Just as necessity is the mother of invention, the constraints of low-budget filmmaking often produce comprises that yield unpredicted rewards. In 1964, Sergio Leone was searching for an American actor to headline his new western "The Magnificent Stranger," an unofficial but unapologetic remake of Akira Kurosawa´s "Yojimbo." The role was first offered to Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson, but neither actor was willing to accept the relative pittance of $15,000 to travel all the way to shoot, of all things, an Italian Western. Fortunately, a young hunk named Clint Eastwood, better known to audiences as Rowdy Yates, had an opening in his television schedule. Eastwood was eager to make the leap to the big screen, but his contract forbade him from acting in films in America. Clint seized the opportunity and soon became "The Man With No Name," and "The Magnificent Stranger" became "A Fistful of Dollars."
The film stamped the template for hundreds of Italian Westerns that shortly followed and would eventually be know (perhaps disparagingly) as Spaghetti Westerns. "The Spaghetti West," an IFC documentary directed by David Gregory, chronicles the short but very happy life of the Spaghetti Western. Sergio Leone receives his proper due, but the documentary also turns its attention to other directors such as Sergio Corbucci, Sergio Sollima and just about anybody else named Sergio.
Running just under an hour, the program can´t possibly provide a comprehensive overview of this unique and enduring genre, and Gregory wisely avoids an effort to cover all the bases. Instead, he uses several films as anchors to discuss the evolution of the Spaghetti Western. Leone and Eastwood set the standard for early films with the enigmatic and taciturn loner serving as protagonist, and intentionally muddled morality which served as a sharp stick-in-the-eye to Hollywood notions of good and bad defined just as clearly as the white or black hats worn by its characters.
In 1966, Corbucci came along with "Django" (1966) which put a gothic horror twist on Leone´s generative work, and further heightened the exaggerated, cartoonish style of the Spaghetti West with its distorted angles and kinetic editing. "Django" sprouted a seemingly endless list of imitators, most of which had nothing to do with Corbucci´s film save for the use of the name Django. This was a common trend in Italian cinema at the time; any new commercial success instantly spawned numerous attempts to cash in on the craze which, come to think of it, is really no different than 21st century Hollywood. The flood of product both helped to solidify the identity of the Spaghetti Western, and soon brought about its downfall, as audiences became tired of derivative works which had few distinguishing features save for the constant escalation of violence and blurred morality.
Even the exploitative Spaghetti Western wasn´t immune to social upheavals and as the revolutionary years of 1967 and 1968 rolled around, the genre began to produce heroes who weren´t just self-serving loners, but also represented causes and fought for the common man. After this stab at social significance, the Spaghetti Western began to falter and quickly running out of ideas, turned into a parody of itself, especially with some of the "Trinity" films beginning with Enzo Barboni´s "They Call Me Trinity."
Other films covered in the documentary are Corbucci´s "The Great Silence" (1968), identified by director Alex Cox as one of the greatest and most underappreciated Spaghetti Westerns and "Django Kill!" (1967), one of the truly demented and ultra-violent films of Giulio Questi. The program devotes obligatory attention to composer Ennio Morricone and provides some sparse stylistic analysis, but the focus is almost exclusively historical. "The Spaghetti West" is a satisfying and entertaining documentary that is accessible to all audiences.
The film stamped the template for hundreds of Italian Westerns that shortly followed and would eventually be know (perhaps disparagingly) as Spaghetti Westerns. "The Spaghetti West," an IFC documentary directed by David Gregory, chronicles the short but very happy life of the Spaghetti Western. Sergio Leone receives his proper due, but the documentary also turns its attention to other directors such as Sergio Corbucci, Sergio Sollima and just about anybody else named Sergio.
Running just under an hour, the program can´t possibly provide a comprehensive overview of this unique and enduring genre, and Gregory wisely avoids an effort to cover all the bases. Instead, he uses several films as anchors to discuss the evolution of the Spaghetti Western. Leone and Eastwood set the standard for early films with the enigmatic and taciturn loner serving as protagonist, and intentionally muddled morality which served as a sharp stick-in-the-eye to Hollywood notions of good and bad defined just as clearly as the white or black hats worn by its characters.
In 1966, Corbucci came along with "Django" (1966) which put a gothic horror twist on Leone´s generative work, and further heightened the exaggerated, cartoonish style of the Spaghetti West with its distorted angles and kinetic editing. "Django" sprouted a seemingly endless list of imitators, most of which had nothing to do with Corbucci´s film save for the use of the name Django. This was a common trend in Italian cinema at the time; any new commercial success instantly spawned numerous attempts to cash in on the craze which, come to think of it, is really no different than 21st century Hollywood. The flood of product both helped to solidify the identity of the Spaghetti Western, and soon brought about its downfall, as audiences became tired of derivative works which had few distinguishing features save for the constant escalation of violence and blurred morality.
Even the exploitative Spaghetti Western wasn´t immune to social upheavals and as the revolutionary years of 1967 and 1968 rolled around, the genre began to produce heroes who weren´t just self-serving loners, but also represented causes and fought for the common man. After this stab at social significance, the Spaghetti Western began to falter and quickly running out of ideas, turned into a parody of itself, especially with some of the "Trinity" films beginning with Enzo Barboni´s "They Call Me Trinity."
Other films covered in the documentary are Corbucci´s "The Great Silence" (1968), identified by director Alex Cox as one of the greatest and most underappreciated Spaghetti Westerns and "Django Kill!" (1967), one of the truly demented and ultra-violent films of Giulio Questi. The program devotes obligatory attention to composer Ennio Morricone and provides some sparse stylistic analysis, but the focus is almost exclusively historical. "The Spaghetti West" is a satisfying and entertaining documentary that is accessible to all audiences.
Just as necessity is the mother of invention, the constraints of low-budget filmmaking often produce comprises that yield unpredicted rewards. In 1964, Sergio Leone was searching for an American actor to headline his new western "The Magnificent Stranger," an unofficial but unapologetic remake of Akira Kurosawa´s "Yojimbo." The role was first offered to Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson, but neither actor was willing to accept the relative pittance of $15,000 to travel all the way to shoot, of all things, an Italian Western. Fortunately, a young hunk named Clint Eastwood, better known to audiences as Rowdy Yates, had an opening in his television schedule. Eastwood was eager to make the leap to the big screen, but his contract forbade him from acting in films in America. Clint seized the opportunity and soon became "The Man With No Name," and "The Magnificent Stranger" became "A Fistful of Dollars."
The film stamped the template for hundreds of Italian Westerns that shortly followed and would eventually be know (perhaps disparagingly) as Spaghetti Westerns. "The Spaghetti West," an IFC documentary directed by David Gregory, chronicles the short but very happy life of the Spaghetti Western. Sergio Leone receives his proper due, but the documentary also turns its attention to other directors such as Sergio Corbucci, Sergio Sollima and just about anybody else named Sergio.
Running just under an hour, the program can´t possibly provide a comprehensive overview of this unique and enduring genre, and Gregory wisely avoids an effort to cover all the bases. Instead, he uses several films as anchors to discuss the evolution of the Spaghetti Western. Leone and Eastwood set the standard for early films with the enigmatic and taciturn loner serving as protagonist, and intentionally muddled morality which served as a sharp stick-in-the-eye to Hollywood notions of good and bad defined just as clearly as the white or black hats worn by its characters.
In 1966, Corbucci came along with "Django" (1966) which put a gothic horror twist on Leone´s generative work, and further heightened the exaggerated, cartoonish style of the Spaghetti West with its distorted angles and kinetic editing. "Django" sprouted a seemingly endless list of imitators, most of which had nothing to do with Corbucci´s film save for the use of the name Django. This was a common trend in Italian cinema at the time; any new commercial success instantly spawned numerous attempts to cash in on the craze which, come to think of it, is really no different than 21st century Hollywood. The flood of product both helped to solidify the identity of the Spaghetti Western, and soon brought about its downfall, as audiences became tired of derivative works which had few distinguishing features save for the constant escalation of violence and blurred morality.
Even the exploitative Spaghetti Western wasn´t immune to social upheavals and as the revolutionary years of 1967 and 1968 rolled around, the genre began to produce heroes who weren´t just self-serving loners, but also represented causes and fought for the common man. After this stab at social significance, the Spaghetti Western began to falter and quickly running out of ideas, turned into a parody of itself, especially with some of the "Trinity" films beginning with Enzo Barboni´s "They Call Me Trinity."
Other films covered in the documentary are Corbucci´s "The Great Silence" (1968), identified by director Alex Cox as one of the greatest and most underappreciated Spaghetti Westerns and "Django Kill!" (1967), one of the truly demented and ultra-violent films of Giulio Questi. The program devotes obligatory attention to composer Ennio Morricone and provides some sparse stylistic analysis, but the focus is almost exclusively historical. "The Spaghetti West" is a satisfying and entertaining documentary that is accessible to all audiences.
The film stamped the template for hundreds of Italian Westerns that shortly followed and would eventually be know (perhaps disparagingly) as Spaghetti Westerns. "The Spaghetti West," an IFC documentary directed by David Gregory, chronicles the short but very happy life of the Spaghetti Western. Sergio Leone receives his proper due, but the documentary also turns its attention to other directors such as Sergio Corbucci, Sergio Sollima and just about anybody else named Sergio.
Running just under an hour, the program can´t possibly provide a comprehensive overview of this unique and enduring genre, and Gregory wisely avoids an effort to cover all the bases. Instead, he uses several films as anchors to discuss the evolution of the Spaghetti Western. Leone and Eastwood set the standard for early films with the enigmatic and taciturn loner serving as protagonist, and intentionally muddled morality which served as a sharp stick-in-the-eye to Hollywood notions of good and bad defined just as clearly as the white or black hats worn by its characters.
In 1966, Corbucci came along with "Django" (1966) which put a gothic horror twist on Leone´s generative work, and further heightened the exaggerated, cartoonish style of the Spaghetti West with its distorted angles and kinetic editing. "Django" sprouted a seemingly endless list of imitators, most of which had nothing to do with Corbucci´s film save for the use of the name Django. This was a common trend in Italian cinema at the time; any new commercial success instantly spawned numerous attempts to cash in on the craze which, come to think of it, is really no different than 21st century Hollywood. The flood of product both helped to solidify the identity of the Spaghetti Western, and soon brought about its downfall, as audiences became tired of derivative works which had few distinguishing features save for the constant escalation of violence and blurred morality.
Even the exploitative Spaghetti Western wasn´t immune to social upheavals and as the revolutionary years of 1967 and 1968 rolled around, the genre began to produce heroes who weren´t just self-serving loners, but also represented causes and fought for the common man. After this stab at social significance, the Spaghetti Western began to falter and quickly running out of ideas, turned into a parody of itself, especially with some of the "Trinity" films beginning with Enzo Barboni´s "They Call Me Trinity."
Other films covered in the documentary are Corbucci´s "The Great Silence" (1968), identified by director Alex Cox as one of the greatest and most underappreciated Spaghetti Westerns and "Django Kill!" (1967), one of the truly demented and ultra-violent films of Giulio Questi. The program devotes obligatory attention to composer Ennio Morricone and provides some sparse stylistic analysis, but the focus is almost exclusively historical. "The Spaghetti West" is a satisfying and entertaining documentary that is accessible to all audiences.
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