westerns

by gene dolders

A Fistful of Dollars (1964)
Director: Sergio Leone
Plot: A wandering gunfighter (Clint Eastwood) plays two rival families against each other in a town torn apart by greed, pride, and revenge.
Trivia: The company who financed this movie had to profit share with Akira Kurosawa as the plot was blatantly taken from YoJimbo.

For a Few Dollars More (1965)
Plot: Two bounty killers (Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef) with similar intentions but different motivations team up to track down a psychotic Mexican outlaw before he and his gang can carry out an audacious bank robbery. 
Trivia: As all of the film’s footage was shot silent (i.e., without recording sound at time of shooting), Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef returned to Italy where they dubbed their dialogue, and sound effects were added.

Navajo Joe (1966)
Director: Sergio Corbucci 
Plot: A Native American warrior ( Burt Reynolds) seeks revenge on the gang of sadistic scalphunters-turned-bank robbers who massacred his tribe.
Trivia: Burt Reynolds only agreed to make this film because he was under the impression that Sergio Leone would be directing. When he found out it was Sergio Corbucci he tried to pull out, but the contracts had already been signed and it was too late.

Massacre Time (1966)
Director: Lucio Fulci
Plot: A prospector and his drunkard brother must fight against the insane and sadistic son of a wealthy rancher, who has dispossessed them of their family farm.
Trivia: The first of three spaghetti westerns that Lucio Fulci made. The other two were The Four of the Apocalypse… (1975) and Silver Saddle (1978).

Django (1966)
Director: Sergio Corbucci
Plot: A coffin-dragging gunslinger ( Franco Nero) and a prostitute become embroiled in a bitter feud between a Klan of Southern racists and a band of Mexican Revolutionaries.
Trivia: The title “Django” is a reference to renowned jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, who had a crippled hand. Viewers at the time would have been aware of this allusion.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
Director: Sergio Leone 
Plot: A bounty-hunting scam joins two men (Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef) in an uneasy alliance against a third ( Eli Wallach) in a race to find a fortune in gold buried in a remote cemetery.
Trivia: There is no dialogue for the first ten and a half minutes of this movie.

Day of Anger (1967)
Director: Tonino Valerii 
Plot: A scruffy garbage boy (Guiliano Gemma) becomes the pupil of a famed gunfighter (Lee Van Cleef), and the stage for confrontation is set when the gunman overruns the boy’s town through violence and corruption.
Trivia: The theme song is used in Django Unchained, the training montage scene where Jamie Foxx/Django is practicing his shooting.

God Forgives… I Don’t! (1967)
Director: Giuseppe Colizzi
Plot: After a train is robbed of its payroll, an insurance agent and a card-shark team up to retrieve the loot from the bandits who guard it at a secret location near the Mexican border.
Trivia: First Movie with Bud Spencer and Terence Hill in a Leading Roll together.

If You Meet Sartana… Pray for Your Death (1968)
Director: Gianfranco Parolini
Plot: A gadget-laden gunfighter and gambler ( Gianni Garko) interferes with the complex schemes of gangsters and dignitaries hoping to steal a bank’s gold and obtain the insurance payout for its theft.
Trivia: On the Norwegian cover of the VHS tape, it does not have the name of the main star, Gianni Garko. Only the names of the co-stars Klaus Kinski, Willam Berger and Sidney Chaplin.

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Director: Sergio Leone 
Plot: A mysterious stranger (Charles Bronson) with a harmonica joins forces with a notorious desperado to protect a beautiful widow from a ruthless assassin working for the railroad.
Trivia: Sergio Leone only did this film because he could not get his crime epic Once Upon a Time in America off the ground.

The Mercenary (1968)
Director: Sergio Corbucci 
Plot: A greedy Polish mercenary (Franco Nero) helps a mine worker ( Tony Musante) and a peasant girl lead a revolution against the Mexican Government, all while being pursued by an American rival (Jack Palance).
Trivia: During the filming, the crew sighted a UFO. After capturing the footage it was sent to NASA, but no further investigation took place.

La collina degli stivali aka Boot Hill (1969)
Director: Giuseppe Colizzi
Plot: Victims of oppressive town boss Honey are offered help by an unusual alliance of gunmen (Terence Hill and Bud Spencer) and circus performers.
Trivia: A German DVD telease has a Super-8 Version of the movie as a special feature.

Trinity Is Still My Name (1971)
Director: Enzo Barboni
Plot: Bambino (Bud Spencer) tries to teach his brother Trinity ( Terence Hill) how to become an outlaw, but the two wind up saving a pioneer family and breaking up an arms ring instead.
Trivia: The movie is set in 1869 according to an advertising poster on the wall in a bar.

A Fistful of Dynamite (1971)
Director: Sergio Leone 
Plot: A low-life bandit ( Rod Steiger) and an I.R.A. explosives expert ( James Conurn) rebel against the government and become heroes of the Mexican Revolution.
Trivia: The film was initially planned to have been directed by Leone’s assistant Giancarlo Santi, but both Rod Steiger and James Coburn demanded that Sergio Leone direct the picture, so Santi was out.

My Name Is Nobody (1973)
Director: Tonino Valerii
Plot: A young, easy-going gunman (Terence Hill) worships and competes with a famed gunfighter ( Henry Fonda), insisting that he must face down a gang of 150 outlaws before he can retire.
Trivia: Director Sam Peckinpah’s name is on one of the graves in the graveyard.

The Four of the Apocalypse… (1975)
Director: Lucio Fulci
Plot: In 1873, four petty criminals – three men and a pregnant woman – wander through the trackless terrain of Utah, where they are hounded by a sadistic bandit.
Trivia: Tomas Milian patterned his portrayal of Chaco on Charles Manson.

Keoma (1976)
Director: Enzo G. Castellari
Plot: An ex-Union gunfighter attempts to protect his plague-ridden hometown from being overridden by his racist half-brothers and a Confederate tyrant.
Trivia: Director Enzo G. Castellari has stated that out of all the films he has directed, this is his personal favorite.

Bone Tomahawk (2015)
Director: S. Craig Zahler
Plot: In the Old West, a sheriff (Kurt Russell) and his posse must rescue several townspeople from cave-dwelling cannibals.
Trivia: The cave set in the last act of the movie was the same cave set used in Iron Man (2008) where Tony Stark is held captive and constructs the first iron man suit.

The Hateful Eight (2015)
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Plot: In the dead of a Wyoming winter, a bounty hunter (Kurt Russell) and his prisoner (Jennifer Jason Leigh) find shelter in a cabin currently inhabited by a collection of nefarious characters.
Trivia: The Hateful Eight used some of the unused score that Ennio Morricone wrote for John Carpenter’s The Thing. 

In A Valley of Violence (2016)
Director: Ti West
Plot: A mysterious stranger (Ethan Hawke) and a random act of violence drag a town of misfits and nitwits into the bloody crosshairs of revenge.
Trivia: John Travolta’s character was loosely based on B.J. Wheeler, a real-life marshal from Clovis, NM.