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I think the only reason is that no one has done until now. :wink:

My first Spaghetti Western film review is up:

http://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/The_Belle_Starr_Story_Review

Excellent.

I knew you could write, I had already noticed it in your short stories (still writing them?)

One problem: I think a name is missing (X) in this sentence :

ā€œThe middle of the film is taken up by long flashbacks to Belle Starrā€™s past, which feature the dependable (X). He was originally going to have more screen time, but tensions obviously flared between (x) and director WertmĆ¼ller, so his role was dramatically shortenedā€

[quote=ā€œscherpschutter, post:1523, topic:555ā€]Excellent.

I knew you could write, I had already noticed it in your short stories (still writing them?)

One problem: I think a name is missing (X) in this sentence :

ā€œThe middle of the film is taken up by long flashbacks to Belle Starrā€™s past, which feature the dependable (X). He was originally going to have more screen time, but tensions obviously flared between (x) and director WertmĆ¼ller, so his role was dramatically shortenedā€[/quote]
Thanks for the compliments. Yes, Iā€™m still writing stories, but the one at moment Iā€™m writing Iā€™m aiming to be 15,000 + words long, so itā€™s taking me awhile. Thanks for spotting the problem, Iā€™ll solve it tomorrow.

[quote=ā€œCommissioner, post:1520, topic:555ā€]I just added the DSX DVD to the California DVD page (only because I was looking for where to get a good version of the film, and that release didnā€™t seem to be there).

Iā€™d think thatā€™s a non-controversial change that I donā€™t need to announce here. Except, in general, the DSX DVDs donā€™t seem to be listed throughout the database (except on the page DSX Films DVD catalog (Argentina) - The Spaghetti Western Database ). Is there a good reason for that, or is it just that no-oneā€™s done it yet?[/quote]

that is precisely the reason. so if you want to copy the individual info over to the respective dvd subpages, that would be great!

Will do at some point.

Incidentally, for the Face to Face blu-ray, I know amazon says 21st Febuary, but the Eureka website ( http://eurekavideo.co.uk/classics/faccia-a-faccia-face-to-face/ ) says March. I know you changed the page to say Feb, but Iā€™m still not convincedā€¦ Iā€™ll leave it though, it will all become clear in a month or two!

Apologies: something of a double post from a SWDB novice here. Scherpschutter has pointed me here to announce my article, ā€œGo West, Comrade: Unearthing Politics in the Spaghetti Westernā€, which covers some of the material I discuss in my forthcoming book. Iā€™d be interested to hear what you all think:

[url]http://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Go_West,_Comrade:_Unearthing_Politics_in_the_Spaghetti_Western[/url]

(Another double post)

Itā€™s a very nice article. Politics and SWs, thatā€™s really my cup of tea.
Iā€™m a bit too busy with other things at the moment to write a serious reaction, but Iā€™ll do that later

I wrote a (more general, not too specific) article on SWs and politics, it was published on another site
Here it is:

http://fistfulofpasta.com/index.php?go=articles/spagpolitics1
http://fistfulofpasta.com/index.php?go=articles/spagpolitics2
http://fistfulofpasta.com/index.php?go=articles/spagpolitics3

(Final double post: gradually getting the hang of this!)

Now that is interesting. My book goes into some depth on the semantic link between the Civil War and the ongoing cultural memory of the Risorgimento and related brigand wars in the Italian peninsula. While I was researching the PhD, I searched high and low for an academic who recognised what I saw as a clear link, to no avail.

This rather confirms my belief that film studies academics are wont to overlook nuances in the scramble for theory, while fans of popular genres can pick up on them far more readily through spectatorship.

[quote=ā€œAustin Fisher, post:1527, topic:555ā€]Apologies: something of a double post from a SWDB novice here. Scherpschutter has pointed me here to announce my article, ā€œGo West, Comrade: Unearthing Politics in the Spaghetti Westernā€, which covers some of the material I discuss in my forthcoming book. Iā€™d be interested to hear what you all think:

[url]http://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Go_West,_Comrade:_Unearthing_Politics_in_the_Spaghetti_Western[/url][/quote]

Exceedingly well written and thought provoking.
Upon my first reading, I felt you were over-intellectualizing some of these films.
Yet, after subsequent readings, it struck me that over-intellectualizing might just be what is needed to get ā€œup the nosesā€ of some critics that canā€™t be bothered to even view such examples of genre cinema, much less take them seriously (as I feel they should be taken).
A job well done, amigo!

Thank you, both for your honest appraisal and your kind words.

I certainly do not seek to intellectualise these films in the sense of reading a sophistication into them that is not there (indeed, one of my central beliefs is that they are fascinating films precisely because they are unsophisticated, just like the adolescent political outlooks of their milieu). I can see the point that applying such political significance to popular cinema needs to be dealt with carefully lest it risk tenuousness (especially given the industrial conditions of Italian cinema in the 1960s), but as you intimate, such exploitation cinema is of necessity a document of its era in one way or another and shouldnā€™t be overlooked purely because of its status as ā€œtrashā€. My aim in writing this piece is very much to spark a debate around precisely this issue.

Read your article with much interest, not only due to the fact of being an SW aficionado, but also cause the political aspects of the genre (and not only) are of special significance to me, being world history a hobby of mine. I will certainly try to purchase your book (letā€™s see if the Euro gives a help on that).

Just a minor correction, or not even that just a note about the film Queimada that you mention on the article and and the colonial revolt in the Portuguese Antilles, in this case it seems that due to Franco regime pressure on the producers of the film, who didnā€™t want the Spaniards appear as the bad guys, Portugal was merely use as a sub refuge, cause we really never had any colonies in the Antilles region, being Spain the most accurate country in historical terms to be use in the film.

I guess El Topo is right (being Portoguese, of course he is!), I wrote a review on this movie quite some time ago, I found the same info (donā€™t remember exactly where):

http://www.spaghetti-western.net/forum/index.php/topic,1847.0.html

I stand gratefully corrected. I wasnā€™t aware of this aspect of Queimada, but am perennially delighted to have others add to my understanding (perhaps I should ask the publishers to correct the same omission in the book: might be too late with the publication date nearing though).

Youā€™d probably better correct it in a new edition, Austin. These things keep popping up, thereā€™s always a Mr. kwow-it-all whoā€™ll find something to quibble. Thereā€™s no need correcting tiny mistakes one by one. Make a list, and correct them all at the same time.

ā€¦ and that sounds like sage advice to me!

Austin, remind me to set up with an account for the Database :wink:

[quote=ā€œAustin Fisher, post:1527, topic:555ā€]Apologies: something of a double post from a SWDB novice here. Scherpschutter has pointed me here to announce my article, ā€œGo West, Comrade: Unearthing Politics in the Spaghetti Westernā€, which covers some of the material I discuss in my forthcoming book. Iā€™d be interested to hear what you all think:

[url]http://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Go_West,_Comrade:_Unearthing_Politics_in_the_Spaghetti_Western[/url][/quote]

Really enjoyed this article Austin. Nice to have something of yours here.

Thanks Phil. Itā€™s nice to have something published through such an accessible outlet. The peer-review process here is a lot less bitchy than in academia!

itā€™s coz youā€™re new here, we gave you a pass. Scherp we usually shred to pieces and he cries a lot until his articles are finished :wink: