The Leader Post
Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
June 1, 1966
MADRID (Reuters) – European cowboy movies currently
packing movie houses in Spain often make the Hollywood originals look tame.
The shooting,
fighting and screaming seldom stop in a European western. The hero kills mobs
of outlaws with his bare hands.
Most of the
exterior scenes are filmed in Spain, where production costs are slightly lower
and where there are many horses and landscapes resembling the American west.
“We have
improved the American western by removing all the boring parts,” explains the
39-year-old Italian director, Sergio Corbucci, whose westerns earn $1,000,000
profit a year in Italy alone.
“We have taken out the love scenes and all
that talk, talk, talk.”
The result is
pure action which pins an audience to its seat from beginning to end.
Fifteen miles
south of Madrid, Corbucci is filming A Dollar a Head, a production starring
American actor Burt Reynolds and Italian actress Nicoletta Machiavelli.
Reynolds,
playing an Indian half-breed, kills 30 men – 11 of them at one time – in the
film. There are 150 killings in the 114-page script. Miss Machiavelli plays a
heroic Indian maid.
In most
European westerns, the picture ends with a European cowboy hero, played by a an
American or Englishman, riding off into the sunset alone – a questionable
character who seems to have deserved all the loot that fills his saddle bags.
The Indian, in
a European western is equal to the white man in dignity, bravery and
intelligence.
Forty-five
westerns were made in Spain last year.
"A Dollar A Head" was later changed to "Navajo Joe" in order to focus on the main character himself and his mission to stop a band of outlaws from killing innocent people. The one thing that DIDN'T change however was the director and the cast. Sergio Corbucci, Burt Reynolds, and Nicoletta Machiavelli were kept in the film and it was still able to be made while every other Spaghetti Western was either postponed or scrapped. The ones that ultimately reached the United States later became cult classics over the years while the rest went basically ignored. Today's generation of fans are starting to appreciate the Spaghetti Western genre and filmmakers even put Spaghetti Western influences into their own films with some of those films being Western themselves. Think people like Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. And we have directors like Leone, Corbucci, and Sollima to thank for all of that. And we have the actors and actresses too that we would like to thank. And trust me, after the recent writers strike in Hollywood, you'll WANT to film in Almeria. That said, we can all agree that the Spaghetti Westerns, and Westerns in general, are indeed something special. A part of cinema history that will live on for many years to come. Even after we ourselves are gone. You're welcome America.
ReplyDelete