Day of Anger starts in Clifton Arizona, a young man named Scott Mary is being bullied by most of the local townsfolk who see him as nothing more than a no-good bastard and use him to do the worse jobs around town. Then into town comes Frank Talby, he has arrived to settle some scores and shows Scott Mary some kindness and sympathy and puts some bullies in there place.
Moved by his kindness and generosity and impressed by his gun-slinging skills, Scott begs Frank to teach him how to be a gunfighter, at first he refuses but eventually buys him a gun and gives him some rules that are essential for survival. After getting nowhere with the men and money he is after the angry Frank is forced to prove that he means business and quickly ends up destroying half the town. He ends up controlling the town totally but while Scott supports his mentor he eventually realises that he has gone too far and sets out to confront him.
Lee Van Cleef is great as the gunfighter who lets power get the better of him and Giuliano Gemma is fine as the young man who finds his place in the town and grows with confidence under the guidance of his mentor.
In Day Of Anger Sergio Leone’s influence on the film’s visual style is evident but overall this is an intelligent western and the chemistry between the two leads helps the film enormously. The dubbing on the English language version is dodgy at times but the score by Riz Ortolani certainly helps with the tension and atmosphere.
The release by Arrow has a fabulous 1080p transfer, taken from the 35mm negative, with colours and brightness bursting out of the screen. Close-ups are excellent with every piece of sweat and wrinkle evident on the sunburnt faces. On this disc are two versions of the film with three different audio tracks:
The longer Italian release version, I giorni dell’ira, which runs at 114 minutes, and the shorter international version, which runs at 87 minutes. The Italian release version is dubbed in English and Italian (you have optional English subtitles), while the international version is dubbed only in English. All tracks are solid LPCM original mono and serve the film fine.
Extras are good and listed below:
- Brand new interview with screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi
- Brand new interview with Tonino Valerii s biographer Roberto Curti
- Previously unreleased 2008 interview with Tonino Valerii
- Deleted scene
- Theatrical trailers
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Reinhard Kleist
- A booklet featuring new writing on the film by Howard Hughes (author of Spaghetti Westerns), illustrated with original poster designs.
While Day Of Anger may be nothing really new for the genre the presentation by Arrow is again first class.
Note: The same disc was released by Arrow in the UK and USA and both versions have the same specifications and extras. Both are region A /B
FILM: 7 PICTURE: 9 AUDIO: 7 EXTRAS: 8
