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colinr0380 wrote:According to Stamp he regretted turning down the part in retrospect but after getting advice from Ustinov at the end of Billy Budd that he should not sell out and do anything with his new found fame he became a bit too choosy about roles for a few years after (he also talks about turning down Alfie).

He more or less abandoned film acting altogether in the late 1960s, after shooting Toby Dammit and Teorema back to back - he loved working with Fellini (who called him "Terencino Francobollo", a literal translation of his name), but didn't get on with Pasolini at all.

MichaelB wrote:

colinr0380 wrote:According to Stamp he regretted turning down the part in retrospect but after getting advice from Ustinov at the end of Billy Budd that he should not sell out and do anything with his new found fame he became a bit too choosy about roles for a few years after (he also talks about turning down Alfie).

He more or less abandoned film acting altogether in the late 1960s, after shooting Toby Dammit and Teorema back to back - he loved working with Fellini (who called him "Terencino Francobollo", a literal translation of his name), but didn't get on with Pasolini at all.

"Getting on" with Pasolini seems to have been an insurmountable challenge for any male of our species. And Terence Stamp is one of the most open and friendly people on the planet. Fellini was a more suitable choice for Terry. But he gave superb performances in both films.

Has Terence ever done anything in a convincing American accent?

flyonthewall2983 wrote:Has Terence ever done anything in a convincing American accent?

Why, should he have?

King Prendergast wrote:

Somewhere I read once that someone said that seeing Leone's films in FF isn't really seeing them at all, so I'll give the film a 2nd chance on DVD.

Somewhere I heard that seeing anything in a pan and scan form is not really seeing it. Yeah I think I remember that.....

In all honesty, watching it on a TV screen is not really seeing it.

Balls to Arcade Fire. That is, however, perhaps the greatest moment in all cinema, from a little earlier than this, when Robards says "he's whittlin' on a piece of wood..." and Fonda rides up, continuing until the wide reveal at the beginning of the flashback. It kind of peters out after that. But, in terms of pure cinema, nothing can get close to Leone here - except perhaps the first appearance of Fonda & Co. out of the dust around the tree stumps towards the beginning of the same film or, perhaps, the three way stand-off at the end of GBU. Yes, a great, great film, despite it's frustrating flaws (the cuts / simplifications in the narrative that Leone was forced to make mid-shoot creating an uneven middle-section; also, the scenes where Bronson taunts Cardinale for the benefit of Fonda's men, when Robards rescues Bronson on the train and, later, when Fonda had to fight off his own men after they've been paid by Morton are a little boring after you've seen them 30+ times). I might ultimately lean towards OUATIA for it's overall emotional impact and sense of 'meatiness'.

colinr0380 wrote:

flyonthewall2983 wrote:Has Terence ever done anything in a convincing American accent?

Why, should he have?

I imagine it would have been a problem if he couldn't if he ultimately did the role of Harmonica.

flyonthewall2983 wrote:I imagine it would have been a problem if he couldn't if he ultimately did the role of Harmonica.

Then again, that part wasn't exactly talky - how many lines did Bronson have to deliver?

flyonthewall2983 wrote:

colinr0380 wrote:

flyonthewall2983 wrote:Has Terence ever done anything in a convincing American accent?

Why, should he have?

I imagine it would have been a problem if he couldn't if he ultimately did the role of Harmonica.

I understand your point. In Blue the accent's from all over the place, but then so's the character (and I'm not sure I exactly 'buy' Bronson as a Native American in the Leone film, as much as I like his stoical performance!) I suppose Stamp is just Cockney, just like Connery did everything from an Irish New York cop to a Russian submarine commander in Scottish! He's just 'Connery'! It's a style of acting coming from a completely different place than method, naturalistic, trying to 'become' the character style.

OK, it's nice when some gesture is made towards verisimilitude, the correct accent or historical accuracy, but that has never seemed exactly at the forefront of filmmaker's minds when an exciting story, name actors and buget considerations are probably considered more important! That doesn't mean something interesting cannot still be produced however - the interestingly skewed take of Italian films made in Spain with dubbed actors on the American West are a case in point!

colinr0380 wrote:Watching Mark Cousins' Scene By Scene interview with Terence Stamp last night it was interesting to hear that Stamp had been offered the role of Harmonica in OUATITW (maybe something that influenced him taking the lead role in Blue?)

According to Stamp he regretted turning down the part in retrospect but after getting advice from Ustinov at the end of Billy Budd that he should not sell out and do anything with his new found fame he became a bit too choosy about roles for a few years after (he also talks about turning down Alfie).

Terrence or Clint would have made a perfect Harmonica. Bronson was good in this but he just lacked charisma.

But then again, wasn't Bronson one of Leone's first pick for "The Man with No Name" preceding Eastwood?

Yes, James Coburn was someone else (who eventually worked with Leone too) considered for the part. Later on (probably right around the time of Once Upon A Time In America) Leone was very critical of Clint as an actor, maybe thinking too much of how Bronson or Coburn would have done in that part. But as I understand it, before his death Sergio and Clint had made amends.

Blu-Ray coming May 31st, here are the details from thedigitalbits

The set will include BOTH the theatrical cut and the extended version of the film, English 5.1 DTS HD-MA audio (along with restored English Mono, and French and Spanish mono), and all the extras from the previous DVD release, including audio commentary (with contributions by directors John Carpenter, John Milius and Alex Cox, film historians Sir Christopher Frayling and Dr. Sheldon Hall, cast and crew), 5 featurettes (An Opera of Violence, The Wages of Sin, Something to Do with Death, Railroad: Revolutionizing the West and Locations Then & Now), a production photo gallery and the film's theatrical trailer.

Well that's exciting, though I wish they'd let Frayling do a solo commentary to supplement the old one- it's ok, but overcrowded and wildly variant in how interesting the commentators are (I'd pay money never to hear Milius speak again.)

It's not quite as exciting as first glance suggests. The Paramount press release reveals:

Runtime: 165:49 minutes (restored version)
165:10 minutes (theatrical version)

Unless I'm wrong, I think the differences will be (at least some of) the scenes re-inserted in the mid-'80s - Bronson picking himself up after the shooting and possibly a little more Elam and fly. I can't really see the point. It might have been more interesting to see the butchered US cut against the International cut; it does look like either the will to retrieve the footage from the Italian premiere has gone, or it simply doesn't exist in a usable form. Does anyone know for sure?

And - bugger - no lossless mono.

According to dvdbeaver, the Paramount 2003 dvd is 165:10. Do you mean scenes re-inserted in the mid-'80s didn't appear in the dvd?

andyli wrote:According to dvdbeaver, the Paramount 2003 dvd is 165:10. Do you mean scenes re-inserted in the mid-'80s didn't appear in the dvd?

No; it means I could be mistaken and there's a possibility of 39 seconds of...something. I think the point is that this appears to be interesting, but not sensational. We'll see.

Amazon now has the release date set at May 3rd.

And for $15.99!

I think we all know by now, but I'll post it anyway - we're getting the version we got previously on home video, plus the slightly extended Film Foundation restoration which includes slightly extended/reordered scenes and corrected music cues.

Which one is the version that was used from the print Scorsese has?

That's the Film Foundation version.

If those running times are accurate, the 'restored version' refers to the Italian release cut - an earlier, inferior edit with just a few snippets of loose and unnecessary footage around the edges here and there, and the music not as well employed in a couple of places. It's been out on Italian DVD for over a decade, a great example of less is more. Leone then tightened the film up for international release, and it's extremely fortunate his final cut is still being offered here (for which I'm guessing we have Frayling to thank, standing off against Scorsese and idiots like this). A pity they're still using the 'restored mono' track, however, which is just a mixdown of the 5.1.

Amazon has set the release date back to May 31st. Still at 15.99