Grand Duel / Keoma (Spaghetti Western Double Feature) [Blu-ray]

Albeit these titles are rather obscure...buy hey, they are speghetti westerns!! The first volume put out on bluray were rather lacking in terms of story or even acting. This on the other hand contains LEE VAN CLEEF!! The picture quality is much better than the last, sound is spectacular, and LEE VAN CLEEF!!If you do buy the set be sure to watch the trailors (the only thing that can be considered special features). Watching the trailors will show you the amount of work that went into cleaning up the film to make it a rather pleasant watching experience. These films are old and I am pretty sure they were never meant to astound the sensory organs throughout the annals of movie history, but they did a good job of making these two films look great!!It's cheap so it's worth the gamble. If you love westerns with a non-glitzy hollywood flare, take the plunge and buy the set. They are worth it. If you haven't already, buy the previous set to make it a nice, cheap, packaged deal.ENJOY

You are spending $5 mere dollars for this. For that price alone, any serious image and audio issues are excuseable. There are only trailers. However, these films are SO good. I highly recommend this release. Keoma is a pretty good Western with tons of awesome slow motion bloodletting that is just as great as any Sam Peckinpah film. Franco Nero is amazing in this. Also, the final act of the film is action packed to the max. The Grand Duel is extremely good as well. Lee Van Cleef needs no explanation, he is one of the greatest Italian western stars of all time. This is the best of the two films. It's structured and told better, filled with twists and awesome gun battles. It also features an amazing film score by Luis Bacalov that any fan of Kill Bill will recognize. Gather up some friends or relax yourself, and watch both of these films. There is no way you will not enjoy them.

The Grand Duel and Keoma are a pair of odd movies.The Grand Duel - throughout the whole movie, it is very unclear what exactly is going on, and even after watching the whole thing, you're left to guess at what the details are behind the conflict. I love Lee Van Cleef, so I enjoy seeing him in this role, but the movie really didn't deliver. (And what's up with the sores on the weird brother's face???)Keoma - After every scene, everything you just saw is recapped in the words of the song... which is an... odd style, to put it mildly. I loved the character of Keoma, the actor was great and he was very likeable. The movie had great potential, but was just too weird to really enjoy.

The print used for the transfer is titled "The Big Showdown". Like many spaghetti westerns The Grand Duel has many titles. I think the first time I saw it on VHS it was called "Storm Rider".This version is longer than the previously released Wild East DVD. While I have not done a complete side by side comparison, I did notice a scene on the blu-ray that I have often seen in the trailer, but never in the actual film on DVD; the scene where the dying old man wipes his bloody hand on Adam Saxon. I am sure there are many more.The presentation on this blu-ray far exceeded my expectations. Admittedly I was worried at first as the background for the blu-ray menu showed an intentionally scratchy washed out print.The print is pristine and blemish free. It looks to be pulled from the original negative and not a interpositive based version as there are subtle jumps occasionally in between cuts. As an original negative is literally glued together between cuts, over time the print will reveal these "bumps". Not a huge deal.Color is solid throughout, and film grain is well defined without being distracting. Details are are very sharp on the extreme close ups.The audio is nothing spectacular, but is clear. There are some serious sync issues. For example in the scene where LVC spins around and says "I never kill for money", was out of sync, which was not a problem in the Wild East version. These type of sync issues are probably in 50% of the movie, and seem to occur in large chunks of run time. I know Spaghetti Westerns are known for their dubbing, but the English should match! Bummer.Aside from the audio sync issues, I feel it is a great disc. I popped in the Wild East DVD afterwards and found it to be unwatchable (but I am a Blu-ray snob).Full review at[...]

This is the best bargain have ever had with blue ray. Cant beat this. grand duel is right up there with arrows version. Keoma is also top notch. this is really a steal. this is going to be one of those hard to find blue rays soon.get it while you can.

Both of these movies are excellent for the genre. If you like the old Italian western movies, you won't be disappointed.But the thing that stands out the most to me is how incredible both movies look on Blu Ray. I've seen movies made in the last 5 years that don't look this good and these are from the 70's. The digital transfer of these two films are some of the best I've ever seen. I hope all of Lee Van Cleef's westerns get transferred with this quality eventually.

the grand duel is not bad..but,keoma is so bad it took the rating down to 2..the reg. dvd must raly be bad..if this a a true blue-ray..the movies are all over the place..the only good think you can say..it was cheap...don;t pay over 2.97..paul

First of all the quality of the movies are excellent. Mill Creek did a pretty great job on these two movies, but I would've liked to see more extras then just the trailers. The quality of the video provides clear and sharp picture with clear sound! Both movies are in Widescreen, color and runs for about 100mins each. Overall this is a great Blu-ray of Westerns and I would recommend this.

Edicion Alemana que contiene dos Spaghetti western. Gran duelo al amanecer con el incombustible Lee van cleff y Keoma con Franco nero.Imagen correcta y sonido de la epoca. (en gran duelo al amanecer hay alguna breve perdida de sonido.sin castellano ni español latino ni subs.

Two great classics of the Spaghetti Westerns!!! Crisp colour and some nice visuals. The action scenes in Keoma are incredible. The stunts are well done.

Impossible de lire ce disque malgré de nombreux essais sur plusieurs appareils je vous déconseille d'acheter ce produit. Cela est décevant.

I bought this when it was under £3, and shipping, but even at it's current £5 I must recommend it. It contains two absolutely solid spaghetti westerns, in pretty good (but budget line) hi-def presentations. Released alongside  Spaghetti Western 2: Last Gun & Four Dollars of [Blu-ray] [2011] [US Import ] (which I also recommend), this one is definitely the one to get. (THIS BLU-RAY IS REGION A LOCKED. Check you can play Region A blu-rays on your player...)It contains two later Spaghetti Westerns - Enzo Castellari's wonderful KEOMA (1976), and Giancarlo Santi's THE GRAND DUEL (1972), aka. Storm Rider or The Big Showdown, not to be confused with the slightly superior  Big Gundown [Blu-ray] [1966] [US Import ], also starring Lee Van Cleef.THE GRAND DUEL is a little more slow and thoughtful than many films in the genre but not by a large margin - director Santi was Sergio Leone's assistant director on The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Once Upon a Time in the West, and clearly knows how to make this kind of thing work. The black and white flashbacks are total cinema and the staging of the action is always engaging. If you look carefully, Lee Van Cleef appears to be wearing the same wardrobe as Colonel Mortimer in FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE, which makes nice continuity for those of us who like to pretend all spaghetti westerns occupy the same mythological west. Cinematography, music, direction are all top notch and most of acting is good too.KEOMA is unashamed action western fantasy. Franco Nero, who of course played the title role in  Django Newly Re-mastered in HD ALL REGIONS [Blu-ray ], plays the title role again - Keoma is a half-white, half-native who successfully transverses both worlds with compassion and superior marksmanship. Here he's accompanied by Woody Strode (from the incredible opening of ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST and VIGILANTE) as a former slave and friend of Keoma's, and a put-upon prostitute played by the unbelievably gorgeous Olga Karlatos, who we of course remember from the infamous splinter scene in Lucio Fulci's  Zombie [Blu-ray] [1979] [US Import ] and her meatier role in his latter film  Murder Rock [1984] (REGION 1) (NTSC) [DVD] [US Import ]. Again, the acting is good, the direction and scripting wonderful, and even if I dislike the Conan-esque re-staging of Jesus' crucifixion on a wagon wheel, you've got to love the stormy, rainy, muddy atmosphere that scene and others around it deliver.Fans of Italian cinema will surely note that one of the evil half-brothers (the one who looks like an Italian Donald Sutherland circa 1978) is dubbed by the same English-speaking voice as Al Cliver in Zombie and all the other Lucio Fulci horror pictures he appeared in.However, if there's one part of this movie I have to be hesitant about it's the music - while I enjoyed the hell out of it, it is definitely the aspect of this movie most likely to raise a chuckle from a modern audience. How to describe it? Well it's fairly easy - imagine a vocal based spaghetti western score composed and sung by a young Kate Bush, who takes up most of the singing duties until what is apparently Arnold Schwarzenegger joins her in a hilarious karaoke duet! I challenge you not to picture that when you hear this music.Both films are presented in their native 2.35:1 cinemascope aspect ratio (that is, black bars at the top and bottom on a widescreen TV) with lossless stereo. The presentation on GRAND DUEL is far, far better than you'd expect for a budget-priced release of such an obscure film - detail is astonishing and if it's not a transfer from the camera negs, you'd never know it. KEOMA is a bit more problematic - it has the same digital scanner noise present on many Italian home releases - both the Blue Underground and UK DJANGO blu-rays, Arrow film's TENEBRAE and CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD, Blue Underground's ZOMBIE disc... However, it never especially bothered me - this is still clearly hi-def, much better than the DVD was, and very watchable. Audio on both is better than you'd expect - it's lossless but remember this is a dub, with not a single location sound recorded. Tinny is the order of the day, except for those wonderful scores.Standard def trailers are the only extras. I highly recommend this disc to the spaghetti western fan - you'll like at least one of the movies, probably both. I may be somewhat controversial here and state I actually like both on par with Corbucci's DJANGO, if not up to the standard of Leone's wonderful films. Spaghetti Western 2: Last Gun & Four Dollars of [Blu-ray] [2011] [US ImportBig Gundown [Blu-ray] [1966] [US ImportDjango Newly Re-mastered in HD ALL REGIONS [Blu-rayZombie [Blu-ray] [1979] [US ImportMurder Rock [1984] (REGION 1) (NTSC) [DVD] [US Import

The Grand Duel and Keoma are considered minor classics of the spaghetti western genre. The Grand Duel from 1972 stars Lee Van Cleef as an ex lawman attempting to protect a man wrongly accused of murder from three corrupt brothers and their thirst for revenge. The Grand Duel oozes style, Cleef has always been a favorite of mine and the soundtrack makes the film thick with atmosphere and suspense. Video is satisfactory though somewhat inconsistent, audio is rather poor but gets the job done nonetheless.Keoma is a very dark and melancholy film starring Franco Neto as a half indian civil war veteran who returns to his hometown to find it overrun with corruption and its citizens living in fear of a powerful and sadistic rancher. Though I enjoy Nero as a performer, the godawful soundtrack and the sub-par A/V quality made this one a tough watch. I suppose its worth seeing...but maybe only once.Overall, taking into account the rock bottom price and the fact that blu ray releases of SW are rather limited...I would recommend this purchase to fans of the genre.