Spaghetti Westerns

[Animal Boything]

I've been catching up on Sergio Leone lately. A friend was having a movie party at his house at which we watched "A Fistful of Dollars" and "For a Few Dollars More," and I recently rounded out the trilogy by watching the legendary "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." They were all great movies, particularly the first and the third. Then, because I was on a roll, I watched "Once Upon a Time in the West," and holy shit! This is one of the best movies I've ever seen! I thought it would be good, but I had no idea it would be THAT good. My friend told me he found the DVD at Target for $7.50, so I went there as soon as I could to see if that unbelievable deal was still on. It was! I must say, anybody that has a Target nearby, you should look into this. The DVD is nothing to sneeze at, it's got all the special features you could want, and my god, what an amazing movie. Everything about it is spectacular.

If anybody can recommend more movies like this, please do.

[adam]

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is the best of them. I believe Tarantino called it "the best directed movie of all time."

[grady]

I think Once Upon a Time in the West is also available at a reduced price now too. I picked it up last Christmas for $9.99 at a local chain store and have noticed it that cheap at other major chain outlets. You can get most of Leone's films pretty cheap these days.

[Winston]

.

If anybody can recommend more movies like this, please do.

my name is nobody
starring terrence hill and that fonda dude
got a very catchy tune, hilarious movie

4 mules for sister sarah
eastwood

[b.miller]

as you probably know, there is a whole genre of spaghetti western which Leone's stuff is only the most well-known in America... unfortunately I haven't seen much of any of them so I couldn't give you personal recommendations. However, there's a pretty decent 5-page article HERE (http://www.imagesjournal.com/issue06/infocus/spaghetti.htm) which talks about the genre as a whole and includes tons of titles you could check out.

also, they just showed Once Upon A Time in The West IN Monument Valley, which is where pretty much all of the classic westerns were shot (known for it's very unique mesa and plateaus)... i really wish i could've been there but oh well. you can read the aint-it-cool write-up HERE (http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=21080).

Personally, I appreciate the sheer size of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, but think Once Upon A Time stands as the exact definition of the genre. Especially considering that Fistfull is basically a remake of Kurosawa's Yojimbo and Few Dollars More is basically a remake of Fistfull.

they are all fun though and, even though they are not "spaghetti," most of Eastwood's american Westerns are super badass awesome as well. Hang Em High, Outlaw Josey Wales, Pale Rider, and especially High Plains Drifter are all AWESOME. I haven't seen Two Mules for Sister Sara but hear that's also quality, if a little less badass.

[myrrh]

I can only recommend that you go out and get Seven Samurai. This is probably one of the greatest movies ever made. It could be said that this is the movie that sparked the whole Spaghetti Western thing. The Magnificent Seven, is the American remake of it.

Akira Kurosawa (Seven Samurai's director) heavily influenced Sam Peckinpah and Sergio Leone.

Two weeks ago I watched it with the Commentary, which is done by Michael Jeck. That added so much more insight into the movie that I love it even more now!

Plus, it is the #2 in The Criterion Collection. If you have not yet seen this movie, you should run out and get it now!

[Animal Boything]

Personally, I appreciate the sheer size of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, but think Once Upon A Time stands as the exact definition of the genre. Especially considering that Fistfull is basically a remake of Kurosawa's Yojimbo and Few Dollars More is basically a remake of Fistfull.
Yeah, I thought that whole trilogy came across as practice once I saw Once Upon a Time in the West... It's a hell of a lot more focused than The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, and it has such a great cast and such a great score. That flashback scene at the end is so intense...

By the way, I still haven't seen Yojimbo OR Seven Samurai, for some dumb reason. I've seen a couple of Kurosawa movies, and I have more than one friend who worships the dude, but somehow I just keep not getting around to it. I'm aware of the whole influence of that stuff on Leone etc., but I'm just lame about watching stuff sometimes. I guess it would make sense to go back and see those before watching any more Westerns... anyway, thanks all of you for your input.

[b.miller]

if anyone has any interest and also has IFC with their cable package, they're running an hour-long doc called "The Spaghetti West" this saturday (Sep. 10) at 10pm eastern followed by The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly at 11.

http://www.ifctv.com/ifc/whatson?CAT0=45&MO=09&DA=10&YR=2005&TZ=ET&TB=4&DW=0&CLR=blue&BCLR=00A8EC&SID=55238

[//\/\/]

my name is nobody
starring terrence hill and that fonda dude
got a very catchy tune, hilarious movie


...then follow up with further terrence hill "trinity" films ("my name is trinity" "trinity is still my name" - the slobbiest cowboy who ever lived - so much so that he doesn't even ride his horse (he gets dragged along on a wooden sleigh so he can lie down)


there's also a cracking one, title i've forgotten :o about bank robbers on one side of the river, troops on the other, both needing to cross - involves a fair bit of drug-crazed behaviour - very strange indeed.

[stimpee]

Once Upon A Time In The West is my favourite western. Claudia Cardinale is a goddess in that, and its not often you get to see Henry Fonda playing a bad guy.

[b.miller]

having just been through the cinematic baptism that is the quentin tarantino film festival, i can tell you to check out both Django and Django, prepare A Coffin... along with Audios Sabata and anything directed by Duccio Tessari.


while he only screened on spaghetti western, The Dirty Outlaws, he screened whole nights worth of Italian Crime and Italian WWII films and talked at length of Speghetti westerns and previous complete baddasses of films he's screened at previous fests. Duccio Tessari directed this movie called No Way Out which has to be one of the best hitman films i've ever seen...

[b.miller]

i case anyone still cares:

IFC is re-running their The Spaghetti West documentary this saturday at 10eastern followed by two seminal classics: The Big Gundown at 11e and [The Great Silence[/b] at 12:45e

so if you have IFC you can totally have a Spaghetti Western night!

[Sad But True]

That is the same experience I had a few years ago. Leoné was a great director sadly his filmography is limited. His other great masterpiece is Once Upon a Time in America, with Robert Deniro and James Woods.

my first post ;)

[b.miller]

welcome :)