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Post by london777 on Apr 9, 2021 4:07:18 GMT
Manfromplanetx has just recommended to us The Soil was Painted Red aka Blood on the Land (1966, but IMDb says it was released in 1965), a Greek western drama directed by Vasilis Georgiadis. I wonder which other countries have tried their hands at the western genre? I can immediately think of: The Proposition (2005) dir: John Hillcoat and set in the Australian outback. It is pretty much a straight western, and a very good one too. My one criticism is that the character played by Danny Huston is supposed to possess almost mystical powers, a veritable Keyser Soze of the outback, whereas Huston possesses the charisma of a traffic bollard. I have the same criticism of his portrayal of Orson Welles in Fade to Black (2006). Russian "Osterns" usually set in the steppe. Most famous is White Sun of the Desert (1970) dir: Vladimir Motyl, In Russia this is one of those films which has become a meme over and above its intrinsic worth (rather like It's a Wonderful Life or Groundhog Day in the US). Mainly because it became a tradition for cosmonauts to view the movie before being launched into space. Of course there are loads of Mexican westerns, and I have seen at least one Brazilian one, but cannot identify it for the moment.
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Post by mikef6 on Apr 9, 2021 4:55:49 GMT
Sholay / Ramesh Sippy (1975). A classic Bollywood favorite. The director had absorbed every trope, every camera movement, every bit of soundtrack music from a decade of Italian Food Westerns, and throws in more than a touch of “The Magnificent Seven” and “The Wild Bunch.” With these elements he produces a mash-up with typical Hindi movie-making such as a lengthy run-time, musical numbers, and a mixture of tones that include knockabout comedy (about a third of the movie). Still, there is high entertainment value here if you go with the flow.
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Post by OldAussie on Apr 9, 2021 4:59:30 GMT
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Post by mikef6 on Apr 9, 2021 5:06:39 GMT
Tiempo De Morir (Time To Die) / Arturo Ripstein (1966). This Mexican western, hard to find for many years, was restored in 2017 and given a limited release in the U.S. It is the debut of director Ripstein with a script by the Colombian Nobel Prize winner-to-be Gabriel García Márquez with Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes brought in to doctor the dialog to sound more Mexican. The plot is, like so many great westerns, filled with the elemental tropes and conflicts of cowboy movies since the beginning. Juan Sáyago (Jorge Martínez de Hoyos) returns to his village home after 18 years in prison for a killing. He greets all of his old friends and his former love, Meriana (Marga López), who warmly welcome him back, then urges him to leave at once. The two sons of the man he killed, the fanatical Julián (Alfredo Leal) and younger brother Pedro (Enrique Rocha) who was too young to remember his father, have taken an oath to kill Sáyago. Julián plans to carry out his oath the first day. Pedro, who has a fiancé and plans for the future, isn’t so sure. As in films like “High Noon,” a sense of inevitability, a movement toward a foreordained conclusion, produces a mounting tension. Canadian cinematographer Alex Phillips (who spent most of his career in Mexico) moves his camera creatively. In two scenes in Mariana’s home, she is tracked by the camera down hallways and through rooms in long takes that amaze from the years before Steadicam. This is just one of the ways in which, although a bedrock western, “Time To Die” also falls into the revisionist camp. It pleases in every way. An almost lost gem is revived.
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Post by timshelboy on Apr 9, 2021 5:12:23 GMT
interesting paella Western from 1966 or so if you can track it down....- Baxter's comeback after her 4 year sabbatical running a sheep farm in Australia (her account of that career break in the book INTERMISSION a fascinating read)
and of course the BRIT HIGH NOON....
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Post by manfromplanetx on Apr 9, 2021 5:47:21 GMT
The East German film, Die Söhne der großen Bärin ,The Sons of the Great Bear (1966) turned the traditional American "Cowboy and Indian" conventions upside-down by casting the Native Americans as the heroes and the American Army as the villains, while presenting the settlers as antagonists and showing how American natives were exploited, and taken advantage of... The Romanian film, Pruncul, petrolul şi ardelenii , The Oil, the Baby and the Transylvanians (1981) dramatises the struggles of Romanian and Hungarian immigrant settlers in a new land. This excellent film plays on traditional aspects where the bad guy is the respected good guy in town and lawlessness is rife. Czechoslovakian film, Limonádový Joe aneb Koňská opera, Lemonade Joe (1964) is a film with multiple layers of thematic parody, most prominently, a parody of clichés found in American Westerns, and in addition this brilliant highly entertaining film includes a running satire of American capitalism and cultural imperialism.
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Post by manfromplanetx on Apr 9, 2021 6:16:06 GMT
Koya no toseinin , The Drifting Avenger (1968) is an Excellent action packed film. A Japanese western ! set in the American west but filmed down here in Australia with some great local talents all seamlessly dubbed into Japanese. With a uniquely Japanese slant, from ugly villains, saloon bar fights, to dramatic shootouts the film covers all the familiar territory of the western genre. The Australian settings are expansive and beautifully portrayed. It was quite a culture shock for the Aussie country locals in 1968 to have the Japanese film crew arrive. Star Ken Takakura is an outstanding actor his every move captivating. Here he replaces his yakuza sword with a six shooter and rifle, which he uses in revenge with deadly proficiency. However he does get to draw upon his slain father's samurai sword to fulfil his blood-drenched quest... The Drifting Avenger is a wonderfully entertaining action film, if you enjoy western film, Classic Japanese samurai yakuza , Ken Takakura, there is much to enjoy in this unique Toei production. Highly Recommended !
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Post by timshelboy on Apr 9, 2021 6:25:29 GMT
There was a whole series of 11 German Westerns in early 60s with Pierre Brice as winnetou and Lex Barker , Stewart Granger Or Rod Cameron as Old Shattrhand, plus athentic western types as Daliah Lavi filling out the cast, Many were on youtube a year or two back but not always prperly subbed
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Post by timshelboy on Apr 9, 2021 7:39:40 GMT
The bean counters say Denmark/UK/South African... mongrel status aside this is a strking, stylish. lean, spare, bleak and brutal effort.
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Post by OldAussie on Apr 9, 2021 7:59:58 GMT
A couple of Hollywood adventures set during the Great Trek utilise western tropes with wagon trains, hostile natives, etc....
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Post by timshelboy on Apr 9, 2021 13:46:31 GMT
a bit more Equatorial than above suggestions... a good, dark actioner whatever genre we peg it as
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Post by mikef6 on Apr 9, 2021 13:55:09 GMT
In 1920, the German film industry released a two-part Hawkeye adventure. Part one was based on “The Deerslayer” and part two (Lederstrumpf, 2. Teil: Der Letzte der Mohikaner) on “The Last Of The Mohicans.” The Chingachgook in both halves was played by………wait for it………..Bela Lugosi. I am not making this up.
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Post by sostie on Apr 9, 2021 14:19:17 GMT
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Post by politicidal on Apr 9, 2021 15:51:24 GMT
SAVAGE PAMPAS (1966) starring Robert Taylor and taking place on the Argentine frontier.
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Post by Stammerhead on Apr 9, 2021 16:03:27 GMT
SAVAGE PAMPAS (1966) starring Robert Taylor and taking place on the Argentine frontier. I didn’t know anything about that one until I found it on YouTube. Pretty savage for its time and I thought it was a good watch.
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Post by teleadm on Apr 9, 2021 17:41:07 GMT
Looks like a Western, story like a Western, shoot-outs like a Western, but takes place in South Africa.
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Post by mikef6 on Apr 9, 2021 18:19:12 GMT
UK:Honorouble mentions to A Fistful Of Travellers Cheques and Carry On Cowboy Straight To Hell (1987) is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. LOL. It is one of those awful movies that once seen can never be forgotten. I didn't remember how this mess got on my Netflix queue but when the disc arrived I watched it. It is like many ‘80s direct to video and late night cable: cheaply made and depending on a high body count and lots of noise to keep viewers interested. From what I can figure, it is supposed to be a spoof of “spaghetti westerns” but set in modern Mexico. The punch line to all the jokes is someone being killed, usually shot with multiple blood squibs going off but also hanged, burned, plunging off a cliff and, of course, blown up. Ha ha. Not funny. What did you think of it?
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Post by mikef6 on Apr 9, 2021 18:24:46 GMT
The bean counters say Denmark/UK/South African... mongrel status aside this is a strking, stylish. lean, spare, bleak and brutal effort.
I was really transfixed and amazed by The Salvation. It is a revenge western - there have been so many of those. A wronged man goes about dispatching all the people who hurt him and his family. But this movie has an added...something. IT. A secret sauce that makes it very special. Your list of adjectives are as good a description as any I've read.
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Post by sostie on Apr 9, 2021 18:51:10 GMT
UK:Honorouble mentions to A Fistful Of Travellers Cheques and Carry On Cowboy Straight To Hell (1987) is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. LOL. It is one of those awful movies that once seen can never be forgotten. I didn't remember how this mess got on my Netflix queue but when the disc arrived I watched it. It is like many ‘80s direct to video and late night cable: cheaply made and depending on a high body count and lots of noise to keep viewers interested. From what I can figure, it is supposed to be a spoof of “spaghetti westerns” but set in modern Mexico. The punch line to all the jokes is someone being killed, usually shot with multiple blood squibs going off but also hanged, burned, plunging off a cliff and, of course, blown up. Ha ha. Not funny. What did you think of it? I haven't seen it since it came out, and I thought it was OK then. I loved Alex Cox's Repo Man and Sid and Nancy so it was reason to watch. But I never really considered it anything more, even at the time, than a novelty vanity piece. I mean the cast was Joe Strummer, The Pogues, Grace Jones, Elvis Costello, Edward Tudor-Pole and Courtney Love (though admittedly had no idea who she was back then) amongst others...who would expect much
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Post by teleadm on Apr 9, 2021 19:15:09 GMT
The Overlanders 1946 moving cattle from one place to another is standard western, but this time it wasn't John Wayne, Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr but someone called Chips Rafferty. Remember watching this on television in early 1970's, and me and my brother thought it was great, since it was just like a western.
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