When I come up to a milestone number, I usually intentionally pick a film that is supposedly really good, I know I will like and is likely to enter my top 100 of all-time.
So for my 2,000th film, I decided to go for one I was hoping I collide with during my watching of films. But this time, I had to buy it on DVD if I was going to watch it.
Before seeing it, I know it was a spaghetti western which is a sub-genre I love a lot. It is directed by Sergio Leone who is seen as the king and founder of the spaghetti westerns, and I love his Dollars trilogy (A Fistful Of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More, The Good, The Bad And The Ugly). So I know what style of film-making to expect. Leone spaghetti-westerns usually consist of extreme close-ups, lots of intensity, vast landscapes and a soundtrack that feels operatic.
What I saw was another epic masterpiece by Leone. If I just saw the opening scene, I would have been satisfied. It consisted a lovely set piece with Leone cinematography, Charles Bronson who is in The Great Escape, one of my favorite War films, and the music had me tingling all over.
The more the film went, the more I was just loving this style of film-making. Even the smallest little twist in the plot is always cranked up so beautifully.
It was a film that clearly stands the test of time, since I am watching it now and it was released in 1968. The duration is just over two and a half hours, and it just flew by which is always a good sign that I considered this to be a classic.
It is a perfect tale to portray the end of Old West and the beginning of a new world in America. It also shows greed, back-stabbing and how people desperately gained power in that part of the world.
The cast was absolutely flawless. Leone is known for introducing new stars to the world. He introduced Clint Eastwood in his Dollars trilogy as 'The Man With No Name', but this time he brought in the best of the best. The steely-eyed Charles Bronson and the chilling Henry Fonda who eclipses all his previous hero roles and plays the most horrible villain imaginable. Jason Robards did an amazing supporting role and Claudia Cardinale had a smoking-hot presence as the leading lady.
My final mention has to be the soundtrack, which was composed by the immortal Ennio Morricone. Anything his composes turns into gold. Any scene that takes place, when the music comes in, everything instantly becomes breathtaking. It effects your emotions, and amazingly, even though it's a Western, it makes everything feel operatic. The themes for each character are easily recognisable and work every time when they get played during the film. Despite the duration being just over two and a half hours, there was only 15 pages of dialogue. So it just shows how important the music was to tell the story.
Overall, I am glad that I picked this one to be my 2,000th film. It did not disappoint me and I know I will be watching this multiple times in the near future. After doing the Dollars trilogy, Leone was at the peak of his powers, so directing this feature shows what you can do with the Western genre.
The closest thing we have to spaghetti-westerns are films by Quentin Tarantino, who does the sub-genre with a modern twist.
It is a shame we rarely see these types of films, but I am glad you can stumble on the old ones from time to time. This shows that the past can still beat the modern box-office hits.
Rating: 9/10
No comments:
Post a Comment