The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Limited Edition – Arrow Video (4k UHD)

Theatrical Release Date: Italy, 1966
Director: Sergio Leone
Writers: Luciano Vincenzoni, Sergio Leone, Agenore Incrocc, Furio Scarpelli
Cast: Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef, Aldo Giuffrè, Luigi Pistilli, Rada Rassimov, Aldo Sambrell, Mario Brega

Release Date: August 11th, 2025
Approximate Running Times: 161 Minutes 46 Seconds (International Cut), 181 Minutes 57 Seconds (Extended Cut), 180 Minutes 32 Seconds (Extended Cut), 178 Minutes 43 Seconds (Extended Cut), 177 Minutes 15 Seconds (Extended Cut), 175 Minutes 26 Seconds (Extended Cut)
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Widescreen / 2160 Progressive / HEVC / H.265 / Dolby Vision HDR10 (All Versions)
Rating: 18 (UK)
Sound: DTS-HD Mono English (All Versions), DTS-HD 5.1 English (All Versions)
Subtitles: English SDH (All Versions)
Region Coding: Region Free (4K UHD), Region B (Blu-ray)
Retail Price: £39.99 (UK)

"A partnership between two scoundrels, Blondie (Eastwood) and Tuco (Eli Wallach) goes awry, only for fate to intervene in the form of information about a cache of stolen Confederate gold buried in a graveyard. Each possessing a different clue to its location, the pair are forced into a distrustful partnership. However, the gold is also sought by Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef), a ruthless mercenary with his own twisted code of honour. Thus begins a desperate pursuit amidst the mass destruction and absurdity of the American Civil War, culminating in an iconic three-way standoff inside the graveyard." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 5/5 (All Versions)

Here’s the information provided about this release's presentation, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo) has been exclusively restored by Arrow Films and is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 in both its International and Extended Cuts. The soundtrack is presented in restored original mono Italian and English mono, as well as remixed Italian and English 5.1 audio for both versions.

The original 35mm 2-perf Techniscope camera negative was scanned and restored in 4K/16-bit resolution at L'immagine Ritrovata, Bologna. The film was further restored and color graded in SDR, HDR10, and Dolby Vision at Silver Salt Restoration, London.

The original film and audio materials sourced for this new restoration were made available from Produzioni Europee Associati (PEA). Materials were delivered by the Cineteca di Bologna and L'immagine Ritrovata, Bologna.

Additional English picture and audio materials were made available from Amazon / MGM Studios.

Portions of an original 35mm exhibition print were scanned in 4K by Cineteca Nazionale, Rome for sequences missing from the original negative.

A 35mm imbibition Technicolor print was sourced from The Cinema Museum, London, for color reference.

Additional film and video reference material was supplied from the collections of Benji Heran and Jordan King. Arrow Video wishes to thank Benji, Jordan, Devan Scott, and Willa Ross for their help and guidance during this project.

Principal audio restoration on the original mono tracks was completed by Bad Princess Productions. Additional 5.1 audio restoration work was completed by Þorsteinn Gislason."

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, the International cut, comes on a 100 GB triple layer 4K UHD.

Disc Size: 92.8 GB

Feature: 87.7 GB

Here’s information about additional footage incorporated into the extended cut, "The following 181-minute video presentation of The Good, The Bad and the Ugly reinstates the deleted "Angel Eyes Arrives" and "Bones in the Desert" footage in addition to the 'grotto' and uncut 'Tuco torture' scenes. It is the closest English-language approximation so far to the longest-known Italian-language version that had its world premiere in Rome on Decemeber 23rd 1966 before being cut further for its wider release. Some defects remain where deleted material is either incomplete or taken from used 35mm exhibition prints."

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, the extended cut, comes on a 100 GB triple layer 4K UHD.

Disc Size: 92.8 GB

Feature: 83.8 GB

This disc uses seamless branching for the five versions of the extended cut. This release, like Arrow Video's releases of A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More, showcases an exemplary transfer, making it the best version of this film available to date. The source looks immaculate; flesh tones look perfect, colors have the right temperature and never look amped up, image clarity, contrast, black levels, and compression are solid, and the image always looks organic. Once again, Fidelity in Motion delivers an exceptional encode.

Audio: 5/5 (All Audio Tracks)

No matter what version you watch, there are two audio options, a DTS-HD mono mix in English and a DTS-HD 5.1 mix in English. When watching the extended cut with the uncut torture scene, it is only available in mono. The audio, like the video, has undergone extensive restoration, and all of the tracks sound outstanding. Dialog always comes through clearly, everything sounds balanced, and Ennio Morricone’s score sounds robust. When it comes to ambient noise, they never sound artificial; they are perfectly balanced. Included are removable English SDH.

Extras:

Extras on the 4K UHD disc with the international cut include a U.S. radio spot (36 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), 3 U.S. TV spots (2 minutes 21 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), a UK theatrical trailer (3 minutes 1 second, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), a U.S. theatrical trailer (3 minutes 23 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), a French theatrical trailer (3 minutes 28 seconds, Dolby Digital mono French with removable English subtitles), a German theatrical trailer (6 minutes 5 seconds, Dolby Digital mono German with removable English subtitles and text in English about this trailer), and an archival audio commentary with author and film historian Tim Lucas.

Extras on the 4K UHD with the extended cut include deleted and alternate scenes; Italian opening credits (3 minutes 30 seconds, DTS-HD mono), Il Brutto (26 seconds, DTS-HD mono, no dialog), Angel Eyes Arrives extended (37 seconds, DTS-HD mono, no dialog), Il Cattivo (23 seconds, DTS-HD mono, no dialog), Il Buono with no music (50 seconds, DTS-HD mono Italian, no subtitles), Bones in the Desert (2 minutes 52 seconds, DTS-HD mono, no dialog), Original Intermission Cards (46 seconds, DTS-HD mono) and Extended Freeze Frames/Tuco’s Final Line (3 minutes 8 seconds, DTS-HD mono Italian, no subtitles), an archival audio commentary with film historian and Sergio Leone biographer Sir Christopher Frayling, and an archival audio commentary with film historian and Clint Eastwood biographer Richard Schickel.

The bulk of the extras come on a Blu-ray. Extras on this disc include image galleries; The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in Pictures Part One (8 minutes 56 seconds, with music from the film playing in the background), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in Pictures Part Two (11 minutes 16 seconds, with music from the film playing in the background), On the Set (8 minutes 13 seconds, with music from the film playing in the background) and Promoting The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (8 minutes 13 seconds, with music from the film playing in the background), alternate credits sequences; French credits (3 minutes 34 seconds, Dolby Digital mono) and Spanish credits (2 minutes 43 seconds, Dolby Digital mono), MGM archival extras; The Socorro Sequence - A Reconstruction (3 minutes, scene is reconstructed by using stills and text information about scene), a featurette titled Leone’s West (20 minutes 4 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), a featurette titled The Leone Style (23 minutes 48 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), a featurette titled titled Reconstruction The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - Extended Cut (11 minutes 8 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), two featurettes about composer Ennio Morricone’s score titled Il Maestro: Ennio Morricone and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Part One (7 minutes 48 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles) and Il Maestro: Ennio Morricone and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Part Two (12 minutes 28 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), a featurette about The Civil War titled The Man Who Lost the Civil War (14 minutes 25 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), and four brief interview outtakes titled Vignettes (2 minutes 42 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), a video essay exploring the film's iconic soundtrack by musician and disc collector Lovely Jon titled The Good, The Great and the Moody (28 minutes 47 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with Ennio Morricone biographer Alessandro de Rosa titled Call of the Coyote (28 minutes 21 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with singer Edda Dell'Orso titled The Voice Behind the Gold (13 minutes 50 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with guitarist Bruno Battisti D'Amario titled That Magic Sound (7 minutes 51 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with post-production supervisor Enzo Ocone titled Frames of Glory (28 minutes 23 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with editor Eugenio Alabiso titled The Man, The Cut, The Masterpiece (28 minutes 12 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with stuntman/actor Fabio Testi titled From Falls to Fame (13 minutes 33 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with filmmaker and Lee Van Cleef biographer Mike Malloy titled They Call Him Angel Eyes (11 minutes 44 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with Giuditta Simi, daughter of set/costume designer Carlo Simi titled The Hand That Drew The West (5 minutes 41 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with camera assistant Sergio Salvati titled Sergio and Sergio (27 minutes 1 second, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with Stefano Delli Colli, son of cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli titled Three Colors (22 minutes 21 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with Giacomo Scarpelli, son of co-writer Furio Scarpelli titled The Laughter Behind the Epic (28 minutes 35 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles) and an interview with film historian and critic Fabio Melelli titled A Circular Trilogy (19 minutes, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles).

There is a second Blu-ray disc that has Sad Hill, a 2017 documentary by Guillermo de Oliveira following fans' efforts to restore the graveyard set (86 minutes 35 seconds, DTS-HD 5.1 Spanish, English, Italian, and French; LPCM stereo 5.1 Spanish, English, Italian, and French with removable English SDH and English subtitles). Extras on this disc include a featurette titled Sad Hill in January 2020 (3 minutes 3 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Spanish with removable English subtitles), World Premiere Q&A at Tokyo International Film Festival (36 minutes 1 second, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), a featurette titled The Making of the Original Soundtrack (14 minutes 58 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Spanish with removable English subtitles), a featurette titled The Making of the Film (16 minutes 25 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Spanish with removable English subtitles) and a collection of outtakes from Sad Hill titled Lost in the Editing Room (15 minutes 55 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian, Spanish and English with removable English subtitles).

Other extras include reversible cover art, a slipcover (limited to the first pressing), a chipboard slipcase (limited to the first pressing), a double-sided fold-out poster (limited to the first pressing), and a 60-page perfect-bound book (limited to the first pressing) with cast & crew information, an essay titled Death by Numbers written by Anton Bitel, an essay titled Theatres of War: The Blue and Shades of Grey written by Howard Hughes, an essay titled The Economics of Survival written by Tambay Obenson, an essay titled Flash Images: The Eternally Cool Western Style of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly written by Abbey Bender, About the Versions written by James Flower, and information about the transfer.

Summary:

Although set in the American Civil War, Sergio Leone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is a film that defies time and space in the way in which it takes familiar elements and makes them its own. Some elements that are out of time and foreshadow the future are the prison camp, which resembles a concentration camp, and a graveyard that looks like something from World War I instead of the Civil War. Sergio Leone, a filmmaker renowned for his attention to detail, incorporates various elements from the Civil War into his work. He skillfully blends these components so that everything feels cohesive and well integrated.

The narrative revolves around three characters: a bounty hunter named Blondie, a bandit named Tuco, and a mercenary named Angel Eyes. After an initial setup that does a superb job fleshing out these three characters, things take a turn when they learn about $200,000 of gold that is buried in Sad Hill cemetery. From there it is a mad dash to the gold, where their paths cross and ultimately converge in a winner-takes-all finale.

Spaghetti westerns are known for giving their protagonists a grand entrance, and in the case of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, it gives its three protagonists exemplary entrances that are all distinct and represent each of their personas. Clint Eastwood (Dirty Harry) is the star of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, but Eli Wallach’s (The Magnificent Seven) character, Tuco, steals every scene he’s in. However, it is Lee Van Cleef’s (Death Rides a Horse) character, Angel Eyes, who has the most memorable entrance.

When discussing The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, a lot of its accolades go to Ennio Morricone's phenomenal score, and rightfully so. Ennio Morricone’s body of work puts him among the greatest film composers of all time; he has written countless scores that are exemplary. With The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, he delivers a timeless score that is his crowning achievement and one of cinema’s greatest. That said, its enduring legacy transcends the film for which it was written, as it has been referenced numerous times in films and other forms of entertainment.

A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly form a loose trilogy that is more connected by mood and style than by a continuation of the narrative. From the first to the last of these three films, they were completed in about 2 ½ years, which is an astonishing achievement, considering Sergio Leone only directed 7 films over a 23-year span. With each new film Sergio Leone was given more resources to expand his creative canvas, and his growth from A Fistful of Dollars to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is arguably the largest leap forward in cinema’s history.

When it comes to the performances, from the three leads to the secondary characters, they are all outstanding. Clint Eastwood’s Blondie is a man of few words who lets his actions speak for him. Eli Wallach’s Tuco is a double-talking opportunist who will stab you in the back if given the chance. Lee Van Cleef’s Angel Eyes is a cold-blooded killer who is never irrational in his decision-making. The three leads are flawless in their roles; they fully immerse themselves.

Visually, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, like Sergio Leone’s other films, is filled with arresting moments and symbolism. Another strength of the visuals is how effectively the 2.35:1 frame fully exploits landscapes. That said, Sergio Leone’s camera’s eye does not merely capture the events unfolding; he creates vistas that look like paintings. Though the visuals and Ennio Morricone’s score get most of the accolades, Sergio Leone’s use of ambient sounds is remarkable.

For a film that clocks in at almost 3 hours, the narrative moves briskly. From its opening moments, that narrative quickly grabs you, and it does a superb job building momentum to an epic finale in a cemetery. The finale showdown between the three leads is a masterful piece of filmmaking in which visuals and music create what is the most iconic moment in cinema history. Another moment of note is Tuco's torture at the hands of Angel Eyes. Prisoner soldiers are forced to perform and sing a beautiful melody while brutality is happening nearby. This scene, like many moments in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, is a condemnation of the horror of war.

After The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Sergio Leone would go on to direct two more westerns, Once Upon a Time in the West and A Fistful of Dynamite; the former is widely considered his masterpiece. When compared to Sergio Leone’s other Dollars films, there’s something about The Good, the Bad and the Ugly that makes it stand out: its narrative has more depth than the two films that precede it. Ultimately, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is an extraordinary cinema experience that is much more than a western; it is a film that transcends its genre. 

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly gets an exceptional release from Arrow Video; this film has never looked or sounded better, and there is a wealth of insightful extras. Highly recommended.

Note about the 4K screenshots: It is not possible to make Dolby Vision or HDR10 screenshots that faithfully match the experience of watching a film in motion on a TV. Instead of not having any screenshots, all of the 4K screenshots are m2ts taken with a MPC-HC player and lossless PNGs.

 

Written by Michael Den Boer