Here’s a (rough) translation (by Matt Blake, of the excellent Wild Eye blog) of a fascinating article from La Stampa in 1966, announcing - prematurely, as it turns out - the death of the Italian Western:
[url]Spaghetti Westerns ride off into the sunset… | The Wild Eye
[quote=“Starblack, post:1, topic:2655”]Here’s a (rough) translation (by Matt Blake, of the excellent Wild Eye blog) of a fascinating article from La Stampa in 1966, announcing - prematurely, as it turns out - the death of the Italian Western:
[url]Spaghetti Westerns ride off into the sunset… | The Wild Eye
This is what most people thought in Italy in those days : that the spaghetti western was a craze, that its days would soon be numbered and that all spaghettis, except for the Leones and a few others, would be forgotten. This was actually the idea in Italy until recently. They are in fact reinventing their own genre, that has been saved and preserved by others.
I’m currently translating an interview with Giulio Petroni, and he expresses similar thoughts in it
Very interesting stuff Starblack, I guess they were not even thinking they will all end up doing sex comedies.
Notice the remark on Lou Castel as the intelligent boy from Il Pugno ii tasca a very good film by the way, maybe Castel should also have done Sex Comedies.
Also funny the Coburcci remark on not knowing ho to kill people any more (Sartana did), maybe that’s the reason why he did Il bianco, il giallo, il nero
That was 66. In 68 Corbucci expanded his knowledge considerably.
the western genre is not dead, people are still churning out westerns, ok the spaghetti western isn’t around but it is still influentual and has loyal followers like on this forum. ( i have just over 100 Sw’Ss myself but haven’t seen one for a while, there are still plenty out there i would like to see but just can’t find them i want for an affordable price at the moment, hence why i don’t come on here so much at the moment to talk about SW’s but i’ve still got loads of my first love horror to get through) 
people have been saying horror films are dead for decades but they are always around and are perhaps the most durable genre of all. A lot of the younger generation are fans of westerns ( again look no further than this forum) and young filmmakers as well respect the western so all has not been lost.