Hammerfist, you should differentiate between things that were developing in all genre films around the world and those things wich were unique in SWs, the things which made SW so special. And exactly these things you find to a certain extent in some Eastwood westerns (but interestingly barely in Hang em High), and more or less not in all US westerns. The scoring, the ritualistic duels, a special way to film shootouts, nothing of that appeared in US westerns. Films became very violent in the late 60s, but the violence in US Ws is very differently filmed and conceived than in the Spags.
Pessimism, Cynicism, more dirtyness, these things were already there long before Leoneās films hit the US market, the influence was in fact the other way round. Leone took from the US Ws what he liked (and of course also skipped what he disliked).
You also underestimate all the things westerns already did in the 50s. Many things you reclaim for SWs were already there in the 40s and 50s, only in some films, and often in alleviated form, not in the films of the mass production, but in many of those which mattered for the evolution of the genre. And in the early 60s these things were already intensified in US westerns.
If US Ws were influenced by Spags, than they hid it perfectly.
Also the success of the Dollar trilogy in the USA was not as big as many think. According to a Variety list of westerns they had a moderate success, but were far away from some big late 60s US hits. Still they were for UA very profitable, cause they got the rights for all 3 for some lousy 600 000 $.
But compared to their Bond films it was not much on the US market.
And the critics wrote mostly so badly about them, they just did not take them serious, that it is understandable that they were mostly viewed as a grotesque foreign phenomen.
Exactly, no traces of spaghetti influence. I can think of other American films that were influenced (āLone Wolf McQuadeā is one example) but the American western remained American or anti-American (like Soldier Blue) and we can see that the revisionist themes were imitated by Italians again in the 1970s (Apache Woman is almost a remake of Cry For Me Billy) but not the other way around.
By Leone there is always any reason, by Peckinpah actually also ā¦
The quote, if it is true, may only refer to the amount of violence in TWB, and the release of the Dollar trilogy helped to establish more screen violence, but imo films like The Professionals, The Dirty Dozen and especially Bonnie and Clyde were much more important for Peckinpah and other US directors.
And the violence in TWB was completely different from any SW.
Apart from that Peckinpah mainly developed themes and motives he had done in his earlier films and TV episodes. You find there many things which could have been directly āstolenā by Leone.
In the late 70s several books about Peckinaph were published, and if you check the inedex of those books, you will find the names of Ford, Hawks, Lean, Fellini, Bergman, Penn, Kurosawa, all those from which he took, but (surprisingly) not a single mentioning of Leone.
Same in David Weddleās 90s biography.
Actually this is for me still surprising, but it is so.
How could that be if Leoneās influence was so important and obvious?
Interestingly also the story that Peckinpah was at one point supposed to direct Giu la testa canāt be find in any of these books.
Peckinpah only admitted in a 69 interview that he watched one SW, and that was FOD, and he liked it āvery much. It was very light and enjoyable. Sergio Leone is absolutely marvellousā. But I think apart form that I never read anything else from him about Leone or SWs.
I am man. The close-ups, the wider shots, the slow build-up to violence, and the stylized action - all things Peckinpah likely took from Leone. Influence doesnāt necessarily mean aping, not every director takes āinfluenceā from other films the way Quentin Tarantino does. You didnāt have the ritualistic duels, but you had slow build-ups to fast-paced violence. You didnāt have the extreme close-ups on eyes and the distinct faces of Spaghetti Westerns, but you had close-ups on peopleās faces that captured more of their nuances. The action isnāt stylized with over-the-top reactions to getting shot, but rather with slow motion and lots of blood but itās still stylized. More importantly, The Wild Bunch contains a combination of elements that are strikingly similar, even though they are implemented in a sometimes very different way from Leoneās films.
Technically true, but barely.
He barely took anything from the U.S. Western genre in the Dollars Trilogy. He was inspired by American Westerns moreso than he was influenced by them, which is an important distinction (Once Upon a Time in the West was influenced by Shane and High Noon though). The American Westerns that came after his films are far more similar to Leoneās work than those that came before. While not all of them were influenced by him, many of the major ones were - particularly those starring Eastwood and those directed by Peckinpah.
As you said, at the time critical reception for SWs was not great in the statesā¦ maybe he āaccidentallyā forgot to mention him
