Western, Italian Style (1968)

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Centering on the explosion of Spaghetti Westerns that were made in Italy throughout the 1960's, this neat little documentary offers some choice behind the scenes footage of the shooting of "Run, Man, Run," "The Great Silence," "One Dollar Too Many," Sergio Leone's spectacular masterpiece "Once Upon a Time in the West," and "Kill Them All and Come Back Alone." The energetic Enzo Castellari choreographs a fight and describes his movies as escapist fare. French actor Jean-Louis Trintignant confesses that starring in a Spaghetti Western gives him a chance to do something outside of his established romantic persona. Chuck Connors astutely points out that the protagonists in these films are anti-heroes instead of pure heroes. Among the other things shown are a huge display of guns, shaving cream being used as snow, and various extras eating and drinking on location. Spaghetti Western regular Frank Wolff provides the witty narration. The jaunty score by John Ireson and Wayne Parham keeps things bouncing along (we also see the duo performing live in a club). Covering a good deal of ground in a breezy 38 minutes, it's recommended viewing for fans of the Spaghetti Western genre.

This documentary - made for American TV and included as an extra on the Blue Underground DVD of RUN, MAN, RUN (1968) - gives us a rare behind-the-scenes look at the Spanish town of Almeria which throughout the 1960s and 1970s literally stood in for the American West or Mexico in some 600 Spaghetti Westerns! Among the interviewees are Italian directors Enzo G. Castellari, Sergio Corbucci and Sergio Sollima, as well as French film star Jean-Louis Trintignant and American actor Chuck Connors. The short - narrated by character actor Frank Wolff, a regular in Spaghetti Westerns - is especially valuable for showing such key genre classics as THE GREAT SILENCE (1968), ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (1968) and RUN, MAN, RUN itself being filmed.

This 38 minute documentary from 1968 narrated by Frank Wolff, is a very simplified overview of Italian Westerns. It also has behind-the-scene footage of various Westerns, interviews with their respectable directors, and it's impact on Italian life. Then it seems to dissolve into a travelogue for Italy itself, before telling of twists on westerns. I found this film to be way too bland and basic to be that enjoyable. Good only as a curiosity, I believe this was made for American TV. This documentary can be found as an extra on the "Run, Man, Run" disk of the Blue Underground Spahetti Western DVD collection.My Grade: D+