Are squibs a matter of costs ? Is it a question of censorship ? A few weeks ago I watched the US western Rust. A very new one. Was made in the 2020 years , I guess. They donât use squibs very often and some shooting scenes were totally unbloody. In some scenes it reminds me on spags made in 1966. (just in case of using blood)
I assume it was a matter of censorship before the late 60s.
It was used in a few films already in the 50s and early 60s. Bonnie and Clyde and then The Willd Bunch were turning points at a time when censorship in the USA was quickly loosened when the remains of the Hays code were finally buried in 1968.
But before was already the blood fountain in Kurosawaâs Yojimbo, and other European and Asian films went already further than what the Hays Code allowed in the USA for the depiction of nudity and violance.
One of the earliest examples in SWs of a few squibs is The Big Gundown, there were a few later in Companeros and Peckinpah fan Castellari used them in Keoma together with slo mo. Keoma is probably the Spag with the most squib work. But at that time everybody used them.
But generally the violence in SWs was done without using squibs.
Yojimbo is in black and white though, and therefore probably not so shocking at the time. But asian films in colour in the late 60s and 70s often had a lot of blood, swordfighting films and kung fu films.
Ahh, but itâs one gigantic fountain, maybe more blood than in all SWs together ⊠
I saw the euro-western Hannie Caulder (1971) a while ago, and in this one there is also much more blood than in the italian films. They were obviously influenced by recent US westerns and other films.
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Well, actually Hannie Caulder can be viewed as US western, only shot in Europe.
The director and the main cast all come from the states.
Burt Kennedy made many westerns and thereâs no difference between the 3 he shot in Europe and the others.
I think these 3 would have been more or less the same films if made completely in Hollywood, they are typical US westerns of the late 60s and 70s. Even if none of them is of much interest.
Kennedy made some good westerns comedies, but as action director he mostly failed.
Kennedy wrote some good scripts for Butt Boettcher but was never a great director - I think he was over-promoted above his competence. Its symptomatic of the poor state of the American western in the late 1960s and early 1970s that so many were directed by Kennedy and Andrew McLaglen rather than the likes of a younger director like a Coppola or Spielberg or Rafelson.
Kennedyâs best western comedy, Support Your Local Sheriff, was written by specialist western comedy writer William Bowers, who also got producer credit and was made by James Garnerâs own production company. I doubt that Garner and Bowers let Kennedy anywhere near the script - if they had there would have been a character called Frank Boone in it.
Yes, Support Your Local Sheriff is his best film (8/10), itâs really funny. The sequel Support Your Local Gunfighter is only half as good. I also like The Rounders, The Good Guys and the Bad Guys and The War Wagon, all three 6/10
All his other westerns range from mediocre to bad.
The War Wagon would have been better if directed by Henry Hathaway. Not the only John Wayne western for that âŠ
But you see a poor state for US westerns in the late 60s and early 70s?
Yes, McLaglen also wasnât able to make anything interesting even with a good story and cast, but for me many of the best US Westerns ever were made in these years.
Is there anything more Spaghetti Western than seeing Anthony Steffen dressed head-to-toe in blackâthree-day stubble, cigar in mouth, hat pulled lowâmowing down villains with his revolvers without so much as a blink?
Iâll raise you one: all that, plus Eduardo Fajardo playing a truly despicable villain and a sublime score by Bruno Nicolai.
Watching a Steffen film is like eating a greasy bacon sandwich at a county fair: it wonât change your life, and you might even regret it later, but if youâre hungry, it tastes like heaven. What a lame analogy. What I mean is that Steffen is my go-to actor: I donât necessarily think heâs a genius (though I do think heâs good at what he does), but I love seeing him on screen; I have a certain fondness for him. Just seeing him there, standing with his trademark stiffness and everything that figure represents for the genre, elevates the film for me. I feel the same way about William Berger or Gianni Garko (my favorite in the genre after Van Cleef). I guess I just have a soft spot for lost causes.
Digressions aside: Iâm aware itâs not a good film, BUT itâs a more than decent Spaghetti Western that delivers exactly what youâd expect. Had the final showdown been a bit better executed, it would have been well above average.
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