Once Upon a Time in the West (4K UHD Blu-ray) review

[David Vaughn]

Studio: Paramount 
Release Date: May 14, 2024
Rating: NR
Film: 2/5

Plot
Set in the dying days of the Old West, a struggle to control water in a dusty desert town embroils three hard-bitten gunmen in an epic clash of greed, honor, and revenge.   

My Thoughts
I know I’m in the minority here, but I found this film to be an absolute bore. Its runtime is over 2.5 hours and frankly, it could have told the exact same story in about 100 minutes and maybe I would have enjoyed it a lot more. Sergio Leone made his mark with spaghetti westerns with limited budgets, but in this film he had major studio backing, an A-list cast, and a big budget, but instead of telling a compelling story, he spent most of his budget on film stock so he could focus in on the squinting eyes of most of the cast as they stare down each other before a gunfight ensues.
While Paramount went back to the original 35mm print and struck a new 4K master. For some unknown reason they decided to put the film on a measly 66GB dual-layer disc, which is much too small for a film of this runtime. The result of this is a video encode that looks somewhat compressed and finer details are lost in translation. On the plus side, the color palette is marvelous to look at, but it could have looked so much better.
Both the original mono mix and an upmixed 5.1 track are available (I listened to the 5.1) and it’s for the most part pretty good. The score opens up the soundstage and there are some cases where the surround speakers com into play with the sound of horses hooves hitting the ground. The dialog is relatively clean and intelligible although the ADR scenes really stick out.


Video 6/10
Audio 8/10 (DTS-HD MA 5.1)


Special Features:

• Two Commentaries
• A Look Back with Leonard Maltin
• An Opera of Violence
• The Wages of Sin
• Something to Do With Death
• Railroad: Revolutionizing the West
• Locations Then and Now
• Production Gallery
• Theatrical Trailer
• UHD + Digital Copy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNGQ1hUyx-k&ab_channel=Danios12345

Conclusion
I requested this film based upon the positive reviews since I had never seen it before, but both my wife and I struggled to get into it. There are just too many scenes that take forever the play out and both of us lost our patience. Furthermore, the video encode is a disappointment when you see how much work was put into the restoration, but the choice of only using a dual-layer disc really harmed the overall look of the film.


Reference Review System:
 JVC DLA-RS3100 4K Ultra High-Definition Front Projector
 (Calibrated with Portrait Displays CalMAN color calibration software & C6-HDR Meter from Portrait Displays)
 Stewart Filmscreen - Firehawk 110” 2.35:1 Screen
 Trinnov Altitude 16 Audio/Video Processor
 ATI AT527NC Powering Bed Channels
 ATI AT524NC Powering Atmos Speakers
 Kaleidescape Strato + Server
 Panasonic DP-UB820 Ultra HD Blu-ray Player
 System Controller: URC MX-990
 M&K S-150 THX Ultra (R-C-L Speakers)
 M&K SS-150 x4 (Surround Speakers)
 Atlantic Technology IC6-OBA x 4 Overhead Speakers
 Dual Rythmik FV15HP2
 Mini DSP HD controlling all subwoofers
 Audioquest and Monoprice - Audio/Video/Speaker Cabling
 PureAV PF60 Power Conditioner

[Paul Heroy]

I saw this in the early days of DVD and recall marveling at the picture at the time for the age of the movie. I enjoyed the movie more than you David, but it's definitely got some atmospheric lingering scenes that can either drive tension or boredom. For me it was the former. Might have to revisit this on 4K although it's disappointing to hear they disrespected the movie by cheaping out on the capacity, which I can't imagine really makes more than a few pennies worth of cost in the BoM.

[David Vaughn]

I saw this in the early days of DVD and recall marveling at the picture at the time for the age of the movie. I enjoyed the movie more than you David, but it's definitely got some atmospheric lingering scenes that can either drive tension or boredom. For me it was the former. Might have to revisit this on 4K although it's disappointing to hear they disrespected the movie by cheaping out on the capacity, which I can't imagine really makes more than a few pennies worth of cost in the BoM.

In regard to pinching pennies...exactly. The only thing I can think is that the machine that presses the triple-layer discs was not available for some reason and so they decided to compress the encode in order to get it onto a dual-layered disc. From what I've read, there aren't as many fabrication facilities compared to 10-15 years ago, so production capacity may be an issue moving forward (especially if discs start to make a comeback). I don't know about you, but my fingers are crossed on that happening

[bmoney]

ugh was looking forward to this too...i think ill pass