PREPARE YOUR SIX-GUNS AND YOUR BOLOGNESE AS WE DIG INTO THE TWO-FISTED ITALIAN COWBOY TALES OF THE BIGGEST YEAR IN SPAGHETTI WESTERN HISTORY!

Welcome to another multi-part exploration of a single year in genre filmmaking. Join Gabe and returning guest Patrick Ripoll as they follow up their series on the slasher films of 1981, the gialli of 1971, and the giant monster movies of 1957 with a look at the spaghetti westerns of 1968.

Gabe, a superfan and massive nerd, narrowed down a list of seventy-seven (that’s 77) films to the 15 he thinks best represent this jam-packed and particularly uneven year for the genre. In episode one of what will (probably) be three total episodes, we discuss Ferdinando Baldi’s Django, Prepare a Coffin (Italian: Preparati la bara!), Giorgio Capitani’s The Ruthless Four (Italian: Ognuno per sé), Lina Wertmüller & Piero Cristofani’s The Belle Starr Story (Italian: Il mio corpo per un poker), Enzo G. Castellari’s Johnny Hamlet (Italian: Quella sporca storia nel west), and Giorgio Stegani’s Beyond the Law (Italian: Al di là della legge).

Check out the complete list here: https://letterboxd.com/gabepowers/list/the-spaghetti-westerns-of-1968/


00:00 – Intro: What is a spaghetti western? Why 1968?

14:13 – Django, Prepare a Coffin

35:37 – The Ruthless Four

56:00 – The Belle Starr Story

1:20:01 – Johnny Hamlet

1:36:24 – Beyond the Law

1:52:12 – Outro