“Western, Italian Style”: A behind-the-scenes look at the
making of Sergio Corbucci’s “Il Grande Silenzio” and other Spaghetti Westerns
Night Flight HQ
By Bryan Thomas
We here at Night Flight HQ love Spaghetti Westerns, the
hundreds of mostly Italo-Spanish, italo-German, Italo-French or Italo-British
productions that typically made during a ten year period (1964 to 1973), films
that helped to launch the careers of anti-hero western characters played by
Clint Eastwood and Franco Nero.
In 1968, director Patrick Morin gave us Western, Italian
Style, a wonderfully informative short documentary intended to give American TV
viewers a look behind-the-scenes at what was still a relatively unknown
revisionist style of western movie called “Spaghetti Western,” a nickname given
to typically Italo-American productions, many of them filmed on sets are
located in the desert of Tabernas, near Almería, a city in the southeast of
Spain, which looked very much like the deserts of across-the-border Mexico or
the American southwest.
We also get to see several non-U.S. actors too, like
Tomas Milian, Jean-Louis Trintignant and Klaus Kinski — the latter two seen on
the set of Sergio Corbucci’s seventh Spaghetti Western, Il Grande Silenzio, or
The Great Silence, which was originally denied distribution in the U.S. due to
its over-the-top violence.
The Great Silence — which boasts one of Ennio Morricone‘s
most beautiful film scores, including this haunting theme song — was so
violent, in fact, that it was given an “18 rating,” meaning that audience
members in Italy needed to be at least eighteen years of age to see one of
Corbucci’s best films in theaters, which certainly didn’t bode well for box
office success (the film provides us with a rare look at the then-active, now
defunct Cinecitta Studios in Rome).
We see Corbucci talking on the set of The Great Silence,
about the violence in the film and the nature of violence in Spaghetti Westerns
in general, comparing what the viewer might see in comparison to the violence
seen in the popular James Bond franchise.
Corbucci even shot an alternate, more upbeat and
essentially non-verbal ending for The Great Silence for certain film markets,
mainly North African countries and Japan, but it’s unlikely the less-bleak
ending — which was filmed without direct sound, like many Spaghetti Westerns —
was ever used.
Jean-Louis Trintignant, one of The Great Silence‘s lead
actors, espouses during the documentary about how he’d practice quick-drawing
his pistol by pulling a sock off his hand and then reaching for a long-steamed
artichoke in his pocket.
He wears gloves during the film, which takes place during
a cold, snowy winter setting — lensed on location near Cortina d’Ampezzo, in
the Dolomites, the heart of the southern Alps in the Veneto region of Northern
Italy, although we also in the documentary see how lots of white shaving cream
was used when there wasn’t enough snow on the ground — and it’s a pretty safe
bet that Quentin Tarantino is a big fan of the film as it has to have been one
of the inspirations for his most recent movie, The Hateful 8.
We’re also given a behind-the-scenes look at Sergio
Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West, Sergio Sollima’s Corri, Uomo, Corri (Run,
Man, Run), and two by director Enzo G. Castellari — Ammazza Tutti e Torna Solo
(Kill Them All and Come Back Alone), and I tre che sconvolsero il West (also
known as Vado, vedo e sparo), the 1968 Spaghetti Western released in the U.S.
as One Dollar Too Many, starring Antonio Sabàto, John Saxon, and Frank Wolff.
The documentary also shows a stuntman readying himself
for a scene, and a quick visit to a studio armory, where we see an impressive
collection of rifles and pistols used in Spaghetti Westerns, including a
carbine — a long-handled guns, bigger than a pistol, but smaller than a full
rifle — used by Lee Van Cleef in the film For A Few Dollars More. We also see a
demonstration of the destructive power of wax bullets, which were used in many
classic Spaghetti Western shooting scenes.
The documentary also gives us a chance to see the
Bunkhouse Saloon, a club in central Rome that served as a home-away-from-home
hangout for Americans, where an act named John and Wayne (John Ireson and
Wayman Parham) provide musical entertainment (they also sing the song that
plays during the doc’s title sequence).
We asked Night Flight’s resident Spaghetti Western expert
Eric Zaldivar what his thoughts were about Western, Italian Style, and here’s
what he told us:
“It’s such a thrill to see even fleeting footage of Rome
during this time period, Spaghetti Western ground zero, during the genre’s most
prolific year! To an American who loves these movies, it is hard to imagine
there was ever a time and place where a programmer as unknown as If You Meet
Sartana Pray For Your Death was ever grandly advertised in poster form on the
streets of a metropolitan area. Frank Wolff, the American actor who appeared in
some of the best entries of the genre (Once Upon a Time in the West, The Great
Silence, God Forgives …I Don’t) and also one of the worst (I Came, I Saw, I
Shot), is kinda the perfect choice for narrator of this television doc. His
expansive credentials lend his scripted words credence since he experienced
varying levels of productions…the good, the bad and the ugly.”
Western, Italian Style was made available as an extra
feature on the Blue Underground DVD release of Run, Man, Run. It’s also
available on the French-made Canal + DVD of The Great Silence, and as an extra
feature on the German-made Koch Media DVD release of Spara, Gringo, Spara.
You Tube link to Western, Italian Style
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