Savage Guns: Four Classic Westerns Volume 3 [Blu-ray]

Four of the Italian western's hardest, cruelest, bloodiest classics erupt from the screen in this feature-packed box set from Arrow Films.Maniacal outlaws thirsting for blood! Corrupt capitalists profiting from the suffering of the common folk! Desperate people pushed to violent revenge! The Italian western has never been grittier than in this quartet of later-period cult classics, in which the trademark cynicism of the genre escalates into the radical pessimism of the late 1960s / early 1970s world.

In Paolo Bianchini's I Want Him Dead (1968), American actor Craig Hill (The Bloodstained Shadow) stars as an ex-Confederate soldier who vows revenge after his sister is raped and murdered, in so doing setting him on a collision course with a dastardly plot to disrupt peace talks between the North and South. Next, in Edoardo Mulargia's El Puro (1969; a.k.a. The Reward's Yours... The Man's Mine), western icon Robert Woods (My Name is Pecos) gives arguably his greatest performance as a legendary gunfighter forced to emerge from hiding after the bounty hunters on his tail murder the tender-hearted barmaid (Rosalba Neri, Smile Before Death) who offered him a new life.

Then, in Mario Camus' Wrath of the Wind (1970), genre superstar Terence Hill (They Call Me Trinity) shows his darker side as an assassin who finds his conscience when he and his brother (Mario Pardo, Knife of Ice) are hired by a ruthless landholder (Fernando Rey, The French Connection) to kill the leaders of a growing labor movement. Finally, Fabio Testi (What Have You Done to Solange?) and Tomas Milian (Don't Torture a Duckling) star in Lucio Fulci's The Four of the Apocalypse (1975), in which a quartet of misfits go from sharing the same jail cell to embarking on a savage odyssey that will lead to torture, rape and cannibalism. Preyed upon by a ruthless bandit, the foursome fight for their lives - until the time comes for revenge.

Bonus Materials4-DISC SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS

2K restorations of all four films from the original 35mm camera negatives

High Definition Blu-ray™ (1080p) presentations of all four films

Italian and English front and end titles on all four films

Restored original lossless mono Italian and English soundtracks on all four films

English subtitles for the Italian soundtracks

Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtracks

Introductions to each film by journalist and critic Fabio Melelli

Reversible sleeves featuring original artwork and a slipcover featuring newly commissioned artwork by Gilles Vranckx

DISC 1 – I WANT HIM DEAD

Audio commentary by critics Adrian J. Smith and David Flint

The Man Who Hated Violence – interview with director Paolo Bianchini

Cut and Shot – interview with editor Eugenio Alabiso

Nico Unchained – archival interview with composer Nico Fidenco

English theatrical trailer

Image gallery

DISC 2 – EL PURO

Two versions of the film: the 98-minute cut, presented in Italian and English, and the longer, 108-minute version, assembled from the original camera negative and an archival print and presented in both Italian and a hybrid English/Italian mix*

Audio commentary by critics Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson

Interview with actor Robert Woods

An in-depth appreciation of the soundtrack and its composer, Alessandro Alessandroni, by musician and disc collector Lovely Jon

DISC 3 – WRATH OF THE WIND

Alternate, 106-minute Spanish-language version of the film, featuring additional and extended scenes not found in the Italian or English versions

Audio commentary by author and critic Howard Hughes

The Days of Wrath – interview with camera operator Roberto D’Ettorre Piazzoli

They Call It... Red Cemetery! – a short film from 2022 by filmmaker Francisco Lacerda, serving as a love letter to the spaghetti western genre

Alternate “Revenge of Trinity” opening titles

Image gallery

DISC 4 – THE FOUR OF THE APOCALYPSE

Audio commentary by author and producer Kat Ellinger

It Takes Four – previously unreleased interview with production manager Roberto Sbarigia

In-depth appreciation of the film by author, critic and Lucio Fulci scholar Stephen Thrower

In-depth appreciation of the soundtrack and its composers, Franco Bixio, Fabio Frizzi and Vince Tempera, by musician and disc collector Lovely Jon

Restored Theatrical trailer

Image gallery

* For some scenes and dialogue lines in the long version, the Italian audio is either lost or was never produced. These are presented in Spanish with English subtitles.

Cast & CrewActors: Tomas Milian

Fabio Testi

Michaeel J. Pollard

Lynne Frederick

Harry Baird

Adolfo Lastretti

Bruno Corazzari

Giorgio Trestini

Donald O'Brien

Charles Borromel

Robert Woods

Aldo Berti

Marc Fiorini

Mario Brega

Rosalba Neri

Maurizio Bonuglia

Terence Hill as Trinity

Maria Grazia Buccella

Mario Pardo

Máximo Valverde

Fernando Rey

José Manuel Martín

Manuel de Blas

Carlos Otero

William Layton

Manuel Alexandre

Craig Hill

Lea Massari

Licia Calderon

Andrea Bosic

Andrea Scotti

Cristina Businari

Renato Chiantoni

Tomás Blanco

Director: Lucio Fulci

Director: Edoardo Mulargia

Director: Mario Camus

Director: Paolo Bianchini