THE SPAGHETTI WEST
Dir: David Gregory
With (in order of appearance): Sergio Donati, Sir Christopher Frayling,
Howard Hughes, Sergio Leone, Clint Eastwood, Franco Giraldi, Enzo G.
Castellari, Sergio Martino, Ferdinando Baldi, Manolo Bolognini, Alex Cox, Franco
Nero, Sergio Corbucci, Sergio Sollima, Ennio Morricone, Alessandro
Alessandroni, Damiano Damiani, and Tomás Milian
Docurama/IFC, 2005
NTSC/Region 1/56 mins.
$26.95
Review by John Exshaw
Once upon a time in a film class, a lecturer was heard to
bemoan the presence in video stores of an abundance of “cheap Spaghetti
Westerns†in a tone which indicated, quite unambiguously, that he was not just
complaining about the prices. Nor, it is safe to assume, was he merely venting
his displeasure at the films’ paucity of production values. No, what was
agitating this sage of celluloid was the complete and utter lack of
authenticity inherent in Spaghetti Westerns; they were, by place of birth,
ethnicity, definition, and any other criteria one might care to apply, most
definitely not the real thing.
Spaghetti Westerns did not show a true picture of the Old
West – unlike, say, the Hopalong Cassidy films or those of Gene Autry. They
were not historically accurate – unlike, say, They Died With Their Boots On
or My Darling Clementine. They were not made by American directors –
unlike, say, Rancho Notorious or High Noon. They did not star
American actors – except when they did. They were not shot on genuine Western
locations – such as the legendary Columbia backlot. And they were cheap,
goddammit, quite unlike the big-budget, super-productions synonymous with
studios such as Republic and Monogram. Yes, folks, down with “cheap†Italian
Westerns, and hooray for Hollywood, the home of authenticity!