Spaghetti alla Corbucci

King of the Spaghetti Western jungle, Sergio Leone once said of him that he was perhaps the most imaginative Italian director he had ever known, and in addendum to that "if only he had realized his ideas, he could have become one of the greatest." Criticized for being a genius that was just too lazy, Sergio Corbucci certainly left his indelible mark in  spaghetti western's rubric.  The Roman auteur was born in the year 1927, and admittedly directing would not be his first ambition, Sergio had designs on becoming a business entrepreneur, and this would prove anticlimactic, and so, on to his first gig in the film industry at age 21, as an assistant director, and in just three years time he would officially helm his first one in the 1951 drama  Salvate mia figlia (Save My Daughter).

                Che Fa? Now that's a Spicy Meatball!

The latter end of the fifties to the early 1960s would be the juncture where Corbucci would produce a plethora of Peplum (Sword and Sandals films) - one of the more successful entries would be 1961's Goliath and the Vampires, a film written by both Corbucci, and genre buddy, the equally inspired Duccio Tessari.

                            The last days of Peplum

Although Mr. Leone is credited with being the most influential in this genre, it would be Mr. Corbucci that would surpass Leone's directing credit amount, with a formidable sixty-three titles executed as a helmsman, as opposed to the twelve, albeit more commercially successful releases Leone would fully direct.

         Scusa mi, am I uno or due banana?

In many ways, Corbucci would be more innovative than Leone; Corbucci thought like a landscape painter, and  inspired after co-writing the 1959 shot in Spain adventure , The Last Days of Pompeii (Gli Ultimi Giorni di Pompei) in which Leone would also be on board co-writing and assistant directing, Corbucci staunchly suggested that Spanish backdrops would be quintessential places to film westerns. Corbucci's novel idea would gain much credence, and you will find many an Andalusian atmosphere in a spaghetti western, as his vision was an accurate one. Many of the westerns would still be shot in areas of Lazio, Italy (the Tuscany border) which has it's own optical poetry - and even the countries Israel and Egypt would serve host for a few of these special oaters.

An example of a Corbucci western that had exterior shots in Spain - precisely La Pedriza, Manzaneres el Real - was 1964's Minnesota Clay, in which the director also scribed the screenplay. This would be one of the earlier spaghetti western entries, and already it would be apparent, the gratuitously violent signature that would earn him the reputation of having one of the most brutal approaches this side of Sam Peckinpah. The one parallel of Corbucci and Peckinpah was; that even given the lurid overtones of their films, both of these directors would convey quite edifying and intelligent messages. In Corbucci's works, we are given no other choice but to notice that such intelligence resonates, and in the aftermath, we are left to our own individual devices to cogitate.

                   I've got spurs that djingo django djingo.

Unfortunately there would also be a stigma along with this territory, and some would reduce his works to being merely shock tactic film-making, and many a dogmatic soul would dismiss the poetry, the blood, the heartbeat Corbucci infused in every frame of his pictures. Corbucci is also considered only second to Sergio Leone, but beyond sum and figures in his prolific canon - he would be in his own right, the most influential creator of this medium.

Sergio left this earth far too early on December 1, 1990, he would be only 62 when he met his maker.