Spaghetti Western
May 28, 2010
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly by Justin Reed
I know. I’m late on the Western front. My father is a big fan of Western movies but I never really got interested enough to watch any. Maybe because of the Long Tail of movies in LoveFilm, I ended up renting a couple Spaghetti Western classics: Once Upon a Time in the West and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.
The cast in Once Upon a Time in the West is quite nice: Charles Bronson, Henry Fonda, Jason Robards, and Claudia Cardinale. The first scene of the movie with the outlaws waiting for Harmonica at the train station is genius! Same thing with The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: great cast with Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach; nice story line, interesting characters, and so.
Both movies are directed by Sergio Leone. There are some common aspects in both movies that are really spot-on — a result of Leone’s direction I guess. First thing is the close ups. It brings a strong focus on the characters and their expressions. Second interesting aspect is the tempo. Both movies are slow-paced and the scenes are relatively long. You quickly realize where Tarantino found inspiration for some of his best movies such as Kill Bill and Inglorious Basterds.
The third aspect is the photography direction by Tonino Delli Colli. The framing is generally quite impressive. Beautiful stuff. Last but not least, the super awesome score by Ennio Morricone. The soundtrack of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is so original and has been copied so many times that it sounds like a cliché nowadays.
It’s never late to start enjoying new things, isn’t it? That was my case with Western movies. I’ll definitely watch more of them from now on. Next on my list are the two other movies from Leone’s Dollar Trilogy.