Good for What It Is, But It's Not "Ultimate"
mark harlan | silicon valley, california | 12/31/2006
(3 out of 5 stars)
"i received this box set two days ago, and have only made my way through seven of the 24 discs so far, but i wanted to put down a quick and early review for anyone considering this purchase -- especially if the price here is really going to leave you strapped.
drawbacks about this box set.
1. NO WHERE on the box does it say that this is a limited edition of 500, nor is there a serial number on the box i have been sold (e.g. #254/500). that means that you are left to both believing in marketing that is not attached in any way to the box AND that dagored (the record label) will hold to their promise of only printing 500 copies. considering that these originate in italy, a country that already tends to be very "creative" in the way they view recording copyrights, i'd say the likelihood that this is truly limited to 500 copies is "not high."
2. there is NO documentation of any kind over-and-above what is printed in the booklet for every CD. no over-arching book or description, no biography of morricone, no description of how the films fit together in his career, nothing.
3. each CD comes with a single page gatefold insert that acts as, essentially, the movie poster and track listing. there is no additional information beyond that with the individual CD's.
4. because of 2 & 3, it's not clear what the methodology is for using the films that have been chosen in the set. maybe they are simply the ones dagored has rights to. maybe not. there's no way to know.
5. the supporting website (for abraxas records) is not available.
6. the box itself is nothing more than a cheap-feeling vinyl carrying case that is divided into 6, 4-CD compartments. it reminds me, very very much of the old 8-track carrying cases (in fact, it may well be a re-purposed version of one of those).
7. there is no lettering of any kind on the outside of the box set saying what it is, merely a single printed piece of (unattached) paper with the film titles and the words "the ultimate collection." yes, it's PRECISELY the photo that you're seeing here in the amazon page.
now having said all that, if you're looking for a good way to get all 24 discs that are in this collection at a discount, this is the way to do it. each disc still has its own jewel box, so you can shelve all the discs independently if you so desire and don't have to figure out where to get cases for 'em all.
obviously i'm a big morricone fan (or i wouldn't have ordered this sucker to begin with) and although i already owned a few of these discs (the six discs from the "maestro" and "crime" box sets), i was willing to get this set and sell off my old ones. had i'd known that this set, quite literally, had nothing "extra" or even anything supporting of the "limited" concept to it, i probably would have held off and just bought the rest of what is in the set as single purchases.
i'll re-write this review with one-liners for each of the discs in the set a little later on, but if i was someone out "there" is really struggling with whether i should buy this or not, i know for sure that *i'd* want to know the items i've mentioned briefly here. that's why i've taken a quick spin on it right now
ciao."
Track Listings (13) - Disc #1