Ilov80s
Footballguy
Yeah Leone movies tend to be long. Once Upon a Time in America is 226 minutes. Consider this make up time for months missed lol
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FBG Movie Club: We're Getting the Band Back Together: Metallica vs Nina Simone Movie Docs (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Ilov80s
- Start date
Don Quixote
Footballguy
I noticed Once Upon a Time in the West is streaming too. I'm giving that one a go tonight for some extra credit to start.
Mr. Mojo
Footballguy
251 minutes if you get the Director's Extended cut blu ray which I found on Amazon a while ago for the insanely cheap price of $6.99.
Ilov80s
Footballguy
Don Quixote
Footballguy
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Ilov80s
Footballguy
Cool and I see now The Good, The Bad and the Ugly is on NF. Lots of extra credit options!
Man of Constant Sorrow
Footballguy
I think I shall be in dis month.
Time is opening up; and I like pasketti.
Time is opening up; and I like pasketti.
prosopis
Arizona Chupacabra
This movie has the distinction of being my most bought movie. I do believe I have bought this movie every time a new technology came out. At one time I said I was done buying movies because I would get a nice collection and the technology would change. This movie was the straw that broke the camels back when it came to buying movies.
I have just recently started buying an occasional bluray but dvd era is when I decided buying movies was a bad idea. Especially with the streaming options of today.
I do love that movie though. I saw most of these westerns at the drive in and this was my favorite.
Don Quixote
Footballguy
As a little bit of a callback to the Juneteenth films, TCM is airing “Nothing But a Man” this afternoon. Highly recommend. It had poor distribution on its release in 1964, and, as a result, not well-known, but it is a pretty powerful movie on black life in America in the 1960s. Ivan Dixon incredible in it.
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wikkidpissah
Footballguy
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Ilov80s
Footballguy
The Man With No Name
Footballguy
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly just starting on GRIT
Ilov80s
Footballguy
How did you watch it? I pulled it up on Prime but the quality was really bad. The Youtube version seems a little better. Maybe I was just getting some poor quality connection with Prime at the time.
prosopis
Arizona Chupacabra
Quality was really bad. I was thinking somebody needs to do something to save this film but I just thought that was how it was.
Ilov80s
Footballguy
I've noticed Amazon Prime has zero quality control and will put out the worst possible copies of movies at times. Using the YouTube app on my smart tv it looked fine. That is definitely the way to watch this.
Ilov80s
Footballguy
Most of the stuff on Prime is ok but I think the older and more obscure the movie, the bigger the risk.
The Man With No Name
Footballguy
Tonight on GRIT : 100 Rifles
Not a great film, but it's not bad, and I like it. Maybe it's because of the 3 stars - Raquel Welch, Burt Reynolds, Jim Brown. Raquel's water tower scene is legendary.
100 Rifles review - from The Spaghetti Western Database
Not a great film, but it's not bad, and I like it. Maybe it's because of the 3 stars - Raquel Welch, Burt Reynolds, Jim Brown. Raquel's water tower scene is legendary.
100 Rifles review - from The Spaghetti Western Database
KarmaPolice
Footballguy
I tried.
wikkidpissah
Footballguy
Fistful was the best thing i seen in a while
prosopis
Arizona Chupacabra
Watched fistful yesterday and liked it quite a bit more than I had in past viewing. In the past I could not get over how annoying the main theme music was. It was not the music itself, it was the singing of John John John that was annoying the #### out of me. I was reading about it last night and I saw the theme described as epic and truly wondrous as anything Morricone ever did. I would disagree but I will say it was much less noticeable on this viewing and I feel like that is why I enjoyed it more. Steiger is phenomenal in this.
I will save some thoughts for Monday but I will say two good flicks this month.
I will save some thoughts for Monday but I will say two good flicks this month.
wikkidpissah
Footballguy
not sure i'll be able to get to the other in time, so let me knock out the first one while i have a free morning.
Fistful of Dynamite - It took me four hours to watch this masterpiece. Don't care for Westerns and movie violence frankly gives me a headache more often than not, for the ridiculous hero logic as much as the noise. And, even within that, i've never cared for Sergio Leone's pacing. He usually langours over his development of moments, far past the time i've already made my own hindsights & conclusions, rewritten what i would do and, frankly, have moved on to shopping lists or acid flashbacks. That's when i usually turn this master's movies off.
But i had a reason for watching this one - to bore, confuse & horrify fellow members of FBG-MC with my review. From the beginning, i was repeatedly getting internet-movie-watching head - checking scores, emails, freecell on a 2nd screen - once i'd guessed the likely outcome of a scene but, once i refocused on the scene, i'd sense i'd missed something. So i'd click back to the beginning of the scene and noticed how Leone had folded expectation into sentiment into narrative into impact like a great chef combining the ingredients of a souffle. Hmmmm.......beautiful. Took a half-dozen occasions of this - getting impatient, losing focus, wandering away, missing something, retracing - before i finally got into what Leone was trying to do and stuck with it. And i realized i didn't like his pacing for the same reason i dont like tweezer food at fancy restaurants. Savor Deficiency Disorder. Here a master is playing real time against movie time to deepen each moment, creating a context to make cartoonish violence be felt on a human level. And, thanks to sous chefs Steiger and Coburn, allowing the customer to know the flavor of feeling grief & moment while doing violence.
There's a French delicacy, Ortolan, where you eat a rare, small bird whole, in one bite. Supposedly, the crunching of each tiny bone is a huge part of the sublime exquisiteness of the experience. I'm far too utilitarian and pedestrian for that. Can't savor. At least until the other day, anyways. I was even able to put aside the worst catchphrase ever, "Duck, you sucker", and some truly creepyass MMF Sean Seanerson song action to feel the bones crush in the explosive gambits, Mexican genocides and father's losses of a true Western masterpiece. Glad i didn't duck.
Fistful of Dynamite - It took me four hours to watch this masterpiece. Don't care for Westerns and movie violence frankly gives me a headache more often than not, for the ridiculous hero logic as much as the noise. And, even within that, i've never cared for Sergio Leone's pacing. He usually langours over his development of moments, far past the time i've already made my own hindsights & conclusions, rewritten what i would do and, frankly, have moved on to shopping lists or acid flashbacks. That's when i usually turn this master's movies off.
But i had a reason for watching this one - to bore, confuse & horrify fellow members of FBG-MC with my review. From the beginning, i was repeatedly getting internet-movie-watching head - checking scores, emails, freecell on a 2nd screen - once i'd guessed the likely outcome of a scene but, once i refocused on the scene, i'd sense i'd missed something. So i'd click back to the beginning of the scene and noticed how Leone had folded expectation into sentiment into narrative into impact like a great chef combining the ingredients of a souffle. Hmmmm.......beautiful. Took a half-dozen occasions of this - getting impatient, losing focus, wandering away, missing something, retracing - before i finally got into what Leone was trying to do and stuck with it. And i realized i didn't like his pacing for the same reason i dont like tweezer food at fancy restaurants. Savor Deficiency Disorder. Here a master is playing real time against movie time to deepen each moment, creating a context to make cartoonish violence be felt on a human level. And, thanks to sous chefs Steiger and Coburn, allowing the customer to know the flavor of feeling grief & moment while doing violence.
There's a French delicacy, Ortolan, where you eat a rare, small bird whole, in one bite. Supposedly, the crunching of each tiny bone is a huge part of the sublime exquisiteness of the experience. I'm far too utilitarian and pedestrian for that. Can't savor. At least until the other day, anyways. I was even able to put aside the worst catchphrase ever, "Duck, you sucker", and some truly creepyass MMF Sean Seanerson song action to feel the bones crush in the explosive gambits, Mexican genocides and father's losses of a true Western masterpiece. Glad i didn't duck.
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Man of Constant Sorrow
Footballguy
Ilov80s
Footballguy
I actually don’t mind Steiger as a Mexican for some reason. He pulls it off as well as any white guy I’ve seen short of Eli Wallach. Also Coburn looks kind of studly in this movie. What Instagram filter did Leone use so that anyone with blue or green eyes looked like they had bright shimmering diamonds for eyes?
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prosopis
Arizona Chupacabra
Ilov80s
Footballguy
The opening few minutes Leone does some very extreme close ups but those are unflattering. When he does closeups on Coburn or Eastwood in other movies, he seems to get everyone’s eyes to look like they are Paul Newman.
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Don Quixote
Footballguy
I started off hot with an extra credit, but I’ve been taking my judging duties in the FBG Movie Draft too seriously, and have been using my movie time to watch/re-watchsome movies for that. I’ll see if I can get in. Starting A Fistful of Dynamite now.
krista4
Footballguy
I've been working on my post-Beatles Beatles rankings all the time, and my only break was to watch a sci-fi movie KP turned me onto (not posting in case it's a movie draft spoiler), but I hereby affirm that I will watch A Fistful of Dynamite based on the raves here and especially wikkid's post about it.
Man of Constant Sorrow
Footballguy
wikkidpissah
Footballguy
Beyond his fatal looks, charm & steel, Coburn's smile & sharp angles connect us to the the skulls we leave behind.
Eephus
Footballguy
I've always like Spaghetti Westerns for their skewed take on American mythology. On the whole, they're not much more unrealistic than classic Westerns although they take a lot of liberties especially with plotting.
I enjoyed Death Rides a Horse over the weekend. I haven't watched A Fistful of Dynamite for two years but I'm pretty sure both used a similar narrative gimmick of two mismatched protagonists hopscotching their way through the story. Van Cleef's Ryan was like a film noir hero seeking payback from his old gang while Bill was on a more traditional vengeance track like Charles Bronson in OUATITW. It was a lower budget production than A Fistful of Dynamite which showed mostly in the larger sequences. They could have done without the villagers but the filmmakers must have been working to a body count. I've seen John Phillip Law in other films and he wasn't terrible but the dubbing editor did him no favors in this one.
A Fistful of Dynamite was a better film but it may be a case of nostalgia making me forget the awkward parts. I think it was kind of slow in the middle but it's been a while. I'm sure Steiger was the best character in either film and he carried A Fistful of Dynamite. The explosions were definitely better as well.
I enjoyed Death Rides a Horse over the weekend. I haven't watched A Fistful of Dynamite for two years but I'm pretty sure both used a similar narrative gimmick of two mismatched protagonists hopscotching their way through the story. Van Cleef's Ryan was like a film noir hero seeking payback from his old gang while Bill was on a more traditional vengeance track like Charles Bronson in OUATITW. It was a lower budget production than A Fistful of Dynamite which showed mostly in the larger sequences. They could have done without the villagers but the filmmakers must have been working to a body count. I've seen John Phillip Law in other films and he wasn't terrible but the dubbing editor did him no favors in this one.
A Fistful of Dynamite was a better film but it may be a case of nostalgia making me forget the awkward parts. I think it was kind of slow in the middle but it's been a while. I'm sure Steiger was the best character in either film and he carried A Fistful of Dynamite. The explosions were definitely better as well.
Eephus
Footballguy
If you like Spaghetti Westerns, I'll put in a plug for Poliziotteschi, the crime movies that succeeded Westerns as a top genre in Italian film. You get the same over the top melodrama, complicated storylines and sneaky political references as in Spaghetti Westerns. But Poliziotteschi offer more violence, car chases and glimpses of 70s Italian cityscapes.
There's a excellent documentary on Amazon Eurocrime! The Italian Cop and Gangster Films That Ruled the 70s that's a good survey. English dubbed and subtitled prints aren't as readily available as for Westerns though
There's a excellent documentary on Amazon Eurocrime! The Italian Cop and Gangster Films That Ruled the 70s that's a good survey. English dubbed and subtitled prints aren't as readily available as for Westerns though
Ilov80s
Footballguy
As a whole, I was impressed. I hadn't looked at spaghetti westerns beyond the most famous Leone movies and Django. I liked all of them so I don't know why I never dug further. I thought both of these were super entertaining and I am glad @The Man With No Name picked them.
Eephus
Footballguy
They're very entertaining in their own strange way. Even the ones that take themselves seriously have moments of slapstick and unintentional comedy.
It's also fun to play "spot that guy" while watching. There are a bunch of character actors with interesting Western faces who pop up frequently in Italian film. He's not Italian but it was cool to see Anthony Dawson playing the bad guy with the four aces tattoo. Dawson acted in the first two 007 films including voicing Blofeld in that character's first movie appearance.
Ilov80s
Footballguy
I think you have to be very comfortable with taking in comedy, violence and brutality at the same time and with equal consideration. It's so serious that it's not. It's lack of any serious qualities, helps make it more serious.
Eephus
Footballguy
I can't imagine how these films were received when they came a half century ago. Modern audiences are accustomed to the combination of violence and lowbrow humor from watching horror films, Tarantino, exploitation films, etc.
Spaghetti Westerns were so different even from the revisionist Westerns of the 50s and 60s. They were from another planet compared to Gunsmoke and Bonanza.
Ilov80s
Footballguy
Last two months were so dead in here, I’m going to give a it a little time. Maybe aim for an October return.
KarmaPolice
Footballguy
KarmaPolice
Footballguy
I've forgotten what we did last year for horror, and how it went. Was it Let the Right One In and something else?
Didn't know if we even wanted to go that route again.
Didn't know if we even wanted to go that route again.
