I'm going
to tell you why I watch so many Spaghetti Westerns.
It’s cause I
freaking love them.
I love the
gritty all-round feel, the anti-heroes, and the action scenes that begin and
end within seconds. The Spaghetti Western is not just a genre, but a TAKE on a
genre that rose from an aesthetic that was informed by what had come before then
filtered through the populace cynical consciousness. Its a definitive BRAND on
a subject that is in itself incredibly narrow, but can still sbe explored in
many different ways.
Or it can
just be more of the same.
He was surrounded by at least thirty men. This was it. He had a few more digs into the
soft earth and then those canons were going to send him to hell.
“You’re digging your own grave” the mayor
sneered.
Django didn’t say a word. He just reached down
into the hole, cracked the coffin open, and pulled out the final thing those
bastards would ever see.
A BLOODY MANCHINE GUN!
BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM!
That scene
is from the ending of DJANGO, PREPARE YOUR COFFIN. It could have easily been
from DJANGO AND THE SHARKS, DJANGO, KILL or even DJANGO, INSERT SOMETHING
VIOLENT HERE. They all end pretty much the same.
HOW THE
HECK DO YOU TELL THEM APART?!
Over the
last six month I must have watched at least fifty Spaghetti Westerns, but if
you asked me for titles I’d probably just stare at you blankly and go “Some of
them had Django in the title…others had KILL…some others had REVENGE…”. It’s
not to say that I didn’t enjoy a lot of them, and some of them did stink like
putrid horse poo, but it’s undeniable that a Spaghetti is made up of some very
specific elements that can only be switched around so much. It really doesn’t help that all of them have a
million different vague titles, the poster art all looks the same, share a lot
of the same actors. Oh, and due to the success of films like DJANGO some crafty
producers decided to put the name Django in all ALL OF THEIR WESTERNS TITLES
even though no character that even resembled the original Django appeared in
the film.
IF YOU CAN’T
TELL THEM APART WHY DO YOU WATCH SO MANY?
You’d think
that a feeling of ‘same-ness’ would tire me out eventually, but that hasn’t
proven to be the case yet. It’s kind of
like that TV SHOW you used watch every evening when you came home from school.
Sometimes it’s good, but usually it’s just all-right, but it fits like a comfy
poncho every single time. This is not to say that there aren’t CLASSICS out
there, but with the sheer volume, it’s easier to find ‘solid’ films then an out
of nowhere genre revelations.
If you ARE
looking for classics* (which you should cause they’re FANTASTIC) you should
start with the great TOP 20 lists at SPAGHETTI
WESTERN DATABASE and then move on to
books like ANY GUN CAN PLAY or 10,000 WAYS TO DIE (Written by Director Alex
Cox!). You sit through a bunch of disposable oaters, but then when you find the
REALLY good ones like THE GREAT SILENCE or the Gothic Horror Western AND GOD
SAID TO CAIN it all makes all those really crappy ones worthwhile.
I wrote in
the previous article that you should give chances to films like FAUST and
broaden your horizons. I still stand on that point, but at the same time there’s
always place for something that you just LOVE. Not everything has to STICK OUT
AND BE SUPER ORIGINAL. Sometimes all you want is a grimace, a six shooter, and
a dirty rotten bastard to blow away.
* A few of
the bigger films have gotten solid widescreen releases in North America from
such companies as Anchor Bay and Blue Underground, but a lot of the slightly
less work floats around on shoddy 99 WESTERN FILMS FOR 10$ box-sets. On the other hand, countries like Germany and
Italy treat the films like holy grails and give them immaculate widescreen
releases.
