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-   -   Dollars/Spaghetti Westerns Trilogy (http://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?t=43048)

Goldleader 09-16-15 10:49 AM

Dollars/Spaghetti Westerns Trilogy
 
I have justed finished watching the classic "Dollars/Spaghetti Westerns" Trilogy on Blu-Ray for the first time, yes i know "how can i only just be getting around to watching these classic set of films". Well for one thing i have only just gotten into the western as a genre as before now i found them boaring, age is making me see sense. And another i'm having a bit of a Clint Eastwood phase at the min.

As for these films i found A Fist Full of Dollars to be an instant classic for me. The whole style of the film is just amazing and raw, some of the shoots with the close ups are so amazing. Clint has never been cooler and he gives James Bond a run for his money as one of the greatest screen characters ever created. Never was a character so cool, this is the start of many an action star of the 80s and 90s. The story is also very interesting and somehow shows The Man with No Name with a bad side but a good side that we can all root for. Everyman wants to be him and everyone wants him to win. One of the things that really surprised me was the sounds and the doubted voices, i found them so much fun, the gun shoots been the stand out almost becoming a character in the film. Overall it is a well put together, tight, action packed, cool, great styled film. A full on 5 star film.

My hopes were raised as i popped in the For a Few Dollars more disk. I was looked for much the same, and in many ways i got it. Clint is back and is just as cool, as is the great style and soundtrack. The film has a great first 20 mins, with the intro of Lee Van Cleef character and The Man With No Name both as bounty hunters. After this i felt the film lost its way a little and found the bad guy to be just a little over the top with no real threat to the main two characters. Also the biggest let down is the fact that Clint is very much the supporting role in the film and it suffers for it. I got the feeling though that Sergio Leone had created this great character but didn't really know were to take him without repeating what he had done in the other film so in that sense he uses the character well. But i think that the character was so strong they could have used him more in at least this film. Never the less this is a 4 star film.

I was very much looking forward to the Good the Bad and the Ugly, as many people have said its the best of the three. The film starts off with a great opening shot that really got me set up as if it was going to be great like the other 2 films with the Sergio Leone style from the off, first 20 mins with the introduction of the 3 main characters is very good in much the same way as in For a Few Dollars More. But as in that film this suffers from much the same in that i felt the wheels come off after that and Sergio Leone didn't have a clear plan for what he was going to do. I found the mixing of comedy with the drama and epic feel of the civil war just doesn't work together for me. Again Clint's Man With No Name is under used (however i did like how they showed how he got the clothes, this was fun). One of the biggest facts for not loving this film is its length, it is stretched out over the 3 hours with no real pay off or development of the characters, which would become one of Sergio Leone's trademarks in other films. To me it just felt like he shoe horned The Man With No Name into this film as it was the only way to get the large budget and make the epic film he wanted. Don't get me wrong there are some great points to the film, the music is the best of the 3 and i did enjoy Eli Wallach character. In the end its a film that could have been split into 2 different films for me, one with Clint in and the searching for the gold and another different film without that character and about the civil war. A 3 star film for me because of this.

A great set of films that i would recommend to anyone but A Fist Full of Dollars will be the only one i return to again.

Goldleader 09-17-15 06:31 AM

I'm surprised i haven't had a backlash of people thinking I'm crazy for not enjoying The Good The Bad and the Ugly.


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