Books of Frayling

I have his Spaghetti Westerns…from Karl May… paperback for $8 plus shipping if anyone wants it.Otherwise I’ll just put it up on eBay again and hope someone bites.

I’ve been meaning to post in this thread for a while.
I have all three of Frayling’s books.

The only one I have made it all the way through is Once Upon A Time In Italy. As noted above, this is a volume that was published to coincide with an exhibit on Leone’s westerns at the Autry Center for the American West near LA.
It is glossy, and full of great photos but is a little light on written content I think. But well worth the price tag to anybody who frequents this site.

Spaghetti Westerns is a really frustrating book. I have the most recent edition and the successively updated intros/prefaces ARE helpful in clearing up some of the (many) inaccuracies in the original text. But since the text of this book has never been updated it reflects the critical milieu that existed when it was originally published. It is this critical and academic environment that makes this book utterly opaque (for significantly long passages) to someone unversed in the various intellectual frameworks used by Frayling to present his analysis. The western film as a whole only really began to be considered an appropriate subject for academic study during the late 60’s and early 70’s. Prior to that it was not considered worthy of intellectual/academic interest. (Of course, there were exceptions). Frayling’s book arrived at the tail end of this academic awakening regarding the study of the western film. Sixties academia was tumultuous and dynamic. It was a time of great and rapid change and intellectual innovation. There were many competing voices and ideas regarding almost everything produced by popular culture. Frayling states at the beginning of Spaghetti Westerns that he had decided to utilize not one, but several, of the complementary and (sometimes) competing critical viewpoints as a lens of analysis.
Problematically though, many of these critical frameworks are comprehensible only after learning the specific academic meanings of many unfamiliar terms. Frayling was not writing this book for the average Spaghetti fan. He was writing for his fellow critics and academics. So, if you were not a member of the 1960’s intelligentsia, you have an uphill climb ahead of you in trying to read this book. To compound this difficulty, some of the academic viewpoints utilized in this book have been either modified or discarded since the book’s publication. So it is very much a product of its time. Spaghetti fans expecting to find the engaging and interesting Frayling who appears so accessible in DVD extras and documentaries will find him difficult to consistently locate here.
All of that said, this book has many rewards and fans should give it a try. He DOES have a real respect and affection for these films and that comes through no matter how dense the prose. And not all of the text is incomprehensible (or nearly so). There are lots and lots of passages that would thrill any fan to read. Lots of great information. The text and choice of films evaluated is, understandably, Leone-centric.

Ok, so the BEST book of Frayling’s three is Something To Do With Death (his biography of Leone). All the academic jargon is gone. It is full of tons of stuff fans would find of interest. It is reasonably well written and just plain fun (at least when he discusses the films). It is, however, massive. I keep it on my nightstand and read myself to sleep with it but often find myself fighting to stay awake even when I am tired because I find it so engaging.
I’m about 300 pages into it. Last night I was reading in the chapter about OUATITW. Frayling was describing how Leone, Dario Argento, and Bernardo Bertolucci (who collectively wrote the story/script/film) got together to undertake the task. Among other things, they would get together to watch classic western films, one after another after another. Then they would brainstorm and create. Man, what I would I have given to have been a fly on THAT wall… Curiously, Leone remembered this creative process as taking two months, Argento remembered three months & Bertolucci six months!

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The Spaghetti Westerns book was a challenge to read first time round when I was young, but for me is a book that helped me to learn.

I think Something To Do With Death is a great book… the chapters on Duck, You Sucker & My Name is Nobody were the most interesting for me.

I found Once Upon A Time In Italy from local library. Quite easy reading, mainly interviews of people who worked with Leone. It took me only couple of nights to finish it. Good looking book though with loads of pictures.

I have ‘Spaghetti Westerns…’, couldn’t finish it. In fact, I couldn’t even start it properly since I stopped reading at page 30. Too much analysis, both relevant and irrelevant to SW themselves and very difficult vocabulary for the average non-english speaker. I wish he focused more on the actual movies. I’ve read only a few pages here and there that seemed interesting.

Yeh…the book is pretty deep most of the time. Always remember the section on all the Django films.

Yeah, I’m thinking that people who had finished that book and enjoyed it probably view movies in a completely different way than I do.

Of Frayling’s three books on SWs/Leone, it’s definitely my least favorite. In one of the prefaces to the newest edition, even Frayling admits he wishes he had left some of the theoretical mumbo jumbo out of it.

It doesn’t really speak to how how I tend to appreciate movies either, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

I could never get into Frayling’s work. Its too deep of analysis. Bert Fridlund’s The Spaghetti Western: A Thematic Analysis is also a work that I find too academic and dry. Its almost like they wrote these books as a sort of PHD Dissertaton. I like books a little less intellectual, not so mindless as Thomas Weisser’s but at least around the level of Jaspar Morgen Spaghetti Heroes book or Howard Hughes book.

Hat zufällig jemand das Buch: Spaghetti westerns: cowboys and Europeans from Karl May to Sergio Leone
by Christopher Frayling

Does anybody own the book Spaghetti westerns: cowboys and Europeans from Karl May to Sergio Leone
von Christopher Frayling?

I need to know on which page he starts talkin about the different varietys of Plots in Italo-Western. (Servant of two Masters, transition, zapata)

Ich brauche die Seitenzahl von der Seite wo er über die verschiedenen Handlungsverläufe spricht. (dienser zweier herren, übergangshandlung, zapata handlung)

vielen Dank für die hilfe!

Thanks for your help!

[quote=“Pralini, post:31, topic:542”]Does anybody own the book Spaghetti westerns: cowboys and Europeans from Karl May to Sergio Leone
von Christopher Frayling?

I need to know on which page he starts talkin about the different varietys of Plots in Italo-Western. (Servant of two Masters, transition, zapata)

Thanks for your help![/quote]

Frayling’s book is more Leone based than some others so his discussion of the wider trends of the genre are not so easily delineated in Cowboys and Europeans. But, if it helps, the servant with two masters is mentioned in his chapter on the sources of Leone’s westerns (chapter 5, page 150) and he has an entire chapter on ‘Spaghettis and Politics’ (chapter 9, page 217).

Hope this helps a bit.

P.S. These page numbers are taken from the 1998 edition of the book. The original 1981 edition may be different.

Same pages in the original 1981 book. See what happens when you get old you have the original copies of books not second, third or revised copies although I do have a copy of the revised edition also. Best

Love your humour :wink:

I finished Something to do with death few days ago. The book was on my shopping list for over 10 years but somehow I always forgot to buy it until now. I really enjoyed the book even though after many years of sw enthusiasm a lot of info on the book was something I was already familiar with from another sources. Best part of the book for me was the part about Once upon a time in America which was most detailed too. I didn’t know that much about the origins of the film, I always thought that the book Hoods was just cheap pulp fiction but it was actually written by real ex-gangster.

One thing that really stands out from the book is the rivalry between Leone and his writers. Most pople, even Eastwood has good things to say about Leone but his writers seems bitter. This is understandable because Leone didn’t give them the credit they deserved but then again neither did critics or actors.

There was few errors in the book though. There’s the stuff about Leone playing the part of a bartender in Cemetary Without Crosses. Origin’s of the Bud Spencer’s name are also different than what Spencer himself told in some interview.

btw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roJXeLXgOdk

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Great! Christopher Frayling and Patrick Rodgers (aka DJ Ferret) in conversation.

I am an admirer of Frayling. Nobody has done more than him to champion and advocate for the work of Leone. But it should be understood that he is a Leone expert and not a spaghetti expert. Even the later editions of Cowboys and Europeans are riddled with factual errors. I doubt he has seen as many spaghettis as Kevin Grant and Lee Broughton, or has their depth of knowledge of the genre.

Fraying’s Spaghetti western overview book is a classic, but his autobiography of Leone is a true masterpiece, the description of the planned opening of Leningrad is breathtaking, and also heartbreaking that it was never filmed…
Due to price I haven’t got his OUATIW book, if it comes down I will definitely purchase it
Wish he’d do a Corbucci autobiography next

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I think Frayling is about the best there is on pulp/cult/pop matters. His brief talk on Hammer’s Dracula Blu Ray is one of the best extras I’ve seen and his recent similar piece on the Fu Manchu boxset was equally excellent.

I’d love to hear more from him.

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