What is aSpaghetti Westerns

[TheRover]

What is a Spaghetti Westerns?? Is It different from a regular western movie??

[andyovan]

They were westerns usually produced or Directed by Italians.

There are five essential movies if you are interested in seeing.

"Fistful of Dollars"-Clint Eastwood
"For a few Dollars More"-Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef
"The Good, The Bad and the Ugly"-Eastwood, Cleef and Eli Wallach
"Once Upon a Time in the West"- Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson
"Fistful of Dynamite" James Coburn and Rod Steiger


They are all directed by Sergio Leone.

I

[rudolph]

Interesting question... It's the inspiration for ultra-violence films like Desperado and Last Man Standing. Unlike the American westerns which are nothing more than a drama in a different time setting, it focusses more on action and violence exploitation. A guy would walk into a bar and shoot down 10 guys on his own, that type of thing. The stories are usually very simple revenge plots, or convoluted Asia-like plots. They are very psycological by nature, featuring a tortured character(s) who has lost someone. These films are just great all-round!

[Sinople]

Don't forget Django movies. Franco Nero rocks.

[mcentepede]

Can't remember if it's a Spaghetti western or not, but "Days of Wrath" with Lee Van Cleef is excellent, also to note...The theme song in the beginning of the movie has been lifted by many Kung Fu movies. The movie is just that good. Action, Gunplay, betrayal, and lots of deaths.

[sharpei]

also, I think most were shot in the Almeria desert in Spain

[Spirito Santo]

"Days of Wrath" ("I Giorni dell'Ira" AKA "Day of Anger") is definitely a spaghetti western. It was made in 1967 by Tonino Valerii and stars spaghetti stalwarts Lee Van Cleef ("For a Few Dollars More", "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", "Sabata") and Giuliano Gemma (most famous for the "Ringo" films).
It was also the film that "The 7 Commandments of Kung Fu" was based on.
It's not just the soundtracks of spaghetti westerns that found their way into old school kung fu films,"Shaolin Kingboxer", for example, is a remake of "For a Few Dollars More".
Tonino Valerii also directed other spaghetti classics like "The Price of Power" (with Giuliano Gemma), "A Reason to Live, a Reason to Die", and the Sergio Leone produced "My Name is Nobody".
If you've not seen them already, a good place to start on the spaghettis might be cross-over films like "The Stranger and the Gunfighter/Blood Money" with Lee Van Cleef and Lo Lieh and the "Shanghai Joe" films with Chen Lee.
Another must see is Ferdinando Baldi's Zatoichi-influenced "Blindman" starring Tony Anthony and, believe it or not, Ringo Starr...

[venom mob]

These are worth a look as well...

A Fistful of Death (aka Giu La Testa...Hombre) (1971 - Miles Deem)

A Man Called Blade (aka Mannaja) (1977 - Sergio Martino)

Faccia A Faccia (aka Face to Face) (By Sergio Sollima)

The Bounty Killer (aka El Precio De Un Hombre) (1966 - Eugenio Martin)

Boot Hill (1969 - Giuseppe Collizi)

Have a Good Funeral, My Friend...Sartana Will Pay! (aka Buon Funerale, Amigos!...Paga Sartana) (1970 - Anthony Ascott)

They Call Me Trinity (1971 - Enzo Barboni)

Trinity is Still My Name (1971 - Enzo Barboni)

There's a Noose Waiting For You...Trinity! (1972 - George Martin)

I'll Sell My Skin Dearly (aka Vendo Cara La Pelle) (1968 - Ettore Maria Fizzarotti)

Sartana in the Valley of Death (1970 - Roberto Mauri)

[ninjai]

Are these movies any good, I just ordered some Spagetti Westerns and I wolud like some info on the Django movies.

Ninjai

[magic8]

Spaghetti Westerns are basically any non-Hollywood (usually Italian--ergo the name) movie using the Western as a genre to tell its story. Some are very good and others quite dreadful, depends on your taste any such. Here's a short list of some of the most noted spaghetti westerns around.

Sergio Leone the spaghetti western master:
Once Upon A Time in The West (one of the best!)
The man with no-name trilogy (The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More)
Tonino Valerii and Sergio Leone: My Name is Nobody
Sergio Corbucci: The Great Silence, Django
Enzo G. Castellari: Keoma
Lucio Fulci: Four of the Apocalyspe
Sergio Martino: A Man Called Blade
Enzo Barboni: My Name is Trinity
Mario Caiano: Shanghai Joe

[ninjai]

Magic8 I'm familiar with Spagetti Westerns just some of the movies I'm not, I have all of Sergio Leone's I'm a big fan of his, I just want some tips on the other ones, Thanks.

[magic8]

I love all the Leone spaghetti westerns. They are an aquired taste 'cause I really don't like many of the others. I do think Shanghai Joe, My Name is Nobody and My Name is Trinity are a lot of fun, but many are down and out bummers. Check out The Great Silence and you'll know what I mean. One of the most downbeat endings in any western. Many Italian westerns are also fly-by-night productions, where the budget and the acting fall short of expectations. There are a few gems in the rough but you gotta find them. Again, just depends on what you like. Many love Django and Keoma, but if you don't lke Nero, then you're in trouble. I generally prefer those films with Kinski as one of the characters. His face is so expressive, and he's in many spaghetti jobs. ;)

[Spirito Santo]

There are maybe 30 or 40 Django westerns, depending on where you draw the line as to what makes the list - many of them were just re-titled in certain countries (particularly Germany and France) to cash in on the success of Sergio Corbucci's original film.
The one that started it all with Franco Nero, released in 1966, has become legendary, mostly due to the fact that it was banned for years in many countries because of its graphic violence (particularly the infamous scene where a man is forced to eat his own ear after it has been cut off). It was also the Italian western that really established death-related imagery (coffins, crosses, etc) in the genre. It is often described as 'gothic'. Anyone interested in Italowesterns simply has to see this film - the scene in the mud-drenched street where Django reveals what he keeps in his coffin is a classic.
The only official sequel, DJANGO 2: IL GRANDE RITORNO/DJANGO STRIKES AGAIN, wasn't made until over 20 years later. It stars Franco Nero again but that's about the only similarity - it's not even really a western as it deals with a psychotic butterfly collector on a boat in South America.
As I say, most Django films are just average Eurowesterns which were renamed to make them seem more interesting.
Other unofficial sequels worth mentioning are Giulio Questi's DJANGO KILL (1967) a bizarre, surreal, trippy, violent western that has to be seen rather than described to fully appreciate. Tomas Milian uses gold bullets and the locals (the town is rightly called "The Unhappy Place")
fight between themselves to dig the bullets out of one unfortunate victim while he is still alive - although not for long...
Add to that a gang of gay sadistic bandits, and you're just scratching the surface. One deeply weird western.
Another worth mentioning is DJANGO THE BASTARD/ STRANGERS GUNDOWN with Anthony Steffen. Steffen plays a ghostly Django returned from the grave to avenge a Civil War massacre. He appears to his victims with crosses bearing their names and date of death (usually that same day). It's generally considered as the inspiration for Clint Eastwood's HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER.
Of the rest VIVA DJANGO/GET A COFFIN READY, with Terence Hill as Django, is probably closest to the original in style.
All of these are currently available on DVD either from Blue Underground, Anchor Bay or VCI.