NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

Indicator, out of the UK, bring us these iconic westerns on five single-layered Blu-ray discs cited as a "2K restoration of Ride Lonesome" and "HD restorations of The Tall T, Decision at Sundown, Buchanan Rides Alone and Comanche Station". The image quality advances in the usual higher-resolution areas from better co0lor separation, more layered contrast and significant support of grain textures. In short, they look great with only a minor few instances of color alignment issues and some inconsequential teal-leaning notable in Decision at Sundown. There is appealing depth and no damage - these looks amazing in-motion. Once started - you can't stop watching...

NOTE: The German Blu-ray of Comanche Station has more matched screen captures to the DVD version and the Indicator Blu-ray HERE.

Indicator use linear PCM mono tracks in the original English with typical western effects (horses, guns etc.) being flat but carrying some depth. The scores for the first four films are by Heinz Roemheld (The Lady From Shanghai, The Monster that Challenged The World, The Land Unknown, The Mole People, 1933's The Invisible Man) and for Comanche Station; prolific Mischa Bakaleinikoff (It Came from Beneath the Sea, The Crooked Web, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, The 27th Day, 20 Million Miles to Earth, Lady for a Day). The audio sounds wonderful, and available in isolated score options, in the uncompressed and there are optional English (SDH) subtitles on for all five films.

Indicator have brought us a whole slew of extras here that should please any western fan. Firstly there are 3 commentaries that are carried over from the previous DVD set. The Tall T commentary is with film historian, Jeanie Basinger. Ride Lonesome has a commentary featuring writer and film historian, Jeremy Arnold. Comanche Station has a commentary with director Taylor Hackford. We are still wading through them, and they include a 1969 archival audio interview of The John Player Lecture with Budd Boetticher conducted by Horizons West author Jim Kitses at the National Film Theatre, London (on Buchanan Rides Alone Blu-ray disc), a 1994 The Guardian Interview with Budd Boetticher an extensive filmed interview conducted by film historian David Meeker at the National Film Theatre, London, 38-minutes of Budd Boetticher on the Ranown Cycle (1999) which are excerpts from Eckhart Schmidt's unpublished documentary Visiting... Budd Boetticher (on the Decision at Sundown Blu-ray disc). We get another The Guardian interview - this one with Elmore Leonard from 1997 where the celebrated author, and writer of the short story upon which The Tall T is based, is in conversation at London's National Film Theatre (running over 1.5 hours on Ride Lonesome Blu-ray disc.) Repeated from the Sony DVD set are Martin Scorsese on ‘The Tall T’ and ‘Ride Lonesome’ video pieces from 2008 and Taylor Hackford on ‘Decision at Sundown’ and ‘Buchanan Rides Alone’ plus Clint Eastwood on ‘Comanche Station’. More new supplements are Playing in the Open - an analysis from 2018 of Ride Lonesome by Cristina Álvarez López sunning just shy of 1/4 hour, Christopher Frayling on Budd Boetticher (also from 2018) where the writer and cultural historian discusses the work of the great director for almost 20-minutes. I enjoyed Kim Newman's analysis on the Ranown Cycle for almost 1/2 hour. A Man Alone is a new a portrait of Randolph Scott by film historian Edward Buscombe and Indicator have included 20-minutes of the Super 8 version of ‘Comanche Station’: original cut-down home cinema presentation as well as trailers for each film with short critical appreciation by filmmaker John Sayles and screenwriter Sam Hamm. There are also Image galleries of publicity stills and promotional material and a tremendous limited Edition exclusive 80-page book containing newly commissioned essays by Pamela Hutchinson, Glenn Kenny, James Oliver, Neil Sinyard and Farran Smith Nehme, archival interviews with director Budd Boetticher and screenwriter Burt Kennedy, a critical anthology, and full film credits.

By the way, my Boetticher adoration runs deep and I actually own his leather satchel bag (see picture HERE and HERE NOTE: His initials emblazoned into the bag). I purchased it off eBay ... outbidding another chap named... Boetticher! It contains photos of the director with Martin Scorsese and also Budd's passports.

Best Blu-ray set of the year? 'Yep Pardner'... limited to 6,000 units - don't delay!

Colin Zavitz and Gary Tooze

***

November 2008 - NOTE: Although the 5 main features of this boxset are housed on individual discs they are not sold separately at this time and can only be obtained in Sony's The Films of Budd Boetticher Collection. Only The Tall T is dual-layered, the other four are all single-layered. They have been transferred progressively in the NTSC standard, coded for Region 1 with original mono audio, optional French DUBs and removable subtitles in English, or French.

Image: the single layered DVDs give consistent quality but nothing brilliant - fraught with noise and some dirt. Colors can show some surprisingly brightness. The Tall T, is rich with very heavy grain but also shows some dirt - especially early in the film. I didn't find the 'grain-shift', as discussed previously, overly problematic. In fact, I'm not displeased with the appearance as the roughly hone presentation is appropriately 'gritty' - keeping in perfect rhythm with the films. Detail and clarity improve as each film gets 'younger' although they were all made in a spans of about 3 years. I expect dual-layering may have benefited the image but I'm far too happy to replace my pan and scan DVD-R dubs, from Turner, to complain too much. These are very watchable.

The mono audio is likewise unremarkable but does the job without grand flaws (no dropouts or pops) although there is some inherent hiss that is mostly unnoticeable. Dialogue is always clear and defined and there is are optional subtitles available.

Extras - are great. Three commentaries from excellent participants (loved Basinger on The Tall T). Plus we have the wonderful documentary - Budd Boetticher: A Man Can Do That written and produced by my friend Dave Kehr with input from many and a lot on the enigmatic Budd himself. I thoroughly enjoyed this 1.5 hour piece. There are also brief short discussion interviews for each film with the likes of Taylor Hackford, Clint Eastwood and Martin Scorsese. Good job on the supplements Sony. 

These seminal widescreen westerns from a brilliant storyteller and underrated director are essential in my opinion. I suppose this set could have easily included Randolph Scott's name in the collection title as he stars in all 5 films. Our strongest recommendation.