Spaghetti Westerns at the Egyptian and Aero Theaters

Comments (0) By Nick Pinkerton Thursday, Jul 26 2012

In counterfeiting the Western, the spaghetti filmmakers cartooned it, destining it to spiral into ever-further outrageousness. Caricature replaces character — who can pay attention to the political text of Corbucci's 1970 Compañeros when there's Jack Palance swanning about as a reefer-addicted, one-handed falconer? Gianfranco Parolini's 1969 Sabata has Van Cleef teaming with an acrobatic Indian named Alley Cat (Nick Jordan), who is perpetually bounding off of barely concealed trampolines, and William Berger, who carries a repeating rifle in his banjo.

The weaponry, as well as the sadism, grows ever more inventively ludicrous — witness avaricious townspeople fatally prying gold bullets out of a wounded man in Giulio Questi's 1967 Django Kill ... If You Live, Shoot!, one of the numberless ranks of in-name-alone sequels, soon to be joined in December by Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained.

The Mercenary

Location Info

Map

Egyptian Theater

6712 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90028

Category: Movie Theaters

Region: Hollywood

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Aero Theatre

1328 Montana Ave.
Santa Monica, CA 90403

Category: Movie Theaters

Region: Santa Monica

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Tarantino is the avatar of genre filmmaking for genre filmmaking's sake, and the break with real-world context that he represents, for better and worse, begins here.

SPAGHETTI WESTERNS UNCHAINED | July 26-Aug. 12 | American Cinematheque at the Egyptian and Aero theatres | americancinematheque.com