1:09:01
As the Italian Western matured
enough to cope with politics,
1:09:05
a lot of this comes through in the films.
1:09:08
And certainly the beatings-up,
and, "How strong are you?"
1:09:11
"Will you throw your lot in with
the fascists?" comes into Leone's films.
1:09:15
He didn't fight in the Resistance.
His mum wouldn't let him.
1:09:19
And he always regretted it.
1:09:55
These films, when they first came out,
1:09:57
were treated by most
of the critics as ersatz American films.
1:10:02
The early Italian Westerns,
made between 1962 and 1964,
1:10:06
undoubtedly were ersatz American films.
1:10:08
They tried to look like Hollywood,
1:10:10
the main characters
hid under pseudonyms
1:10:13
so Italian audiences
would think they were American films.
1:10:16
They were about Buffalo Bill,
1:10:19
directed by people named
John Fordson, that sort of thing.
1:10:22
Pretending to be Hollywood films.
1:10:24
Cowboy and Indians, liquor,
gunrunners and this sort of thing.
1:10:30
But the whole point
about Fistful of Dollars
1:10:33
is that it's the first really Italian Western.
1:10:36
It's no longer something that
seems a carbon copy American film.
1:10:40
The more you look at it,
the stranger it gets
1:10:42
in comparison with
the Hollywood originals.
1:10:46
I think a lot of the critics missed the point,
seeing an attempt to emulate Hollywood.
1:10:51
These were Italian and Spanish movies,
1:10:53
and the cultural references are, in a way,
the most important thing. The difference.
1:10:58
But of course, yes, they're taking the idea
of the Wild West as a starting point.