 |
 Once
upon a time in the West of Europe, a multitude of filmmakers - whether
they were good, bad, or ugly - tried their hands at making Westerns, because
the genre was hot and they were awarded a fistfull of dollars (or whatever
pre-Euro currency used as bounty in those days) for producing them, while
by then the American filmmakers were getting a bit weary of the artform
as old as the history of cinema itself in their own land. From the wasteland
covered with dust, tumbleweed, spent shells and celluloid ammunition,
a man by the name of Sergio Leone rose above the rest with a help from
a small number of gunslinging thespians he hired from the very land that
gave birth to the legends. He became the master of the genre and the quickest
box office draw in the West (and in the East too where a real-life Samurai
filmmaker by the name of Kurosawa served as the master's early inspiration),
and nobody - even the men with no names, and those who called themselves
nobodies - could deny his gift. But Leone wasn't the only one who was
good and gifted, and neither were the gunmen-thespians whom he hired.
There were others... Like Corbucci, Damiani, Cervi, Baldi, Tessari, Fulci,
Valerii.... Who challenged their rival or former mentor. Europe's West
had its own gunslingers such as Franco Nero and Giuliano Gemma who could
give the famed man-with-no-name a run for the money (or dollars).
Many
of these classic Spaghetti Westerns were not available yet on DVD anywhere...
Until now. A wise Japanese publisher has decided to put out a series of
five boxed DVD sets, each containing four of these classics including
the ones directed by the filmmakers mentioned above. These include such
classics as "I Giorni dell'ira (Day of Anger / TheDays of Wrath)"
which stars Gemma and Lee Van Cleef, "Il Mio Nome e Nessuno (My Name
Is Nobody)" starring Henry Fonda with screenplay co-written by Leone
who even directed a segment, "Bandidos" a stylish western drama
that has garnered a deserved cult following over the years, "Oggi
a me...domani a te! (Today To Me....Tomorrow To You)" a rare atmospheric
western that features Kurosawa's favorite actor Tatsuya Nakadai as the
baddie, and "I Quattro dell' Apocalisse (Four of the Apocalypse)"
which is said to be director Lucio Fulci's own favorite among his films,
and more! All these titles are sold individually too, and most of the
discs contain bonus extras including interviews, trailers and gallery
of artworks.
My
fellow Spaghetti Westerners... While Leone's own "Once Upon a Time
in the West" is yet to come out, let's hunt for these other valued
treasures while waiting for that great masterpiece to come out to grace
our DVD racks someday.... Hopefully very soon.
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