Reporting For Duty
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Categories
In this Discussion
Italian Westerns Started By.. James Bond? (Westerns Discussion)
Got the Dollars Trilogy for Christmas on Blu-Ray (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly) and was watching the historian's commentary for all of them.
On the commentary for A Fistful of Dollars they discussed how much Bond had influence the direction of Sergio Leone as well as elements of the story.
Both films were introduced in a short progression through the sixties, Bond came first, and thus influenced movie-goer Sergio Leone.
The creative title animations for the trilogy were influenced by the artsy titles of the early Bond movies, also influencing dozens of other films during the same era. Blondie, or The Man With No Name in the films played by Clint Eastwood was also influenced by Bond. He was intellegent, and used his wit more than his gun to get out of trouble. He had impeccable one-liners in the later two movies of the trilogy as did Bond. "The Man With No Name" title was also said to be influenced similar to that of James Bond, the spy, as a spy goes under false identities.
Bond has also taken cues from Westerns.
What are your favorite Westerns?
Have you noticed Bond's influence on them, and the 60's style of film-making?
What are some of the 'Western' moments in the Bond films?
On the commentary for A Fistful of Dollars they discussed how much Bond had influence the direction of Sergio Leone as well as elements of the story.
Both films were introduced in a short progression through the sixties, Bond came first, and thus influenced movie-goer Sergio Leone.
The creative title animations for the trilogy were influenced by the artsy titles of the early Bond movies, also influencing dozens of other films during the same era. Blondie, or The Man With No Name in the films played by Clint Eastwood was also influenced by Bond. He was intellegent, and used his wit more than his gun to get out of trouble. He had impeccable one-liners in the later two movies of the trilogy as did Bond. "The Man With No Name" title was also said to be influenced similar to that of James Bond, the spy, as a spy goes under false identities.
Bond has also taken cues from Westerns.
What are your favorite Westerns?
Have you noticed Bond's influence on them, and the 60's style of film-making?
What are some of the 'Western' moments in the Bond films?
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
Bond had no morals, no rules, and no limits. (And no humor :/)
I love Leone/Clint's westerns, and I plan on getting all of them at some point. What I own at the moment is:
Hang 'Em High
High Plains Drifter
Two Mules for Sister Sara
Joe Kidd
There are definitely some similarities such as Bond being a loner, not having any friends; great one liners; a no-nonsense man's man who can fight brutally and likes a good drink. He seems to unintentionally gather allies along the way. There's also a few fight scenes in Clint's westerns that have a tinge of humor about them.
I forgot soundtracks. Sergio Leone wanted Ennio Morricone (the composer for the Dollars Trilogy, and all of Leone's following work) to create a sound for the western as Barry created a sound for the spy.
And @QBranch,
High Plains Drifter is my dads favorite film. I've yet to see it, but his basic synopsis tells me I'll enjoy it.
My rents' also got me two more westerns, directed and starring Eastwood. His are a more Hollywood approach to the Western. I got Pale Rider and The Outlaw Josey Wales
I'll be checking those out soon.
I own all Sergio Leone westerns, and they all have such a great atmosphere compared to most of american westerns. Death Rides a horse starring Van Cleef is great too, and if you want your spaghetti with spice, try some of the "not so serious westerns" like Zabata trilogy. First and the third star Van Cleef. Or you could try some Terence Hill movies. My Name's Nobody especially is good, mixing comedy and serious western and starring Henry Fonda along Terence Hill. It's kind of a goodbye movie to the old wild west and also the last western Sergio Leone was involved in. He directed a couple of sequences for that movie.
My favorite american westerns are probably Joe Kidd, Two Mules for Sister Sara , The Outlaw Josey Wales to name a few. All starring... surprise surprise ; Clint Eastwood!
The movies, spaghetti westerns I mean, have good soundtracks too, especially if they involve Ennio Morricone.
The one I'm watching now especially has a very Bondian theme.
I haven't really given a lot of thought on the Bond-Western thing. I notice the similarities between LTK and A Fistful Of Dollars, but then both films actually grab core material from Kurosawa's Yojimbo so I guess in that sense there's only half a link between them.
Western moments in a Bond film? The gun duel between Bond and Scaramanga perhaps? Meh, I don't think the exercise is legitimate. Bond films and Westerns are essentially very different I reckon.