The Last Western You Watched?

The Saloon
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[size=12pt][size=10pt]The Outlaw Josey Wales - 1976 - Clint Eastwood[/size][/size]

I haven’t seen The Outlaw Josey Wales in a few years, and for a film that I remember linking so much at the time I first saw it, seemed somehow strange how little I remember of it, mostly the second half.

The obvious first question was, where are those SW influences or inspiration in Clint directing? Not so many as it seems at a first viewing, or then again maybe more than it seems. They are there in the initial scene of the film, the bad guys (red legs), the odd bunch living in the ghost town, but not in Clint’s character. At first he seems a copy of his man with no character, at least he shoots like him, but Josey Wales is very far from the cynic behavior of the last, he becomes tired of violence through the film and becomes a sort of father figure to a band of misfits, so very far from Clint’s character of the dollars trilogy.
It seems more a revisionist western typical from the 70’s with some hints of Ford more than Leone, except in those close-ups so typical of Leone, and that Clint uses in a good way, as he did in other films.

It’s a very complex film with a lot of stuff going on, strong violence, betrayal, revenge, redemption, and so on, and Clint deals with all that in the simplest way. The scene where Wales makes peace with the Indian chief is one of my favorites of the film and explains the all story.
It seems that along with Unforgiven, this one was one of Clint favorite western from those he directed, its understandable why, both films have stories that complete a full circle, but Josey Wales is even more complex than Unforgiven that deals mostly with redemption.
There’s so much going one, in several different landscapes, so different characters and situations, that is a great achievement how the films shows so much cohesion.

Clint acting is regular as he normally was. in my opinion and as far as I remember is best acting moments were in White Hunter Black heart and The bridges of Madison county, mostly cause they were different from his usual roles. The rest of the cast was great specially Chief Dan George, and John Vernon a much underused actor, my only doubt goes to Sondra Locke, not a good actress.
It’s hard to describe The outlaw Josey Wales, a sometimes a hard violent film mixed with some comic moments, a few memorable lines, but it never looks uncharacteristic.

It’s one of the best western directed by Clint, and if Orson Welles himself likes it, who am I to say the contrary. A real Western classic.

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Well-said, El Topo. I have similar feelings about the movie, with the difference that I simply don’t seem to like it, without knowing exactly why. It’s a good movie - the story makes sense, it’s beautifully shot, performances are okay - but it’s not really my kind of movie, and Josey is not my kind of hero.

It took me a while to appreciate High Plains drifter, so maybe next time I think more highly of this movie.

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I’ve been watching quite a few Spaghetti Westerns over the past few days:

Those Dirty Dogs: easily the best Spaghetti Western of this bunch, with excellent direction from Giuseppe Rosati and charismatic performances from Gianni Garko (as a Muslim gunslinger!) and Stephen Boyd, and an interesting plot that successfully manages to combine moments of humour with seriousness and violence, all buoyed by a very good score by Nico Fidenco. Probably the least inhibited Spaghetti Western I’ve seen from the seventies, neither self-consciously retrospective or torpedoed by inappropriate comedy.

They Call Me Hallelujah: Surely the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid of Spaghetti Westerns? I normally don’t respond well to Giuliano Carnimeo’s direction (either with Sartana or They Call Him Cemetery), but here his combination of spoofery and violence actually works. The acid test comes with the opening scene (I agree with Stanton that this sequence is the finest thing Carnimeo did) where the somber lead up to an execution, put over all the more convincingly by Stelvio Cipriani’s score, is climaxed with George Hilton (who seems to have been born to play this role) machining gunning down Mexicans with a machine-gun hidden inside a sewing machine. It works, amazingly so, and the entire film manages the difficult balance between such tonal opposites. Enormous fun, and the Vera Cruz debt is noted.

A weaker pair now: One Siler Dollar - Giuliano Gemma’s first Spaghetti Western and it shows. He’s as dull and wooden as the boring character he has to play here, in a film seemingly more influence by the American Westerns of the 1950s than A Fistful of Dollars, especially in its plotting. Giorgio Ferroni’s direction only really comes alive with Gemma’s beating scene, which recalls Anthony Mann, and is remarkably effective as it clashes with the ordinary film surrounding it. Not bad, but fairly mediocre.

Ringo, the Face of Revenge : Another Ringo cash-in film (even in Italy), starring Anthony Steffen; actually, it’s not too bad, Mario Caiano (never one of the genre greats) detailing the central, shifting foursome alliance quite enjoyable. Its the character dynamics here that are the thing, not the mundane action scenes, with even perhaps a gay undertone between Steffen and Eduardo Fajardo’s characters. Frank Wolff has a lot of fun, and it is all rather innocuous, but not too special.

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Have you been working through the Best of Spaghetti Westerns - In the Tradition of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly box set? All four of those are on that set. I haven’t watched any of those yet though. I started to watch Lone and Angry Man off of there only last night, but I fell asleep (it was gone midnight in fairness).

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Nah!..it’s not boring for me. I really like (Gemma’s) performance in this oater, it showed early on that he had the goods to carry on a film like this one. This is a good, entertaining spaghetti in my book. BTW, I prefer this over Wanted and Fort Yuma Gold.

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Yes, indeed I am! Probably the best of the multi film boxsets, with all but one of them in widescreen.

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Funny that you think Those Dirty Dogs is the best of the bunch, to me all other three a superior to that one.
Actually my favorite would be One Silver Dollar, like Lone Gringo I prefer it over Gemma’s other two movies with Ferroni.

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Band: The Tramplers[url]http://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Uomini_dal_passo_pesante,_Gli[/url]
-I rewatched this today, WE’s dvd was great improvement from the previous vhs-rip I saw. I really like this film, almost as good as Hellbenders I’d say.

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WRATH OF GOD

Divides fans, I had mixed feelings:
[size=12pt][url]http://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Wrath_of_God_Review_(Scherpschutter)[/url][/size]

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[size=12pt]The Comancheros - 1961 - Michael Curtiz[/size]

First time for me this John Wayne vehicle, strangely directed by Michael Curtiz, in it would be his last film, he would die soon after, it seems that Wayne himself directed a few scenes.
It’s a John Wayne film or western a typical one, and it seems that it was one of the westerns that influenced Sergio Leone, at first it seems rather strange that this blatant classic type of western, to ever be able to influence Leone’s work, but a film its made of many things and it seems that the wardrobe (mostly from the bad guys), and he settings were caught by the eye of the Italian master.

But in the rest, we are in pure classical western territory, or better in John Wayne Western (its like a subgenre), but without Ford or Hawks. Clearly Curtiz made things for Wayne to shine. Nevertheless there are a few odd aspects in the plot, like the secret society of the Comancheros that seems nothing more than symbolism to a communist society, so they are the bad guys, they take the Indians/Savages out of the right path, but there are good Indians as Wayne explains in the film, you just have to distinguish them from the bad ones, to be honest never seen something like that in a classical western, a different type of society living hidden from the rest of the world
The action scenes even if well staged looked far from reality as ever, in one scene there’s five against an all tribe of Indians, and still they survive, also see a lot of Winchesters around, so there’s plenty anachronisms in the film, the events take place before the Civil War after the Mexican war (The one from the Alamo battle), but things on the film seem like normal post Civil War period.
Wayne and Whitman do make a good pair, and we can see it’s a happy film, Wayne got two his sons in the film, and he looked real happy, Lee Marvin got a very cool small part. Good Score
Not as good as other Western with The Duke, but pleasant or better saying funny to watch nothing more.

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Enjoyable but otherwise forgettable movie
Funniest things are John Wayne’s awful pronunciation of the word monsieur (something like ‘monsoor’) and Lee Marvin’s performance.
Might watch it again one of these days.

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[quote=“scherpschutter, post:11367, topic:141”]Funny that you think Those Dirty Dogs is the best of the bunch, to me all other three a superior to that one.
Actually my favorite would be One Silver Dollar, like Lone Gringo I prefer it over Gemma’s other two movies with Ferroni.[/quote]
Reading the thread for Those Dirty Dogs, I was rather surprised at the generally negative reaction to it. To my mind, there is far more inventiveness there than in the Ferroni film (whose blandness is to me its defining quality); I could actually see it being made in say, 1969, as opposed to 1973 (quite late in the day for films like this, post-Trinity and Sartana). Director Rosati seems only to have made the one Spaghetti Western (according to IMDb he worked in cinema mostly in the seventies, directing and writing Euro thrillers: [url]Giuseppe Rosati - IMDb), which is a shame, as real promise is displayed here.

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I do not see much quality in Those Dirty Dogs. But I’m not very interested in One Silver Dollar either, but it is more watchable imo. More entertaining.
Ringo, the Face of Revenge has a good first half and a completely forgettable 2nd one.

They Call Me Halleluja is despite some sillyness way better then those 3. (well it’s a nun’s story … )

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Watched Gianfranco Baldanello Black Jack

Good Spag

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As my Spaghetti Western marathon continues…

No Room to Die - a capable enough film, but it’s fairly unique premise of a illegal immigrant smuggling seems to fall strangely flat. Garrone’s handling doesn’t help, which doesn’t display the invention of Django the Bastard. Anthony Steffen is, well, “stiff” and even Berger is subdued in an uninspiring role. Desperately mediocre.

A Coffin for the Sheriff - Mario Caiano was always somewhat a hit-and-miss director, usually at the mercy of the script. Luckily, this time, despite seemingly borrowing a variety of aspects from For a Few Dollars More (a musical watch! The hero infiltrating the bandit gang!), it works quite well, with Steffan actually playing the stoic (what else?) protagonist well. The gang itself is the highlight, with the cast, especially Arturo Dominici, having fun. The action is well staged and although it’s all rather middle of the road (and seems to references Anthony Mann with the beating scene and High Noon with the final moments), it’s the best of these four films reviewed here.

The Fighting Fist of Shanghai Joe - a rewatch, before viewing the sequel, but this is far worse than I remembered it to be. Originally, I enjoyed it, but while the terrible parts stay terrible (the outlandish gore, the plotting), the good parts, like the massacre of immigrants, the titular character, no longer seem to work at all and instead undermine any quality it has at all.

Return of Shanghai Joe - still, even the original is better than this, which is unmitigated in its awfulness in every department. Shanghai Joe seems to be a supporting character in his own film here, which is instead headed by a supposedly “funny” travelling medicine seller who combats Kinski (whose presence is proof enough surely, that even he doesn’t make everything watchable). The script’s diabolical, the theme song which accompanies all of Joe’s fights sounds like the very worst Beatles cover band ever that is utterly hilarious over the opening titles and then very annoying.

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Holy El Puro, Batman! Today, I watched Starblack (Grimaldi, 1966), otherwise known (by me, a minute ago) as The Dark Knight Saddles Up. In which a grey-clad masked avenger rights the wrongs committed by an evil banker (“The Fiddler”? No? Ah, sod you, then), completely coincidentally at the exact same time as Johnny Blith (the fantastic Robert Woods) and his deaf/mute buddy Robin - I think that was his name, I can’t remember now - arrive in town having departed Wayne Manor - I mean, their well-to-do ranch - and set about seeking the truth behind the death of Johnny’s father, who was shot outside a theatre, or something.

This movie didn’t feel anything like a spaghetti western, aside from the typically violent gun/knifeplay. The score was maybe twenty years out of date and the nature of Starblack himself - sheer black full face mask and black badge calling card - lent a Buck Rogers/Superman Saturday children’s matinee air to proceedings. Still, I found Starblack to be a hoot. A very easy film, and an easy film to like, as well. It’s not going to blow anyone’s mind any time soon, but you can’t go wrong with this movie on a Saturday morning or a Sunday afternoon. Go, Starblack! Go!

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Yes, Starblack almost feels like a Superman/Batman movie, but with some added doses of violence.

Not a great movie, but I like it a lot. I even like that theme song sung by Woods himself.

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Was it really? I didn’t know that (ha, why would I?). Good singer! I liked the main theme, it had a High Noon quality about it. The rest of the score was largely a nondescript stock noise that could’ve come from any melodrama circa 1945-1955. But the main theme was good.

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Today: The Taste of Vengeance (Siciliano, 1968). Competently made and typically “Spag” in terms of its revenge plot, with a gothic(ish) climactic sequence and a rare turn from Gianni Garko as the “baddie” (although it’s not quite that straightforward). Unfortunately, some magic ingredient seems to have gone missing. Can’t put my finger on it, everything is basically fine - but it doesn’t quite possess that spark that elevates other spags of similar technical endeavour. It’s a bit ponderous and there are too many fistfights. They’re not the comedy-style fistfights beloved of Bud Spencer replete with “Boing!” sound effects, mercifully, but they do go on a bit.

I liked it, I’m glad I watched it, I didn’t love it, I doubt I ever will.

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Today: 7 Guns for the MacGregors (Giraldi, 1966). Decently budgeted and very lively picture with a light tone, although people are shot and killed with brisk regularity. The large MacGregor (“MacGregor” according to the titles, “McGregor” according to the sign over the coral in the opening shot) clan is a big happy family largely divided throughout the movie into the younger Macgregors and the older folk. Unfortunately when the movie homes in on the senior MacGregors the whole thing becomes an ode to Scottish stereotypes, none of which i find especially endearing: whisky, tartan, everything spoken in a heavy Scottish burr… and they don’t seem to talk about anything other than being a MacGregor. How bored must they be that all they’ve got to discuss is their surname? They seem to want to be reminding the viewer constantly that “We’re the MacGregors!” “Aye! We’re the MacGregors!” “Aye!” Away from that though it’s a fast-paced movie melding the “Evil Rancher Needs to be Stopped From Taking Over the Whole Region” storyline with the “Hero Infiltrates the Bad Guys to Get Information” storyline, and in fairness to the older MacGregors they weigh into the action with some Sartana-like touches: a cannon called Queen Anne, and a “piece of furniture” that is in fact a customised multi-gun. Robert Woods is very good, again. As the movie progresses and concentrates more on Woods and the Mexican gang he’s infiltrated, the movie feels like more of a spag and less like a (very decent) facsimile of a late 50’s/early 60’s Hollywood oater and I found myself enjoying it all the more for that, although of course that’s a question of personal taste. It’s a well-made picture though, throughout.

I found that I knew the Ennio Morricone score immediately. It sounds like this:

Now, all my life I’ve been a fan of 80’s post-punk combo Adam & the Ants, and when I was maybe eight years old or so, I first heard the Adam & the Ants album Kings of the Wild Frontier, upon which was the fun if a little silly “pirate”-themed track, Jolly Roger. What I didn’t know until today was that they lifted their tune straight from 7 Guns for the MacGregors:

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LnXOCXiHHc]- YouTube

Strange, the places old Ennio shows up! ;D