Spaghetti Westerns

Over the weekend I watched the holy trinity of Spaghetti Westerns: A Fistful Of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More, and The Good, The Bad And The Ugly.



I'm a sucker for these films and love everything about them. The gritty, macho characters with squinty eyes. The desert locations and ramshackle towns. The wacky musical scores with lots of horns and whistling. The loud overdubbed sound effects (the screaming ricochet bullet is my favorite). The kill-or-be-killed, emotionless violence. The faces (it's obvious Sergio Leone had a thing for unique and extraordinary faces - especially rugged, gnarled, weathered, leathery faces.) The stories of greed.



I know these films are bizarre, but I like them anyway. And I think Leone is a film genius for creating this unique style. Thanks, Sergio, for these great films.


In other news, Les Miserables was pretty good. Hard to believe high school kids could pull off such a big production. Most had good voices and performed well. The young man playing Jean Val Jean sang well and brought energy to the part. The set was simple, but effective - and they threw in some theatrics that worked well. My girls enjoyed it and we've already had a few discussions about it. The biggest negative was not from the production, but the family of 4 kids under 10 behind us that made a lot of noise. I don't know what the parents were thinking bringing such young kids to a 2+ hour play. In spite of the distractions we enjoyed the show.

I got out for a quick ride Saturday. It felt great to get out on the bike, but my fitness has declined significantly. I better get exercising or this Spring will be ugly.