The eerie music of Ennio Morricone, coupled with the stark desert landscape of the American Southwest (although this was “shot”in at least two desert locations of Spain), and the resolute “no-name”hero, certainly make this first film of the trilogy memorable (although after living for two decades in Arizona, the classic “American southwest,” the heat, the dryness, and the burnt landscape becomes very tiresome. Let me tell you.)
I did not know that much of the plot is “borrowed” from a 1961 Kurosawa film, “Yojimbo,” a story of an unemployed wandering samurai who defeats two warlords who have devastated a Japanese town. In fact Kurosawa and his director sued Sergio Leone and eventually obtained a small settlement . The parallels between the American Southwest (“The Wild West”) and the ronin era of Japan are fascinating.
Very interesting, Zephyrinus.
ReplyDeleteThe eerie music of Ennio Morricone, coupled with the stark desert landscape of the American Southwest (although this was “shot”in at least two desert locations of Spain), and the resolute “no-name”hero, certainly make this first film of the trilogy memorable (although after living for two decades in Arizona, the classic “American southwest,” the heat, the dryness, and the burnt landscape becomes very tiresome. Let me tell you.)
I did not know that much of the plot is “borrowed” from a 1961 Kurosawa film, “Yojimbo,” a story of an unemployed wandering samurai who defeats two warlords who have devastated a Japanese town. In fact Kurosawa and his director sued Sergio Leone and eventually obtained a small settlement . The parallels between the American Southwest (“The Wild West”) and the ronin era of Japan are fascinating.
-Note by Dante P
A wonderful background update to this Article. Thank You, Dante P. Zephyrinus never knew any connection between these two films.
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