Irakli Makharadze is a documentary film director working in a Georgia State TV film company in Tbilisi, Georgia (former Soviet Republic).

Irakli has a deep interest in the history of the American West, and has written numerous articles about Western films in local newspapers and magazines. Having had much experience in producing TV shows about this magnificent genre, Irakli has also published a book entitled WESTERN FILMS, which is the first book written on this topic in his country.

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The Soviet audience was not spoiled by the variety of American and Western European movies. In contrast, our cinema was overloaded with inexpensive Indian melodramas. The only movies in distribution were the ones considered ideologically safe by the Soviet government and what the public really desired to see was never taken into account. Often the fate of the movie was decided in the high levels of government.

In case an inappropriate film still made it to the movie screens, most of the times it was terribly torn into pieces in order to fit into the limits of the standard running time (an hour and thirty minutes) and to get rid of all dangerous scenes (primarily sex scenes). For example, not until ten years ago I had an opportunity of watching the full version of SOME LIKE IT HOT. This movie was also shortened to meet the proper standards and was known to the Soviet audience under the name of There are Only Girls in Jazz. Im still puzzled to understand the reasons which prevented this movie to pass through the thresholds of Soviet ideology.

Fortunately, there were some exceptions. From time to time, the movies from different countries and of different genre (often several years after their release) were shown exclusively for the filmmakers in the Cinema House of the Filmmakers Union. At times like this, the little hall of the Cinema House was overcrowded - everyone in Tbilisi (the capital of Georgia) attempted to get inside. Especially when the movie was known, either through press or American Voice, getting inside was impossible. That is exactly how I had a chance to see Dirty Harry, Bullitt, The Godfather and some other movies, but one of the first films that really made a major impression on me was The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. That was also the very first time when I heard about a great movie director Sergio Leone.

As the citizens of the Soviet Union, we were never spoiled by good western movies. The only western film we were exposed to was The Magnificent Seven. It was often broadcasted during the religious holidays, such as Easter night, for instance, in order to keep people from going to church. In fact, even this never deterred the religious people from observing the sacred days.

We were left with no other choice but to watch so-called westerns made in eastern Germany, Romania and Yugoslavia. Such kind of movies became very popular with Soviet audience and one of them, a western film called The Trail of a Falcon, was partly made in Georgia. This was my first encounter with the Native American Indians personified by different Georgian and foreign actors. Although the makers of these eastern European movies attempted to duplicate western films, what they really achieved was an extremely meek resemblance of it. As noted by one of the critics: I hope that these movies never appear in the USA, because in case they do, the fans of real western might suffer a stroke.

After Sergio Leones movies were released, it turned out that a good western could be made outside the US borders as well. One Italian newspaper wrote: Let us all ridicule Hollywood and show them that we are capable of producing the movies of the same competence.

The Italian western became a strong competitor of its American counterpart right away. As I later found out, these type of Italian films were called spaghetti westerns (the name was invented by a Japanese movie critic who had initially called the Italian western movies macaroni films.)

Leone directed his first western A Fistful of Dollars in 1964. It was based on the samurai movie by Akira Kurosawa called Yojimbo. A Fistful of Dollars was distributed as an American production in the beginning and there were no Italian names in the titles. The movie became an instant success, first in Europe and later in the USA. That is when the moviemakers put their own names into the titles. A Fistful of Dollars was followed by For a Few Dollars More and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. These movies became known as the dollar trilogy and today there is likely any movie buff that has not seen and appreciated them.

So what was so new and different in the trilogy, causing so much acclamation? It seemed as if nothing original was invented the action developed in a little town characteristic to the western genre, with the cast dressed appropriately for that period of time. But the familiar atmosphere transcended the usual perimeters of western genre. The west portrayed by Leone was the true Wild West. This was an extremely brutal and evil place, with smoky saloons, dirty streets and similarly filthy inhabitants. (This all takes place several years before Sam Peckinpahs movies). Unlike the classic western hero who followed wrong path in the beginning of his life and might have even committed a crime but later did everything to change for the better, Leones characters were completely the opposite. They maintained no contacts with the society around them (often for unknown reasons) and interacted with people only for the sake of receiving benefit in return. Leone disregarded the key law of western genre the rule that the main character is a fighter for justice and wins by all means. On the contrary, in Leones case, his main character is often the biggest scoundrel, despite the fact that he might even be called The Good.

The critics attacked Leone, claiming that his movies were far from reality. However, as it turned out, Leone was more educated in the history of the Wild West, than some of his colleagues. The real west, claimed the director, was the land of brutality, bloodiness and wild instincts.
Extreme close-ups, landscapes symbolic of impeding evil, as well as unexpectedly brutal scenes for that time, became Leones markers. His movies were consequently distributed in the rest of the world. It should also be noted that the emotionally touching and distinctive music of Ennio Morricone played a great role in such a success of Leones movies.

Later some critics remarked that his movies were the anthology of all westerns made before with additions and several changes. In fact, Leone borrowed different episodes and motives from different American westerns, changed it on his own and presented it to the audience in his own unique version. It is a known fact that during the Milan Film Festival in the end of the sixties, Leone met famous American director Budd Boetticher for the first time. Leone is said to have ran after the director and exclaimed: Bud, dear Bud, I stole everything from you!

One more fact that truly contributed to the success of Leones films was the magnificent cast involved in most of his movies. Leones films are good," commented actor Charlton Heston, "but I dont think without Clint Eastwood and all those guys they would be.

By 'those guys' Heston meant Henry Fonda, Lee Van Cleef, Gian Maria Volonte, Charles Bronson, Jason Robards, Woody Strode, Eli Wallach and others and his remark is not very far from truth. I remember that after the release of The Good, the Georgian audience fell in love with Wallach and not with Clint Eastwood. (This was probably prompted by the fact that our audience was already familiar with his character in Magnificent Seven). Everybody was whistling the tune of the movie and repeating the phrase When you have to shoot, shoot! Dont talk!

Leones westerns helped launch such superstar as Clint Eastwood; the actor was so influenced by directors filmmaking style that Eastwoods famous Academy Award-winning western The Unforgiven was dedicated to the memory of mentors Sergio Leone and Don Siegel.

Sergio Leone made another brilliant film Once Upon a Time in the West, which was a great success as well. In one of Parisian movie theater it ran consecutively for four years. In Georgia, however, as well as in some other countries, the dollar trilogy still remains one of the audiences true favorites.

Coming Up in Next Month's issue:
Irakli's article about famed Western film director Sam Peckinpah.

Copyright © 2003  Irakli Makharadze. No unauthorized reproduction or transmission by any means whatsoever permitted under federal criminal law.