Corbucci and Leone are the face of the spaghetti western. They have cemented their legacy in, not just the genre, but in film forever. What a great list of westerns.
You see, in this world there's two kinds of people: those who call "The Good the Bad and The Ugly" the best, and those who choose "Once Upon a Time in the West". 🙂
It's back and forth for me. 6 months out of the year I'll boast that G,B&U is the best western/movie ever made. The other half of the year I'll go down guns blazing defending Once Upon a Time... I can't imagine anyone else playing Harmonica other than Bronson. But if Clint Eastwood had taken the part like Sergio intended we woulda had 'The Dollars Saga' and an incredible backstory for the Man with no name...
All great films. My favorite line in the "Good, bad and the ugly " was when Eli Wallach's character was taking a bath and he blasted that one armed bounty hunter. "If you got to shoot, shoot ! Don't talk". Lol. 🤣😂
I love the list but my personal fave is "Keoma " with Franco Nero. Dark, eerie, hopeless and simply a masterpiece. Number 2 is "The great silence ". The older I became, the more I loved it.
How can you have so many other films on a top ten. No way could you replace 5 of them, but a few of your choices could be on this list. Its a decent top ten, maybe you could post an alternative top ten that you like.
Aside from Leone's westerns, "The Great Silence" is probably my favorite! Love Corbucci and I love Klaus Kinski as the bounty hunter Loco!! A fantastic film without the Hollywood ending you would expect from an American movie!
Besides the two more famous Sergios of Spaghetti Westerns, Sergio Sollima has made intriguing westerns, The Big Gundown (1967), Face to Face (1967) and Corri uomo corri(1968). I have watched The Big Gundown; two more to go!
I own an Italian made ‘conversion’ revolver called The Man With No Name pistol. It shoots.38 special cartridges and is a copy of Tuco’s Colt Navy in the Good The Bad and the Ugly. So fun to shoot!
I absolutely agree with your top four pics. The two dollar trilogy movies had the best cast of villains of all time. Gian Maria Volonte and his gang of outlaws really sealed the deal on those two. Another entertaining spaghetti western not mentioned is 'Get Mean', featuring Tony Anthony, worth checking out.
I think both are better than Django for example.....i also think The grand duel is so underrated....plus many other....You cant win em all with Charles Bronson is also a western in my opinion and is great......
"A Fistful of Dynamite" actually opened in theaters as "Duck, You Sucker!". At least, that was the title I saw it under! I suspect that somebody decided to try attracting more viewers by sticking "a fistful of...' into the title, to give the impression that it tied in to the trilogy
"Death Rides a Horse" could make this list, and if you want to go deep and see about the very last Spaghetti Western made, check out "Keoma" with Franco Nero! It's very good and very strange! Go really deep and watch "Requiescant" (Kill and Pray), which is also incredibly good! Lee Van Cleef in "Captain Apache" is a hoot of a movie, with a nice 60s acid trip sequence that Io love watching!
GREAT list. Of course, it's hard to nail them all down in just a Top Ten List, but this IS a start. I love the Sabata and Sartana films as well. LVC is just a badass all around, and Gianni Garko rules
I loved 'Django', in fact it's difficult to make a top 10 list as we are likely to miss out many like : The Five Man Army, Kill them all and come back alone, Death rides a horse, Sabata...
You know your westernes. Definetely “ kill them all and return alone”. The two Terence hill westerns should not be there. “ Apocalipse Joe” with the great Anthony Steffen worth watching. Before Clint Eastwood there was the great Anthony Steffen
My favorite western and easily one of my favorite moves is "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly." I didn't know it was so highly ranked. Also, I love the score.
Ironically, “The Man with no Name” has a name...it’s “Joe”....:he’s actually called Joe several times in the film. He also had other names too in the dollars trilogy....Like “Manco” in “For a few Dollars more”....I guess being “The Man with no Name” added more mystery to the overall character. The movie “Fist Fistful of Dollars” loosely connects “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” as many people say his Poncho is found/seen. I love and crave finding Spaghetti westerns that come close to most that you mentioned.......one that never gets much praise is “Death Rides a Horse”.....to me that’s I classic in itself and has an amazing score too. Musically Ennio Marricone is an absolute master and IMO just as important as Sergio Leone in his own right. “Once upon a Time in the West is my clear fav”
I just assumed that they called him Joe because they didn't know his name. "Joe" is often used as a placeholder name, like saying "guy" or "fella" - "Jack" would be another example. The phrase "average Joe" or "Joe College" springs to mind - it doesn't mean they're talking about some guy literally named Joe.
Death rides a horse, by Giulio Petroni can also be considered a masterpiece. Exceptional direction, montage, photography and soundtrack. Ache Da uomo a uomo di Giulio Petroni puo assere considerato un capolavoro. Regia, montaggio, fotografia e colonna sonora eccezionali.
The nr.1 is well deserved. Simply because you can watch 180 minutes and a day later - you watch it again. Also it has so many great quotes that even the nr.2 looks small to it.
Unforgettable, the hanging scene visualised throughout 'Once upon a time in the west'. It's showing the little brother, still naïve, with the older brother on his shoulder. The older brother not seeming himself a very good guy, you can see how much his small brother adores him - thinking he can make it, facing the evil of the world. The older brother was not fleshed out more than in this one elaborated scene, nevertheless plays a big role, at least in the heart of his small brother. The emotion of that scene is much stronger than the ultimate release when the boy, now a man, kills the bad guy (as in the end of all films of this kind).
From They Call me Trinity I paraphrase the Bambino line "I don't hate you I hate our mother for not drowning you when you were born" all the time, also "makes you feel almost human doesn't it"
I guess every Western fan would sign this list. My only personal remark would be that I would switch out 'Compañeros' for 'The Mercenary', the gritty version of the same story also by Corbucci, and instead of 'My Name is Nobody' ,that I think is more average , I would put 'A Bullet for the General', one of my favorite Zapata Westerns. Two other ones I really love but which quality and budget is clearly below these 10 are 'Black Jack' and 'Forgotten Pistolero'
I think companeros better than the mercenary...I meant they got Jack Palance, Thomas Millian and Franco. Tony Musante wasn''t on par compared to Thomas Milian
"The good the bad and the ugly" is certainly the most popular, but for sheer mastery of cinematic beauty and absolute grandeur, nothing compares to "Once upon a time in the west" .. and that is coming from someone who is addicted to "The good, the bad, and the ugly".
I'd place Once Upon a time in the West at 1. Also, I liked "For a Few Dollars More ". I enjoyed the Van Cleef team up more than I did the Wallach team up with Eastwood.
My personal favorite, is ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST. Films that I really think should replace some of the others here on the list are, BULLIT FOR THE GENERAL., THE BIG GUNDOWN, and KEOMA.
A Fistful of Dynamite/Duck You Sucker doesn't really feel like a Wild West Western to me. Coburn rides around on a motorcycle, and a motorcar in the Irish scenes. Still a great movie, however! 🎶Shum, shum, shum 🎶
I have a long standing deep rooted love of They Call me Trinity & the sequel Trinity Is Still My Name. I think they were just brilliant. But other than Seven Samurai, I don't think many films in any genre top the feats of The Good, The Bad & The Ugly. That film was gorgeous to look at. Amazing to listen to. It oozed charisma, style & class. The lines of dialogue that you can remember are many and truly unforgettable. John Wayne ain't fit to clean the mud off Eastwoods boots. Lee Van Cleefs also, for that matter. The dynamic between these three Eastwood, Van Cleef & Wallach, was DYNAMITE. So well written, and acted. A sheer behemoth of film making.
Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Westerns with the signature Ennio Morricone scores are the best Westerns period by anyone: 1. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) 2. Once Upon A Time in the West (1968) 3. For a Few Dollars More (1965) 4. A Fistful of Dollars (1964) 5. Duck, You Sucker (1971)
No The Big Gundown? And no Death Rides A Horse? (Which is my all-time favorite!) Anyway as I always say..... "If it's not a spaghetti, it ain't a western". Thanks!
The dollars trilogy is actually my favourite trilogy in this genre, not only because their considered masterpieces but they are actually my favourites in different ways, a fistful of dollars being my favourite western in general, for a few dollars more being my favourite sequel to a western that involves robbery, and the good the bad and the ugly being my favourite western set during the civil war, does anyone have any opinions on my comment?
The good the bad the ugly was very good I just thought the stare down was a little too long. I understand the development of the tension but at a certain point you’re just like “ok we get it just draw”
Top 4 I can't argue with, but I'd have Giulio Questi's DJANGO KILL (aka If you live, shoot) on the list. Sometimes described as 'gunfighters on acid' its wonderfully barking. Part Spaghetti Western, part Hammer Horror, it starts with the "hero" clawing his way out of a grave and includes scalping, vampire bats, talking drunk parrots and a bandit called Zorro. 😁
0:35 -- RE: Django, "... despite its relatively low ranking on this list [at number 10]..." ; another way of looking at this is, Django is the Low Bar that all others have to get over and buddy, that's not really a Low Bar, considering the production budget and the value they got out of it.
Great list. I would replace Duck You Sucker/Fistful of Dynamite and My Name Is Nobody in the list with Day of Anger and The Big Gundown. Two Lee Van Cleef westerns.
Yes, "Tgtbatu" has inflluenced American filmmakers perhaps because it was the only film of the trilogy made primarily for America while carrying all the hallmarks of Leone's filmmaking which was so different from the American westerns of the time, but if one were to independently watch and judge the dollars trilogy shutting out all the noise around, I believe most people would conclude that, as a movie, "For a few dollars more" is the best of the three. While Tgtbatu feels like a series of loosely stitched events, Fafdm actually has a greatly engaging and emotionally very satisfying plot running through it. Leone improves upon his skill from making the film that started it all, Fafod. The protagonist played by Van Cleef and the antagonist played by Maria Volonte are at the top of their game. The movie sets, the cinematography, and the staple of Leone's films - Morricone's score, top it all off beautifully. ... And of all Leone's films, the greatest in my oponion is "Once upon a time the West" for pretty much the same reasons.
A Bullet for the General and Sabata would be on my list. I'd also try to sneak El Topo on to the list, even though its a Mexican film so not a true Spaghetti Western.
For a Few Dollars More, my all time favourite with my favourite actor LVC! Also I thought Woody Strode was great in Boot Hill, the guy looks like a complete bad ass!
There many more to chose from like Run Man Run and Keoma. I think when they switched into comedy besides the ones you mentioned it ruined the genre. I think spaghetti western was while it was best a fresh take on genre that really needed a boost.
Very nice collection n selection.Would have been better if u have consider some movies like Death Rides a Horse,Sabata n Arizona Colt.Very confused n complicated task to select 10 out of 200!
Compañeros to me is still way way better than The Mercenary. It's just that way more fun of a remake. The only thing good about The Mercenary is the grand finale duel at the arena.
My Top 10 would be the following, I still have others I want to see and maybe see again, but I did not like The Great Silence & Keoma as much & Sabata also just missed out. 10 - Face to Face 9 - The Big Gundown 8 - A Fistful of Dynamite 7 - Django 6 - Day of Anger 5 - Death Rides A Horse 4 - A Fistful of Dollars 3 - For A Few Dollars More 2 - Once Upon A Time In The West 1 - The Good The Bad & The Ugly
