Risselada Blog

Under discussion:

A Fistful of Dollars  (1964)

For a Few Dollars More  (1965)

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly  (1966)

Yojimbo  (1961)

Per un pugno di dollari (A Fistful of Dollars)

What can I say?  This movie started a pretty huge avalanche.  Both for Leone's and Eastwood's careers, the budding Spaghetti Western genre, and probably for for European genre movies in full.

As probably anyone reading this is already well aware, it's pretty much a close remake of Yojimbo.  But some characters are changed both reflecting the time of the American Southwest western where it's set, and Italian film for who it was intended.

The movie is enjoyable, with a few quite memorable moments (the gigantic barrel exploding into the bad guys may be my favorite).  But it's impossible for me not to think about it as just being the testing waters for the perfection that would eventually come with The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.  In fact the second movie in this series of sorts, For a Few Dollars More, takes many sequences and styles of this movie and gets them to a more finalized state that are basically rehashed again in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly only fitted together in a perfectly satisfying entirety.

Rating: 9/10

Under discussion:

Mon Oncle  (1958)

This blog entry is part of my “movie year countdown”.  To read more about that check out my first Spout filmblog entry.

Mon oncle

Mon oncle is a real treat.  I love movies with a lot of contrast and M. Hulot definitely delivers that.  I find it amusing also that all of the M. Hulot Criterion Collection DVD's have introductions by Terry Jones.  A British man giving props to a Frenchman!  Well I guess Terry is actually from Wales isn't he.

That stupid spitting fish lawn statue is such an amusing icon of this culture of showing off and always concentrating on trying to make yourself look better than your neighbor.

After seeing this movie I heard a fantastic song called "The Jacques Tati" written by Frank Black, who has always been known to have a slightly more sophisticated taste in movies than the average.

You kind of lean your head
You kind of get on your toes
(Look out, watch out for that post)
Try to take big steps
And when you start to coast
Take a look on down at nothing in particular

Rating: 9/10