The Italian cinematography, the score, the screenplay, the directing had a greater effect on movie making than any other influence ever. It resonates today. The wide screen shot, the up close face shot, the pace, the tension. Italians had it all in the bag.
THIS is exactly why a dominant Hollywood nowadays is bad for everyone. Just imagine all the innovative movies and techniques that are unknown or never invented because the industry to support them doesn't exist.
Awesome! My own personal "spaghetti" western top 10: 1. Once Upon A Time In The West 2. The Good, The Bad and the Ugly 3. The Great Silence 4. For A Few Dollars More 5. Companeros 6. Death Rides A Horse 7. Fistful of Dollars 8. My Name is Nobody/Day of Anger (Same director, Henry Fonda rules, so does Terrence Hill and Lee Van Cleef) 9. Django (1966 original) 10. Navajo Joe Basically a mix of Leone and Corbucci with Petroni and Valerii mixed in. There are too many of these to track down and watch, but spaghetti westerns most definitely added to the western genre; often times deconstructing some myth's in the process. Though I still hold that John Ford truly started the deconstruction of the western myth's and is often cited as a huge influence on the Italian directors. John Ford is also one of my favorite directors ever.
Kind of funny that it took European cinema to make the American western not just more gritty but far more realistic and believable. The cast were more complicated and it was no longer a case of spotlessly clean good guy cowboy in white doing good whilst the bad cowboy is immaculately clothed in a black cowboy outfit.
Your assessment of American westerns is too simplistic to be valid. Symbolism is present in every film genre. Judging such a wide body of work based on those intellectually lazy stereotypes is a cop out. Italian and America cinema, regardless of genre, are similar in the sense that 90% of all films are not very good. Maybe 9% range from above average to excellent. The tiny minority left over is where the true brilliance of the medium resides. Most Spaghetti westerns are crap, just like most American westerns. They offer the audience nothing terribly profound or complicated. Although that doesn't mean they can't be enjoyable. The better Italian westerns do have a truly unique and sometimes fascinating style to them. But does that in itself make them better? That's up to the viewer. As much as I like The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly for example, it doesn't even come close to touching films like The Searchers, Rio Bravo, or Shane.
@@BULL.173 I'm not Talking about all American westerns, and obviously i'm not talking about every European made movie as most are terrible, i'm talking about American westerns made before Leone's 'A Fistful of Dollars', that's why my comment is right below a documentary on this very subject. Western's like Sergio Leone's have characters who have layers and dimensions to their personality and the clothing and locations are more realistic of the time period. I'm not saying anything new. movies like Shane, High Noon, or The Searchers were great movies for their time, Shane and The Big Country are favourites of mine but its telling that American Westerns made since the 1960's look far more like Leone's films than any of the one's you mention. Hell even John Wayne within a few years was playing Rooster Cogburn a crooked, immoral, drunken lawman known for being violent and a thief in True Grit whilst The Wild Bunch is bloody, dirty and the cast have many different personalities. Watch the likes of Django Unchained or The Revenant and they more resemble a Leone spaghetti western than they do any movie you mentioned.
@@1969JohnnyM Gotcha, sorry about that. I see what you mean. You're also pretty much spot on too. The look, feel, and sensibility of films like The Wild Bunch, Unforgiven, etc. probably do owe more to Leone than say John Ford or Howard Hawks. But then there are those somewhat unique specimens like the Costner film Open Range. It's gritty and goes for realism. But it also manages to hang on to simple but lofty virtues of old school westerns. It's not great but I like the way the film carries itself.
Director Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy is one of the greatest movie trilogies of all time. Quentin Tarantino called The Good, The Bad & The Ugly "the best directed movie ever", and it's not hard to see why. Top notch performances from all of the main cast, especially Eli Wallach who played Tuco. My favourite moment from the whole trilogy is the classic Mexican stand off between Blondie (the Good), Angel Eyes (the Bad) and Tuco (the Ugly). And who can forget the iconic music by Ennio Morricone?
Italian producers: “ we don’t like the fact that the movies we make are called spaghetti western, these are Italian western movies... Narrator: “ the spaghetti western....”
The Italian journalist Alfonso Sancha labeled the genre as "Spaghetti Western'. There'll always be someone offended, no matter what, so why whine about it?
Thank you so much for uploading. Seeing a docu discussing more than just Leone and Eastwood is refreshing. It's so cool to see behind the scenes footage of Lee Van Cleef.
You're welcome. If you like Lee Van Cleef, check out the Master Ninja episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Ic5OlGtVq1g.html
Trey Blythe Oh yeah, I've seen the first MST3K of Master Ninja, but I couldn't make it through the second one, the MN series itself was just so lame! lol I'll have to try again though, for Lee's sake.
Sad that the comments about Trinity are kinda disrespectful - Carlo and Mario (or Bud and Terence, as they are better known) are ICONS AND LEGENDS, "They call me Trinity" and "They still call me Trinity" are two of the most successful italian movies EVER!
Thank u to my dad for introducing me to Spaghetti Western: "A Fistful of Dollars", "The Good The Bad & The Ugly", "For a Few Dollars More", & "Django". I remember my dad letting me watch late night movies like these with him when I was a little. & of course, d legendary director(for me) Segio Leone. :-)
The television in Italy started in 50's but during mid 70's it was very powerful with good tv series and shows. That was destructive to the Italian cinema and spaghetti westerns. That it is not mentioned. During early 80's the first video cassette players was affordable to anyone and that was the last nail on the coffin of Italian cinema industry.
Thanks for the video.Spaghetti westerns and shaw Brothers Chinese Kung fu films were similar in that they pushed the limits of violence and absurdity in a good way.The one armed swordsmen killed over 100 men in the final bridge scene. Not likely but fun.
I agree. There's a mystique about both genres, the surrealism, the old camera images, the beautiful nature locations, the absurdity on the plot, there's a dreamy quality in those a sphagetti westerns and Shaw Kung Fu movies
Off the Hook documentary, The Man with No Name and The Genera of the atmospheric western era in these films inspired games and comic characters example: Red Dead Redemption part 1 and 2, Letha Enforcers 2 the Gunfighters, Sunset Riders, Mad Dog Macree 1 and 2, JONAH HEXXXX DC Comic Western Character Molded from the Man with no Name Attitude-And the list goes on.
At the 39:00 minute mark, Sergio Sollima states that he invented the western character who uses a knife instead of a gun. Saying that it wasn't Leone nor was it an American idea, solely his. But he is wrong, John Sturges did it first in the Magnificent Seven with James Coburn's character.
Nope, That's a misconception Solima with "his invention" was meaning using the knife (cheap weapon) as a representation of the "social class" of the protagonist, so not like the American western hero with guns
11:45 Clint's fond of telling this story however he's muddying the facts regarding the restriction against shooting someone in the same frame without an edit. The Hays Code spanned 1930-1968 although High Noon came out in 1952, just one example of Hollywood cowboys busting caps into each other in the same frame long before Sergio ever took a camera crew to Spain with Clint Eastwood.
I often wonder if Alex Cox ( who obviously knows his subject) ever actually just enjoys a movie.He uses all kinds of words and clever phrases to DESCRIBE a movie but never says whether he enjoyed it.
@25.00 Alex Cox talking about The great silence the best spaghetti western ever made. I love it cos the villains win. There is no way that film would be made in Hollywood or LALA land as the censor would not allow it. I am still laughing at a Peter Kaye joke from Phoenix nights.Two guys are talking about a infamous dole (unemployment) scrounger who got a job at the local cinema and got sacked. He was spelling out the star's name in the latest film starring clint eastwood but was fired for putting the l and the i in his name to close together. CLINT !!!!
Excellent but i wish they also commented on all the brave talented stunt men that contributed, we only hear about the directors and actors...yes some actors also did stunts like horseback riding but there were many amazing scenes that these actors couldn't/shouldn't try.
@@TreyBlythe thanks for commenting, i would think including a few interviews of the stunt men that contributed would fit into the scope nicely, since without them most these films would be drab and unbelievable.
they say the spaghetti western killed American westerns....I don't think they had to, I just don't think the American studios were up to the job anymore The Good the Bad and the Ugly should have been a CHALLENGE to American cinema
And it was, Once Upon a Time in the West as well, just watch the amercian western of the 70's, like High Plains Drifter, Missouri Breaks, etcetera, they were all copying the spaghetti aesthetic
9:52 the second director says Clint Eastwood didn't mix with them because he didn't speak Italian, and then it shows Clint Eastwood shooting people without a word 😂
Lee was great in "For a few dollars more" but he was iconic in "the good, the bad, the ugly". I wish they had different actors in these trillogy and kept Clint like they did. When I watch "For a few dollars more" I kind of accept the thought that it's Angel Eyes and Blondie working together, but it's not, it's two different characters.
John Price Price Franco nero had a cameo in django unchained he's the guy that asks django if he can spell his name and when django says the d is silent nero says "I know"
That's how film contracts worked back in the days, you weren't just an actor you were a product to promote a specific brand, he was under contract for 8 years.
Alex delarge hateful 8 is terrible , considering the budget Tarantino would have had and he uses one wooden hut to film the whole movie in, total boring rubbish, the Spaghetti westerns which Tarantino rips off or tries to are far more stylish and entertaining than anything he's done, Hats off to those great Italian directors of an age gone they truly were a Masters of there craft, and it wasn't just Leone and Corbucci, there were at least 10-20 directors with superb talent.
Tarantino doesn't understand the heavy catholic undertones and symbolism in Italian Western, maybe because he doesn't have a religious background. The Italians also saw the eccentricity of Mexican culture, it was something very exotic for them who live far away from the continent, and they re-imagined it in their own way. Almost all spaghetti westerns are set in the American-Mexican borders because they loved the enculturation between American and Mexican culture, and Mexico being a predominantly Catholic nation fits better into the religious undertones SW directors were trying to create. These are the two important spaghetti western traits that American directors have absolutely no grasp of.
Hmm, well if Sergio Leone had made a better film than say....Rio Bravo, The Searchers, or Red River I might be inclined to take his criticism of Duke Wayne seriously. But he never did, so therefore I do not.
I put Once Upon a Time in the West at higher regard than these John Ford movies, as much as i love Ford's cinema and i know he was a huge influence on Leone, i think the student surpassed the master.
Django was intelligent if you watch the original Italian dub with subtitles, the Italian script and dialogue were clever and poetic. The English dub was completely (and terribly) re-written turning it into a poor action movie.
cantthinkofaname7395 I haven’t yet seen the Italian dub, but even in the bad English dub there’s still much of the excellence and violence of the movie
I enjoyed this but it makes me mad that they totally excluded face to face 1967 because they have the great director sollima defending himself about politics because he made the best movie ever.... but here in Am.erica you can't be😅 telling the truth about government backed Pinkerton's killing sheriff's . I call bullshit....and the big gundown was also better than Leone's crap if you see directors cuts and not the cut splices of crap prevented to Americans from sollima direction. I'm drunk pissed off and correct. Faccia🎉😢😊😮 a faccia 67 big gundown 66 best westerns ever made period if uncut
"...Italy had been increasingly tied to the West" ? Please, let us not flaunt American ignorance. Some discretion, at least. 🙂 Nevertheless, a good documentary!
