Talk on the Official Top 20 thread about trying an extended Top 40 or 50 list got me to thinking about how the vast majority of the higher ranking films on our current list were made in the 1960s. My own Top 20 is a case in point. Only one film from the seventies in it if I remember correctly. Yet there are a number of films I like a lot from the later decade. They just tend to get muscled out by their 60s cousins when push comes to shove in narrowing down a list of all time favourites.
So, the question here is, if you could only pick films released in the 1970s, what would your top 20 Spaghettis look like?
I’m not intending (at this stage anyway) on compiling an official list for the database. Just interested in knowing what the folk here would choose and which films would prove to be the most popular.
To get things started here’s mine.
If I gave it a little more time I might make some changes but this will do to get the ball rolling.
1 My Name is Nobody (Leone)
2 Companeros (Corbucci)
3 Blindman (Baldi)
4 Duck, You Sucker! / A Fistful of Dynamite (Leone)
5 Matalo! (Canevari)
6 They Call Me Hallelujah (Carnimeo)
7 And god Said to Cain 8 Trinity is Still My Name (Clucher)
9 Have a Good Funeral, My Friend…Sartana Will Pay (Carnimeo)
10 Adios Sabata (Parolini)
11 The Return of Sabata (Parolini)
12 More dollars for the McGregors (Merino) 13 Here We Go Again, eh Providence? (de Martino)
14 Keoma (Castellari)
15 Dead Men Ride (Florio)
16 Four of the Apocalypse (Fulci) 17 Man of the East (Clucher) 18 They Call me Trinity (Clucher)
19 Shoot the Living and Pray for the Dead (Vari)
20 Light the Fuse…Sartana is Coming (Carnimeo)
I have included 4 comedies (in italics), but still don’t know how to compare them to the others. Here We Go Again, eh Providence? should maybe be much higher on the list and Man of the East also. Maybe I should have dropped all 4.
The first 5 are also in my top 20. So not too bad that decade.
Have now updated my list above. It now not only excludes those films from the wrong decade, it also includes the one I meant to put at the top but forgot completely. Let’s just call it a senior moment shall we?
1 My Name is Nobody (Valerii & Leone)
2 Keoma (Castellari)
3 Companeros (Corbucci)
4 Duck, You Sucker! / A Fistful of Dynamite (Leone)
5 They Call Me Hallelujah (Carnimeo)
6 La banda J. & S. cronaca criminale del Far West (Corbucci)
7 Dead Men Ride (Florio)
8 California (Lupo)
9 The Fighting Fists of Shanghai Joe (Caiano)
10 Four of the Apocalypse (Fulci)
11 Light the Fuse…Sartana is Coming (Carnimeo)
12 Sartana’s Here… Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin (Carnimeo)
13 Cut Throats Nine (Marchent)
14 Silver Saddle (Fulci)
15 And God Said to Cain (Margheriti)
16 They Call Him Cemetery (Carnimeo)
17 Man of the East (Clucher)
18 Matalo! (Canevari)
19 Here We Go Again, eh Providence? (de Martino)
20 More dollars for the McGregors (Merino)
Only one is in my Top 20, still I have enjoyed most films on this list, some quite a lot
I haven’t seen some of the films (in a long time) mentioned by others, Have a Good funeral Sartana, Cemetery, Cut-throats Nine, Shoot the living (so still a lot to do)
I don’t like Blindman, Mannaja and 4 of the Apocalypse
Agreeing on dates is obviously going to a bit of an issue here. Two votes already for And God Said to Cain which I would have said was a 1969 film. If it is indeed 1970 it jumps into my list straight away.
Date of release was indeed 5.2.70, but the film is widely known as from 1969. I haven’t included it for that reason.
The database has Cain also as a 69 film. I propose not to include it here.
Same for these:
The Unholy Four / Chuck Mool
The Challenge of the MacKennas
Awkward Hands / Clumsy Hands
Here’s 10 for now, In no particular order apart from the first four. Done them off the top of my head so if I missed anything better off…
Companeros
Fistful of Dynamite
My name is Nobody
Blindman
Light the Fuse … Sartana’s coming
Keoma
Man called Blade
Sartana’s Here… Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin
Return of Sabata
Here we go again eh Providence
Date of release was indeed 5.2.70, but the film is widely known as from 1969. I haven’t included it for that reason.
The database has Cain also as a 69 film. I propose not to include it here.
Same for these:
The Unholy Four / Chuck Mool
The Challenge of the MacKennas
Awkward Hands / Clumsy Hands[/quote]
I think to avoid confusion we should refer to release dates: to give an example Shutter Island, unanimously considered to be a 2010 movie, was released in February just like And God Said to Cain.
Release dates of Manos Torpes/Clumsy Hands are
5/70 Spain
3/72 France
10/73 Italy The Challenge of the MacKennas
3/70 Italy
4/70 Spain
Only exception, as long as someone is willing to put it in his list, is Giunse Ringo e… fu tempo di massacro/Ringo It’s Massacre Time, since the film was released after four years but dates back to 1966.
[quote=“JonathanCorbett, post:19, topic:2778”]I think to avoid confusion we should refer to release dates: to give an example Shutter Island, unanimously considered to be a 2010 movie, was released in February just like And God Said to Cain.
Release dates of Manos Torpes/Clumsy Hands are
5/70 Spain
3/72 France
10/73 Italy The Challenge of the MacKennas
3/70 Italy
4/70 Spain
Only exception, as long as someone is willing to put it in his list, is Giunse Ringo e… fu tempo di massacro/Ringo It’s Massacre Time, since the film was released after four years but dates back to 1966.[/quote]
This seems fair to me. But raises the El Puro question again. According to Giusti it was released in 1970 in Italy and '71 in Spain. Was it released earlier elsewhere?