Western Spaghetti

Today I was trying to finally get around to ordering some Indian Cinema DVDs I’ve been meaning to get hold of for some time. During about half an hour of aimless surfing I somehow got distracted onto a not-too-different-genre - and ended up buying these instead:

In fact - I ordered these three legendary films (which created a complete sub-genre of films lovingly called “Spaghetti Westerns”) from Amazon as a three-pack called “The Spaghetti Westerns Collection”.

This three films only hang together as a trilogy on the basis of the smilarity of the plots (making easy money) and the recurrence of the character played by Clint Eastwood (The Man with No Name). And even then - the last movie of the three is different to the prior two; The Good, the Bad and The Ugly - released in 1965. This is undoubtedly the most famous of all director Sergio Leone’s work - and this is due to three things:

• The larger budget used to make the film ($1.2M Dollars - which was massive for 1966)
• The much bigger sets containing lots more people - e.g. scenes of war on a massive scale
• The amazing Ennio Morricone score that is probably the most instantly recognisable western theme of all time. (Playing NOW in the background!)

Technically the film is simply brilliant. The screenplay (which has to be seen in widescreen format to be truly appreciated) is extremely striking - switching from wide, beuatiful panoramas to extreme close-ups of the characters’ eyes, this becomes the signature of Leone’s highly stylised approach to the Spaghetti Western - where he develops the story slowly, giving us, the viewer a chance to absorb the magnificence of the photography while the plot unfolds. Interestingly - although the film and the others before it have come to characterise the great American western - the films were shot entirely in Europe! (Sergio Leone is Italian). In fact - the Italian version of the film (the director’s cut) had seven scenes in it that were not present in the North American version!

Legend has it that The Good, The Bad and the Ugly was actually a “prequel” to the other two - as around twenty minutes before the end of the film Clint Eastwood picks up a poncho off a dying soldier and puts it on. This gives him the look which is the same as he looks in the first two films and therefore implies that the third film was set in a time prior to the setting of the Fistful and For a Few.

The Good, Bad, Ugly film was also a turning point in the career of Clint Eastwood. The $250,000 and percentage royalties received for making the film made him a very rich man - and later that year he set up his own production company, Malpaso, and has never looked back…

I am looking forward to the DVD of the 2003 Restoration of the The Good, The Bad and the Ugly - some extra footage has been found from the original 1966 shooting - taking the film to a few seconds over 180 minutes in length!

“You see, in this world there’s two kinds of people, my friend: Those with loaded guns and those who dig. You dig”.
Quote by Clint Eastwood in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Posted by jag at August 23, 2003 06:52 PM