25: Corbucci: What am I doing in the middle of revolution? (1972)
-I wanted to give this Corbucci film another chance but I didn’t like it now either. It’s painful and irritating film with occasional fine scenes and action but mostly just incoherent mess. Maybe I would like it a bit more if I saw it in italian with subtitles because english dubbing just doesn’t work on this film. 5/10
SPAGVEMBERFEST 2015 - THE BIG RUNDOWN: NUMBER 6
AAAARGHH! Thanks to not one, but a sequence of familial crises hitting me all at once yesterday. I missed my Spagvemberfest commitment for the first time! Sh*tting Jeebus! TBH though, I’m uncertain as to whether to hit up a double-bill today to make up the numbers, or to just let it go, because yesterday’s movie and my #6 should have been Requiescant (Lizzani, 1967), and although I love me a bit of Kill and Pray action, I know that Santa is bringing me a Requiescant-shaped blu-ray down the chimney this Christmas, so maybe I should wait until then. Hm. Maybe I’ll throw in a substitute movie instead; I had a hankering for Bandidos (Dallamano, 1967) earlier on in the challenge, I could always stick that in today. Hm.
Today, I don’t care if a toilet falls out of a 747 and crashes through our house. Nobody is stopping Spagvemberfest today, lest they be sentenced to death.
SPAGVEMBERFEST 2015 - THE BIG RUNDOWN: NUMBER 5
I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to today’s movie. My #5 is the fan-bloody-tastic Death Sentence (Lanfranchi, 1968), a movie which, reading about it here on the SWDB, I always thought I might like, and then when I saw it, it exceeded every hope I had for it. Brilliance in every way, especially the first segment, and Tomas Milian’s scenery-chewing turn as the gold-infatuated albino O’Hara.
Various work and family commitments threw a spanner in my Spagvemberfest routine over the weekend but I am working at catching up before month’s end.
Anyhow, since I last posted I managed:
Number 12 - Fistful of Dollars (Leone / 1964)
Still a cracker and extra kudos for kickstarting the whole craze although I’m never sure how much credit should go to Sergio and how much to Mr Kurosawa. Who cares really anyway, it’s still a great film
Number 11 - Face to Face (Sollima / 1967)
Still an outstanding film but watched in line with all the other outstanding films I have seen over the past few weeks it slip slightly in the final rankings. No fault of its own really. Just too much competition.
Number 10 - Cemetery Without Crosses (Hossein / 1968)
More French than Italian I know but all tyhe better for that and a masterpiece in my eyes. The Arrow BluRay looks good despite the whole sepia versus monochrome opening debate. One of the very very best.
Number 9 - The Great Silence (Corbucci / 1968)
Corbucci’s best by a mile for me. Certainly his most patient and thoughtful. A beautiful film. Struck me this time though how much back and forth horse riding you can get away with if it’s in the snow instead of the Lazio countryside.
26: Bazzoni: Brothers Blue (1973)
-A rare film which most here seem to dislike but I have some fondness for it. Clearly inspired by some revisionist american westerns and very different than any other film in sw genre. But I have to admit that film has it’s flaws but it definitely had a potential. I don’t like the ending with the endless rolling on ground, would have been more effective with just still images which would have also connection to the films earlier style. Too bad there’s no single dvd release yet, I’d love to see it on better quality. 6/10
Spagvemberfest number 8
A Bullet for the General (Damiani / 1967)
One I hadn’t revisited for a while and still very enjoyable. In a career full of great performances this one is still one of Volonte’s best in a western I think. Castel looks about 12 in this one.
Perhaps Kurosawa’s “Yojimbo el mercenario” ?
Right: Let’s get f*cked up.
SPAGVEMBERFEST 2015 - THE BIG RUNDOWN: NUMBER 4
Embodying all of the most demented aspects of the Italian western, Django Kill… If You Live, Shoot! (Questi, 1967) is, for me, one of the most essential spags ever made. I love it to pieces, not least because my own home town of “Wonderful” Pitsea in Essex has been largely modeled on “The Unhappy Place”. Well, large portions of it would benefit from being razed to the ground, certainly.
1 Like
27: Rosati:Those Dirty Dogs (1973)
-I got my Koch Enzyklopädie 2 today on mail so it was appropriate to watch Dirty Dogs from it. Pleasant film even though it is spoilt with some stupid humor and ideas. Character of El Supremo is so bonkers that he’d be fitting to a Tresette film, here he’s so out of place. Korano is memorable character but then again he’s just like any other bounty killer specialist. He reads the quran but that’s it, they could come up with something more interesting. I have to admit I like the silly theme song. 6/10
That’s the guy from Pecos Cleans Up, just saw both recently
Spagvemberfest 2015 number 7
Tepepa (Petroni / 1968)
Still a very good film but maybe I’ve overdosed on these Zapata westerns a bit over the past week or so. Whatever the reason, I found myself less engaged than before and more irritated by the audio drop out on my Alan Young DVD and just didn’t enjoy myself as much as I have done in the past with this one. Nothing I can pinpoint as being wrong with the film, just too much of the same in a short space of time I suspect. Happily, the Zapatas are now done for the rest of the month so I can relax and look forward to some Sancho, guyliner and homoerotic undertones in the next instalment. Never thought I’d hear myself say that!
Just throw that abomination in the bin and get the Koch dvd or blu.
I watched a couple of spaghs this week, but was so busy with other things that I didn’t have time to write about them here and make the necessary changes to the review in the database. Some reviews still suffer from the new layout-flu.
One of the spaghs I watched was:
Johnny Yuma (Guerrieri, 1966)
The hero is a slyboots and the villain a sexy lady in this not too well-known movie, considered by some to be a minor classic. It’s not perfect, but it’s an intriguing genre piece, violent, funny and often a bit puzzling
Read more here:
http://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Johnny_Yuma_Review_(Scherpschutter)
Johnny Yuma’s always been one of my favourite minor genre films - it reminds me in many ways of Arizona Colt, A Pistol for Ringo and $10,000 for a Massacre: great stuff.
28.Margheriti: Stranger and the Gunfighter (1974)
-Now this is a film I had not watched in ages. I remembered not liking it but it’s actually pretty good and funny film. Too bad I only had old UK dvd (with stupid Blood Money title) which is fullscreen and makes you claustrophobic and also it’s only 96 minutes. I don’t know what’s cut but maybe the continuity problems (where and why Deacon teams up with mexicans? how did he knew the girls?) are dvd’s fault. Cleef is great and they make a good pair with Lo Lieh. 6/10
I had the same feelings when I rewatched it (to write a review): my expectations were low, but it was quite alright
Spagvemberfest 2015 number 6
$10,000 Blood Money (Guerrieri / 1967)
Guyliner galore!
Not just bleak (as you’d expect in a Spag) but sad too. Poor old Django doesn’t really know what to do with a girl but cries when he loses her anyway. He’s a hopeless case but this is far from a hopeless film. Definitely still a top tenner for me.
Ace HighI I quattro dell’Ave Maria
Or the four of the Holy Mary, nice title, it’s the third or fourth time I’ve watched this one, and actually every time I watched I liked a bit more than the last one.
Now I know that my judgment of the film in my first view, was determinated by the fact I was used to another type of films with Hill and Spencer, my subconsciente was expecting something else, and in Colizzi hands both Hill And spencer were different type of characters, for better, now I understand that.
Conclusion my top 20 needs some rearrangement. A good spag that’s what it is.
SPAGVEMBERFEST 2015 - THE BIG RUNDOWN: NUMBER 3
Into the top 3! The medal positions! And at #3 on my Big Rundown, it’s The Big Gundown (Sollima, 1966). My third-favourite spag, and also my third-favourite Lee Van Cleef spag. A clutch of bronze medals! Still, it takes the gold for “Favourite Spag of Mine Which Wasn’t Directed By Sergio Leone”, an award which I guess somewhat gives away my top two. Still, sod it.
Spagvemberfest 2015 number 5
The Big Gundown (Sollima / 1966)
Saw this for the first time after years of waiting at the Venice Biennale when they had their Spaghetti Western retrospective back in 2007 (I think). That weekend was one of my greatest Spag related experiences and this film has been Top 5 for me ever since. Seen it many times since in different settings and it never fails to deliver. That first time remains etched in my memory though.
Still in my Top 5 as well (time to rewatch it actually).
I don’t think the first four will change, the top 4 seems cemented, but i’m a bit in doubt about n°5
- Once upon a Time in the West
- The Good, the bad and the Ugly
- The Great Silence
4; The Big Gundown
Three movies more or less on a level, the two Corbucci Zapatas, Mercenary and Compañeros + Sollima’s Face to Face