Took the day off yesterday, watched Taxi Driver (Scorsese, 1976) instead. But after all that blood, gloom and grit, its time for some seminal animated hijinks in the form of A Fistful of Dollars (Leone, 1964), where Clint Eastwood stars as an old-fashioned cowboy doll, replaced in his owner’s affections by a deluded spaceman toy, played by Darth Vader or someone, I don’t f#cking know. In the end they fall in love, I think.
Feeling weirdly angry with the movie today. Started to convince myself that AFoD has it in for me. Had to literally remind myself that I’m putting myself through this and that there’s no way a movie can be trying to harm me, mentally. I didn’t buy it, though. Not for a minute.
Another great surprise, when I found out Steffen made another zapata I expected another cheap affair like killer kid, which I like don’t get me wrong, but this film was anything but that, trains, cars and beautiful filming locations, this may be the most high budget looking film I’ve seen from steffen, who is uncharacteristically animated in this one. The cast is great all around and the comedy does not bring down the film, this is so far my fave Caiano western. Steffen and Damon co-stared in another western the same year so that will probably be my pick for tomorrow
While they’re a little more story and character driven, the Winnetou films offer plenty of intrigue and action to keep them very interesting. And they offered up some of the earliest Western appearances of SW regulars Terence Hill (billed under his birth name Mario Girotti) and the crazy Klaus Kinski
Day 20
All previous picks of mine were via YouTube channels’ but today I wipe the dust from an old buy, 10 years at least. The movie was El Sendero del Odio, at least that’s the DVD title. One of those early Divisa releases that I found in border town of Badajoz. I should have wait more time. Definitely not my type of western-spaghetti.
I am recommencing my festivities, I have been a bit preoccupied, even dabbled in premature Deucember…
And the fest goes on with: My Name is Nobody, making it a point of watching in English so as to avoid as much of the comedic aspect as possible (the German dubs aways add extra amounts of random goofiness). I think the movie grew on me a bit, but it’s still a minor effort overall. One can see they put lots of heart into it, the craftsmanship is great, it’s chock full of movie references, and hearing Fonda’s real voice is a plus… but it really is not up among the great entries of the genre…
If Thomas Hardy ever wrote a western this would be it. The tragic story of a family torn apart by hate - a hate that has prevailed from the time when the film is set, when it was made, through to the present day.
Despite having the feel of an early spaghetti western I really enjoyed this one.
Marchent: The Pitiless Three
-Pretty good pre-Leone western from Joaquín Luis Romero Marchent with Richard Harrison, Claudio Undari and Fernando Sancho (in a rare good guy role). 6/10
Ferroni: Wanted
-I remembered this being my least favorite from Ferroni’s Gemma trilogy but I’d say it’s as enjoyable as the rest. In many ways more traditional western as most sw’s of this time. Nello Pazzafani had a delightful role as a priest -this must be the only film with Gemma and Pazzafani where they don’t have a fistfight. 6/10
So far I still very much enjoy the fest, although I don’t think I’m gonna watch any western during December, this one is a pretty good effort. It’s a bit on the average side but good actors and good music keep it from being boring, this had a surprising amount of comedy in it but nothing slap stiky, it was lighter than I expected but still fairly violent at times. Nothing more than an enjoyable movie to me
6/10
