I’m just staggered that he gets paid for this stuff !
But in media, reputation is everything. The Guardian news paper are probably really chuffed to have a film director writing articles - but the irony is, that if he were a truly successful film maker, he wouldn’t have time or the inclination to produce this stuff.
Even if he’s a small fish in the directing world, he still retains some cred as a TV presenter /self acknowledged expert. But this type of article is not aimed at the expert or devoted SW fan, it’s for the casual Arts enthusiasts, some of whom will no doubt be quoting this crap as fact.
I think that is pretty much what some of you have been on about for some weeks now, and still are. But if that’s what does it for you, I’ll leave you to it.
morgan, you posted wanting to continue the conversation!
You invited me to keep discussing it! I thought you were interested in my opinion, what was your real purpose then?
Edit/Addition: I thought you had some really good things to say in your reply you made to my comments, by the way. Also, when I said “he was right to point out the townspeople’s racism” I was referring to Joe, not Cox.
Yes - absolutely. Cox also partnered with a great cinematographer here too (Robby Müller). In a way it makes me think of Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing”. Very early on in their careers, both Lee and Cox managed to create mind-blowingly brilliant films that would forever define their careers.
Yes, many (maybe most) of them are. But not all of them. The best ones are quite the opposite, and they are the reason why I like the Spaghetti Western subgenre. I recommend two excellent books: Austin Fisher’s Radical Frontiers in the Spaghetti Western and Lee Broughton’s Euro-Western. And, for a deeper understanding of American and Western mythology, Richard Slotkin’s indispensable trilogy Regeneration Through Violence: The Mythology of the American Frontier, 1600–1860, The Fatal Environment: The Myth of the Frontier in the Age of Industrialization, 1800–1890 and Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth-Century America. The last volume is, of course, the most relevant concerning ideas, opinions, thoughts, perceptions and sensitivities on this forum.
I still like a lot of them whether they are or not and not depending that they aren’t. Cox said basically the same thing as I did there in that news article and extended it to include “all films generally.”
Thank you for the book recommendations, I may have a look in the future.
I might have had harsh words about the content of Cox’ book but at least I bought a copy and read it. Mr. Cox, if you’re reading this, no hard feelings.
Apart from the new cover and smaller format of the 2019 edition, I noticed a few corrections here and there, e.g. Alberto Roccianti (p. 29, original edition) —> Alberto Boccianti (pp. 33, 34, revised edition), Return of Ringo (74, o. e.) —> The Return of Ringo (82, r. e.), The Big Silence (185, o. e.) —> The Great Silence (210, r. e.); new text sections on Carlo Lizzani’s Un fiume di dollari (1966), Franco Giraldi’s Un minuto per pregare, un istante per morire (1968), Mario Lanfranchi’s Sentenza di morte (1968), Piero Cristofani and Lina Wertmüller’s Il mio corpo per un poker / The Belle Starr Story (1968), Edoardo Mulargia’s La taglia è tua … l’uomo l’ammazzo io (1969), and Sergio Corbucci’s Che c’entriamo noi con la rivoluzione? (1972); a new image in the picture section, showing “directors Giuliano Montaldo, Sergio Leone and Damiano Damiani on set in Monument Valley” during the shooting of Un genio, due compari, un pollo (1975); and a new, additional introduction.
