It is technically very well made for a spaghetti comedy, it looks like a proper production and stuff, but the script just appears hollow and feels like a derivative of other, frequently superior works without adding much novelty or quality to the equation. It’s okay, but I found it quite tedious and tiresome to be quite honest.
Yeah, same here. I’ve watched most of our official Top 100 with a few exceptions, but I’ve got it covered for the most part.
I can definitely relate. With that being said, I’ve gotta say I haven’t seen this many spags in one fell swoop in a long time, it has been quite a productive SpagvemberFest for me, so I guess it was worth it.
This was a blind pick but unfortunately it wasn’t a lucky pick. Looks like a Death Rides a Horse ripoff first, but soon loses all things spaghetti and then turns into a Zorro-like pic. I have a lot of sympathy for fellow Dutchman Glenn Saxson, but he can’t save this near turkey. I actually felt sorry for him a little: all this make-up and that ridiculously ‘clean’ poncho …
I must admit that I used the FF button a couple of times, the first time this spaghvember
I totally forgot about this channel, thanks for reminding me. I had planned on ending the challenge Thanksgiving either way cause once the Christmas season starts, I go full on Holiday films and specials till the New Year.
Thanks Aldo, it has been a cool adventure and one that I’ll gladly do next year too. I’m planning on grabbing a bunch of titles from Amazon Japan in the New Year that aren’t available elsewhere so I’ll have a bigger pile to pick from.
Is it a spaghetti western? The Jerry Goldsmith score and most of the actors make it seem more American than Italian and the trio of leads gives it a Blaxploitation feel. But it’s Margheriti and Spain so…
Whatever it is it’s mostly a series of action sequences and quite impressive stunt work littered with some major horse falls. I watched this Region 1 Anchor Bay release and wonder what the BBFC would make of it. I suspect the required cuts these days would reduce the film to a 40 minute vignette instead of a feature.
El Desperado aka The Dirty Outlaws (Rossetti)
A rewatch after few years. First time around I was a bit disappointed by the fact the story makes a revenge turn in the final third, but now I must say it’s actually not a bad decision. But even if the all revenge kills are quite enjoyable, the highlight for me was long mud scene in the middle. 8/10
Best “eat the mud” scene in the genre, if you ask me.
El Desperado unimportant note: Just out of curiosity I checked out one of the youtube versions and to my utter horror the catchy theme song playing during the opening credits was replaced by some atrocius music track. Aeeegh! Who? Why? I had to immediatelly heal myself by listening to the proper version from my archive.
Bosch: Too Much Gold for One Gringo
-Random pick and a quite good one, especially for a film I didn’t have any memory. Film with some comedic touch but it never gets too silly. Great music, great Fernando Sancho 6/10
Parrish: A Town Called Hell
-Film which suffers from episodic and confusing structure, the first 30 minutes are great, then it’s ok, last 30 minutes I’ve already lost interest. 6/10
I had a spurt trying to finish with 30 film but i’ll be travelling rest of the month so I guess I’m finished with spagvemberfest now. But I hope I have a time for yet one more film.
The Great Silence arrived today to southern Spain from Britain on schedule, i.e. just 2 days after ordering. After an Argentinian filet steak dinner with sangria and sweetened Irish coffee at one of our favorite restaurants this famous and highly rated SW was watched with great suspense.
It is definitely very different from other SWs. I cannot after this first time say that I am so impressed by this film with its unusual grim ending, but the villians/bounty hunters obviously to some extent acted according the law and the antihero did not.
Kinsky’s dubbing voice seemed a bit tame. Morricone’s slow main theme is good and so is another more “offensive” that I recognized.
It will probably take some time for me to adequately rate this movie, but 6 or 7 out of 10 probably will be my future verdict.
I do feel that The Great Silince has a lot more colour (in spite of the white snowy landscapes) and flesh than other Corbuccio SWs that I have watched.
No, frankly I didn’t, even if I read a Swedish review today that just hinted something in that direction I have accepted the corresponding ending in Cemetery Without Crosses (rated 8/10 by me) so also the ending in The Great Silence should be no excuse for me to not like it.
Couldn’t get in a full SW today while helping my Mom babysit, so I took a page from Bill San Antonio and watched an opening credits sequence: the one of Johnny Hamlet (Quella Sporca Storia nel West).
This is one of the SW’s I hope gets the Blu Ray treatment from somebody in the upcoming year. While the opening credits aren’t as flashy as many of the Westerns of the day were, the views of the ocean and mountains are spectacular and beautiful to look at.
But the ending of Cemetery Without Crosses is not an unusual ending, it is a fitting one, one which which can be expected for this kind of drama film.
TGS on the other hand has an absolutely unforeseeable ending, it is totally arbitrary, cause genre films with a good/bad constellation do not end like TGS. There are several genre films which end with the death of the hero, but I think TGS it is still the only one in which the baddies triumph over the hero, in which the baddies do not only survive, but have won the game in every respect.
At the same time I think it is strange that there are not more genre films, which took the risk to end like that. It is a commercial risk, yes of course, but there are many risky genre films, but still no one like TGS. This alone should give TGS more credit in film history.
You are probably right, but I haven’t watched so many SWs yet so for me Cemetery Without Crosses was a new experience regarding the antihero in a SW, even if he also had something on his conscience (as, but more obvious, did the Lee Van Cleef character in Day Of Anger, and Navajo Joe probably couldn’t be considered as totally innocent…)
LvC is not the hero of Day of Anger, that’s Gemma, so the ending of DoA is the usual and conventional one.
Navajo Joe ends with the hero’s death, but only after he has killed all his enemies, that makes him still the winner. Not a usual ending too, it is the exception of the rule, but at least an ending you can find in some other genre films. Also not that uncommon in some US westerns like Hombre or Rocky Mountain or They Died with their Boots on.
There are lots of films with pessimistic endings, still not one like TGS.
Btw Trintingant in TGS is not an anti-hero, he is a total hero (albeit not of the super heroic and super clean Winnetou type)
out of 5 (I’m generous)
I’m planning on grabbing a bunch of titles from Amazon Japan in the New Year that aren’t available elsewhere so I’ll have a bigger pile to pick from.
I have accepted the corresponding ending in Cemetery Without Crosses (rated 8/10 by me) so also the ending in The Great Silence should be no excuse for me to not like it.