Arrow Video in May will be ‘Gangster’
A Clint Eastwood/Sergio Leone Trilogy in 4K, A Hoskins and Caine Gangster Classic And A Clive Barker masterwork
May isn’t too far away and Arrow Video tease what genre fans can expect when it comes to their home entertainment releases. They promise it will be a month that will be ‘gangster’ arriving in glorious 4K!
This May, The Dollars Trilogy on Limited Edition 4K UHD. A trio of Sergio Leone/Clint Eastwood landmark Westerns in the most comprehensive edition with a wealth of new and archival bonus materials. A Fistful of Dollars wasn’t the first spaghetti western, but the genre was never the same again after Leone’s audacious breakthrough, starring Clint Eastwood in the role that made him an international icon; with For a Few Dollars More, Leone expanded the canvas of his mythic, feverish vision and refined his unmistakable signature; and the trilogy concludes with The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, a violent, picaresque epic of operatic scale, set against the devastation of the American Civil War, their pursuit builds to one of cinema’s most iconic three-way standoffs, bringing Leone’s grand sense of dramatic scale to its apotheosis.
Next up is Mona Lisa also on Limited Edition 4K UHD. Five years after The Long Good Friday, Bob Hoskins returned to the gangster genre, along with Get Carter’s Michael Caine and Band of Gold star Cathy Tyson. Hoskins’ immensely complex, subtle and moving performance hoovered up almost every Best Actor award going (Cannes, a BAFTA, a Golden Globe) and remains one of his greatest roles – a man sucked by circumstance into a life of crime but still righteous enough to seize the opportunity to do good when it presents itself. Director Neil Jordan (The Company of Wolves, The Crying Game) achieve a perfect blend of hard-edged realism and unexpected fantasy, with the regular appearance of the Nat King Cole title song turning seedy British locations (Soho, Brighton) into something far more romantically evocative.
Finally the month will give us Nightbreed on Limited Edition 4K UHD. From the mind of writer/director Clive Barker who is responsible for Hellraiser and Candyman. Now comes a nightmare-induced fantasy, starring Craig Sheffer (Teen Wolf) and Videodrome director David Cronenberg, set in a world like nothing you’ve ever experienced before… one which will leave you questioning who the real monsters are. The victim of studio interference and an unrepresentative marketing campaign, Nightbreed was poorly received by critics on its initial release, but has since undergone a radical reappraisal.The release will give you two versions of this depraved cult classic: the studio-approved theatrical cut and the reconstructed, reinvigorated director’s cut, for the ultimate nightmarish viewing experience.
Mona Lisa Limited Edition 4K UHD 11th May
George is a chauffeur hired by a mesmerisingly slimy gangland kingpin to transport a high-class prostitute from client to client. When she enlists his help in tracking down an old friend, George finds himself exploring a hellish underworld that he never imagined existed.
4K ULTRA HD LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
• Brand new 4K restoration from the original camera negative by Arrow Films and approved by director Neil Jordan
• 4K (2160p) Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
• Newly restored original lossless English mono audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Audio commentary by Bob Hoskins and Neil Jordan
• Interviews with director Neil Jordan, writer David Leland and producer Stephen Wooley
• Original trailer
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Hannah Gillingham
• Collectors’ booklet featuring writing on the film by critic Mike Sutton
The Dollars Trilogy Limited Edition 4K UHD 18th May
A Fistful of Dollars introduces a nameless stranger (Clint Eastwood) who rides into a Mexican border town torn apart by a vicious power struggle between two rival families, the Baxters and the Rojos. His only chance of escape is a standoff against the latter’s merciless leader, Ramón (Gian Maria Volonté).
In For a Few Dollars More, two rival bounty killers (Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef) hunt the same target: the psychopathic bandit “El Indio” (Volonté). Forming an uneasy alliance, the pair infiltrate El Indio’s gang… but as greed begets violence, the hunters become the hunted, leading to a final showdown in a circle of death.
In The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, Blondie (Eastwood) and the treacherous Tuco (Eli Wallach) learn of a buried cache of Confederate gold, they are drawn into a desperate race against Angel Eyes (Van Cleef), a ruthless mercenary with his own twisted code of honour.
8-DISC 4K ULTRA HD LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
• Limited Edition trilogy slipcase featuring newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella
• Three double-sided fold-out posters featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella
• Perfect-bound booklet featuring writing by Henry Blyth, Bilge Ebiri, Priscilla Page, Glenn Kenny, Howard Hughes and James Flower
• 4K restorations of all three films from the original negatives, including the International and Extended Cuts of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
• 4K UHD Blu-ray™ presentations in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
• Newly restored lossless mono and DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Newly restored lossless Italian mono, DTS-HD MA 5.1 and optional English subtitles on A Fistful of Dollars
• Audio commentaries on all three films by Leone biographer Sir Christopher Frayling and film historian Tim Lucas
• Audio commentary on The Good, the Bad and the Ugly by film historian Richard Schickel
• Interviews with editor Eugenio Alabiso, guitarist Bruno Battisti D’Amario, filmmaker Paolo Bianchini, Ennio Morricone biographer Alessandro de Rosa, Stefano Delli Colli (son of cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli), singer Edda Dell’Orso, Lee Van Cleef biographer Mike Malloy, film historian Fabio Melelli, post-production supervisor Enzo Oconi, assistant cameraman Sergio Salvati, Giacomo Scarpelli (son of co-writer Furio Scarpelli), and Giuditta Simi (daughter of set/costume designer Carlo Simi)
• Visual essays exploring each film’s iconic soundtrack by musician and disc collector Lovely Jon
• Archival interviews with Frayling, Eastwood, co-star Marianne Koch, and Leone collaborators Mickey Knox, Sergio Donati and Alberto Grimaldi
• Hour-long interview with Leone, filmed in 1983
• A Fistful of Dollars US TV opening scene, and an archival interview with director Monte Hellman
• Archival featurettes on For a Few Dollars More’s remastering for DVD and original American release version
• Archival featurettes on The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Leone’s West, The Leone Style, Reconstructing the Film, Il Maestro Parts One and Two, The Socorro Sequence: A Reconstruction
• Archival location featurettes
• Alternate credit sequences
• Comprehensive trailer and image galleries
• Sad Hill Unearthed, a feature-length 2017 documentary by filmmaker Guillermo de Oliveira, following fan efforts to restore the graveyard set, with accompanying extras Lost in the Editing Room, The Making of the Film, The Making of the Original Soundtrack, World Premiere Q&A and Sad Hill in January 2020
Nightbreed Limited Edition 4K UHD 25th May
By night, Aaron Boone (Craig Sheffer, Teen Wolf) dreams of Midian, a hidden subterranean world where monsters have created a haven from humanity. Under pressure from his girlfriend Lori (Anne Bobby, Born on the Fourth of July), he attends psychotherapy sessions, unaware that his shrink, Dr Decker (Videodrome director David Cronenberg), is setting him up to take the fall for a series of violent murders. Convinced he no longer belongs in the human world, Boone goes in search of Midian – not realising that the real killer has plans for both him and the colourful cast of outsiders who call it home…
2-DISC 4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
• 4K restorations of both the Theatrical Cut and Director’s Cut
• 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray™ presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible) of both cuts
• Original lossless 2.0 stereo audio and optional DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio for both cuts
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for both cuts
• Reversible sleeve feature original and newly commissioned artwork by Gilles Vranckx
• Perfect-bound collectors’ booklet featuring writing on the film by Mark Salisbury, co-author of Clive Barker’s Nightbreed: The Making of the Film, and Barker archivists Phil and Sarah Stokes
• Double-sided fold-out poster featuring newly commissioned artwork by Gilles Vranckx
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