones she is just about the hottest tamale to ever hit the pages of a screenplay expressly written to drive men mad, turn brother against brother and defy a "Sinkiller". What Jane Russell was supposed to be in "The Outlaw" we get in Technicolor spades in the form of Miss Jones.
She takes huge hefty bites of the massive sets and chews them to a fare thee well and in the process creates a wanton nymphomaniacal character of such charm, heat and passion that she is truly a motion picture original. This is the best thing Miss Jones ever did because it is so out of control and beyond the pale of her more subdued performances. Of saints, teenage war brides and ghosts of lost love.
As Lewt McCanles we get the hottest, meanest, most excitingly nasty performance Gregory Peck ever was allowed to give. And what an irresistible bad boy he is. He was never sexier or more wonderful than in this departure from the Peck norm.
Even the usually dull Joseph Cotton manages to rise above his typically dry rolls, but not too much, in the thankless roll of the good brother. He seems a little too old for the part and a little too polished. Someone like Charlton Heston might have been more on the spot.
Lillian Gish steals every scene she is in with quite assuredness and only finds completion from the ever-prissy Butterfly McQueen. In her final scene with Lionel Barrymore Miss Gish makes off with the scene so quitly that you are hit with it's impact only after the fact. Barrymore creates one of his most beloved curmudgeons as Senator Jackson McCanles full of sound and furry and ultimately signifying less than nothing. His introduction to Pearl topped by a sneeringly shocking racial slur that encapsulates his character and time and place.
Another highlight is the cameo by Walter Huston as "The Sinkiller". What can be said of him is only this, pure cinematic magic.
The film unfold with such a sense of grandeur and awe that it sweeps you along to its incredible ending on the wings of epic pure camp poetry. The Dimitri Tiomkin score is a masterpiece and much famed over the years for the incredible call of the bells set piece.
The three cinematographers involved, Hal Rosson, Ray Rennahan, and Lee Garmes paint movie memory after memory with the palate of hot dusty hues that have long been forgotten by audiences of today. To see it now is perhaps more exciting and thrilling than it was in 1947.
All of this mad mixture of melodrama, mush and music was orchestrated by the master showman of his time, the ultimate huckster of smoke and mirrors and consummate barometer for just what we wanted in our early epics of the America that never existed, David O. Selznick, who added the "O" to his name just because it looked better on the marquee. When they say that off heard lament "They don't make'um like they used to." Both Mr. Selznick and "Duel In The Sun" are what they are talking about. If they still made them like this then something would be terribly wrong. Thank god they did make films like this once upon a time and we still have them to lose ourselves in a dream of what never was and what will never be again.

Dreadful sound transfer
The dvd image is great, the soundtrack transfer is horrible: drops in volume and the dialogue is often distorted.

POINTLESS REISSUE OF ALREADY AVAILABLE DVD
Producer David O. Selznick never thought small. Dreaming of a magnum opus on the same grand scale as "Gone with the Wind" and, perhaps a little bit self-conscious of the fact that his recent affair with Jennifer Jones had yielded only one stellar performance from the starlet - and not even in a film he had produced - Selznick's driving ambition to make Jones a star on par w