Django (1966)

Dir: SERGIO CORBUCCI
Country: ITALY/SPAIN

Although Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars (1964) became the pin up poster boy of the spaghetti western cycle, it is arguably Sergio Corbucci’s Django which wielded the greatest influence on European westerns. The central character went on to feature in well over fifty spin offs, the vast majority of which, were unofficial. The success of the film in West Germany led too Italian actor Franco Nero forever being associated with the role, and almost every western he appeared in thereafter was promoted in West Germany as a Django picture. The reason its vast influence remains largely unrecognised, is that unlike Leone’s ‘Dollars’ trilogy, Django was not a commercial success in the United States. The influence of A Fistful of Dollars was not immediate; indeed most of the Euro-westerns released in the wake of Leone’s film were actually quite traditional. It is conceivable that this might have remained the case were it not for Sergio Corbucci who had clearly paid attention to the exaggerated style, cynicism, revisionism, and mythical anti-heroism that formed the basis of Leone’s westerns. Corbucci’s major innovation was to take these elements (minus the exaggerated stylisations) and push them to the extreme. If A Fistful of Dollars was pessimistic then Django had to be nihilistic. If the landscape seen in A Fistful of Dollars was dusty, dry, and sun baked then the landscape in Django had to be wet, muddy, and grey. The influence of A Fistful of Dollars can be felt in Django, yet at the same time Django is everything that A Fistful of Dollars is not.

High Plains Drifter (1973)

Dir: CLINT EASTWOOD
Country: USA

In the baking heat of the Spanish countryside Clint Eastwood performed his duties as an actor in three spaghetti westerns that had little expectation attached to them; somehow amid the chaos of a Sergio Leone shoot Mr. Eastwood studied the Italian’s technique, absorbed the stylisations, admired the fiery filmmakers work ethic, and filed away the daily lessons he was exposed too for future reference. Eastwood was clearly determined to get more of out his three European vacations than just payment. It’s almost as if Eastwood knew that these formative experiences would be crucial in his later career. But Eastwood was not content with merely following the Sergio Leone curriculum of filmmaking, especially when the opportunity arose later in his career to work with Don Siegel. If Leone’s influence on Eastwood was visual and stylistic, then Siegel’s lay in the simplification of narrative; in a minimalist attitude to the presentation of familiar generic material. Eastwood’s first outing as a director was the atypical and unusual Play Misty for Me (1971); an intense psychological thriller in which Eastwood made his first attempt to subvert audience expectations built on his image as a tough guy action hero. His second film was High Plains Drifter, and it was his first western. It is a more instructive and intriguing film, and was his first clear opportunity to celebrate his influences and develop his own unique outlook.

Lobby Card Collection - Once Upon a Time in the West (1969)

I thought I'd continue on with the films of Sergio Leone, and following on the heels of lobby cards for A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, I present 12 cards used to promote his most operatic of westerns Once Upon a Time in the West. The film features excellent performances from Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale and Jason Robards, a wonderful score from Ennio Morricone, and an early screenwriting credit for none other than Dario Argento. If you haven't already picked it up the blu-ray from Paramount is well worth a purchase.

 

Keoma (1976)

Dir: ENZO G. CASTELLARI
Country: ITALY

AKA:
Desperado
Django Rides Again
Keoma: The Avenger
The Violent Breed

By the late 1970’s the landscape of the Euro-Western was limp and lifeless, the generic terrain parched and infertile. The occasional production little more than tumbleweed in a dusty and decaying town. The Spaghetti Western Database lists a paltry eight productions for 1976 and it would be fair to say that Enzo G. Castellari’s entry Keoma stands head and shoulders above the rest. Some argue that Keoma was not only the last important spaghetti western, but also one of the best ever made. Whilst I find the former possesses a nugget of truth, the latter is a lot harder to substantiate. However one fact that is undeniable is that out of the eight westerns that Castellari directed, Keoma is probably the most accomplished. I’ve argued elsewhere that although Castellari worked in a multitude of genres, his films, structurally at least, adhered very closely to the conventions of the western. So it’s something of a surprise to discover that until Keoma, he hadn’t directed a truly important or genre defining example. One of the major ingredients lacking in previous Castellari westerns is the sort of barnstorming and forceful performance that Franco Nero puts in as the beleaguered half-breed Keoma. With his wild and unkempt beard, penetrating blue eyes and long hair (actually a wig) Nero makes an indelible impression the likes of which audiences hadn’t enjoyed since Django (1966). Nero has his critics, but you won’t hear any negativity from me. Nero is at his charismatic best here and so dominates proceedings that the films director becomes totally overshadowed.

Lobby Card Collection - The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (1966)

This months thrilling edition of the Lobby Card Collection completes Sergio Leone's trilogy of 'Dollars' film featuring Clint Eastwood as the nameless anti-hero. In comparison to previous instalments lobby card images for The Good, The Bad and the Ugly were relatively thin on the ground, but on my travels I still managed to find some interesting examples that were used to promote the film in French and Italian cinemas.

Lobby Card Collection - For a Few Dollars More (1965)

Following quickly on the heels of the lobby cards for A Fistful of Dollars (1964) I present a selection of stills for Sergio Leone's 1965 sequel For a Few Dollars More. This is my personal favourite of Leone's westerns, and the following three sets of lobby cards were used to promote the film in British, French and West German cinemas.

Lobby Card Collection - A Fistful of Dollars (1964)

Italian director Sergio Leone's rip off of Akira Kurosawa's masterful samurai flick Yojimbo (1960) has achieved a huge prominence in the bitter and cynical landscape of the European western. Although it made Clint Eastwood a star, and showcased Leone's exaggerated stylisations, it is the music by Ennio Morricone that has had a greater lasting appeal. Here is a selection of lobby cards used to promote the film in British, Spanish, French, and West German cinemas.

Spaghetti Westerns Poster Gallery [Part 2]

"A politician would promise an amnesty to the murderer of his own father to win an election." - Sheriff Burnett ("The Great Silence")

The Mercenary aka A Professional Gun (Sergio Corbucci, 1968) - US Poster

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Find a Place to Die (Guiliano Carniemo, 1968) - Spanish Poster

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Ace High (Giuseppe Colizzi, 1968) - US Quad Poster

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The Great Silence (Sergio Corbucci, 1968) - US Poster

Spaghetti Westerns Poster Gallery [Part 1]

This two part celebration of  Spaghetti Western poster designs is by no means definitive. This is a purely subjective selection, so if your favourites are not amongst the images I apologise. Without further ado I invite you to explore some wonderful art work for one of my favourite popular European film cycles.

"There are two kinds of people in the world, my friend: Those with a rope around their neck, and the people who have the job of doing the cutting" - Tuco ("The Good, The Bad and the Ugly")

A Fistful of Dollars (Sergio Leone, 1964) - Italian Poster

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Minnesota Clay (Sergio Corbucci, 1964) - US Poster

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A Pistol for Ringo (Duccio Tessari, 1965) - Italian Poster

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For a Few Dollars More (Sergio Leone, 1965) - Italian Poster

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Massacre Time (1966)

Dir: LUCIO FULCI
Country: ITALY

AKA:
Tempo di massacro
Colt Concert
The Brute and the Beast

The superbly titled Massacre Time was Italian writer/director Lucio Fulci’s first of five adventures in the brutal and cynical landscape of the spaghetti western. Up to this point Fulci was chiefly known (if he was known at all) for writing and directing comedies. A career in stomach churning horror fantasies couldn’t have been further from his mind in the early 1960’s. Unfortunately many of Fulci’s early efforts were commercially unsuccessful and became instant obscurities. For those fans of Fulci wishing to go a little further than his horror and giallo productions Massacre Time often represents his first film of major interest. It is really the first of his films to explore the Sadean themes for which he would become notorious in his later career, but the credit for this must go to Fernando Di Leo for his brutal and unforgiving screenplay. Di Leo was on more familiar ground than Fulci. He had provided uncredited writing for A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and For a Few Dollars More (1965) as well as contributing screenplays to the Guiliano Gemma vehicle The Return of Ringo (1965) and collaborating on Seven Guns for the MacGregors (1966). The atmosphere of pessimistic desperation that permeates Massacre Time is a foreshadowing of Di Leo’s numerous contributions to the poliziotteschi cycle in the 1970’s, and is confirmation (should it be required) that Di Leo’s thematic obsessions are those that most inform Massacre Time.

The Man from Laramie (1955)

Dir: ANTHONY MANN
Country: USA

Between 1950 and 1955 filmmaker Anthony Mann made five westerns in collaboration with actor James Stewart. From a structural point of view they adhered quite closely to the traditional western. There was nothing exceptional about them in terms of their narratives and their use of iconography. But the interest in rich characterisation, psychological states, motivation, and back story was very rare for the genre. The Mann/Stewart collaborations are distinctive and cerebral, with every element of the plot in strict synthesis with the story. They are dark affairs with an abiding interest in the hearts of men and women. The Mann/Stewart westerns are less inclined toward the mythological aspects of the traditional western, but at the same time they do not quite embrace what would later be termed revisionist. In these films the hero is not interchangeable with the villains, but the villains are imbued with complex motivations that makes the task of the hero that much more problematic. The Man from Laramie was the final collaboration between the two, and although it doesn’t quite reach the heights of Winchester ‘73 (1950) or Bend of the River (1952), it is still a solid and fitting climax to a generic relationship as equally important as Ford/Wayne.

Ride the High Country (1962)

Dir: SAM PECKINPAH
Country: USA

AKA:
Guns in the Afternoon
Sacramento

There is an internal paradox to the delightful western Ride the High Country that makes it an intriguing and important proposition. For the actors Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea it was the concluding statement on careers honed in the dust and gunfire of the traditional western. For young filmmaker Sam Peckinpah it was a second attempt at directing a feature film after the forgettable and obscure The Deadly Companions (1961). Within Ride the High Country’s core is both a lamentation for the end of a traditional mode of generic address, and excitement for the new horizons opened by generic revisionism. Here Peckinpah shows his love for the traditional western, but it is a love tempered by an impatient need to move on and push the boundaries of the form. For some the nihilistic bloodbath that concluded The Wild Bunch (1969) may have come as a surprise, but Peckinpah was already making smoke signals in that direction with this film. Up to this point Peckinpah was chiefly known as a writer for television. He had contributed scripts and some direction for episodes of Gun Law (1955-8), Broken Arrow (1957-8), Zane Grey Theatre (1958-9) and The Rifleman (1958-63). His main contribution to western lore however was the creation of The Westerner (1960). This series only lasted for 13 episodes but was vital in securing interest from the major Hollywood studios. Peckinpah’s knowledge of generic typography was cultivated in the restrictive milieu of television, but the expansive possibillities of film allowed him to paint a much larger and thematically rich canvas with his second film.

My Darling Clementine (1946)

Dir: JOHN FORD
Country: USA

The gunfight at the OK Corral and the events surrounding it have become one of the most enduring of Hollywood myths. The traditional Hollywood western is particularly suited to the propagation of myths and legends, the efficiency of the genre lies in its attitude too its own mythology and symbolism, so recognisably iconographic, it is no surprise that film theorists most often turn to the western when discussing genre. It now seems an entirely logical step for the filmmaker most associated with the western to tackle the story of Wyatt Earp. Although John Ford went on to make a number of revisionist westerns in his later career - most notably Sergeant Rutledge (1960) and Cheyenne Autumn (1964), his treatment of the Earp legend is very different to what we might expect. The screenplay by Samuel G. Engel, Winston Miller and Sam Hellman was based on the book Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal by Stuart N. Lake. A book which was allegedly written with the collaboration of Earp himself. So we might expect some historical verisimilitude, but the screenplay takes a number of liberties with the real events as Ford indulges in the themes for which he has become well known. In dramatic terms this is a peculiar film. The film does not build to the predictable showdown. It meanders along and concerns itself with very small and intimate details. The gunfight itself is farcically downplayed, and totally lacks any sense of tension or catharsis.

Soldier Blue (1970)

Dir: RALPH NELSON

Country: USA

For anyone interested in the history of screen violence and the minefield of debates surrounding censorship, the western Soldier Blue will be an inevitable stop on the journey. Soldier Blue was a film dogged by controversy due to the brutality and sadism of its denouement, but it has much to thank Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch (1969) for. Peckinpah’s revisionist lamentation for the old west was marked by a hitherto unseen relationship to violence, and thus opened up the territory for a slew of filmmakers itching to push the boundaries of taste and decency within the confines of commercial filmmaking. In both the US and the UK Soldier Blue was heavily cut, and its only in recent years that audiences have been given the opportunity to se uncut prints on DVD. As well as offering a none too subtle allegory of a much publicised American military atrocity in Vietnam, the film also fed into a mini movement at the time which sought to remedy the regressive stereotypical depiction of native Indians. Although Soldier Blue is clear in its sympathies, there is an exaggeration and over statement in relation to its anti-war stance, and it totally lacks the depth, character, and pathos of its immediate contemporary Little Big Man (1970).

A Bullet for the General (1966)

Dir: DAMIANO DAMIANI
Country: ITALY

aka:
El Chunco, quien sabe?

This expansive and beautifully structured spaghetti western exists within a sub-genre of westerns in the 1960’s and 70’s that dealt with the subject of the Mexican revolution. This tumultuous period in Mexican history offered politically motivated filmmakers the opportunity to comment allegorically on the various social and political upheavals of the day. Unfortunately very few of these films also managed to be wonderfully entertaining but A Bullet for the General succeeds admirably in this department. The political subtext of the film can be laid squarely with the communist leanings of Franco Solinas who adapted the story by Salvatore Laurani to suit his outlook. Earlier in the year Solinas had penned The Battle of Algiers (1966), and this western works through many of the same themes and concerns. Clearly director Damiano Damiani (best known to horror buffs for Amityville II: The Possession (1982)) is sympathetic with this attitude and would return to politically motivated material with his excellent How to Kill a Judge? (1976). Damiani brings an invigorating and commercial approach to material that could have become staid and preachy in the hands of a lesser filmmaker.

Django Kill...If You Live, Shoot! (1967)

Dir: GIULIO QUESTI
Country: ITALY/SPAIN

aka:
Se sei vivo spara

This is a very unconventional and bizarre spaghetti western that has scant resemblance to Sergio Corbucci’s Django (1966), the film series it was promoted as being part of. This is a complete stand alone western, and although both films share a certain amount of cynicism and pessimism Django Kill’s bitter vision of an irredeemable hell on earth (with the requisite Grand Guignol imagery to support that vision) is something unique to Italian westerns. The sort of bleakness explored in Django Kill would become something of a mainstay in westerns throughout the 1970’s (see Eastwood’s High Plains Drifter (1972)), but for 1966 it was incredibly daring and audacious, and few, if any films, in the genre have achieved such a dislocated and alienated atmosphere. Writer/director Giulio Questi was never happy with the title (and no doubt even less happy about the scissor happy butchery the film endured at the hands of various censors) preferring simply If You Live…Shoot! which is a far more accurate representation for the trigger happy events of the film. However its fair to say that without the prefix of the Django series this might have, along with a hundred other spaghetti westerns, disappeared into obscurity.

The Great Silence (1968)

Dir: SERGIO CORBUCCI
Country: ITALY/FRANCE

aka:
Il grande silenzio

Although Sergio Leone was the critically acclaimed face of spaghetti westerns in the 1960’s, equally important work was being produced by Sergio Corbucci. While Leone reached operatic highs with his sweeping camera movements, audacious set ups, and melodramatic performances, Corbucci offered audiences a rougher approach with handheld shots, zooms, and minimalist performances. You cant get much more minimal than the main character of his 1968 masterpiece The Great Silence. He is mute throughout due to having his vocal chords cut as a child. This was Corbucci’s fifth notable western following on the heels of Django (1966), Navajo Joe (1966), The Hellbenders (1967) and A Professional Gun (1968), and he reaches a pinnacle of weirdness by setting his film during the blizzards that befell Utah in 1885. The beautiful snowy landscapes gives the film a genuine uniqueness which is brought to life by the wonderful widescreen cinematography of Silvano Ippoliti.