10,000 WAYS TO DIE: A Director's Take On the Spaghetti Western
By Alex Cox
Softcover; 336 pages; Color & Black & White
The director of REPO MAN (1984), a devout fan of the Italian brand of westerns, divulges his thoughts on 51 European westerns from 1963 through the 1970's. The book is incredibly thoughtful and precise in terms of what works and what doesn't as viewed through the eyes of its author. Cox has some startlingly diverse opinions on these movies and some fans may be a slight bit put off at Cox's disdain for some of the more respected entries in the spaghetti western canon.
It's a great read and one you may find yourself skipping around curious as to how one of your favorite pasta land westerns stacks up to the authors scrutiny. Ostensibly an entirely new publication from the authors original work entitled '10,000 Ways To Die' that was written some 40 years ago, this refurbished version is as the books subtitle suggests, 'A Director's Take On the Spaghetti Western'. One of the best aspects of this book is the attention paid to Sergio Corbucci, an Italian director whom I feel was more talented and definitely more versatile, than Sergio Leone.
If you are a fan of the genre, than this book is a must own for your library. It only features a handful of pictures in color and black and white, but excels in background information and a unique critical analysis easily understood by the casual fan. It's much simpler to follow than the academic approach taken by Sir Christopher Frayling, a much respected author who has written almost exclusively about Sergio Leone within this genre.
The books chapters are broken up into years from 1963 to 1969. Then there's a chapter entitled The Seventies where Cox discusses the comedic trappings and the succeeding downfall of the genre as the decade wore on. The films discussed are listed below...
RED PASTURES
FISTFUL OF DOLLARS
MINNESOTA CLAY
IN A COLT'S SHADOW
FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE
A PISTOL FOR RINGO
RETURN OF RINGO
JOHNNY ORO
DJANGO
ARIZONA COLT
THE BOUNTY KILLER
THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY
THE BIG GUNDOWN
QUIEN SABE? (A BULLET FOR THE GENERAL)
MASSACRE TIME
A STRANGER IN TOWN
NAVAJO JOE
DJANGO KILL
REQUIESCANT
$1,000 ON THE BLACK
HELLBENDERS
FACE TO FACE
DEATH RIDES A HORSE
BANDIDOS
RITA OF THE WEST
THE BIG SILENCE
ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST
TEPEPA
A PROFESSIONAL GUN
BLACK JACK
JOHNNY HAMLET
EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF (THE RUTHLESS FOUR)
TODAY IT'S ME, TOMORROW YOU!
SARTANA
THE PRICE OF POWER
CEMETERY WITHOUT CROSSES
DJANGO THE BASTARD
AND GOD SAID TO CAIN...
SABATA
THE SPECIALIST
COMPANEROS
THEY CALL ME TRINITY
DUCK, YOU SUCKER!
BLINDMAN
THE BIG SHOWDOWN (THE GRAND DUEL)
TO KILL OR DIE
MY NAME IS NOBODY
A GENIUS, TWO PARTNERS & A DUPE
DON'T TOUCH THE WHITE WOMAN
CLOSED CIRCUIT
CALIFORNIA
The book is available rather cheaply at amazon.com.
Around 1990 Alex Cox was presenting a series of cult movies on TV in the UK called "Moviedrome" and one of the films he screened was The Big Silence (now more well know as The Great Silence) and I remember his introductions with fond memories as they were always very good. I still have his presentation of Silence on an old video tape. Thanks for the heads up, Brian, I'll certainly get this book at some stage.
ReplyDeleteTHE GREAT SILENCE is one of my all time favorite movies. Corbucci was one helluva director.
ReplyDeleteI remember those Moviedrome films too JackJ and i'm sure that Cox also introduced DJANGO.There was also the excellent sw season he presented on ITV4 4 or so years ago.
ReplyDeleteI second Venom5's recommendation for the book as it's always entertaining regardless of whether you agree with him or not.
He has an interesting perspective and even if you don't agree with him, he writes with a lot of passion which makes for good reading.
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