The Grand Duel

An outstanding Italian Western, but one that takes time to understand, and that therefore one must be patient with. Yet most Italian Westerns are like this, so there should be no surprise. Therefore, once properly viewed and comprehended, the "Grand Duel" can be seen as a classic Italian Western, and representative of the genre. It features a mysterious beginning, heroes with good and bad moral qualities, innocence, and the importance and sanctity of death. The film is right there with the other great films of its kind.Nevertheless, because "Grand Duel" has a typically difficult plot, and that one must give it time and probably multiple viewings, it is not a beginners' Italian Western.. And it is absolutely critical to watch on widescreen and unedited. A must for fans of the genre.If you are a beginner, there is no better start than Sergio Leone's "Fistful of Dollars"... For a two pack here, with "Grand Duel", I might recommend Lee Van Cleef in "Death Rides a Horse", or try the film he did with Sergio Sollima: "The Big Gundown". Van Cleef was at his finest in the mid 60's to early 1970's, and indeed plays an iconic western character even more so than Clint Eastwood himself.

Right off the bat, I'm going to say this is the best version of this film available. If you want to see The Grand Duel, get this version. Blue Underground did a beautiful job restoring the print to fully uncut status. That being said, they could have done a better job with the extras. All that's offered is a bunch of trailers for other BU releases and a couple commentaries. This release is about on par with some of their early releases, like Violent City. Maybe I'm just spoiled with their special editions of Django, Zombie, and Suspiria. Either way, even with the dissapointing special features, this still gets 4 stars for being a beautiful restoration!

It starts out very promising, fizzles just a bit, but is overall one of the better spaghetti westerns. Not knowing anything about the history of how it was made, it seems to me the budget began to shrink taking the stunts with it. Still there are some well shot action sequences, interesting villians, and a bit of a For a Few Dollars More feel to this one, which is ironic because for a Few Dollars More, this movie might have been almost a great knock off of Leone.

It was pretty good for a spaghetti western. Marc Mazza is in it I recognized him from "My Name Is Nobody" ( he caught the shot glass said "hold it the games over." in the saloon wore all black...got the crap slapped out of him by Terrance Hill. Anyway I enjoyed it but then again I love westerns Lee Van Cleef has been a favorite of mine since "The Good The Bad And The Ugly, and Sabata.

!!!!!!!!!EXCELLENT!!!!!!!!!

I've been waiting for this to come back out on Blu-ray! Arrow Video did a great job and it has a good video transfer. Plus a little collectors book comes with it!

A decent spaghetti western by Giancarlo Santi, a longtime collaborator of Sergio Leone. It is short, about 90 minutes. So a good introductory movie to the genre if you are yet into it. Younger generations will recall the music theme from 'Kill Bill, Vol. 1', composed by Luis Bacalov.

Good movie with good soundtrack. "Women are stupid. That's why she chose you." One of the few roles Lee Van Cleef played as a good guy sheriff.

This movie deserves to be considered much more than it is and for various reasons, first of all Lee Van Cleef is at his best and perhaps this is his last great character and performance in westerns, there is a trio of villains absolutely charming and disturbing, there is an almost newcomer actor in a lead role who was living in India at that time and was given this chance as he describes in an interview included in this release, there is a director who made his debut directing a western clearly similar to those of his master Sergio Leone and there is a soundtrack that reminds me of Ennio Morricone's great western music, plus there are plenty of extras and they are all very interesting. Another great release from Arrow Video

Quirky, patchy film. Interesting to see Van Cleef pulling comic faces - after the Dollars films this is completely unexpected, but this is a fabulous, relaxed performance that is simply at odds with the action. The plot is interesting, if predictable, but the director bungles it somewhat, with uneven pacing and strangely flat action sequences. The fantastic theme tune was reused with much greater effect in Kill Bill and would have graced any Leone epic. Here, once again, it's greater than the screen action can bear.My copy arrived quickly and the picture transfer on the DVD is impeccable.

One of the lesser known spaghetti westerns.Lee Van Cleef is marvelous and the music is fantastic.

Amazing audio commentary!

This version, Blue Underground's 'Grand Duel', is the version to get; it's region free so plays fine in the UK and is the remastered print so good quality.The film itself is fantastic, a must for any Lee Van Cleef fans.