Movie madness
I watched The Mephisto Waltz and Four of the Apocalypse over the space of the last couple of days.As I suspected, The Mephisto Waltz wasn't quite as good as I'd remembered it, although, somewhat surprisingly, I still found myself creeped out by parts of it, especially the hallucinogenic dream sequences. That almost never happens with me, so I'll give the film credit for managing to unnerve me. Elsewhere, Jacqueline Bisset is sublime, but none of the other actors make anything like the same impression. There are also some real problems with the script, not to mention the fact that the death of Bisset's daughter is only mentioned glibly in passing, several scenes after the event is supposed to have taken place, simply doesn't ring true.
Meanwhile, I was very impressed by Four of the Apocalypse. Like The Mephisto Waltz, it has script problems - "disjointed" is the word that immediately springs to mind - but the film has a real edge to it, as well as being quite touching at times, which took me aback given that human emotions are not something Lucio Fulci seems to be all that great at portraying. Watching this film affirmed for me how cool Fabio Testi and Tomas Milian are, while Lynne Frederick was wonderful too, even if her faux Southern accent was all over the place. This is one of the few Spaghetti Westerns I've seen, but I enjoyed this one enough to consider seeking out some more. I should probably start by going the way of Sergio Leone.
6 Comments:
Definitely go for Leone, you won't regret it! He was the first and all the others borrowed heavily from him, even when they found their own personal path to the Western (e.g. Corbucci, Tessari, Barboni, Questi).
By MCP, at 18:07
I'd really recommend RUN MAN RUN starring Tomas Milian and directed by Tomas Milian.The Blue Underground disc is amazing and also includes a very rare documentary from the 60s which has behind the scenes footage of the making of these westerns as well as interviews with amongst others Enzo G Castellari.Also worth checking is Corbucci's COMPANEROS with Franco Nero and Milian,the soundtrack is a timeless classic.Not sure if the Anchor Bay USA disc is still in print though.
By Stephen Grimes, at 20:39
Sorry RUN MAN RUN was directed by Sergio Solima not Tomas Milian,should have pressed that preview button!
By Stephen Grimes, at 20:41
The German Sollima box by Koch Media has three excellent spaghetti's - The Big Gundown is an absolute classic and can only be found in this set. Face to Face is very good as well, and Run Man Run (albeit with an interlaced transfer, the other two are progressive) can be found in this set too.
Also excellent are The Great Silence and Death rides a Horse, both are out on UK-discs.
By tolpol, at 21:06
Thanks for all the suggestions, guys. For the time being, I think I'm going to order Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West, followed by, at some point, the "Dollars" trilogy.
By Whiggles, at 21:02
Don't forget A Bullet for the General. Probably my favourite non-Leone spaghetti. Also Fulci's earlier Tempo di massacro. Not sure about the quality of the DVDs for that though.
If you get the Dollars films bear in mind that the R2 MGM Special Editions don't contain mono tracks. The German releases from Paramount (of the first two) do however and have the same extras. I'm not sure about a direct comparison of picture quality but I believe they are pretty similar as they are from the same restored source. Paramount Germany also do a very good DVD of My Name is Nobody.
That German Sollima box is a good set but I wouldn't really reccomend Sollima's films as the first you see.
Leone is top of the pile and a great starting point as he is one of the earlier directors (though by no means the first. He revitalised the Italian western rather than created it.) As mcp says though his films are easily the biggest influence on the largely derivative films in the genre. Much like Argento in giallo who incidentally as you probably know co-wrote Once Upona time in the West.
After Leone the director with the most impressive western filmography is Corbucci. Surprised no-one mentioned Django.
You should of course see Kurosawa's Yojimbo as well to note the slight plot similarities (ahem) between it and A Fistful of Dollars. Fistful is a good film in it's own right but Yojimbo is a masterpiece whereas Sergio hadn't got to his peak as a director by that point.
Whoa! er... bit of a long post there
By Anonymous, at 09:55
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