Yep - I’ll take this one for a full review and a mini-review if nobody else wants it? It’s due a re-read… great li’l book
absolutely! i think this list should merely be an entry point, we need way more info on the individual books
[quote author=last.caress link=topic=2445.msg177190#msg177190 date=1446065420]
It’s very good indeed. Covers fifty one movies in great depth: [quote=“last.caress, post:71, topic:2168”][/quote]
Already bid on that one! ;D
Ok folks
latest version is
Looking forward to someone helping out with the two missing texts for the giusti and the opera of violence books
[quote=“Sebastian, post:84, topic:2168”]Ok folks
latest version is
Looking forward to someone helping out with the two missing texts for the giusti and the opera of violence books[/quote]
I’m on the Opera of Violence one at the mo…
I noticed in the general book section that the database is missing a really key French language contribution from Belgium:
Gian Lhassa’s three volume work “Seul au monde dans le western italien” (vol. 1. Une poignée de thèmes; vol. 2. Des hommes seuls; vol. 3. Dictionnaire du western italien)
And again, the reference book about Leone is Something To Do With Death. This is the voluminous fruit of researching and interviewing Leone’s life and work for a very long time. Once Upon A Time In Italy is Frayling’s less encyclopedic and more picture orientated second use of the material.
Something To Do With Death is the real deal, the other one an interesting side project.
ok what should we replace it with to arrive at 10 books then? just swap the two?
[quote=“Novecento, post:86, topic:2168”]I noticed in the general book section that the database is missing a really key French language contribution from Belgium:
Gian Lhassa’s three volume work “Seul au monde dans le western italien” (vol. 1. Une poignée de thèmes; vol. 2. Des hommes seuls; vol. 3. Dictionnaire du western italien)
corrected 
Seul au monde dans le western italien - The Spaghetti Western Database
Yes, swap the 2, and recommend Once Upon A Time In Italy for further reading. It complements the big one, and has more pictures, artwork etc, and is in color, while Something To Do With Death concentrates on the exhaustive information on tutto Leone.
And maybe the Pocket book by Hughes could also be replaced if we have another important contender. It is basically a much shorter version of Hughes’ recommended first book.
Another idea would be to concentrate the 10 on the English language books, and have another page for recommending basic SW books from other languages, which have the problem that most cannot read them. But actually I’m not sure myself if this is a good idea, or if the current concept taking from all languages is preferable. Just a suggestion to discuss.
Agree with Stanton on Hughes’ pocket guide. It’s a good little book but essentially a condensed version of his Once Upon a Time in the Italian West. It could go to make room for something else. I don’t have the French language ones as I don’t speak the language but I’m told they are good. Perhaps Scherp could advise? The Glittering Prize ones I do have and would recommend as they are in both English and Italian. And, just to make things more difficult, The Spaghatti Western by Bert Fridlund is another possibility for the list. Especially if you consider Stanton’s idea of keeping it strictly English language with a non English sub list. Here’s our link to Fridlund’s book.
http://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/The_Spaghetti_Western
there’s also no law that says we can’t do 11 
or have 10 and a few “bonus features”
Summat like…?
With 112 pages of black and white photos, and only 58 of text, you could easily think to dismiss this book. But, being published in 1975 (in Great Britain), and despite having a chapter called ‘Aftermath’ which talks of the genre directors moving on, we know in hindsight that the genre was not quite yet finished. This makes it a rare book, as contemporaneous with the genre as we are going to get.
As with the title, it is written in two parts – Part 1 (5 chapters) deals primarily with context, history and themes, including chapters dedicated to ‘The Ecstasy of Violence’, ‘Sergio Leone’, and to ‘The Political Western’, and Part 2 (8 chapters) deals extensively with the integration of the music – with chapters such as ‘You can be damn sure it’s not Percy Faith’ and ‘When the chimes end… pick up your gun’.
More than 50 genre films get a mention, but in such a small amount of text, some are relegated to just a passing sentence. The Leone’s (of course) and ‘My Name Is Nobody’ (which seems to be a favourite of the authors), and others, get much more.
This is a book built on personal opinion, and therefore we may not agree that ‘Dead or Alive’(we’d know it as ‘A Minute to Pray, A Second To Die’) should get so rudely dismissed in a sentence, or that the first two Stranger films are “grotesque imitations”, but for all that, this still makes for a refreshing read.
That the authors wrote this when ‘Django’ was banned here (Britain), ‘The Big Gundown’ was “savagely mutilated by cuts”, as was ‘A Bullet for the General’, and ‘The Grand Silence’ was still unreleased, makes this even more interesting from an historical perspective. It is also fun to spot the alternate names, ‘Vengeance is Mine’ is what we would more likely call ‘A Bullet for Sandoval’, for instance.
This is a very readable and not overly academic book, that is particularly interesting for its unique discussion of the integration of music and visuals in the Italian Western… as “the opera of violence”.
Like it.
If y’all think it’s suitable can one of you deputy-types bung it where it’ll do least harm, 'cos I dunno how to?
Will look at it tomorrow and put it into the database. Maybe I can get the list ready for distribution tomorrow night then.
so the pocket guide is the brown one? what to replace it with?
Ok so I need a text on “something to do with death”, the giusti book and i need to know whether to kick out the “brown” hughes book and what to possibly replace it with. any help?
Hughes’ brown one out and Fridlund’s in I would say. And I’m happy to help out with some text mate but it will have to wait until the weekend if that’s OK.
sure can use all the help i can get, dont have these books. would be great to publish the list this weekend, i think for newcomers its gonna be a great help/overview