Last week I watched the old hacked up version again and just loved it. And, last night, for the first time, I saw a clean crisp widescreen version of the movie.
All I can say is "wow!"
The whole amazing film came to life with color and life. It is one of those movies that gets better every time you see it. There is a reason "Death Rides a Horse" is found in most Top Ten spaghetti western lists (SWDB, Quentin Tarantino's).
"Death Rides a Horse" is a fantastic revenge story of about a boy who watches bandits kill his father then rape and murder his mother and sister. He grows up to be a gun fighter (of course) and sets about hunting down the bad guys. The films stars Lee Van Cleef (THE quintessential bad ass) and John Phillip Law.
I watched the MGM DVD release which appears to be hard to find.
Reviews of the 2011 Wild East Productions release say its stunning as well; I have it on order.
When reading reviews of spaghetti westerns on Amazon.com, you tend to see a LOT of complaints about the old copies (bad picture and cropping) of these movies. Me? I love them. Its like listening to vinyl LP records; they have all the flaws we used to get watching these movies, late at night, on broadcast UHF channels. If you want the "old school" experience, you should also pick up Spaghetti Westerns 20 Movie Pack from Amazon.com; its only $9.00. For that price, you just aren't going to have more fun.
The only thing that puzzles me is how the Americans got "Death Rides a Horse" for the Italian "Man to Man" (Da uomo a uomo) The Italian title is much better.
More on "Death Rides a Horse" from SWDB (lots of reviews and links at the bottom of this page) and IMDB.
Louis Stone-Collonge
stonecollonge@gmail.com
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