Good news.
I found a nice priced copy at Amazon.UK. Now let’s see if there is a link from this site for the necessary funding 
I watched The Great Silence in Italian with English Subs this morning. Such a fantastic film. Beautiful cinematography in the dolomites; and the firelit scenes in the alpine cabins and saloons are breathtaking. The one moment in the film where Silence throws the match into Tigreros whiskey thimble; and the camera moves up from the extreme close up of the hands gripping the glass - to the disturbing close up of Kinski’s manic eyes, seen dimly through the light of a gas lamp, off screen. That is just phenomenal - and a standout example of the extreme and wild visual aesthetic of the whole genre. It only lasts about 3 seconds, but it stays with you forever. A real classic, not just of the Spaghetti Western, but of cinema. For a film with such an extremely low budget, it does extremely well.
Next two Westerns I have on my list were shot on even lower budgets - BLACK JACK and THE RUTHLESS FOUR. Can’t wait 
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2,5 out of 5 for me
I never meant to say that it’s completely hopeless
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The Proud Ones (1956), directed by Robert D. Webb
Phantom_Stranger: A fearless marshal clashes with a misguided cowboy, a ruthless saloonkeeper, and the indifferent citizenry as he struggles to maintain law and order in a quiet Kansas frontier town which is transformed into a riotous boomtown with the arrival of the first trail herds from Texas on the newly-completed railroad.
Good solid western adventure. Good acting and action. Nothing classic just a fine movie.
In The Proud Ones (Italian title: La grande sfida [“The Big Challenge”]), Marshal Cass Silver (Robert Ryan) advises his reluctant protégé Thad Anderson (Jeffrey Hunter) during target practice, “When you draw on a man, don’t let him talk to you! You shoot him!”
If Al Mulock’s hapless bounty hunter in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly had taken heed of the marshal’s wise words, he would mercifully have been spared Tuco’s post-mortem wisecrack, “When you have to shoot, shoot! Don’t talk!”
Just watched Stagecoach: The Texas Jack Story, because it was on Netflix.
Trace Adkins, the country singer, plays Texas Jack who gets married and tries to go straight but an unhinged US Marshal is coming after his old gang. I like Helena Marie who plays the Marshal’s tough side-kick.
Not a top western but watchable.
The last three I watched:
“Man from Del Rio” (1956), with Anthony Quinn, Katy Jurado, Douglas Fowley and Peter Whitney. A small film but I really liked it.
“The Texas Rangers” (1951), with George Montgomery, Jerome Courtland, William Bishop, Noah Beery Jr, John Litel, Douglas Kennedy, John Dehner, directed by Phil Karlson. This is probably the kind of American western most of you hate, but I really liked it. Great color. Fun. A kiddîe western for sure.
And the highest-rated SW I’ve never seen before-- Colizzi’s “God Forgives, I Don’t.” I found it boring so I turned the channel to an episode of “The Fugitive.” It was probably my mood since I like the director and actors.
Brilliant film in my opinion.
It is a good film but I recall it taking me about three goes to really take to it.
I used to find it a bit overrated, but now I love it. Ace High & Boot Hill are way more boring. Especially the former 
God Forgives was an instant favourite for me. I can’t remember Ace High very well but I did enjoy it at the time. I remember thinking Boot Hill was okay but I only watched it on VHS ages ago. I’ll have to give the Retro DVD a watch.
I’ll admit Boot Hill was better than I thought it’d be. I actually really like the opening.
I watched some oldies 
The great train robbery
This one was on my watch list out of curiosity. I enjoyed all 11 minutes.
Sage Brush Tom
Tom Mix movie from the silent era
Straight Shooting
Early John Ford with Harry Carey
I think it is time to finish an Italian western again 
The great (and tall) Clint Walker died earlier this week. Purely by coincidence, I was working on a review of one of his least known westerns, More Dead than Alive (yes, sounds like a spaghetti western title)
Here’s my review:
R.I.P. Clint Walker
Today I watched Ferdinando Baldi’s Django Prepare A Coffin (AKA Viva Django) which I very much enjoyed. Baldi was a very clean and stable director, visually; his style seems more in the American Western tradition than the messier chaotic and operatic Italian genre style. But he certainly knew how to film a fist fight or a brawl. And the wagon ambush sequence on horse back is superb. It is well timed and edited.
Baldi also gave the audience a clear indication of the good guy and the bad guy. Terrence Hill’s Django is an altogether good guy and a very likeable character (as was Nero’s character in Texas Addio). A very enjoyable film.
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Hostiles.
A grim, melancholy, cynical and brutally realistic reflection on the west and what hostility means. A blood soaked painting without even a hint of comic relief, an utterly bitter experience, but really really well made.
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^
I didn’t enjoy this western that much. It’s one of those where you see it once and no need to see it again.
I went to see it on the cinema and was quite disappointed simply because I’m fed up with apologetic westerns. Still thought it was well made though. Nothing wrong with films that are sympathetic but it’s obvious they were going out of their way to be PC when the soldiers referred to the Indians as “Natives” and the subtitles had a capital N. Just didn’t feel authentic even if it was impossible to be authentic since the dates were all wrong but they should have tried to capture the spirit of the American West and I think it was far from it.
I’ve noticed that filmmakers feel obligated to insert references to the plight of the Indian in every western that involves them. Take The Revenant as an example. In reality, the American army never attacked Pawnee villages. They were one of a handful of tribes to be brought into an alliance with the expanding United States since the army found most opposition coming from the enemies of the Pawnee, i.e. Sioux, Cheyenne, Comanche, etc. Rather than stay true to history, the Pawnee were portrayed as victims of American aggression in order for them to represent American Indians as a whole.
The film also portrays the Arikara arguing with the French trappers that the “white men” have taken everything from them. At the time The Revenant is set, the expansion to the West had not yet taken place, so they wouldn’t have felt so under threat at that point, and far from having negative feelings, the Arikara had a positive relationship with the French. The characters end up sounding more contemporary and the problem lies with the fact that filmmakers have gone out of their way to create the antithesis to the classic westerns, which portrayed Indians in a negative light. What we end up with is not the desirable balance but the same thing in reverse.
Although it received negative reviews, I feel like the miniseries, Comanche Moon, was probably one the finest depictions of how things really were. Neither the Texans nor Comanches were depicted as good or bad but simply different cultures in conflict.
Regarding ‘Hostiles’ , I still haven’t seen it yet, and I suppose an ‘un- PC’ joke would be to say, I have my reservations ! … ya see … you can’t say anything without getting in trouble.
If film makers are going to pussyfoot around with language and attitudes in period dramas, for fear of causing offence, shouldn’t they just steer away from such material or make a documentary instead … much greater were the offences that occurred than a few derogatory names being used - wake up Hollywood 
We’re talking about 150 years ago, a time period with attitudes and traditions so alien to the majority of us, that perhaps a dramatized version of these events, warts and all, would be so unpalatable to most contemporary audiences.
What I want from a western film primarily is good escapist adventure … not some wrap it up in cotton wool bullshit.
I will have to check this movie out now, and see just how irritated it makes me … to be continued.
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