Damn, I envy you. ;D
The first one i saw was Django followed by Keoma some week later, both shown on tv in 92.
I didn´t finish the latter, though, as i had to go out and get drunk with my teenage friends.
I remember that one of the girls in my circle of acquaintances at the time also had managed to get a glimpse of Keoma,
and we talked some about it during that night.
Apparently she liked the long hair, the hat and the long coat since it reminded her of the singer in one of her favourite bands,
and from time to time she yelled out âKeoma!â, just like the old woman in the film.
Anyway, back then i knew there was a well known western starring the famous Clint Eastwood called the Good, the Bad and the Ugly, but i hadn´t seen it and i had never heard of european/italian westerns or the term âspaghetti westernâ.
I just lazed on the couch one day and suddenly Django hit the screen.
The mud, the grey, desolate landscape, the empty town and Major Jackson and his crew all made a great impression on me.
And i couldn´t wait to see what was in that coffin.
The fact that the henchmen were masked increased the feeling of a sadistic force, threatening this small group of subjected people.
I don´t think i noticed that these two films had the same actor playing the protagonist, but i connected them because of the similar, bleak atmosphere, and Keoma also sported mean, masked men.
Later on i saw GBU and then the other two dollar films, in what order i´m not sure.
When i decided to botanize among these wonderful italian films, it was almost like meeting a lost love when i found an old copy of Django on vhs and got to see it for the second time in my life.
Had a fair impact on her then.
The first time I heard the actual term âSpaghetti Westernâ was on an episode of Whoâs Line is it Anyway (british version I think). I think this was sometime in the mid to late 90s. They were gonna act out a skit and they asked the audience for suggestions and one person shouted Spaghetti Western. Amazingly enough, although it was my first time hearing the term, I already had a sense of what the term meant, because my dad told me as a child that some of Clint Eastwoodâs westerns were filmed in Spain and made by an Italians. So I put two and two together. I didnât think much of it at the time, but years later I look back and I think to myself, wow, how things came full circle since then! I didnât see my first Spaghetti Western until 2006.
There is a âbeforeâ and âafterâ for everyone who meets Keoma
Now that you mention it, the first time i heard the term must have been in 93 or so. A friend of mine had bought the Primus album âFrizzle Fryâ, and one song was called âSpaghetti Westernâ. I didn´t associate it with anything, the band Primus used to have corny lyrics about sailing the sees of cheese, so i assumed they had just thrown a pair of words together.
The first time I ever heard or saw a Spaghetti Western was back in the early 70âs - ABC-TV had a Clint Eastwood âfestivalâ showing the following movies 5 Saturdays in a row:
1 - Fistful of Dollars
2 - For a Few Dollars More
3 - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
4 - Hangâem High
5 - Paint Your Wagon
I remember hating âPaint Your Wagonâ after seeing the other four - and outside of a few tunes (Wanderinâ Star and Gold Fever), nothing has changed since!
I tried to watch Paint Your Wagon once but stopped after approximately half an hour, if even that. I thought it had some nice backgrounds, and both Clint and Lee are in it, but it´s a musical after all.
For A Few Dollars More. I was 12 years old and saw it on a local UHF channel. . . had never seen anything like it . . . the visuals and music blew me away. Completely changed my aesthetic sensibilities. Love that movie!
Luckily, the first Spaghetti Western I saw âcoincides with the first film I saw in the Cinema: Per un pugno di dollari/A Fistful of Dollars!!!
Nice!
Never seen a Spag in a cinema. The first I ever saw mustâve been The Good, the Bad & the Ugly on TV, sometime in the late seventies. Iâd have been maybe seven? Eight? I remember that the concept of a guy hanging, and then another guy shooting the rope - all as part of a scam - was outrageously cool in my kiddie mind.
Never followed it through though, until very recently. I mean, I wouldnât have expected to at eight years old, but⌠it was only a few months ago that someone remarked to me⌠âBoy, you likes your westerns, donât you?â It hadnât really occurred to me, it just sort-of caught up on me. Then once I realised that yes, I DO likes my westerns, it further occurred to me that my favourites were generally Clint Eastwood movies, and/or Spags. So Iâve been educating myself since. Long way to go yet, but getting there, I think.
It was Once Upon a Time in the West when I was probably 6 or 7 years old with mom and dad in the tv.I know it is very difficult to believe it.After that came the other Leone movies.As for the first non-Leone that was Death Rides a Horse.
Mine was A Fistful of Dollars, one time when they were showing the Dollars trilogy back to back on TV over 3 nights many years ago. I watched the first two but never did see the Good the Bad and the Ugly until years later when my Dad had it on video and I watched it.
My introductionâs kinda funny. I started out learning aboutthem before I watched them. It began with two things: the Edge westerns by George G Gilman and Pale Rider. My mom recommended PR a few years ago and I was amazed mainly at the violence and style. The Edge books were the same way. Now when I get into something I research. Thatâs how I found the Leone westerns- and you guys anyhoo, I dropped money on the Leone anthology, went through that one like lightning. I also remember my mom, librarian, picking up a crappy double feature with DRAH and some other Van Cleef film I never watched. That dark, full screen print sold me, along with all the wonderful badass info on this awesome Database. Without it Iâd have been stuck with the Leone films and maybe a few LVCâs on shoddy prints, wondering why nobody ever made westerns the way they should be.
Thanks guys ;D
Once Upon a Time in the West or The Good, The Bad and The Ugly or For a Few Dollars More. Iâm not sure, it was too long ago. I was still a kid back then.
Once Upon a Time in the West or The Good, The Bad and The Ugly or For a Few Dollars More. I'm not sure, it was too long ago. I was still a kid back then.
Same here, probably was GBU when very young.
Didnât really watch any spaghs growing up beyond those popular titles, and then when I was around 21, I watched The Great Silence and was hooked.
Oddly enough, the first Spaghetti I watched was Captain Apache. I had to babysit my cousinâs little sister, and she wanted to watch a tape. Among the Care Bears and Teletubbies, I found a copy of The Guns Of April Morning.. She thought Lee Van Cleef looked scary ;D.
Remember that Guns of April Morning tape .
At the time, I loved it, so I bought a copy a few weeks later, and still have it today :D.