The Big Gundown (1967) / Mannen Med De Sorte Støvler

Released the same year as Sergio Leone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Sergio Corbucci’s Django, The Big Gundown (La resa di conti) is a classic spaghetti western. Directed by the great Sergio Sollima (Face to Face, Violent City) this brutal film elevated western regular Lee Van Cleef (Ride Lonesome) to his first ever starring role. When bounty hunter Jonathan Corbett (Van Cleef) is hired to track down a Mexican peasant (Tomas Milian, in a career-defining role) who has been accused of an appalling crime, he is initially outwitted by the wily bandit. However, the relationship between the two men soon takes an unexpected turn and they team up to take on railroad baron Brockton (Walter Barnes). With its rousing score by legendary composer Ennio Morricone, and its politically charged screenplay by Sergio Donati (Once Upon a Time in the West) and Franco Solinas (The Battle of Algiers), The Big Gundown has earned its reputation as one of the greatest and most influential Italian westerns."Extras "INDICATOR TWO-DISC STANDARD EDITION SPECIAL FEATURES2K restorationsThree presentations of the feature: La resa dei conti (111 mins): the original Italian theatrical version, presented with both Italian and English soundtracks; the extended US cut (95 mins), with scenes added for television broadcast; and the original US theatrical version (89 mins)Original mono audioAudio commentary with writers and film experts Barry Forshaw and Kim Newman on the Italian theatrical version (2023)Audio commentary with film historians C Courtney Joyner and Henry Parke on the extended US cut (2013)Spaghetti Western Memories (2012, 52 mins): documentary featuring director Sergio Sollima and actor Tomas Milian revisiting their much-heralded westernTomas Milian: Acting on Instinct (2013, 30 mins): the genre-film star recalls The Big Gundown and reveals some of his acting secretsPrelude to a Gundown (2023, 10 mins): author and musician Stephen Thrower discusses the career of Sollima and the film’s cast and crewHeroes and Villains (2023, 30 mins): Thrower untangles the themes and politics of The Big GundownA Settling of Accounts (2023, 23 mins): Austin Fisher, author of Radical Frontiers in the Spaghetti Western: Politics, Violence and Popular Italian Cinema, situates the film within the wider context of the genreOriginal US theatrical trailersOriginal Italian theatrical trailerTV spotsImage galleries: production stills and promotional materialsNew and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearingNew and improved English translation subtitles for the Italian soundtrackRuntimes: 111/95/89 mins