Want the BEST Super Fuzz DVD? Go Italian, Baby!
Tired of all the crappy bootlegs floating around eBay and Amazon? Or the "official" R2 U.K. edition that boasts a horrid full-screen transfer (of a longer edit that no one ever saw in Italy or North America anyways?)
The real deal is out there. You've just gotta look for it. I just watched it tonight (March 17) and was BLOWN AWAY by both the quality and the memories that came rushing back after having not seen the film in 26 years! You might pay a little more, around $25-$28 U.S. (shipping included), but judging by some of those ridiculous price they're shafting people with on eBay, you might actually SAVE a little bit.
The disc has been released in Italy by DVD Storm, Region-Free, PAL (you'll need an all-region, NTSC/PAL player! They're everywhere and supercheap) with THREE Italian tracks (mono, DD5.1 and DTS) plus the ORIGINAL ENGLISH MONO AUDIO TRACK. The film, as you probably know, was filmed ENTIRELY in English with only sporadic dubbing to clean up the accents. Hill speaks in his actual voice, as does just about everyone else in the film. The DVD also includes Italian subtitles, presumably because even Italian viewers will realize the film wasn't recorded in their language when they select one of the
To date, this is the ONLY DVD in the ENTIRE world to feature the film in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, and in anamorphic widescreen to boot. Even the U.K. edition available on Amazon.co.uk as part of the Terence Hill-Bud Spencer Collection, you know, the one with the video captures masquerading as sleeve art (!), are full-screen transfers sourced from aged materials, likely release prints. The Italian DVD looks like it was sourced from a beautiful camera negative. It also includes the original Italian trailer PLUS interviews with Sergio Corbucci's wife Nori and actor Sal Borgese (who plays henchman Paradise in the film). Both of these are unsubtitled, however. The trailer even includes a brief shot of a scene featuring Ernest Borgnine at the dog racing track, which is likely from the 105 minute version (although footage of the dogs does appear in those trippy opening credits of all versions of the film).
One things for certain, when you get this baby, you'll definitely want to switch over to Italian DTS to listen to that freakin' AWESOME theme song during the opening credits.
So here's how to find it:
Go here:
www.ebay.it
and type in this (do NOT type "DVD" with it):
Poliziotto superpiù
From the listings that come up, select ONLY the ones with Terence Hill sitting on the rainbow against the blue sky background with the Italian logo in red! You'll notice "Inglese" as one of the audio options, which, of course, is English!
Obviously, this is an Italian eBay site, written in Italian, but many of the sellers ship worldwide! If you're not sure about something written in their auctions, type "Google Translator" into your search engine, cut and paste the text in question, and select "Italian to English" from the pulldown menu. Worked for me! I live in Canada and my disc took about a week and a half to get here for around $17 total! And boy, was it WORTH it.
One of my all time Holy Grails of Cinema has now been scratched off the list!
You can also find the disc at these Italian DVD retailers, but I'm not sure if they ship overseas.
www.unilibro.it/find_buy/dvd/dvd_storm/poliziotto_superpiu_.asp?sku=12067392
www.dvd.it/page/dett/arti/230958/nv/DVD/poliziotto_superpiu'.html