Synopsis:

This edit is meant to be the definitive version of the epic Western given the available home media releases.

Intentions:

The history of the film's home media releases has been very rocky thanks to Paramount's utter incompetence and laziness. Let me briefly explain. The laserdisc has the best audio out of all releases, but introduced a music error at the end credits that has never been fixed and ruins the emotional impact. Then came the DVD with only a mediocre 5.1 mix that adds new revisionist sound effects (the supplemental features are great though. The DVD also added the scene where Harmonica rises in the train station, which was personally removed by director Sergio Leone because it reduces the impact of Harmonica's reappearance. During this time, there was an Italian DVD that featured some missing shots in the opening scene. However, the picture is VHS quality with a horrendous yellow filter, and the audio is poor. The bluray came in 2011 with the same 5.1 mix but in DTS-HD. The picture was left hands-off in terms of grain but the color grade was too brown. Then the 4K came and DNRed the hell out of the film, introducing instances of halo and floating grain, and a loss of detail in many instances. To make things worse, this almost three hour film was badly encoded into a single 66gb disc. There were some hopes when an Italian distributor announced their own release of the film with their own encode, but unfortunately it used Paramount's overly proccessed master. Finally, there exists an over 100gb version in Kaleidescape, but it uses the same crap master. Due to Paramount's lack of care, I've decided to make the definitive edition of Once Upon A Time In The West... at least until a 4K 35mm fan scan emerges.

Change List:

The 2011 Bluray was used as the basis of the film. It's too brown and has a light green tint, while the 4K has nice colors but looks somewhat unnatural. I colorgraded the film somewhere in between, resulting in more natural skin tones while keeping some of that earthiness. For the DVD release, the extra shots have been color corrected to match the bluray, but they don't look identical due to the poor source. Added missing shots in the opening sequence Removed Harmonica rising scene Replaced end credit music Balance color grade. Upscale to 1080p and use of experimental SDR to HDR workflow.

Additional Notes:

This release offers two separate edits. First, is a DVD that includes the closest version to a director's cut. It features the extended and missing shots from the Italian DVD and the end music along with the excision of the Harmonica rising scene. This version is in DVD because the extra shots just cannot be convincingly upscaled and would be too distracting. The change in audio is also noticeable, but not too distracting. 1.0 Mono in English. Second, is a 4K HDR10 with Dolby Vision version like above but without the extended and missing shots from the Italian DVD. This is my preferred way of viewing the film. A 1080p version is available for compatibility (the 4K will be near 100gb). 1.0 mono PCM (English), 5.1 FLAC (English), 2.0 E-AC3 (French, German, Japanese, Spanish, Italian), 2.0 AC3 (Commentary from DVD)

Other Sources:

1973 LP sountrack for end credits music 2011 Bluray as the basis of the film 1.0 PCM audio from Laserdisc Extended italian DVD for the extra shots

Special Thanks:

I'd like to thank jimbotron235 from the originaltrilogy forums for providing the Laserdisc capture.