Western Books

[titoli]

Ryerson Johnson - Torture Trek A collection of short stories of uneven quality. The very first one and the last one, though set one in  snowy land and the other in a camp mine are very good and the rest are generally readable anyway. 7/10

[titoli]

Marshall Trimble - In Old Arizona  The first of a trilogy about characters and events in the history of the State. Highly readable. 8/10

[RuthScott]

nice

[titoli]

Alberto Pezzotta - Il western italiano A good fast survey of some of the themes of the genre which are treated both in depth and competently, with clarity of expression and no pseudo-deep abstrusities. The first chapter is about the reception of Fistful and the subsequent debate on the genre in Italy. So I learnt that the very first unconditionally positive review of Fistful was the one Eastwood read on Variety (25 nov. 1964) courtesy of a certain "Hawk" (nickname?) the italian correspondent of the magazine, who also predicted for the movie the success it was going to achieve. There are lots of quotations by the directors (Corbucci, particularly) culled by the newspapers of the time.  Another interesting chapter is the one about the style, not only visual. At the end 6 films are discussed which are thought to be the most important for the definition of the genre. 8-9/10

[stanton]

And which are these important 6?

[titoli]

Fistful, Django, Quien Sabe?, Django Kill, Trinity, Sonny and Jed.

[titoli]

Massimo Moscati - Western all'italiana This was published in 1978, well before HV. And the author was just 20 (!). So it is no wonder that there are many mistakes. But it is still readable for the specialist because not so much of the analysys of the Leone films (I wonder where he could spot "homosexual tendencies" in Joe) but in a long interview with the director where he says things I didn't read in Simsolo, as far as I can remember. (The interview has been re-published later, I don't know whether it is a more complete version : .

There are fast chapters on the themes of SW compared to the ones in AW; a useful, though short, collection of reviews of the genre and some individual movies; a list of biographies of the most important filmakers; a filmography and a, at the time inevitably short, bibliography. It would be a 6, but the interview makes it 7-8.   

[Novecento]

There are lots of quotations by the directors (Corbucci, particularly) culled by the newspapers of the time.

Oooh, this sounds like it might be worth picking up for the quotations alone.

[titoli]

Oooh, this sounds like it might be worth picking up for the quotations alone.

The main sources are a panel  featuring Leone, Corbucci, Vincenzoni and Tessari published on L'Europeo,  3 February 1966. And this book:

[stanton]

Fistful, Django, Quien Sabe?, Django Kill, Trinity, Sonny and Jed.

Interesting, the first 5 are more or less clear, but wtf the scatterbrained Sonny and Jed? As an example how bad the SW had become later?

Also interesting that the Spags which really topped the genre are missing.

[titoli]

but wtf the scatterbrained Sonny and Jed? As an example how bad the SW had become later?

"...it's a workshop where solutions that soon will be fundamentals for new popular genres are experimented, and others that will amount to nothing".

[titoli]

Oooh, this sounds like it might be worth picking up for the quotations alone.

I presume you have this one:

[Novecento]

The main sources are a panel  featuring Leone, Corbucci, Vincenzoni and Tessari published on L'Europeo,  3 February 1966. And this book:

I presume you have this one:

So both of these I managed to access at the Library of Congress in Washington DC. They did not have the Nori Corbucci bio of Sergio though, which is why was trying to find it elsewhere.

[titoli]

The Corbucci's book I posted includes Corbucci's Notes Towards an Autobiography  which I think ought to satisfy most of your curiosities. It also includes a lot of pictures.

[Novecento]

The Corbucci's book I posted includes Corbucci's Notes Towards an Autobiography  which I think ought to satisfy most of your curiosities. It also includes a lot of pictures.

Yes it?s great. Very informative.