Badwill to all Men – The Spaghetti Western Reviews

As mentioned previously, last week was given over to watching my favourite genre of film, the Spaghetti Western, and posting reviews over at LateMag.

Despite an almost overwhelming sentiment of badwill to all men, for me the Spaghetti Western makes perfect Chrimbo viewing. Not entirely sure why. Possibly because the first one I ever saw was A Fistful of Dollars, one Yuletide, a very long time ago. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

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Spaghetti Western Week

In my infinite wisdom, I have deemed this week “Spaghetti Western Week”.

Beginning Sunday 13th December, I shall be watching at least one Spaghetti Western a day and then posting a review at LateMag.

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Bronx Warriors, Exterminators and Turkey Shoots

Funny how something completely innocuous can spark seemingly the most insignificant of memories. For instance, this week over at LateMag.com, there was a plug for the forthcoming release of Enzo G. Castellari’s 1980′s schlock-fest, The Bronx Warriors trilogy.

Now, Castellari isn’t a name that’ll be familiar to everyone, but for fans of the Spaghetti Western or cult Italian exploitation cinema, his is a name mentioned with a certain amount of reverence, usually in suitably hushed tones… Probably.

Okay, he made a few decent Spaghetti Westerns, including the revisionist Keoma – I’m not one to let an awful soundtrack ruin my enjoyment – but let’s not get dragged away from the original point. Today is not, after all, Enzo G. Castellari day.

It’s more these Bronx Warriors films – The Bronx Warriors, Escape From the Bronx, and The New Barbarians, in turn low-rent rip-offs of Walter Hill’s The Warriors, John Carpenter’s Escape From New York and George Miller’s Mad Max 2 – and more importantly what they signify. Well, what they signify to me.

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3.40 – “Why? Because it feels so damn good!”

I’m sure sitting here at 3.40 in the morning bashing out a review of some obscure progressive rock album is of little benefit to either the mind or the soul. The body? Certainly not.

But while a 3 month old shouty daughter sleeps soundly above, like a man serving a life sentence on a day release, I have to grab any opportunity I can, writing whenever and wherever. If that means being active during the psycho hours – a time traditionally favoured by murderers, burglars, the criminally insane and milkmen – so be it.

Anti-social timekeeping is nothing new to me. A night creature of sorts, I have always preferred the darkness to the light. It’s within these realms that, if confined to barracks, my first taste of many a cult movie or TV show has been savoured. You can usually tell you’re in cult territory by – amongst other things – the ungodliness of the hour, the obscurity of the title or the lowness of the budget. Another key ingredient is the often small, yet dedicated audience that the film or show will enjoy – although this is obviously impossible to gauge at the time of viewing.

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“Looks like we’re shy of one horse…”

Assuming your browser allows images you’ll have noticed this site’s banner and may be wondering what its significance is. None at all really, other than my personal love for Spaghetti Westerns. It’s a still taken from the opening scene of Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West, which I have photoshopped and performed various feats of jiggery-pokery upon. So long as Paramount doesn’t catch wind, it’ll remain pride of place.

The scene itself is one of the all-time classics of the genre – Jack Elam, Woody Strode, Al Mullock and Charles Bronson meet at a dusty, forsaken train station in the middle of a sunbaked nowhere – though the film itself is not my favourite.

That honour lies with The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, its threeway gundown at the climax being ten-or-so minutes of cinematic perfection, unsurpassed anywhere else in film history. There are other close contenders for the title spot too. An article I wrote for LateMag.com discussing a few of my favourite Spaghetti Westerns can be found here.

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