The Spaghetti Western thread

[Robin Bougie Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Robin Bougie]

We need a thread to talk about italian westerns in, dammit.

What are 10 that you think everyone should see? I made it 10 instead of 5, since if I had made it 5, all we'd we talking about is Leone. I've seen all the Leone and Corbucci, and I want to know what else I'm missing. You guys go first, and then I'll hit you with some of my faves.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

I'm game. I'm actually gonna leave Leone out of this though as I think it goes without saying his films need to be seen.

So in no particular order....

The Great Silence
Face To Face
The Big Gundown
Django
Django The Bastard
Cut Throats Nine
Day of Anger
The Grand Duel
Death Rides A Horse
Cemetery Without Crosses

There are lots more though, but those are what popped into my head first.

[Robin Bougie Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Robin Bougie]

Django The Bastard
Cemetery Without Crosses

Oh man, those are two I haven't seen. I'll add them to my want list.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Do it! Django The Bastard was Eastwood's inspiration for High Plains Drifter, so it's nice and dark and kinda spooky.

[Robin Bougie Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Robin Bougie]

Here are the non-Leone ten that I'm high on at the moment (in no order):

The Hellbenders (1967) Starring Jospeh Cotton
A Man Called Sledge (1970) Starring James Garner
Day Of Anger (1967 Starring Lee Van Cleef
Blindman (1971) Starring Ringo Starr
Face to Face (1967) Starring Thomas Millian
The Mercenary (1968) Starring Franco Nero
A Bullet for the General (1966) Starring Lou Castel
Django Kill... If you live, shoot! (1967) Starring Thomas Millian
And God Said to Cain (1969) Starring Klaus Kinski

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Out of that list the only one I haven't seen is A Man Called Sledge. The others are top notch choices. Face To Face rules. Almost anything with Lee Van Cleef in it also rules.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

This one is also fun. I have a soft spot for the East Meets Western mash up. Fighting Fists Of Shanghai Joe also kicks lots of ass.

[Dave Starry Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dave Starry]

One I would add to the list would be "Keoma". I know many consider the theme song to be annoying, but it really grew on me (to the point that I sought out the De Angelis bros. soundtrack to download after watching the movie). And you gotta love Franco Nero. The movie came out very late in the game for Italian Westerns. Even though you might suspect that by this point in time he would be simply going through the motions, he never gives less than 110%.

In any event, coincidentally I'm currently in the process of expanding my spaghetti western knowledge/collection. I just ordered the Timeless Media Group "Best of Spaghetti Westerns" box set (containing "Cemetery Without Crosses" and 19 others) along with "Death Rides A Horse" over the weekend. Once I digest some of those titles hopefully I'll be able to add some commentary to this thread.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

I'm curious as to the quality on that boxed set, Dave. I've got the OOP German fancy edition of Cemetery and it's a good one. The boxed set might have a port of that transfer in it.

[Dave Starry Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dave Starry]

I'm not sure as to the source of "Cimitero Senza Croci" on that box set, but apparently it's got a similar runtime to the old German DVD (87 min.). The reviews on the set have been overall fairly favorable compared to most of the budget sets on the market. Although it appears that many of the films may have been clipped by a few minutes, all but one are widescreen (albeit not anamorphic, unfortunately). I've currently only got 14 spaghetti westerns in my collection (all 5 Leones, along with the old Anchor Bay and Blue Underground box sets), so at this point I'm looking for as much bang for buck as possible and at $12 for 20 films I couldn't pass it up. Comparatively, I paid ~$14 for the single Wild East edition of "Death Rides a Horse". I pulled a similar move to quickly expand my poliziotteschi collection this past summer by picking up the three Pop Flix budget sets. These don't always look so great blown up on my 61" home theater display, but make for great viewing on the portable DVD player I use to watch stuff on my lunch hour at work.

By the way Ian, I just read your review of the VCI spaghetti western collection that includes "Django the Bastard" on DVD Talk. Sounds like another inexpensive multi-film set I need to pick up.

Speaking of spaghetti westerns, I was channel surfing yesterday and caught the beginning of "Once Upon a Time in the West" on the Universal HD channel. Not really the best way to watch the movie though -- the image is clipped down to fit a widescreen television and the additional of endless commercials extended the runtime to an excrutiating length. I started to watch the movie in the bedroom, moved out to the family room, went back to the bedroom later to lay down to take a nap, woke up and it was still going. I never did get to the end. At one point my daughter came in to sit on the couch and asked what I was watching. Her reaction: "that guy's been crawling through the mud for like 10 minutes".

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

The VCI set is good if you don't have the single discs, otherwise... it's the same.

There's a Mill Creek pack out you might want to look into, it has the following titles in it:

3 Bullets for Ringo
And God Said To Cain
Apache Blood
Ben and Charlie
Between God, the Devil and a Winchester
Beyond the Law
Boot Hill
Challenge to White Fang
China 9, Liberty 37
Dead For A Dollar
Dead Men Don't Make Shadows
Death Rides a Horse
Deserter, The
Django Kills
Django vs. Sartana
Fighting Fists of Shanghai Joe, The
Find a Place to Die
Fistful of Lead
Four of the Apocalypse
Four Rode Out
Grand Duel
Great Adventure, The
Hate Thy Neighbor
His Name Was King...
If You Meet Sartana, Pray For Death
It Can Be Done Amigo
Jesse and Lester
Johnny Yuma
Keoma
Kid Vengeance
Man from Nowhere
Manhunt, The
Mannaja
Minnesota Clay
Price of Power, The
Run, Man, Run
Strangers Gundown, The (This is the same movie as Django the Bastard, just retitled)
Sundance and the Kid
They Call Him Cemetery
This Man Can't Die
Trinity and Sartana
Unholy Four, The
White Comanche
White Fang and the Hunter

I've no idea as to the quality, but that's a pretty good selection and there are some uncommon titles in there.

[Terry C Tiger Fists Find all posts View Profile Close Terry C]

I've no idea as to the quality, but that's a pretty good selection and there are some uncommon titles in there.

I have it, it's pretty awesome even though most of the titles transfers are not all that great.

[Randy G Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Randy G]

That is a good selection, best I've seen for a budget set.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Can't argue with the price either. With that said, has there ever been a genre pillaged in the PD multipack sets the way the Spaghetti Western has? I can't imagine that all of those titles are actually public domain, nor can I imagine that they've been licensed.

[Dave Starry Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dave Starry]

Yeah, it's hard to pass up 44 movies for ten bucks, even though I kind of cringe at the thought of what most of these transfers probably look like. I just spent five times that today to order copies of "The Big Gundown", "Day of Anger" and "Face to Face".

And in other SW news, I see that a nice transfer of "Death Rides A Horse" became available today on Netflix Instant. Murphy's Law in action apparently, as I just ordered this DVD over the past weekend (although I'll gladly add the disc to my growing western collection).