One hour IFC Original documentary
Premieres Saturday September 10 @ 10pm ET/ 11pm PT
This documentary chronicles the inspiration, rise and fall of the spaghetti western genre and depicts the great influence these westerns have had on some of today’s most successful films; including Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (check out the original “ear scene” in Django, which was banned in the US) and Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. The doc, narrated by Robert Forster showcases the work of master directors Sergio Leone and Sergio Corbucci. Films featured in the doc include: A Fistful of Dollars; The Good, the Bad & the Ugly; Django; The Great Silence; and My Name is Nobody.
Interviewees:
Alessandro Alessandroni (“the whistler” and lifelong Ennio Morricone collaborator)
Sergio Donati (writer on several Leone westerns and Sollima’s political westerns)
Sergio Sollima (director of three major political spaghettis)
Ferdinando Baldi (director of several spaghettis)
Tonino Valerii (director, My Name is Nobody)
Manolo Bolognini (producer, Django)
Franco Giraldi (2nd Unit, A Fistful of Dollars and director of early comedy spaghettis)
Enzo Castellari (director, Keoma)
Damiano Damiani (director A Bullet for the General)
Professor Sir Christopher Frayling (author Sergio Leone & Spaghetti Westerns)
Alex Cox (filmmaker and major spaghetti fan)
Howard Hughes (author Once Upon A Time in the Italian West)
…PLUS…
Spaghetti Western Weekends,
Saturdays at 10e beginning September 10th
September 10th
10:00pm ET: The Spaghetti West
11:00pm ET: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Dir. Sergio Leone, 1966)
Leone uses vivid Cinemascope imagery to depict a bleak and bloody American West in this final installment of his collaboration with Clint Eastwood in the ‘Man with No Name’ Trilogy Encountering a group of dying soldiers, Tuco (Eli Wallach) learns the location of the graveyard where a Confederate treasure is buried, while Blondie (Clint Eastwood) learns the identity of the exact grave. Joined by mercenary drifter Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef), they cross the desert, each of the desperadoes knowing half the secret and each focusing his squinty eyes on the $200,000 bounty.
September 17
10:00pm ET: For a Few Dollars More (Dir. Sergio Leone, 1965)
The second film in Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Western trilogy (A Fistful of Dollars and The Good, The Bad and the Ugly) follows the Man with No Name (Clint Eastwood) as he teams up with gunslinger Colonel Mortimer (Lee Van Cleef) in order to extract reward money from Indio (Gian Maria Volonte), a mean and vicious bandit.
12:30am ET: The Spaghetti West
September 24
10:00pm ET: The Spaghetti West
11:00pm ET: The Big Gundown (Dir. Sergio Sollima, 1966)
Jonathan Corbett (Lee Van Cleef) is a Texas lawman and renowned bandit-hunter, who is fast with his draw and deadly with his aim. Though contemplating retirement, when he discovers that a crazed Mexican bandit named Cuchillo “the knife” has just raped and killed a teenage girl, he sets off to bring justice to the killer.
12:45pm ET: The Great Silence (Dir. Sergio Corbucci, 1968)
A group of greedy bounty hunters led by the brutal Loco (Klaus Kinski) are in pursuit of a band of outlaws who have escaped and are hiding out in the hills of the snowy Utah frontier. After an innocent man is killed, a mute gunslinger named Silence (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is called upon by the man’s wife to seek revenge.