SpagvemberFest! A full month of spaghetti western action! Thirty films in thirty days! An unnecessary overage of exclamation points! Let’s see who’s wife leaves them first!
Fill your hands, you sons of bitches!
SPAGVEMBERFEST 2016 - A FISTFUL OF REAPPRAISALS: DAY 1
As I posited earlier, my very loose theme this year focuses on movies I’ve either seen only once or twice, or movies I haven’t seen in a long time (those of you joining in this year can of course run with any theme you wish, or no specific theme at all), and my festivities are kicking off today with Shango (Mulargia, 1970), starring “The Steff” as a Ranger framed for murder by a Confederate major who doesn’t want the folk in the town he controls to know that the US Civil War has already ended. Tbh, I can barely remember anything about this pic beyond Anthony Steffen in a birdcage, people flipping over acrobat-style when they got shot, and that I enjoyed the movie quite a bit, so I’m hoping it’ll prove a good, fun start to the month. Let’s crack on with it!
I’m taking a similar approach to LC but with a more general “2nd Tier” content pool.
Last year I focused on re-watching most of my Top 30 with a couple of omissions. This year I will possibly make good those omissions but mainly keep to a list of films which sit just below the Top 30 category. This will include a bunch of films I haven’t got back to in a while but which I remember fondly and (I’m hoping) may be due a reappraisal.
First among these is the original Sartana outing, If you meet Sartana…Pray for your Death. I may well try and cover all the Sartanas during the month so thought I should start at the beginning with them on day one.
Let the ludicrous commitment of all my free time (plus a whole bunch of hours I should probably just be sleeping) to old film watching commence!!
no. 1. Valerii: Price of Power (1969)
-I picked this film for my first one for no particular reason other than recent passing of Valerii. I have never been big fan of this film and it rewatching hasn’t really improved it. Film is too ambitious and would have needed bigger budget and sets. Not a bad film though but just not my favorite. 6/10
I had meant to watch this one the day I heard about Valerii’s passing but didn’t get to it so will certainly be including it in this fest. Will be interested to see how I feel about it now. It’s been a while since I saw it last.
A Few Dollars for Django - That dull early SW feeling makes it forgettable … but still enjoyed all of the action scenes, and some nice suspense music… Steffen shooting from the barber chair and walking out with the barber cape still on. Viewed the Minerva disc, easily the best looking version (guessing the Wild East will look the same)… only one scene is subtitled over the Italian language… english dub was there at least
Love and Hate in Times of Valerii, sounds like a new Marquez novel, post mortem.
We have love and hate (well, not really …) for the man on this site.
In my view he’s closer to Sollima than two any of the other two Sergios. His movies aren’t that political (not even The price of power) but he like Sollima he managed to make a few great spaghettis without being a very talented director. The most brilliant scenes are in My Name is Nobody, but according to many (including me) they were directed by Leone.
Missed Once Upon a Time in the West out of my Top 30 viewing last year because it was just too long to fit in to the schedule but it is being screened at the historic Regents St Cinema in London tonight so it seemed like an obvious one. Apart from anything else this is definitely a film best seen on a big screen. Looking forward to it.
no 2. Carnimeo: I am Sartana Your angel of Death (1969)
-First Sartana film by Carnimeo with great cast including Wolff, Kinski, Mitchell etc. I especially enjoy Kinski’s bounty hunter addicted to gambling. Bergamini’s camerawork is really crazy here, at first it looks awesome as camera keeps rolling around whenever someone’s been shot but starts to get annoying after a while. Good entertainment but I don’t like the film anymore as much as I used to. 6/10
Rewatching Massacro al Grande Canyon – irrespective of the extent of Corbucci’s involvement in its making – set up a nice prologue for things to come. The film tries very hard to conform to American templates, and it does so quite successfully. Its story emulates plot elements stemming from a wide range of US Westerns – such as Shane, High Noon, The Big Country – anticipating the stereotypical Spaghetti Western plot of two competing, rivaling parties played off against each other by a newly arrived gunslinger.
Enzo Barboni’s excellent photography accentuates the Croatian locations’ alternately austere and lush beauty; good performances by all actors; favorite dialogue: Wes Evans (James Mitchum), offering a cigarette to Clay Dancer (Andrea Giordana): “Here, it’ll quiet your nerves.” – “I’m alright. Anyway, I don’t smoke.” – “Now’s a good time to learn. It’s easier than handling a gun and not as harmful.” Tonight: Minnesota Clay.
SPAGVEMBERFEST 2016 - A FISTFUL OF REAPPRAISALS: DAY 2
Today, I’m putting my glasses on for a closer look at One After Another (Nostro, 1968), in which Richard Harrison… um, wears a pair of spectacles. Is that all I can remember of it, really? Oh, isn’t there a bungled robbery at the start? I can’t recall, but I’m looking forward to this one, I know I rather enjoyed it last time out.
Yep, that one’s on my list for this month too LC. And, like you, all I seem to remember about it is that Harrison wears glasses and I rated it as possibly his best western. Hopefully I will still rate it as highly on the re-watch.
Exactly, I’m in this really hypocritical place with One After Another - well, with many of my picks this year, tbh - where I’m a big fan, I’d recommend the film to anyone, but I couldn’t tell anyone what the bloody film’s about!
I’m also doing a Pixarthon with my son as well right now (Day 7 of 17 today), so I’ve got to fit the underrated Cars (Lassetter, 2006) in somewhere too.
