***52 Westerns in 52 Weeks Challenge***

Week 24: **The Good, The Bad, or The Ugly**

Tonino Valeri’s Day of Anger is yet another spaghetti western that earned four stars from me, for some reason that rating has become very common as I’ve explored deeper into what might just me my favorite film sub-genre and since it’s a very positive one I’m not complaining at all. This one in particular has an epic feel to it that I fell in love with instantly and that’s due to Riz Orlotani’s genre defining theme and score, two great leads from some of the genre’s best actors in Lee Van Cleef and Giuliano Gemma, a clean and well written script that kept the pace beautifully, and the last yet most important piece of this epic puzzle is the absolutely phenomenal direction from Tonino Valeri which truly might be the best I’ve seen in a spaghetti western not by a director named Sergio. All throughout Valeri and cinematographer Enzo Serafin composed some of the most beautiful shots I’ve ever seen in this genre through the amazing camera movement and actors and wagons moving through the town set, everything about the way this is directed embodies the soul of the spaghetti western and as a massive fan of the genre the beauty I found here doesn’t surprise me at all. It also helped Valeri and Serafin that they were working with some of the best art design the genre’s ever seen too, the technicolor has the red here popping like I’ve rarely seen before and the set design reached some incredible highs with the best examples being the bar Lee Van Cleef opens near the end, the courtroom set, and of course the multiple lovely town sets built for this movie. Where I’d say this falters a bit and just misses out on a 4.5 is in two main things and while neither of them are egregious I think the worst of them are the lows found in the editing. I specify the lows there because through 90% of this movie it’s edited very well, sadly there are just some scenes in here that end very abruptly and the way Orlotani’s beautiful score gets cut off at moments is a bit frustrating. The second “issue” of the two is found in the story, while I don’t have anything in particular to criticize and I loved so much about it I just wanted more impact for it to reach the 4.5 range and with an ending that didn’t do too much for me (i just think they cut it at the wrong time the ending in regards to the story is good) it sadly does weigh slightly negatively into my rating here. When I watched The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance I realized I hadn’t seen a single Lee Van Cleef lead all year and I knew that had to change soon and I really couldn’t be happier with the movie I landed on, if you’re like me and love these definitely give this one a try as it’s not only one of the best SWs I’ve laid my eyes on but one of the best westerns I’ve seen in general.

***52 Westerns in 52 Weeks Challenge***

Week 24: **The Good, The Bad, or The Ugly**

Tonino Valeri’s Day of Anger is yet another spaghetti western that earned four stars from me, for some reason that rating has become very common as I’ve explored deeper into what might just me my favorite film sub-genre and since it’s a very positive one I’m not complaining at all. This one in particular has an epic feel to it that I fell in love with instantly and that’s due to Riz Orlotani’s genre defining theme and score, two great leads from some of the genre’s best actors in Lee Van Cleef and Giuliano Gemma, a clean and well written script that kept the pace beautifully, and the last yet most important piece of this epic puzzle is the absolutely phenomenal direction from Tonino Valeri which truly might be the best I’ve seen in a spaghetti western not by a director named Sergio. All throughout Valeri and cinematographer Enzo Serafin composed some of the most beautiful shots I’ve ever seen in this genre through the amazing camera movement and actors and wagons moving through the town set, everything about the way this is directed embodies the soul of the spaghetti western and as a massive fan of the genre the beauty I found here doesn’t surprise me at all. It also helped Valeri and Serafin that they were working with some of the best art design the genre’s ever seen too, the technicolor has the red here popping like I’ve rarely seen before and the set design reached some incredible highs with the best examples being the bar Lee Van Cleef opens near the end, the courtroom set, and of course the multiple lovely town sets built for this movie. Where I’d say this falters a bit and just misses out on a 4.5 is in two main things and while neither of them are egregious I think the worst of them are the lows found in the editing. I specify the lows there because through 90% of this movie it’s edited very well, sadly there are just some scenes in here that end very abruptly and the way Orlotani’s beautiful score gets cut off at moments is a bit frustrating. The second “issue” of the two is found in the story, while I don’t have anything in particular to criticize and I loved so much about it I just wanted more impact for it to reach the 4.5 range and with an ending that didn’t do too much for me (i just think they cut it at the wrong time the ending in regards to the story is good) it sadly does weigh slightly negatively into my rating here. When I watched The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance I realized I hadn’t seen a single Lee Van Cleef lead all year and I knew that had to change soon and I really couldn’t be happier with the movie I landed on, if you’re like me and love these definitely give this one a try as it’s not only one of the best SWs I’ve laid my eyes on but one of the best westerns I’ve seen in general.

i like death rides a horse better but this was still great. anything with lee van cleef is gold

i like death rides a horse better but this was still great. anything with lee van cleef is gold

im having severe maternal instincts towards scott

im having severe maternal instincts towards scott

A portentous spaghetti western, full of action and personality.

A portentous spaghetti western, full of action and personality.

Tarantino really used the main theme of this called I Giorni Dell’ira in the snowy bounty hunting scene of Django Unchained.

Tarantino really used the main theme of this called I Giorni Dell’ira in the snowy bounty hunting scene of Django Unchained.