Thanks Rossferatu for the image, it's great. :lol:
And WoW, I sure didn't expect to see something like this in here...
I'm not really knowledgeable on the subject, but I can say something...
As was mentioned, the term spaghetti western refers to Italian made movies, but it sort of can mean different things to different people. There's really no rule... Some think it has to be atleast partly Italian produced, but others count all eurowesterns under the same term even if no Italians were involved... And some people require certain kind of style and music from the films. The term spaghetti western was originally used in a negative meaning but nowadays it's positive at least for the fans of the genre. In Japan they called them macaroni westerns. :drool:
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/...806100301/1023 There's Roger Ebert's very negative comments regarding the whole genre. :lol:
Majority of the films were shot in Spain, but some were filmed in Yugoslavia, Italy, Canary Islands, Mexico, USA and probably several other places.
The dubbing of the movies really might bother some people, but personally it has never been any kind of problem for me... even though with movies with good sync I am always bothered if it goes out of synch. And yeah, it was common in Italy to voice dub the films later. Sometimes they didn't even record any sounds and sometimes even if they recorded them, the tracks were trashed later and dubbed. Directors could have also been heard directing on the tracks (because they knew it would later be dubbed anyways...). The Great Silence was filmed without sound as was several other Corbucci westerns... and according to Corbucci he had some of his actors just counting (like one, two, three, four etc) in their own language. And there were actors from several different countries in lot of films... americans, british, germans, french, spanish and italian and probably even more.
And when the dubbing for the Italian track was made, often they didnt even have the original Italian actors do the dubbing. Instead they chose the dubbers based on their sound... how they wanted the characters to sound...
I would say the original soundtrack for most of the movies is Italian, but its very hard to say... I would think most of the time the director himself only handled the Italian soundtrack so the English and other languages might not be what the director intented... Then again Leone has been said to have made both Italian AND French soundtracks and make some changes to the French one based on cultural differences. I don't know how the English soundtracks for his movies were made (and those are the originals for me since theres Clint himself talking....) but he didn't really understand English at all at the time.
Some English tracks were made in Italy and some weren't...
Also because of the dubbing, it was quite easy to make some small changes to the story. For example the movie Taste of Killing... It has a bounty hunter who lets the bandits first kill convoys and then he goes and kills the bandits and gets a reward... Not very nice I would say as he doesnt even warn the convoys even though he could... so anyways... later in the film he goes after this one bandit... and I think in the Italian version he only goes after him because of the money, like always... but the English dubbing has tried to make him more sympathetic by adding lines of dialogue about his brother who was killed by that bandit... you can't even see him talk these lines as the dialogue is heard when we see something else (like the wanted poster for the bandit...) :roll:
And the bounty hunter is only known as the 'lanky fellow' in the Italian version I think... yet in the English dub his name is Hank Fellows... :roll:
Quite a coincidence that you would mention it... hmm.... Anyways, Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid is the name of it. I really like it (no shit!).Originally Posted by Taco
... You're forgiven since the movie does have some spaghetti western references. ;)
And Quistis is forgiven because she's Quistis............:drool:
And about Unforgiven... its maybe the second best western ever... BUT YOU FOOLS... DONT CALL A NON SPAGHETTI A SPAGHETTI EVEN WHEN KIDDING. :shake: :huh?:
Anyways... maybe some recommendations, eh? I haven't seen much but here's some...
Once Upon A Time In The West is of course one, but it was already mentioned and you have it... so... but as Taco said, it's kinda slow... if GBU was slow to you, then... yeah, well, you could try if you can get past the first scene... Which btw is EVEN LONGER on the Italian language cut of the movie. But you might like it... its definitely Italian made, but there's a lot of things taken from american westerns, maybe even sort of pays some kind of homage to them...
And then there's the rest of the Leone westerns which should be seen by all and I'm very glad that some of you have actually seen some of them at least. :drool:
Then there's Bandidos which was directed by Massimo Dallamano under the pseudonym "Max Dillman" (it was quite common back then... for both actors and directors... because the audience would be more likely to see something with american names...). About a sharpshooter who loses his ability to use a gun and hires someone else to do the shooting for him... together they go after the bandit Billy Kane who has massacred a train. Dallamano worked as a cinematographer in Leone's first two westerns and then started directing. Only made one western but has several other good films as well before dying in 1976 in car accident.
http://koti.mbnet.fi/~jani/band3.jpg
Cemetery Without Crosses is mostly French production but definitely one of the best, I would say top 5 movies ever. :woot: Robert Hossein directed and stars in this film as a gunslinger Manuel. For reasons unknown Manual has left the life of gunslinger behind him and lives alone in a ghost town in middle of a desert, playing roulette by himself. But he is drawn into a kidnap revenge plot by Maria who's husband Ben was executed by the Rogers brothers. Ben was Manuel's old friend but Manuel has loved Maria.
There's barely any dialogue at all, and the feel of the movie is depressing from the start to the end. I can remember only one scene with some humor in it.
Dead Men Ride (Anda Muchacho Spara!) is another excellent movie... in top 5 as well. :woot: Vengeance plot, like most of the spaghetti westerns have... Roy Greenford escapes from prison and goes after a local businessman who is using the peasants for gold digging. He also brings himself a secret that seems to get everyone hearing it killed...
I don't know what to say really... I LOVE THIS MOVIE... ;) Excellent music and stylish scenes. ;)
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/6...uchachoxy9.jpg
The Price of Power is a political western which sort of places the assassination of JFK into year 1881. Giuliano Gemma (as Montgomery Wood) plays the main character who gets (along with his friend) involved in the assassination conspiracy. Has some racism themes as well since the 'Lee Harvey Oswald' of the story is a black man. I guess this is the main work of the director Tonino Valerii who during his career had also worked as Second Unit Director with Leone's first two westerns.
Personally I think Valerii's best is My Name Is Nobody which was produced by Sergio Leone. It stars Henry Fonda as aging gunslinger Jack Beauregard who is trying to get a boat to Europe before it's too late. But things get complicated by a young man played by Terence Hill called Nobody (which allows for a lot of jokes... 'Who's faster than him?' 'Nobody!' ) who has admired Beauregard and wants him to become a legend... by trying to force a fight between Beauregard and the Wild Bunch which consists of 150 men. This is a weird combination of serious western and a (slapstick) comedy (And some scenes filmed by Leone himself!) which might not work for everybody... plus knowledge of other western films might help...
But probably in my top ten movies ever... might be partly because of childhood nostalgia but oh well... ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqq60RLU55o There's one excellent scene from the movie, with great music as well!
And the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOanX_TSE5U
Some of films by the other Sergio (Corbucci) should probably also be mentioned... He made 13 in total and I would say he is rated second, just below Leone, among the fans of the genre. Django wasn't his first but it's the most well known and should I maybe say even a classic nowadays... Everyone should have seen it. ;) It's sort of like Fistful of Dollars, Django returning from the war and getting involved between the fights of two gangs, Major Jackson's (racist) men and a mexican gang. Django is also dragging a coffin filled with secrets behind him. English language dub is horrible, it must be seen with Italian!
Opening of Django with the theme song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmK_fEzNsig
I think Corbucci's best is Companeros. It takes place in the mexican revolution. Franco Nero plays a swedish arms dealer Yodlaf Peterson who with a mexican El Vasco (Tomas Milian) cross the border to save professor Xantos from the americans. All of this is done for the money of course and not to help the mexicans themselves...
Trailer for Companeros: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMhckv5vVjU
The Mercenary by Corbucci is also very highly rated although not so much by me. It was made just before Companeros and resembles it a lot in the ways how the story is structured and the characters and settings and stuff... this time France Nero is a polish Mercenary helping the mexicans (for money of course) in their revolution fights. Has one of the coolest scenes ever, a showdown in a bullring which has superb music by Morricone which was later used by Tarantino in Kill Bills...
"If you're not ready to buy, be ready to die."
Trailer:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LmbxVt8LSs
The Great Silence from Corbucci is also recommend but that one Korova already mentioned. Trailer for it is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1kcw...related&search=
Then there's the third Sergio, Sergio Sollima (there's a lot more Sergios but we won't be talking about them!). He made only 3 westerns which are all excellent to good. I would recommend the first two of them though, The Big Gundown and Face to Face which do have some sort of political aspects in them.
The Big Gundown stars Lee Van Cleef as Jonathan Corbett, a bounty hunter trying to turn politician, who as his last mission goes on a hunt for a mexican peasant Cuchillo who is blamed for raping and killing a 12 year old girl and wanted dead. Cuchillo heads for the border with Corbett on pursuit and under the watchful eyes of his political supporters. Some excellent music in this one plus several nice showdowns... knife vs gun, Corbett vs european Baron. ;)
Opening credit sequence with the excellent theme song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I91GEjoIHS0 (credits are missing though... hehe)
Face to Face stars Gian Maria Volontè (who is in first two Leone westerns) as history professor Brett Fletcher who quits his work and heads west because of his failing health. There he gets involved with Solomon Bennet's (Tomas Milian) bandit gang and joins them because of his fascination with their way of life and wanting to make his mark on the world.
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAfDlLipqGk
The Forgotten Pistolero has been described to have the most well known song that nobody knows. I think it might be true, I have heard it in at least a couple of commercial and I remember hearing it being played in various occasions (but can't remember any). This has also been desribed as a soap opera, I guess because theres quite a lot of dialogue and plot twists that could be from the Bold & the Beautiful... But maybe that is why this is excellent :woot: Family drama and vengeance. ;)
Here's the nice opening credit sequence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jR0GWQKT4IQ
Bullet for Sandoval tells a story of confederate army soldier John Warner(George Hilton) who tries defecting in order to see his sick and pregnant soon to be wife. Failing that, he is ordered to be executed but escapes with couple of army friends and heads south... only to find his wife dead and her father (Ernest Borgnine as Sandoval) blaming Warner for everything. Sandoval drives Warner away with the baby child who soon dies because nobody helps (as the child is from a cholera town). Warner is filled with vengeance and gathers a gang (his army buddies and some outlaws) and aims to bring Sandoval down with military from two countries after them.
http://eu.movieposter.com/posters/ar...n/22/A70-11423
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=va3UNB09OAI
Umm... I guess thats all for now...
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