sound good

Sounds So Good
$0.99

Panasonic SC-BT200 1000W 7.1 Channel Blu-ray Disc Home Theater Sound System
$549.95
I did quite a bit of shopping around and for the price, you can't beat this system!! Very rich full sound, clear as a new brass bell. Internet connectivity, Ipod dock built in, this system is wonderful. The one issue I have with this system is the same issue I have had with previous Panasonic systems, that silly proprietory plug on the chincy speaker wires provided. I have spent the money to get good, oxygen free 12 guage copper speaker wire to replace theirs, and I will have to do good soldering to attach the appropriate wire to the plugs, but I do tend to be a bit retentive. Of course I knew this is how it would be going in, but Panasonic is a great brand despite this one issue. Still all in all, a novice could set up this system in a manor of minutes and enjoy great sound right out of the box. If your going to invest in a great 1080 system, don't short the sound and, for the money, I couldn't find a better system with all the features out there.

Good Directions8803WV1 Sailboat Copper Wind Chime with Blue Verde Finish
$65.00
Our classic sculptured designs are renowned for their quality of workmanship and enduring value. True works of art combined with the alluring tones of windchimes. The hand-crafted sculpture is positioned atop melodious, tastefully finished copper chimes. These unique windchime sculptures possess exceptional beauty and value that will be cherished for years to come. All windchimes sculptures are approximately 42-inch high from top hook to bottom of windcatcher. Sailboat with blue verde finish.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly [Blu-ray]
$29.99
THE MEANING OF SERGIO LEONE'S WORK

Spaghetti Westerns were the first significant movies I watched as a little boy growing up in some East European backwater, back in the late sixties. And Sergio Leone was the Spaghetti king. What could be more subversive in a world aiming at total or totalitarian state-enforced collectivism than watching these rugged individualists, Italian-speaking 'cowboys' answering to American names, relentlessly and usually violently pursuing their own greedy goals while the world around was cracking and collapsing with a so-called 'civil' war raging? Add to that those wide shots of small men under immense, blue, cloudless dessert skies and Clint Eastwood's cigars and the effects of all those years of constant and persistent indoctrination were irreversibly blown away by 3 hours of movie viewing.

It's hard to quantify the role Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood played in the collapse of communism - after all, what followed isn't exactly the happy-go-lucky Wild West - but almost certainly we wouldn't have the Tarantino some of us love and the massive Stephen King's Dark Tower saga might not exist at all - and this is just scratching the surface. Maybe Sergio Leone is not the sole mother of all contemporary creative artistic expressions but he's clearly one of their more prominent godfathers.


THE RESTORATION

These being said, the restoration and actual reconstruction of his work was something that HAD to be done because we can't afford having these masterpieces degrade any further. What came out is certainly not 'perfect' but it's great work for sure and, as a digital product, it can't degrade any more.

The restorers succeeded in giving us, Americans, what Europeans always had - the 'full' movie, not the butchered American version, 15 or 20 minutes shorter, made so to meet the business demands of theater operators. It was hard to find film of an acceptable quality for all the chapters and, at least in one instance, what was found was too damaged to be included in the film but, whenever possible, the lost content was added and the restorers even brought back Clint Eastwood and Eli Wallach to do their voices over the Italian-speaking cuts. The picture was cleaned up and the restorers even managed to turn the mono sound track into a 5.1 surround, adding a few sound effects when needed - yes, it's not 100% the original sound track but I'm not complaining.


THE BLU EDITON

This edition is the 2003 restored movie. As I noted above, it gets a DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio sound track and it's 2 minutes shy of 3 hours long. For a 1966 movie done on the cheap back then - it cost only a little over $1 million to make it - the restoration quality is above expectations. Not everything is perfect. Sometimes we even get to see the proverbial 'hair' at the bottom of the screen and not a lot of time was invested in creating the 5.1 sound track but what we get is probably better than what I saw as a little boy in the movie theater.

In addition, there is a serious complement of extras. There are two separate commentary soundtracks by Richard Schickel, an Eastwood biographer and by Christopher Frayling, a noted authority when it comes to Sergio Leone. Then, there's the "Leone's West" documentary, discussing the making of the movie, another featurette on Sergio Leone himself, a short on the actual Civil War events that the movie seems to refer to, a very informative short on the restoration process and two extras on Ennio Morricone, the composer responsible for the innovative sound track.

Sadly, the packaging is not what I expected. The disk comes inside one of the cheapest Blu-ray case made so far - the kind that has holes in it to save one or two pennies worth of plastic but... I can live with that.


OVERALL

I am VERY happy with this restoration. I think it's the best we are going to get for many years to come so... enjoy it. I know that I am. It's 5 stars without hesitation.