Spaghetti Westerns (15 page)

In 1899, notorious gunfighter Jack Beauregard decides it’s time he retired. Age is catching up with him and he plans to travel to Europe, but he finds out that his brother has been killed by a corrupt businessman, Sullivan. So before he leaves the West, Beauregard sets out to claim his brother’s share of a bogus gold mine that Sullivan has been running. Along the way, Beauregard meets Nobody, a cocky young gunman, who hero-worships Beauregard and wants his idol to go down in history with a flourish rather than retire quietly to Europe. He forces a confrontation between Beauregard and Sullivan’s employees, the Wild Bunch – ‘150 pure-bred sons of bitches on horseback’ – in the desert. Beauregard survives and, in the finale, Nobody kills him in a duel in the main street of New Orleans, before a huge crowd. But it transpires that the duel was a ruse to allow Beauregard to sail away in peace, having secured his place in history, and for Nobody to become famous. Now Nobody is a Somebody too.

This film is often mistaken for a Sergio Leone film, but it was actually directed by Valerii, Leone’s assistant from the
Dollars
movies and an excellent director in his own right (
Day of Anger
and
The Price
of Power
).
My Name is Nobody
is based on an idea by Leone and he produced it. Like
Once Upon a Time in the West
, the film starred Fonda, but, instead of playing a villainous role, he is cast as the hero, an ageing gunslinger bound for Europe. Not only does Beauregard represent the end of the West – as the men who tamed the Wild West reach their twilight years – but also the end of the classic Hollywood Western. Here he finds himself facing Nobody (though Trinity would have been a more accurate moniker), played by Hill, an impudent young gunman, full of verve and adventure, for whom Beauregard is a hero of gigantic proportions. Nobody represents the Spaghetti Western, the hip update of the old fables, which ironically was also on the way out by 1973, being ousted from the box office by kung-fu movies and thrillers. Nobody wants Beauregard/the Western to go down fighting, to leave a final testament that is a worthy legacy. Nobody tells Beauregard, ‘A man who’s a man needs something to believe in,’ and it was as though Leone and Valerii were saying that there was nothing to believe in any more. Stars like Eastwood and Van Cleef (men who owed their careers to Leone) had gone off and done their own thing and Trinity had shot the great Leone myth full of holes, making a mockery of his once-cherished genre. Now Nobody was going to finish off the American Western, inasmuch as he was going to help it retire for good. Nobody finds himself at the end of the movie watching his back for the next generation of gunmen, eager to kill him off. Meanwhile, at the box office, Bruce Lee and Darth Vader appeared and killed the Western off altogether.

My Name is Nobody
is a great Western, though it’s not without its flaws. But to come up with anything original after the
Trinity
films had flogged the formula to death is commendable. Valerii was accused of not being successful in linking the Italian and American styles together. The point is that the two styles are so different that the pace of the film echoes their differing perspectives. The scenes with Fonda are more mannered, as befits an ageing ‘National Monument’ and have a twilight quality about them that anticipates the final attempt at resurrecting Spaghettis in the seventies with movies like
Keoma
– films full of regret and pathos. When Hill comes to the fore, to perform his
Trinity
antics (slapping gunmen, drawing in double-quick time, eating beans), they juxtapose with Fonda’s stately performance. When the two are together, the power of their portrayals is extremely effective and the most touching depiction of the ‘old man and boy’ generational scenario from
For a Few Dollars More
. Nobody worships Beauregard and tells his hero, ‘When I was a boy I used to make believe I was Jack Beauregard,’ just as successive generations would make believe they were Tom Mix, John Wayne, Alan Ladd and Clint Eastwood as they stared up at the cinema screen (and later TV). Ennio Morricone’s score is similarly referential, with nods to
A Fistful of Dollars
and
Once Upon a Time
in the West
, while the shootout between Beauregard and the Wild Bunch is scored with a pastiche of Wagner’s ‘Ride of the Valkyries’.
My Name is Nobody
was followed by an inferior sequel,
A Genius
(1975), which was retitled
Nobody’s the Greatest
and co-starred cult hero Patrick McGoohan (of sixties TV series
Danger Man
and
The
Prisoner
fame).

With his shock casting as the villain in
Once Upon a Time in the
West
, Fonda proved that he could play a bad guy, after years of heroic roles. Here Beauregard is a gentler, more optimistic version of John Wayne’s JB Books in
The
Shootist
(1976).
My Name is Nobody
gave Fonda a role with grace and dignity that was the perfect postscript to his Western career. Amazingly, it took the Italians to do it.

After the Civil War, half-breed Keoma returns to his home town to find it doubly cursed. The town is oppressed by a group of ex-Confederates led by Caldwell, while the population is riddled with the plague, which is rapidly decimating them. Keoma finds that his old mentor, George, is now the town drunk and his adopted father, Shannon, is powerless to stop Caldwell’s tyranny, even though his three natural sons are members of Caldwell’s outfit. Keoma saves a pregnant woman from the gang, but realises that he can’t run away and must face his destiny. He convinces Shannon and George to help him and they face Caldwell’s bunch, but George is killed, Caldwell murders Shannon and then takes Keoma prisoner. Meanwhile, Keoma’s three half-brothers see an opportunity to take over the town. They kill Caldwell and his men but Keoma escapes and kills them all in a showdown.

Often praised as one of the greatest Spaghettis of all time, this isn’t a patch on films from the heyday of the genre in 1965–67. That said, it is a very good Western, completely different in style to the classic Spaghettis and boasting a fine performance by Nero, in his best Western role outside his movies for Corbucci. The film belongs to the very last sub-genre to emerge from Italian Westerns – the socalled ‘twilight’ Westerns – before the genre finally capitulated shortly after
Keoma
was released. Its style was strange, mystical and Gothic, the story steeped in memory and narrated by mournful Leonard Coen-esque ballads on the soundtrack. But though it was successful,
Keoma
failed to keep the genre afloat.

Keoma
is excellent in all departments, but one of the best aspects of the film is the trio of actors in the leads – Nero, Berger and Strode. Nero, looking nothing like his previous incarnations, gives one of his best performances as the half-breed Keoma. With a beard, long hair and a sawn-off shotgun, the film is an obvious attempt to shed his
Django
image once and for all, though it was marketed as a
Django
movie in some countries. Berger ages well, to play Keoma’s stepfather, while Strode (who continued to make European Westerns after his appearance in
Once Upon a Time in the West
) highlighted an anti-racist aspect to the action. The treatment of both the half-breed hero and his black mentor is simultaneously hard-hitting and topical and deals with themes already broached by Corbucci’s
Navajo Joe
, amongst others. What makes the film atypical is its innovative use of flashbacks. The usual style of the time was that the hero looked off into the distance, the screen dissolved and the reverie (usually sepia-tinted) would materialise from the blur. Though some of
Keoma
’s flashbacks use that device, there are also moments where the memories seem part of the action so that, when a character reminisces, the flashback takes place around him. Consequently, Keoma arrives back at his old home and, in a surreal moment, he watches himself as a child running past. Such instances add to the mystical and religious atmosphere, where the past and the present collide, in preparation for the future.

The film was also released as
The Violent Breed
and, looking at the action sequences, it’s an apt title. Castellari (real name Enzo Girolami) emulated Peckinpah’s approach to action scenes, with much slow-motion photography of bodies pirouetting as bullets slam into them, intercut with action shots at normal speed. This makes the set pieces memorable, especially when coupled with the very unusual setting and the extraordinary music. Other stylistic aspects involve some shamelessly contrived camerawork, including a scene where Nero and Berger are filmed through a series of bullet holes, as they shoot at a target – a simple enough masking effect that is very effective. The plague-infested town owes much to
Django
(it’s the same set, at Rome’s Elios Studios), and some of the action occurs at night, with the street atmospherically lit with torches. This bizarre imagery is made even weirder by the score by Guido and Maurizio De Angelis. Throughout the film, two ballads sung by Sybil and Guy – ‘Keoma’ and ‘In Front of my Desperation’ – comment on the action, but, after a while, their unrelentingly doom-laden tone begins to wear on the nerves. Guy sounds like an even more gravely voiced version of Leonard Coen (whose laments had been used to similar effect in Robert Altman’s
McCabe & Mrs Miller
[1971]), but shrill Sybil gets extremely irritating, though the fusion of music and image often produces undeniably powerful moments.

In the sixties Castellari made a career out of parodying Leone and pioneered the fusion of Spaghetti Western and comedy, but really came into his own with this mystical style. His scenario here is heavily influenced by Bergman’s
The Seventh Seal
(1957) – a soldier returning after his ‘crusade’ through a plague-wracked landscape. Throughout the film, Keoma repeatedly encounters two characters – an old woman and a young expectant mother. The old woman appears at crucial moments in the film and signifies death, while the young woman (symbolising life) gives birth during the final gunfight. As Keoma kills the town’s oppressors (who have been stopping much-needed medicine from reaching the infirm), her child is extremely fortunate to be the first born into a ‘free world’, while she perishes giving birth to him. As if to reinforce the religious element to the story, Keoma is symbolically crucified on a wagon-wheel and Castellari is to be commended that he doesn’t allow a totally upbeat ending.

Keoma
is a dark morality tale that managed to say something new at a time when it seemed everything had been said. It also influenced Clint Eastwood’s
Unforgiven
(1992), particularly the characterisation of Ned Logan (played by Morgan Freeman), which is similar to Strode’s portrayal here. Nero is exceptionally proud of this film and rightly so.

~ ~ ~ ~

If you haven’t found your favourite Spaghetti, then I’m sorry. Space dictated that it was impossible to cover more than 34 films and I’ve attempted to discuss a fair representation of the genre’s finest. Over 500 Euro-Westerns were released and rarities are still showing up today. Spaghetti Westerns are enjoying renewed popularity, with DVDs being released all the time, allowing fans to see long-forgotten gems and re-mastered classics. Astute distributors are finally looking beyond the
Dollars
films and issuing Van Cleef’s Italian work, the best Hill and Spencer comedies, and classics from Corbucci, Sollima and Castellari, among others. I personally think that
The Good
,
the
Bad and the Ugly
is the best Italian Western of all time, as well as one of the greatest Westerns. But ten more Spaghettis in a dead heat for second place are
The Return of Ringo
(1965),
For a Few
Dollars More
(1965),
Django
(1966),
The Hills Run Red
(1966),
Navajo
Joe
(1966),
The Big Gundown
(1967),
The Big Silence
(1967),
A
Professional Gun
(1968),
Sabata
(1969) and
They Call Me Trinity
(1970).

Sergio Leone – Something To Do With Death
by Christopher Frayling (Faber and Faber 2000)
The finest book on Leone’s life and Westerns. Hugely informative, tirelessly researched. Definitive in every department. Buy it.

Sergio Leone – Once Upon a Time in Italy
by Christopher Frayling (Thames and Hudson 2005)
An excellent, colourful companion published to coincide with an exhibition at the Autry National Centre devoted to Sergio Leone’s Westerns; includes interviews with many who worked with Leone, including Morricone, Carlo Simi, Luciano Vincenzoni, Sergio Donati and Lee Van Cleef.

Italian Westerns – The Opera of Violence
by Laurence Staig and Tony Williams (Lorrimer 1975)
Hard to find but an excellent look at the entire Spaghetti genre. Lots of stills, plus useful notes on composers.

Spaghetti Westerns
by Christopher Frayling (Routledge and Kegan Paul 1981, reprinted 1998 and 2006 by IB Tauris)
The bible of Spaghetti Westerns. Mostly devoted to Leone’s movies, but brings in Corbucci, Tessari and Sollima. Good filmography. Essential.

Sergio Leone
by Oreste De Fornari (Gremese 1997)
Good on-set stills and interesting interviews with Leone’s associates including Morricone, Donati, Valerii.

Once Upon a Time: The Films of Sergio Leone
by Robert
C Cumbow (Scarecrow Press 1987)
Leone-only analysis, reprinted in 2008 as simply
The Films of Sergio Leone.

Spaghetti Westerns – The Good, the Bad and the Violent. 558
Eurowesterns and Their Personnel, 1961–1977
by Thomas
Weisser (McFarland 1992)
Breathtaking in its scope. Massive and invaluable, but not infallible. Reissued in paperback in 2005.

Once Upon a Time in the Italian West: The Filmgoers’ Guide to
Spaghetti Westerns
by Howard Hughes (IB Tauris 2004, reissued 2006)
Twenty important Italian Westerns discussed in detail, from
A
Fistful of Dollars
and
Django
,
through The Good
,
the Bad and the
Ugly
and
Navajo Joe
, to
Sabata
and
My Name is Nobody
.

Essential reading for fans is
Westerns All’Italiana
edited by Tom Betts,
the excellent American fanzine, first published in 1983, still going strong and now available online. Other Euro-Western sources include a series of three books in the ‘Glittering Images’ series, under the titles
Western All’Italiana
:
Book
One: The Specialists
;
Book
Two: The Wild, the Sadist and the Outsiders
;
Book
Three: 100
More Must-See Movies
,
all of which are beautifully illustrated with full colour posters and stills. Also available are
The Art of Sergio
Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West: A Critical Appreciation
by John Fawell
,
The Spaghetti Western: A Thematic Analysis
by
Bert
Fridlund,
The Pocket Essential Sergio Leone
by
Michael Carlson
and
10,000 Ways to Die
(
Kamera Books
,
2009),
Alex Cox
’
s entertaining director
’
s-eye take on 51 important Spaghettis
.

In Germany there is
Für ein paar Leichen mehr
(literally ‘For a Few Corpses More’)
by Ulrich P Bruckner
and in France
Il
Était une
Fois… Le
Western Européen
by
Jean-François Giré
. Both of these books are well illustrated and include extensive Euro-Western filmographies, and are worth buying even if your German or French isn’t fluent.
Dizionario Del Western All’Italiana
by Marco Giusti
is Italian language only, with no illustrations, but is a similarly exhaustive filmographic source. Further magazine sources include
Spaghetti Cinema
edited by William Connolly
(which looks at all aspects of Italian popular cinema) and
Cinema Retro
edited by Lee
Pfeiffer and Dave Worrall
(which covers films of the 1960s and 1970s, including Euro-Westerns and Clint Eastwood). For useful TV documentaries, see
The Spaghetti West
,
Viva Leone!, Ennio Morricone and Once Upon a Time.

Also worth tracking down are the numerous biographies of
Clint
Eastwood
(especially Richard Schickel, Patrick McGilligan, Iain Johnston, François Guérif and Daniel O’Brien),
The Aurum Film
Encyclopaedia – The Western
by Phil Hardy
(which briefly reviews all the main Spaghettis),
A Pictorial History of Westerns
by Michael Parkinson and Clyde Jeavons
(whole chapter, good stills), 
Wild West Movies
by Kim Newman
(accessible, excellently researched),
Westerns
by Philip French
(updated in 2005, this includes a chapter on the Italian Western and three bibliographies of essential Western books) and
Injuns! Native Americans in the
Movies
by
Edward Buscombe
(a chapter covers Native American Euro-Westerns, including the
Winnetou
movies). Of my own books,
Stagecoach to Tombstone: the Filmgoers’ Guide to the Great
Westerns
includes a chapter on
Once Upon a Time in the West
, and
Aim for the Heart
:
The Films of Clint Eastwood
has a chapter on Eastwood’s Westerns, including the
Dollars
trilogy.