‘Take a pop at the champ’, a crass saying that is often used by boxing promoters, is the perfect adage here, not only for the film THE GUNFIGHTER but the label releasing it, Signal One. I have always been a fan of the film, which sees a morally ambiguous character called Jimmy Ringo, played with vulnerability by Gregory Peck. He is a notorious gun slinger. Well known and equally feared, in the old west. But after all those dead hands, crying faces and fatherless children, the taste is waned. But Jimmy cant run that easy. His shadow is cast along the streets and hunted by those seeking fame and fortune. A legend is long built and even longer forgotten. Young guns looking to be king, want to take his scalp and win the prize. He kills and escapes to the arms of his wife, who doesn’t want him back. Neither it seems do the locals.
Now Signal One have some competition here. You see the CRITERION COLLECTION sent a version of this out into the US market. It was really good indeed. So good, I went and purchased it from the states. Now this release has different extras, different transfer and different box work. However, for a label without the financial clout of the Sony backed Criterion, its good. Very good indeed. The HD transfer lacks the richness of the 4K of Criterion but it still looked good enough. Defused light aside (that is the exterior issue of hard, white light on sand bleaching things), its very good indeed. Well with a well kept print, you expect this to be honest. Its sad that they didn’t make more of this in the promos that seem to avoid this conversation. Maybe its due to that other copy floating about and all that!
The extras are light on the ground but the best sees Alex Cox give a Moviedrome intro to the film and elaborate on the power of the message within. He knows the Western (he has written 3 books on it) and this makes Henry Kings film more important.
Special Features:
High-Definition Transfer
UK Blu-ray premiere
Introduction by Alex Cox (Director of Repo Man)
Original Mono Audio
Still Gallery
Optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature
