Spaghetti Westerns (16 page)

Since the first publication of this book in May 2001, video tapes have become a distant memory for many collectors, as DVD has taken over as the format of choice. The following films have been released on Region 2 DVD in the UK:
A Fistful of Dollars
(1964),
For a Few
Dollars More
(1965),
A Bullet for the General
(1966),
The Good
,
the
Bad and the Ugly
(1966),
Django
(1966),
The Hills Run Red
(1966),
Navajo Joe
(1966),
The Big Silence
(1967 – as
The Great Silence
),
Death Rides a Horse
(1967),
Django Kill
(1967),
Once Upon a Time in
the West
(1968),
Sabata
(1969),
They Call Me Trinity
(1970),
Adios
Sabata
(1970),
Duck You Sucker
(1971),
Trinity is Still My Name
(1971),
My Name is Nobody
(1973) and
Keoma
(1976).

In addition, in the US
The Hellbenders
(1967),
Day of Anger
(1967),
Compañeros
(1970),
A Man Called Sledge
(1970) and
the
‘
Stranger
’ films are available on Region 1 DVD.

In Japan
One Silver Dollar
(1964),
A Pistol for Ringo
(1965),
The
Return of Ringo
(1965),
Navajo Joe
(1966),
The Big Gundown
(1967),
Face to Face
(1967),
Cemetery Without Crosses
(1968),
A
Professional Gun (1968), Today It’s Me
…
Tomorrow You
(1968),
The
Price of Power
(1969) and
Blindman
(1971) are available on Region 2 DVD.
Seven Guns for the MacGregors
has been released in Italy, with an English language track, Region 0.

There are two volumes of Spaghetti Western trailers:
A Fistful of
Trailers
and
For a Few Previews More
, from Wild East Productions (www.wildeast.com) who also have an extensive back catalogue of rare Spaghetti Westerns, including
Day of Anger
and
Kill Them All
and Come Back Alone
. Koch Media in Germany are also releasing some top-notch DVDs, including a Sergio Sollima boxed set.

In addition to the above Spaghettis, here is a chronological list of other key Euro-Westerns referenced in this book, by their best-known title. Included are the original release year, director and star in parentheses, followed by a rating. All are available from Spaghetti Western and Euro-film specialists – for example try René Hogguer at Cine City, PO Box 1710, 1200 BS Hilversum, The Netherlands (www.cinecityplanet.com).

The soundtracks to almost all the main films included in this volume have been released in full on vinyl LP or on CD. The ones that haven’t are:
Seven Guns for the MacGregors, Django Kill, A Man Called Sledge and Blindman.
The majority of vinyl has been deleted, but keep your eyes peeled at film fairs or online and you never know what you may find. The best Spaghetti compilation album is Ennio Morricone’s
I Western
, a triple LP boxed set which contains the title tracks to all Morricone’s best Westerns – again deleted, even on CD. It’s worth seeing some of Morricone’s live concert videos, including
Live in Rotterdam, Cantata per l’Europe
and
Ennio Morricone at Santa Cecilia
(also available on CD). Also look out for
Musica Sul Velluto
, a magazine on Morricone’s career, and
Il Giaguaro
, an Italian-language magazine devoted to the sixties and seventies music of Morricone and others. For expert soundtrack information contact: Lionel Woodman at Hillside CD Productions, Hillside House, 1 Woodstock Road, Strood, Rochester, Kent ME2 2DL, or visit www.hillsidecd.co.uk

There’s a lot of stuff on Spaghettis on the net and the following sites are all worth visiting. Many feature genre overviews, discussion boards and forums, DVD and video reviews, many poster and still images and even film trailers. The Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com) is comprehensive for filmographies and cast lists – for even the most obscure actor and film. The best sites are:

www.westernsallitaliana.blogspot.com/: Tom Betts’s informative, always-interesting blog dedicated to European Westerns.

SERGIO LEONE: A FISTFUL OF LEONE!: http://www.fistful-of-leone.com/

A FISTFUL OF WESTERNS: http://website.lineone.net/~braithwaitej/ mainsite/mainpage.htm

THE SPAGHETTI WESTERN DATABASE: http://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Main_Page

The fanzine
Westerns All
’
Italiana
is available through this website as a PDF.

SPAGHETTI CINEMA: http://home.earthlink.net/~scinema/

SPAGHETTI WESTERNS IN AMERICA: http://sartana.homestead.com/map.html

THE EUROPEAN FILM REVIEW: http://www.europeanfilmreview.co.uk/index.htm

SHOBARY’S SPAGHETTI WESTERNS: http://spaghettiwesterns.1g.fi/

WILD EAST PRODUCTIONS: http://www.wildeast.net/spaghettiwestern.htm

EURO WESTERNS: http://membres.lycos.fr/eurowestern/

THE SPAGHETTI WESTERN POSTER PAGE: http://www.westernposterpage.com/italianpage.htm

MONDO ESOTERICA GUIDE TO SPAGHETTI WESTERNS: http://mondo-esoterica.net/links_pages/Spaghetti_Western.html

There are several website guides to Spaghetti Western filming locations, with interesting ‘then’ and ‘now’ photographs:

SERGIO LEONE SPAGHETTI WESTERN LOCATIONS: http://www. btinternet.com/~ramon/sw/index.html

MOVIE LOCATIONS SPAIN: www.western-locations-spain.com

FILMING LOCATION OF SPAGHETTI WESTERN: http://garringo.cool.ne.jp/

TUCO TOURS: THE DOLLARS TRILOGY EXPERIENCE: http://www.tucotours.co.uk/
This site organises tours to the Spaghetti Western filming locations in Almeria.

Books and the Internet are a good starting point, but there’s no substitute for getting hold of some DVDs or soundtracks, tequila and a good cigar, and sampling the Spaghetti Western atmosphere first-hand.