Frayling, Christopher. Sergio Leone: Something to do with Death. London: Faber & Faber, 2000.
This book is a biography of the great spaghetti western director himself. Christopher Frayling is a professor of Cultural History and the Head of the School of Humanities at the Royal College of Art in London. He had close contact with Leone in the 1960s and 1970s, and became his biographer. This and several other Frayling books have Leone’s personal input. Needless to say, this is an excellent source. I plan to use the information about Leone to give additional insight into the breakout subgenre of spaghetti westerns that he played a large role in creating. Information in this book about his background and his thought process will allow such insight.
Frayling, Christopher. Spaghetti Westerns: Cowboys and Europeans from Karl May to Sergio Leone. London: I.B. Taurus, 1999.
This is another Christopher Frayling book. He has dedicated much of his work to understanding the ins and outs of spaghetti westerns. The information in this book should help me to accurately write about where the three great Leone/Eastwood movies fit within the entire subgenre. Basically, it will support my assertions that A Fistful of Dollars and its successors where revolutionary.
Hughes, Howard. Once Upon A Time in the Italian West: A Filmgoer's Guide to Spaghetti Westerns. London: I.B. Taurus, 2005.
The beginning of this book jumps right into the Spanish contribution to the spaghetti western genre. It gives vital information about the areas in which Leone filmed his classics. This will help my article because it will provide the reader with additional and accurate knowledge about how much of a shock it was for Leone and Eastwood to develop these blockbusters there. This is another solid source because the author, though not the most well-known Howard Hughes, is an expert on spaghetti westerns and European films of the 1960s.
Simsolo, Noel. “Sergio Leone Talks.” Take One, vol. 3, no 9, May 1973.
What better way to support an article about Sergio Leone’s infamous films than with the words of the man himself? Noel Simsolo did this interview with Leone not long after The Good, The Bad and The Ugly came out. It was published in the Canadian Film magazine “Take One.” In the interview, Leone talks openly about how and why he did what he did to the western genre. He also talks about his film background and his development as an artist. This should help to support my arguments about how Leone was inrumental in overhauling the western film genre.
Lally, Kevin. “Ring Leader: Clint Eastwood delivers another critically acclaimed and Oscar favorite with ‘Million Dollar Baby’” Film Journal International (for MSN entertainment). 2005. <
This does not seem like a scholarly source at first glance, but it is. It is posted as “news” on the Microsoft Network’s “entertainment” page. It was, however, written by a “Film Journal International” writer who has all of the checks of his peers to ensure his work. This article shows how Clint Eastwood has developed since his days played The Man With No Name. It addresses his influences and his experiences. I hope to use this article to show how deep the influence of Sergio Leone went in Eastwood’s development as well as in the western genre as a whole. This should give my article another layer, by looking at things from this angle.
Jardine, Dan. “Sex and the Single Gunslinger: Homoeroticism in Leone’s Spaghetti Westerns.” The Film Journal. Issue 9, 2004.
This article provides an off-the-wall look into possible undertones within Leone’s Dollars trilogy. It directly raises issues of masculinity and sexuality that are danced around in these films. I want to try to use this article, and possibly a few others to add another layer to my article – this being that Leone also revamped certain aspects of film noir from the 1950s while he updated the western genre. This online film journal seems to be both a credible and a “serious” publication. The author is clearly knowledgable, and gives helpful insight into the themes/motifs under the surface of these three films.