Well, it’s that time of year again. In early June and early December, Deep Discount runs its 20% off all DVDs sale. If you paid attention to previous versions of this weblog, you might have seen me post detailed lists of my semi-annual “DVD haul,” but not this time. I’m too poor to really partake of the sale in a big way anymore, and I’ve also maxed out on DVDs! I own far, far too many, have only bought a handful since December, and am now trying to liquidate a few hundred (here is a relatively up-to-date list of what I still own).

But, that’s not going to stop me from recommending a DVD box set. Today, the “new” The Sergio Leone Anthology comes out in the U.S., and it looks to be an amazing box set. I’ve been a nut about spaghetti westerns for years now, and was always perplexed why they had such terrible, terrible Region 1 releases. Leone’s five classic Westerns were: A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time In the West and Duck You Sucker/A Fistful of Dynamite. The first three were very early DVD releases and showed it — non-anamorphic prints, crappy sound, no commentaries, and really no substantive extras, period. Once Upon a Time In the West was treated to a wonderful 2-disc release, but as far as I know, the American release of A Fistful of Dynamite was just as crappy as the “Man With No Name” movies.

Several years ago, a new, restored and wonderful 2-disc edition of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly showed up in the U. S., but nothing else seemed imminent. I was confused by this, and became even more confused when I traveled to Europe last summer — I figured that these Italian films might have some decent Italian DVDs, but nope. I struck out completely in Rome, and was confused why one of my favorite genres was virtually ignored in their country of origin. Italians made these, but had yet to release decent editions of Leone’s films, while America (where the movies are set) had eschewed them as well. What the hell?

Compounding the confusion, when I went to England last summer, I found the best imaginable DVD releases of the first three films! Two-disc editions with commentaries, extras (such as the 1970s TV movie new introduction to A Fistful of Dollars starring Harry Dean Stanton which only aired once!) and other ephemera. They’d been out in the UK for at least a year or two at that point (!) and so I was able to snag A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More for about £5 apiece (HMV at Gatwick — duty-free DVDs!) Not too shabby, consisdering the quality of the films and the quality of the DVD treatment.

But why Britain? What is it about England and spaghetti westerns that these films would have such a treatment there first? I assume much of it must be thanks to the influence of Sir Christopher Frayling — his book on Leone and his great coffee table book on the Leone westerns are some of the best English-language popular criticism I’ve read on these films:

It’s no coincidence to me that Frayling does the commentary on A Fistful of Dollars — and maybe For a Few Dollars More, but I don’t recall. Additionally, I wonder if there’s some kind of weird fascination with westerns still abuzz in some corners of the British popular consciousness? The ending of Hot Fuzz is certainly an homage to Leone in part, and films such as Once Upon a Time In the Midlands are evoking the same. I don’t know where this comes from, but I’m happy someone’s doing it.

This is all a long roundabout way of saying I’m thankful that those UK editions have finally made it to the United States (they’re the same as the releases in this box set). I ended up ordering the new version of Duck, You Sucker, both because I’m a completist and because I really don’t like the American, trimmed down version A Fistful of Dynamite and want to finally see the original Italian cut:

If you’re interested in buying any of the movies I mentioned here, they’re pretty cheap at Deep Discount right now. $49 and change shipped for the Leone box set (that’s aroud $18 cheaper than Amazon), and the Once Upon a Time in the West 2-discer (the only Leone Western not included in the box) is less than $6, I think. Just put in “DVDTALK” for the promotional code on your shopping cart page, and it will take off 20% of your whole order.

Enjoy!