The Spaghetti Western thread.

[cloud]

I've just been watching Django Kill! and have been left feeling disappointed.

It started off well, the first 25 minutes were great fun and set it up to become a good solid entry but as soon as the bandits entered the town it all went horribly wrong.
First of all there were too many villainous characters and none of them were developed well enough to be effective. The storyline was lame and meandering, it was at the most an 85 minute picture that for some reason was stretched out to just under 2 hours. Towards the end when it had long outstayed its welcome it became painful to sit through especially as their way of an explosive ending was to include off screen torture by vampire bats!! There were scenes where literally nothing was happening and the padding became embarrassing, such as the wife falling in love with the hero after only knowing him for a few minutes.
It did have a few redeeming features such as the surgery scene, the scalping and the death by melted gold. The homosexual bandits fondling Ray Lovelock also came out of the blue and in my opinion was a brave thing to add to a Western... But they were a few seconds in a very dire entry I'm afraid.

It had a bright start, had a few ballsy and inventive moments and really did have potential. But it was overlong, had a crap storyline, underdeveloped characters, lame action sequences and other glaring flaws and that is what killed it off before it even had chance to get going in my opinion.

[WaveCrest]

Some time ago I remember reading something on or off the web saying The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was the first in the trilogy, coming before A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More. This is despite actually having been the last one to be filmed and released.

In a way it makes perfect sense, because for the majority of TGTBATU Blondie (the Man with No Name is called this name by Tuco. In A Fistful of Dollars he is called Joe) is seen wearing a long beige coat. It's not until the last 10-15 minutes that he wears the famous shawl. And I'm glad this is the first in the series because in chronlogical order Tuco never got his own back on Blondie, despite the very satisfactory moment when Blondie and Tuco team up to take out Angel Eyes and his posse in the town.

I've always wanted to see The Good, the Bad and the Ugly on the big screen. So I was very chuffed when I found out this week that it is getting a digital screening at a local cinema on Monday.

[vincenzo]

For Spaghetti Western fans here's an excellent site showing the locations as they are today.

[WaveCrest]

Fascinating look. Thanks for sharing the link Vincenzo. The photos of some of the locations from the Dollars trilogy reminded me of something a poster posted on either the Anchor Bay forum, Cult Movie Forums or on here, about holidays at the locations where they filmed A Fistful of Dollars for example.

[Splatterdragon73]

Originally Posted by goatboy

Have you seen "Cut-Throats Nine"?

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=n3wmf-wco0Y

Saw the Eurovista DVD years ago and was left feeling less than impressed. Certainly not as violent as it's reputation suggests and many more superior spagwests out there imo. But each to their own.

[Splatterdragon73]

For anybody here who's interested the lesser known Movies4Men channel on Sky shows a fair smattering of spagwests together with the odd Italian war foray. Some are widescreen whereas others aren't and most of these films are of pretty poor PQ to be honest. Just thought i'd mention it.

[Eurosleaze]

Just watched Keoma for the first time last night. Good film and it kept me interested but the soundtrack was really a mistake. The wailing female singer works once or twice but it's throughout the entire film! It doesn't help that you can't always understand what she's saying. The man is even worse; the funny thing is that I really like cheesy seventies exploitation soundtracks but this particular one became a real irritant as the film wore on. That aside Franco Nero really is great. Liked him in Hitch-Hike too (alongside undisputed sleaze heavyweight David Hess and the tasty Corrine Clery) - actors playing utter bastards with such panache are what makes Italian exploitation movies so addictive.

[WaveCrest]

The Great Silence is getting a R2 release in the autumn. Dosen't say on Play.com if there are any extras.

Bought a few weeks ago the Alex Cox book 10,000 Ways to Die, about the spaghetti westerns. Would like to see Closed Circuit and California get a DVD release.

[Splatterdragon73]

Eureka issued this title on U.K. DVD years ago and i got mine from the much missed Music Zone for about £2!

I think it's still available if i'm not mistaken but not from MZ of course!

[BioZombie]

I was just about to start a Spahetti Western thread when I stumbled across this one.

Over the last couple of weeks I have watched a number of Spghetti Westers and am really enjoying the genre. So far I've seen.

A Fistful of Dollars
For a Few Dollasrs More
The Good The Bad and The Ugly
Once Upon A Time in the West (need to see this again as I havent seen it since my new found SW interest)
Django
Keoma
The Mercenary

I still have Bullet For The General sitting in my to watch pile thanks to Iluvdvds and his weekly competitions. Also I have heard that the The Great Silence and Companeros are worth checking out.

I know there are a lot more SW out there so I was wondering if anyone had any reccomendations as to which ones are worth checking out. Are any of the Django "sequels" any good?