Spaghetti Westerns

A direct rip-off of Kurosawa but I still like it. This is where it all begins, anyway...

An improvement over Fistful of Dollars with a better score, better performances and story that is not a rip-off of a classic Japanese film.

A true film classic.

The greatest Western of all time. A masterful work.

Giant-scale epic of the disappearing West from Leone. This, his final official Western, packs quite a punch in its uncut form (the only way to see it.) James Coburn and Rod Steiger are perfect in their roles. There are many other good supporting performances in the film but Coburn and Steiger are the focus here and they are simply brilliant. By this point in his career, Leone was not interested in making a traditional western so he seems to take a cue from Sergio Corbucci's Companeros and sets the film during the early twentieth century amid the Mexican Revolution. This gives Leone a vast canvas in which to paint what is, in the end, a simple story about the emerging friendship between two men. John Woo has certainly stolen much from this film, that's for sure. I remember seeing this for the first time when I was young on television. The version screened was the edited American release and it was almost incomprehensible. What shown through, even then, was the performances, the scale and the music, a brilliant, strange work by Ennio Moriconne. Seeing the uncut version (titled "Duck, You Sucker," a line that Coburn uses throughout the film) recently was a revelation. It's truly one of Leone's great works, just behind Once Upon a Time in the West and about on the same level as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Once Upon a Time in America. Let me put it this way: if you like your spaghetti westerns to be a bit strange and experimental, you simply have to see this one in its uncut form (and now it's easy as MGM as finally released it to US dvd!) Check it out.

One of the best early Italian Westerns. Nero is perfect and Corbucci makes things dark but fun, bloody but comic-bookish and weird but never off-putting. Let me put it this way: it's better than A Fistful of Dollars but not as good as The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (and certainly not as good as Once Upon a Time in the West or Corbucci's own Companeros.) It's silly, I know, but you've got to love that coffin-dragging anti-hero. Check it out if you like Italian Westerns.

One of the all time great Italian Westerns, a gritty, violent, existential film with a great performance by Tomas Milan.

Excellent spaghetti western with a great performance from Yul Brynner. I admit that I was reluctant to check this one out (I thought to myself: "How can it be a Sabata film without Lee Van Cleef?") But, only a few minutes into the film and you've already completely forgotten about Van Cleef. Brynner's Sabata is his own and the man is definitely stylish and good. The direction is awesome, the production top-notch, the supporting performances great, the script well-thought-out and all the gadgets are cool. The only thing not up-to-snuff is the music, which is rather bland for a spaghetti western. Everything else works just great. Recommended for all spaghetti western fans...

Big and bold spaghetti western is a bit too long for the story its trying to tell (it drags in the middle section) but the opening and closing are simply great and the performances are awesome. Van Cleef has rarely been cooler and Tomas Milian emerges as a star with this one (his knife-vs-gun showdown is really, really great.) Sergio Sollima was a very good spaghetti director but he only made a couple of these films, unfortunately. The music is good but not great (as it was in the follow-up film, Run, Man, Run) and the production looks wonderful. General Western fans will like this one, too. Check it out.

One of my favorite Italian westerns; funny and violent with great performances from everyone involved. Iris Berben is the most beautiful and compelling of *all* Italian Western heroines. Corbucci's best film (but, doesn't every Corbucci fan have their own favorite?) Check it out.

*Extremely* dark Italian Western with a unique setting: a snow-covered mountain village. The music is great, the direction is (as always when we're talking about Corbucci) brilliant and the acting is perfect for the roles. Make no mistake, though, this is downbeat and dark, dark dark stuff. Check it out if you're an adventurous movie-goer.

Big, bold and sometimes outrageous late entry in the Spaghetti Western genre. Nero, Strode and Berger are excellent, as always, and the music you're either going to love or tear your hair out in hatred for it. I, for one, enjoyed it. It's violent and weird, although the plot is not exactly original. No matter, that's not what Spaghetti Westerns are about, anyway. Enzo G Castellari was one of the more experimental and strange spag directors and this is his best...

Goofy, interesting western from Fulci (is it me or did ALL Italian genre filmmakers eventually make a western?) has a plot that doesn't make a lick of sense, a good cast and some really gruesome moments here and there. Like all Fulci films, the female lead is humiliated along the way but we are treated to a simply great performance from Tomas Milon for compensation(although he's not in it as much as one would hope.) Anyway, it's not a bad Italian western at all, it's just... a bit nonsensical and stupid at times (what's with the ending with that dog? I found myself actually laughing at that moment, when one should be devastated by all the senseless tragedy.) Check it out if you're a Fulci or Italian Western fan...

Extremely entertaining spaghetti western nonsense from one of the masters, Sergio Corbucci. Ol' Burt is quite young here and is good, although he doesn't yet have the acting chops that we've all come to know and love. Nicoletta Machiavelli is sexy and tough in the lead female role and the music is perfection (you'll recognize it from lifted tracks that QT used for Kill Bill, vol 2.) The film is a fast-paced, revenge-based western that is never slow but is never deep. It's all complete trash, of course, but good trash that is perfectly watchable and is, to be honest, a total blast. Now, will someone PLEASE release a nice, widescreen version on DVD in the US and save us all from the cheap, budget DVDs that the film has been released on...

Big, fun and violent spaghetti western with a good music score and a great lead performance from Lee Van Cleef. This is not one of the great spaghetti westerns but it's a good, lively entry from a period when the genre was just beginning to fade out. It would hang around for a few more years, certainly, but something had been lost by this point. Anyway, this is a good one, diverting and cool. I enjoyed it. Check it out...

Awesome spaghetti western with great performances from Van Cleef and John Philip Law in the leads. The opening rape/massacre sequence is actually quite horrifying in its simplicity and, therefore, the revenge-based plot works like gangbusters. The music is awesome and the photography is amazing. Here's one to get an imported DVD of (if, of course, you have the capability to watch them.) MGM has released nice versions of the film on DVD in Germany, Australia and the UK. Check it out and avoid the version offered on budget US DVDs...

Exciting, invigorating "political" spaghetti western from Corbucci. Nero, Palance, Ralli and Fajardo are great, while Musante is a bit lost and not really convincing. He's not bad just not very good, either. The music is great, the photography is excellent and the plot is solid. Available (in horrible pan & scan quality) on numerous cheap DVD compilations under the title "A Professional Gun." Check it out.