Haha yes! It also seems like video shop owners stuck 18 on anything. Alvarez Kelly is a PG but this pre-cert I own would have you believe it’s an adult western:
Another thing that made me laugh about that Fire Power tape is that the synposis on the back cover has very little to do with the actual story. The “Purvis gang” is actually the Purvis family. It also says that the film is a “western adventure.” Adventure? They don’t even leave the town. I’m not sure going in and out of the saloon counts as “adventure.”
Looking forward to it, as Explosive Media just released it…
I just watched “A Man Called Sledge” and will write up a review of the BluRay release…
Yes your right re the 18 certificates and some of these synposis do make you laugh !
I really want The Wicked Die Slow for my collection but it seems like an incredibly hard one to find. A guy on ebay had the sleeve:
I messaged him about the tape itself but he told me he’d lost it. Such a pity. I wouldn’t buy the sleeve on its own.
Used to have the tape but sold that a while back, but made a back up dvd r though.
Spaghvember is over, but my journey continuous. I’m actually a few movies behind because some other affairs took up a lot of my time. I had time to watch, but no energy to write.
One of the films I re-watched, was:
Django, the Bastard
Now that’s a movie that gets better with repeated viewings. I was always intruiged by it, but had the idea it was too static to really live up to its full potential as a western (as a horror movie it worked just fine). There are still a few minor problems (especially towards the end), but I got used to the slow pace and claustophobic atmosphere. I watched it in much better video quality this time, and this also added to the enjoyment. It may sound sacrilegious, but I think I prefer it to the original Django now (but I never have been a great fan of that movie).
Django the Bastard Review (Scherpschutter) - The Spaghetti Western Database
Yes, I’d like to give this one another go. I didn’t especially take to it when I first saw it. I mean it was okay, but its fantastic first half or so felt to me somewhat undone later on in the picture as the movie itself seemed uncertain as to whether Steffen’s character was a supernatural avenger from beyond the grave or just a regular - if rather odd - fella who could be placed in mortal danger every bit as easily as anyone else. But it certainly has… I dunno, something. It’s intriguing, as you said.
Just watched McCabe & Mrs. Miller. Brilliant film in my opinion. I wish Altman had made more westerns.
LIGHT THE FUSE … SARTANA’S COMING
The fourth and last Sartana movie with Gianni Garko in the title role. I watched it twice in the last ten days, just to figure out what I really thought about this movie. I’m still not sure.
Those Sartanas - at least the sequels - are all more or less on the same level, still I want to distinguish between them. Buon Funerale wins the sequel race by a nose length.
My Top 4 so far (1 to go):
… …
- Buon Funerale Amigos, Paga Sartana! (Carnimeo-Garko)
- Una Nuvola di Polvere… un Grido di Morte… Arriva Sartana! (Carnimeo-Garko)
- C’è Sartana vendi la pistola e comprati la bara (Carnimeo-Hilton)
- Sono Sartana il vostro becchino (Carnimeo-Garko)
http://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Light_the_Fuse…_Sartana_is_coming_Review
For me Buon funerale is also the best, at least the best of the ones by Carnimeo.
DAS FINSTERE TAL (The Dark Valley - 2013, Andreas Prochaska)
An Austrian western, not only shot but also set in the Alps. An Austern, so to speak. The spaghetti westerns were obviously a source of inspiration (it is a revenge movie), but I’d say the atmosphere is closer to Eastwood’s own westerns (notably Pale Rider) than to anything Clint did in Italy.
Watched it last night on German TV and not sure what to think of it. It’s beautifully shot and has great atmosphere but director Prochaska is too laid back and some decisions on script level don’t really pay off. Worth a look, but not the ‘great’ movie it was supposed to be. I’ll re-watch some parts in English before writing a real review (some of the German dialogue and - especially - the voice over were a bit hard to decypher)
I watched Los Diablos del Terror (the Night Riders) recently, a 1959 Mexploitation Western with Gaston Santos, the German restoration is beautiful, but not English-friendly, so you gotta speak Spanish or German to warrant the high price.
**
Bone Tomahawk - S. Craig Zahler - 2015
**
Also watched Bone Tomahawk this weekend, here a few thoughts about it.
A very good effort from everyone involved in this project, honestly I didn’t had that feeling “they don’t make like these anymore”, for the contrary a very unique and specific film with a modern touch but in a good way.
One of the complains made by some critics of the film, concerned the fact that it was slow paced even boring, but I almost forget that it’s a two hours films, for me it got the perfect timing, the nice dialogues and the almost thespian sequence of scenes like acts sure helped that feeling for me.
I wouldn’t call it a horror film in the strict sense of how horror films usually are made, for me works as a western with some horror situations, but filmed in such a brutal way that will definitely shock the viewer, more than any teen gore flick normally does, I was impressed.
Anyway not for everyone to merge a Fordian type of western with a Men Behind the Sun film and get away with it.
Liked all the actors, Russell very restrained in this film, is one the last representatives of a dying breed, a classical cool actor, the modern ones Patrick Wilson and specially Matthew Fox really got a western feeling, even if Wilson seems to be a more natural actor, but agree with Titoli Richard Jenkins comes out with a great performance, a classical counterpoint in comparison with the film modernity.
In the end a good idea well displayed in the screen, it’s almost amazing how such a vulgar story told so many times, felt so refreshing.
Any SW feeling? Well no with the exception of Fulci’s Four of the Apocalypse, yes very different films but with a few points in common.
Recommended but watch out for some really brutal scenes, brutal because they seem very real.
I agree with every word, it’s extension of my thoughts. You only forgot to mention (since you’ve have mentioned all other main roles) miss Lili Simmons, who plays central character around which whole emotional involvement is built (I was referring primarily to her when I mentioned “something worth dying for”). In true tradition of that strong female characters in westerns that Fox readers cannot digest, she is not just an eye candy, but self-thinking, strong-willed woman, who is an important part of community, and even in the hell’s cave doesn’t turn into screaming woman we commonly see in those situations in movies, but instead doesn’t allow her mind, will and humanity be taken away from her. Great character and very convincingly played by miss Simmons.
Bone tomahawk wasn’t released theatrically in Germany, and will be released directly on DVD in 3 weeks, probably in connection with the theatrical start of Hateful 8 a week later.
I don’t think that is intended. I saw it at the Fantasy Film Fest in in Berlin a while back, and before that, I just saw it on GooglePlay. For me it was one of the absolute highlights of the year. I will watch Janes’s Got A Gun next, and Slow West is on Netfix, I missed that one. This weekend I will catch Meek’s Cutoff at the revival theater.
Thankfully I live in Croatia and not in some godforsaken place like Germany that only shows Star Wars and Transformers in theaters
Ah well I can’t complain. I get to see quite a lot in Berlin. Some things I just miss, and other things well… can’t do much against release policies. But sometimes Germany gets stuff first, like Knight of Cups ran in the fall, starts in the US now-ish.
I don’t know for sure, but both are violent and gritty Westerns for adults, both with Kurt Russel, and I would wonder if the release date is a coincidence.
A success of the Tarantino might easily sell a certain amount of discs more than a possible release last year might have sold.