Spaghetti Westerns (rev. ed.) (Howard Hughes, 2009)

He had a /5 rating in the older edition and a top 11:
GBU as the best and in order of release:

Return of Ringo
FaFDM
Big Gundown
Django
Hills Run Red (!)
Navajo Joe
Great Silence
Mercenary
Sabata
They Call Me Trinity

OUTW is not in, he says he doesn’t view it as a SW.

And yet he puts in Man called sledge!!

I thought someone was talking about me here.

I just got this for Christmas and have started reading it. It is a beginner’s book and a lot of the stuff I already know but I am finding it enjoyable and there are some things that surprise me. Also he references some films I’ve never even heard of before. I never knew Morricone did the score for Two Mules For Sister Sara…or is that incorrect?

No, Morricone scored 2 Mules, and he did a fine work on it.

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I was reading this book again today for the first time in about 5 years just to see what Hughes had to say about the Stranger films and Blindman. Sure, Un Dollaro Tra I Denti is a “rip-off” of Fistful of Dollars in many ways, but there are a lot of people who say Fistful was just a rip-off of Kirosawa’s Yojimbo. A lot of borrowing and imitation goes on in films, I think it’s natural. I don’t remember Clint Eastwood creeping around with a shotgun, though, or a whip-wielding dominatrix, or a group of monks and a priest, etc. Hughes has better things to say about Un Uomo, Un Cavallo, Una Pistola and Blindman at least. I don’t think Frank Wolff’s acting in the first film was any different than his usual style seen in Once Upon a Time in the West or Il Grande Silenzio. He was always a bit over-the-top in my view. I believe it was Hughes who wrote the essay in the booklet for Get Mean in 2015. He discussed the Stranger films in that, also, but I think he was more favourable to them then because they were paying him (the same way Cox is not so acerbic, usually, about some films when interviewed for bonus features). Speaking of Cox, I went ahead and ordered 10,000 Ways to Die today, and look forward to reading his perspective (however divergent it is from mine or indeed from the truth).

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To be fair to both, it is quite common for opinions to shift over time. Both positive and negative. I know that is the case for me. Some films, and actors, that I had little time for in the past have risen in my estimation over time and vice versa. These things are rarely set in stone and writers are just human the same as the rest of us.

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That’s very true. Some people write books and later regret what they said. I know I’ve made posts on here where I’ve expressed opinions that I’ve later regretted or changed. I always enjoy reading what Hughes has to say in different places. I will keep an open mind with both he and Cox.

It’s a shame Cox hasn’t had his book repressed with all the errors corrected.

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