Animals in SW

What are the westerns where a protagonist treats his animal companion (horse, mule, donkey…) with respect and love? I mean taking some more care about the animal than just binding it to the nearest post or possibly stopping someone from mistreating his animal or any other animal. Is there a sw with such a subtle message? Right now I can think only of Day of Anger and Van Cleef keeping Gemma from beating his mule which I really liked about the Van Cleef’s character in the movie. Is there a western where an animal played an important part of the story and where it was not just a mean of transport? What about dogs? Did ever a sw hero have a faithfull dog as his companion?

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Tony Anthony’s ‘The Stranger’ movies … the horse is called, ‘Pussy’ … and there seems to be affection, as though he were a sidekick. Also his horse in ‘Blindman’, to which he comments his thoughts on the situations he’s in via the animal. :slight_smile:

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What about that horsey in ¡Matalo! (Canevari, 1970)? He was like a proper sidekick, wasn’t he? Like Bruce Lee in The Green Hornet, but with hooves.

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I would like to have seen at least one SW incorporate a gorilla, like dozens and dozens of pulp comics, mags, books, tv shows, movies…especially in the 30s-60s including the Wild, Wild, West(Night of the Simian Terror). Maybe they have.

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Una cuerda al amanecer

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Oh Matalo! I love that horse scene, the best scene of the movie.

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Good call. I always liked donkeys. When I was kid I visited Crete and made my dad stop the car to feed a donkey standing by the street. The animal really liked a melone. :blush: There were also donkeys who took tourists up some steep hill. Poor animals had to bear there mostly heavy fat people who were not able to climb the hill alone. They had to work hard to get them there. Hmm I wonder if there are some sw shot in Greece (inland or islands) since those locations looked imo good for the genre.

OK - this topic and pic obviously allow for avian input, and actually remind me of a very strange dream I had a while back. I was on the jury at a big European film festival (dream on) and we were trying to pick the winner of a “Best performance by a parrot in a Spaghetti Western” award. The two contestants (see below) were actually in the room - that’s dreams for you - and were, frankly, a problem. Sorrow’s snarkily satirical bird in Django Kill, like its onscreen persona, was kind of rude. I remember we the jury thought the parrot from Johnny Yuma had more range. Someone said that its squawks as Rosalba Neri dropped that underwear were really something, and that all those beady-eyed stares and orgasmic feathery twitches were obviously based on careful observation of other parrots with interspecies addictions. (Well, this was the jury discussion, in which it also emerged that the parrot had trained with Lee Strasberg.) But to be honest, it wasn’t the most comfortable bird to be around; it was a bit over-intense, and took itself terribly seriously. Someone also said something to the effect that while its performance had comic timing as well as carnal urgency (!), in person this parrot didn’t even seem to have a sense of humour. Weird.

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@Dean Django hanging out with the parrot is my favorite part of this film XD Thanks for posting this pic!

Slightly related to this topic - my dog gets very excited and wants to go outside every time he hears animal noises when I am watching SW’s - mainly dogs barking, horses neighing and other noises such as creeking (OUATITW start scene).

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Twice a Judas. A dog helps Sabato in a shootout. It is pretty cool.

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As someone stated above input can be anything interesting with animals in SW. The main villain’s pack of dogs hunt villagers in Massacre Time. Horses start to freak out during the eclipse in Requiem for a Gringo. I thought it was a nice touch.

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