When 'Unforgiven' was released on disc in 1993, it was released singley and in a box set with letterboxed editions of Warner's other Eastwood westerns, 'The Outlaw Josey Wales' and 'Pale Rider'. Fans of one or the other of these latter two films only option to get widescreen transfers of these films was to buy the $120 box. Now, all the films in this box set are available individually for those that wish to pick which titles they wish to add to their collections.
Both new disc editions appear to be struck from the same masters used in the box set as both discs look identical to the previous releases. For those that have not seen the previous discs, both are very good, though 'Pale Rider' is a better looking transfer than 'The Outlaw Josey Wales'. Both films were shot in anamorphic Panavision and the transferred ratios are generally accurate with 'The Outlaw Josey Wales' at about 2.35:1 and 'Pale Rider' at about 2.40:1. The individual discs have been given new jacket art and this new disc edition of 'Pale Rider' does correct what I considered an annoying error in judgement in the box set. To save space in the box, the three films were spread to the fewest sides possible with 'Pale Rider', a 116 minute film, placed between 'The Outlaw Josey Wales' at 136 minutes, and 'Unforgiven' at 131 minutes. The result was 'Pale Rider', a two sided film, was spread to two seperate discs, completely negating the benefit of an auto-reverse disc player.
Both discs are chapter encoded with 21 markers for 'The Outlaw Josey Wales' and 28 markers for 'Pale Rider'. As with the box set, no trailers are included. 'The Outlaw Josey Wales' lists for $39.95 and 'Pale Rider' lists for $34.95. It should also be noted that one can purchase all three films seperately for $5 less than the box set and you get the individual jacket art (not to mention 'Pale Rider' on one disc).
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