Spaghetti Westerns: Search/Destroy

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"Nude Django" is a particular favourite.

Not that I've seen it or anything.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 13:50 (twenty-two years ago)

my own actual feeling is that Once Upon A Time In The West is the best, but the gunfight at the end of The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly is the best SpaghWest scene ever.

However, as I think I have only seen those two films in their entirety, my opinions may be somewhat suspect.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 13:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Search for Fistfull of Dollars, High Plains Drifer and I'll also count Maverik and Unforgiven as modern day versions though one is really mocking the genre.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 14:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Any Django film (with perhaps the possible exception of Nude Django) typifies all that's good and bad with Spag Bol Westerns. Once Upon A TIme In The West has always felt a bit too portentious for its own good. The Dollars trilogy is much better.

I have difficulty squaring Unforgiven and Maverick as spaghetti westerns in any way.

― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 14:11 (twenty-two years ago)

how about non-Clint non-Leone ones?

― DV (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 14:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Once Upon A Time In The West is probably my fave film. It's epic, operatic, cynical and pretentious - ace!

― Zanny Gognet (Zanny Gognet), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 14:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Well the Django's are non-Clit non-Leone. DJango The Bastard (Django Il Bastedo) - is my favourite. It s a civil war movie when all of a sudden a bloke dragging a coffin rocks up in. (That coffin - bit of a lousy gimmick).

― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 15:03 (twenty-two years ago)

the bit where you finally realise what the harmonica stuff is all about = total classic.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 15:04 (twenty-two years ago)

the bit in Once Upon A Time In The West when you finally realise what the harmonica stuff is all about = total classic.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 15:04 (twenty-two years ago)

ho ho, I'll say that again, shall I?

― DV (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 15:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh, what were the Italian ones called, Il Bambino? With the bif fuck-off bearded bloke and the skinny David Spade-stylee bloke, and the mother always used to make sure that skinny looked after fatty, and then the fat one used to kick hella ass.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 15:06 (twenty-two years ago)

DV, what are we listening to?

― angela (angela), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 15:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Once Upon A Time In The West.

[quick, get Andrew. and Tigerclawsclank]

― DV (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 15:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Dude, what are we listening to?

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 16:33 (twenty-two years ago)

I mainly know Django from the clips in The Harder They Come - which has a much better soundtrack.

― tigerclawskank, Tuesday, 5 November 2002 16:36 (twenty-two years ago)

tigerclawshank you are not doing this properly.

― angela (angela), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 16:39 (twenty-two years ago)

DV, there was a Django double bill at the Sitges film festival recently, but it started at 4 o`clock in the morning or something equally appropriate. Come to think of it, there was an entire section devoted to European westerns, probably to help promote Alex de la Iglesia's new film, '800 Balas', which seems to have flopped a bit.
http://www.clubcultura.com/clubcine/clubcineastas/delaiglesia/index.htm
I haven't seen it, so I can't comment.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 18:59 (twenty-two years ago)

My Name Is Nobody from 1973, starring Terence Hill and Henry Fonda, is a strange gem.

― Paul (scifisoul), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 19:14 (twenty-two years ago)

we are listening to the soundtrack from Once Upon A Time In The West, like I said.

My sides.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 22:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Another vote for Once Upon the West as the primo, followed by The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

― Joe (Joe), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 22:48 (twenty-two years ago)

those trinity films are a bit shite

― a33, Tuesday, 5 November 2002 23:08 (twenty-two years ago)

three years pass...

My Name Is Nobody from 1973, starring Terence Hill and Henry Fonda, is a strange gem.
OTM. I am watching it right now, just saw a widescreen cloud of horseman approach to a Morriconi-ized "Ride Of the Valkyries." Extremely enjoyable. Kind of a "last Spaghetti Western" a pleasantly uber-meta concept.

Now there's a fun gag with a guy on thirty-foot stilts. And then a nice overhead tracking shot. Which cuts to a bald head, a wooden bald head, a wooden torso spinning around. Now he's spit his toothpick out and is munching an apple provocatively in front of a baby being held under a parasol by its momma.

― Sons Of The Redd Desert (Ken L), Thursday, 18 May 2006 02:58 (nineteen years ago)

Now some old geezer's doing a Walter Brennan imo.

― Sons Of The Redd Desert (Ken L), Thursday, 18 May 2006 02:58 (nineteen years ago)

five years pass...

big NYC retro comin' up at the Film Forum. I've seen The Big Gundown but only a couple other non-Leones.

http://www.filmforum.org/movies/more/spaghetti_westerns#nowplaying

Hoberman has a nice essay on the genre in new Film Comment (print only).

― World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 16 May 2012 02:06 (thirteen years ago)

Cool, thanks.

― Shakes-a-maxion (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 16 May 2012 02:09 (thirteen years ago)

That sounds fantastic.

― Respectfully, Tyrese Gibson (Nicole), Wednesday, 16 May 2012 02:11 (thirteen years ago)

Klaus Kinski in a platinum Beatle wig, playing an icy bounty hunter in The Great Silence, looks like a priority. (w/ Jean-Louis Trintignant!)

― World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 16 May 2012 02:17 (thirteen years ago)

plus the one with Welles.

― World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 16 May 2012 19:41 (thirteen years ago)

i think that westerns (spaghetti or otherwise) would be a great idea for the next best-of poll ... if someone else could collect and tabulate the votes, of course.

― Boris Kutyurkokhov (Eisbaer), Wednesday, 16 May 2012 19:44 (thirteen years ago)

also, all of the spaghettis that i have already seen that are playing in this festival are fantastic!

― Boris Kutyurkokhov (Eisbaer), Wednesday, 16 May 2012 19:47 (thirteen years ago)

Yes, but I wish there were more available and/or easy to find. This festival alone has a few I would really like to see.

― Respectfully, Tyrese Gibson (Nicole), Wednesday, 16 May 2012 20:00 (thirteen years ago)

That's an extremely strong lineup of spaghettis. I've seen most of the ones there and basically they're all very good to great. The Hellbenders is a little odd, that's with Joseph Cotten as an ex-Confederate trying to restart the Southern rebellion. It's somewhat tongue-in-cheek. For newcomers, Bullet for the General and The Mercenary are must-sees. The Big Gundown I feel is the most commercial of the non-Leones. The Great Silence is amazing; Django is iconic and influential.

The only ones I can't vouch for since I haven't seen them are -

Tepepa
Price of Power
China 9 Liberty 37
Yankee

― Josefa, Wednesday, 16 May 2012 20:29 (thirteen years ago)

i'll always have a soft spot for navajo joe ... not the least for its theme music.

― Boris Kutyurkokhov (Eisbaer), Wednesday, 16 May 2012 20:33 (thirteen years ago)

the Hoberman article makes Tepepa sound p wild. He also reveals the number of spaghettis produced in 1968: 73!

― World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 16 May 2012 20:36 (thirteen years ago)

"Tepepa" is pretty cool. Watched "Face To Face" the other day and that was fairly surreal. "The Great Silence" is wonderful - iconic in so many ways. Love Tomas Milian in just about any SW (and Antonioni's "Identication Of A Woman")

― Lawanda Pageboy (Capitaine Jay Vee), Wednesday, 16 May 2012 20:43 (thirteen years ago)

two weeks pass...

Alex Cox in the NYT:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/movies/a-spaghetti-western-roundup-at-film-forum.html

― World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Friday, 1 June 2012 17:59 (thirteen years ago)

I saw Django Kill ... If You Live, Shoot! last night. Has everything but the kitchen sink, tho felt waaaay more than 2 hrs long. Some hilarious/cringey set pieces, notably tearing at wounded flesh to extract gold bullets.

This was shown in a DCP rather than celluloid, which I'm sure will be the case for many of the rarities in the series.

― World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Monday, 4 June 2012 16:13 (thirteen years ago)

Anybody seen any others at the Film Forum recently?

― Josefa, Friday, 8 June 2012 06:34 (thirteen years ago)

for region 2 ppl, this is a p sweet set:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cult-Spaghetti-Westerns-Box-Set/dp/B003JH1WQM/ref=sr_1_8?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1339142519&sr=1-8

― Ward Fowler, Friday, 8 June 2012 08:03 (thirteen years ago)

Went to see The Price of Power last night which was awesome. Alex Cox intro and Q&A was fun and informative. May have extra ticket to tonight's 7:30 A Bullet for the General

― F is for Fule (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 8 June 2012 18:13 (thirteen years ago)

Dense plot making two hour movie feel like three very similar to what Morbius described.

― F is for Fule (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 8 June 2012 18:15 (thirteen years ago)

who's seen China 9, Liberty 37?

― World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 12 June 2012 18:21 (thirteen years ago)

Not me. But did see A Bullet For the General which definitely had its longueurs.

― F is for Fule (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 12 June 2012 18:24 (thirteen years ago)

Fistful of Dynamite / Duck, you Sucker! / Once Upon a Time in the Revolution is a classic, always intended to dig deeper into Cox's recommendations

― Soukesian, Tuesday, 12 June 2012 19:47 (thirteen years ago)

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