10,000 Ways to Die: A Director's Take on the Spaghetti Western by Alex Cox

10,000 Ways to Die: A Director's Take on the Spaghetti Western Reviews

• 
  Jeff

  A five star read for spaghetti western fans, a four star read for other cinema fans. This book examines many spaghetti westerns from the point of view of director Alex Cox. While my opinions on some films don't always match the authors, the author is extremely knowledgeable about films, literature, and world history, which make the book so much more enjoyable. It is not simply about camera angles and plot synopsis, but also the cultural and political significance of these movies and the ambitions of different directors and actors.
• 
  Christopher Saunders

  Alex Cox's 10,000 Ways to Die is a fan's guide to the Spaghetti Western, covering the genre's high points (and a few of the low). Cox, of course, is a cult film director (Repo Man, Walker, etc.) whose admiration for Sergio Leone and friends is undisguised; this book is definitely for those already converted to the cause. Cox discusses the trends and evolution of the Spaghetti Western genre, tying it both to classic Westerns and older literary forms, from Italian comedies to Jacobean tragedy. Cox's breezy, conversational tone is appealing, as is his willingness to explore lesser-known genre titles and to call out the genre's sadistic hyperviolence and misogyny. His reviews of each film are fun and insightful, championing oddities like Django Kill! alongside the accepted Leone, Corbucci, Sollima classics, though I'm inclined to disagree with many of them (he views Duck, You Sucker! as a boring movie which, no comment). And occasionally he goes on tangents about politics that don't always ring true (he claims Django, somehow, is a parable about the CIA's Operation Gladio). Not a scholarly work like Frayling's books but something like an extended fan zine; but it's all more the charming for that.
• 
  Michael

  Have you ever had a personal reason for not liking a book? Not in the way that all opinions are personal, but in a way that despite the fact that the information in the book is good and the writing is solid, something about it rubs you the wrong way.
  
  This was just that kind of book for me. Director Alex Cox (Repo Man, Walker), who is a scholar of Spaghetti Westerns, takes a look at the subgenre. He spotlights many films of the late 1960's which he considers to be the best era of Italian Westerns (true), and pays signficant compliments to the genius of Sergio Leone (also true). Cox's knowledge base is very strong, and he has, overall, an inviting style of writing about the films.
  
  But, and this was the killer for me, he has what seems to be a kind of personal vendetta against Clint Eastwood. I'm an Eastwood partisan, and I won't try to hide that, so this really turned me off of the book in a lot of spots.
  
  Most every reference to Eastwood in the "Fistful of Dollars", "For a Few Dollars More", and "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" sections of the book is some kind of insult. Cox then goes on and references Eastwood in sections of the book about films Eastwood didn't even appear in, attacking him further. Cox insults Eastwood's range as an actor, his abilities as a director, and Eastwood's other films themselves. Additionally, while there is a section of photo plates in the middle of the book, and several photos from each of Leone's westerns appear therein, Eastwood is not included in any of the photos. The other principal actors from the films (Lee Van Cleef, Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Volante) are included. This seems rather petty when the image of Eastwood in serape and with cheroot is probably the most iconic image of Leone's westerns.
  
  Cox has a theory that Eastwood has a fetish for mercy killings that arose from the Leone westerns and that he continued in his own films. For several of his examples, a rather broad definition of a mercy killing must be used to make the films fit (is shooting Scorpio at the end of Dirty Harry really a mercy killing?), and this theory is used to wholly diminish the power of Million Dollar Baby. Cox's ludicrous sentiment is something along the lines of 'Million Dollar Baby is all about the justification for beautiful young cripples to be killed by old men'.
  
  Overall, if you're interested in Spaghetti Westerns, it's a solid piece of film writing and delves deeply into the subgenre. Because of this, I'd recommend the book. But if you're an Eastwood fan, expect to spend a good chunk of your time unhappy/fuming mad.
• 
  Jack Harding

  This was an interesting view on the Spaghetti Western genre. I am a big fan of Westerns and Spaghetti Westerns so I like to read about them. Alex Cox (director of Repo Man, Walker, Sid and Nancy) was inspired hugely by these films and directors. Cox takes a top selection of Spaghetti Westerns and gives a brief synopsis of each then analyzes them from a directors point of view. This is interesting in that you see not only political, sexual, ideological, and sexual influences on some of the films, but where and how directors in Italy got their ideas. Cox points out literary and film references used in the films of Leone, Corbucci, Sollima, and Petroni.
  The book also veers off in the direction of how some of these films influenced Cox's work. If you are a fan of Alex Cox I would suggest you read this. The book gives a view of how the Spaghetti Western was created going back to Dashiell Hammett with the Glass Key and Red Harvest to Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo to One Eyed Jacks to A Fistful of Dollars and finally to Django. 10,000 ways to die is an intelligent look at the Spaghetti Western. I would also recommend Kevin Grant's Any Gun Can Play and Sir Christopher Frayling's Spaghetti Westerns: Cowboys and Europeans from Karl May to Sergio Leone.
• 
  james

  Cox, with great humor and depth of knowledge, guides the reader through a genre that can easily overwhelm a first-timer. And now, with most of film history available via streaming, I was able to easily find many of these titles and had a blast following along. I can now vouch that many of Cox's favorites (A BULLET FOR THE GENERAL, THE GREAT SILENCE, REQUIESCANT) are, in fact, terrific.
  
  Cox (who apparently doesn't have a high opinion of Clint Eastwood) peppers the book with his own personal anecdotes about filming in Almeria and encounters with crucial figures like Lee Van Cleef. He also makes a fascinating detour into tracing the genre's roots back to Jacobean revenge tragedies.
  
  Essential.
• 
  Perry

  Not quite an Any Gun Can Play level masterpiece, but as far as intelligent, nuanced critique of one of the most fascinating, powerful genres around go, 10,000 Ways to Die is no slouch. The chapter on the production design of spaghetti westerns alone makes it worth a read.
• 
  Rory

  Alex Cox really should have made commission on all the movies I bought while reading this.
• 
  Willy Boy

  52 crucial pasta horse operas, synopsised and analysed. I haven't read Thackeray's Barry Lyndon so I don't know: did Kubrick invent the '... Good or Bad, Handsome or Ugly' epilogue, or is it in the novel? In the latter case, it would predate the use of the phrase in Ed Abbey's Brave Cowboy. And I think 'The Great Silence' has to be so named, so that it contains a triple meaning: Silence the gunfighter is of course 'Great', the snowy wastes the film unfolds in are another 'great' silence, and finally there is the Chandlerian notion of death as a Great Silence that awaits. Overall this books induces, in the receptive reader, an awestruck reverie, of a surrealistic dreamscape where for the briefest of moments the sands of Almeria could serve as the stage set for the last gasp of a collective fantasy of freedom and self determination. It's probably all hotels now
• 
  John

  Indispensable to a certain type of film buff, Cox writes with the glee of a fan and the panache of a professional. Best part is he will steer you away from the Sartana films, no matter how good their titles are.
• 
  Frank

  Interesting take on traditional film criticism as Cox breaks these films down from a fellow director's perspective. A lot of good insight and movie recommendations.
• 
  Chris S

  Informative and well written. Looking forward to tracking down some of the films I haven't seen. Excellent overview!
• 
  Paul John Blair

  Great book to read if you have seen the films or maybe want to seek them out. Problem is Cox seems to like only a few of them which might put off some readers to seek them out as his reviews of the other 50 plus films are sarcastic and picky- even the Leone films!
  Enjoy this book only as a serious fan of the genre.
• 
  David Wilentz

  Alex Cox offers a great, straightforward look at selected 'Euro Westerns' written from a filmmaker's point of view. Fun to read and enlightening.
• 
  Cathal

  Alex Cox, director of, among other films, Repo Man and Straight To Hell, gives his personal take on the Spaghetti Western. Quite entertaining and informative.