RE: Films That Reference Other Films: The Difference Between an Homage and a Straight-Up Steal
Back in the 1980's, there was a manga entitled Fist of the North Star, which was set in a post-apocalyptic, Mad Max-style wasteland.
Of course, the wastes are controlled by roving gangs of sadistic arseholes, and at one point they do the same thing to a girl and her father that happened to Harmonica and his brother in Once Upon A Time In The West: noose around the dad's neck, and he's balanced upon the girl's shoulders until she can no longer hold him up.
I never, until now, made the connection, but the manga was written by Okamura Yoshiyuki under the pseudonym "Buronson" (which is how the Japanese would phonetically spell "Bronson"). Fist of the North Star is basically an enormous martial arts tribute to spaghetti westerns and post-nuke films, and Buronson would have been in his twenties when Once Upon A Time... came out.
Not sure if that scene would qualify as a rip-off or an homage, but either way, it's awesome to make a connection like that thanks to someone else's writing. :)
I think I've seen the 1986 movie 'Fist of the North Star' but I remember little of it, let alone the Western references. Strange, as it must have been years after having seen loads of spaghetti Westerns.
By the way, do you guys know why spaghetti westerns are called 'spaghetti' westerns? :>)
P.S. I like the 'Buronson' find haha!
As I recall, "Spaghetti Western" was something of a derogatory term to indicate an Italian in the director's chair, or that it was shot in Italy. I could be wrong though, and if someone else knows for certain, I hope they pipe up.
Kind of amusing, if you think about it. Only Westerns got this appellation. You never heard about "Spaghetti Horror" or "Spaghetti Romance". :D
It was indeed the Italians in the cast and crew and thus referred to the food eaten on set most of the time. Funny enough many Spaghetti westerns were shot in Spain :>)
Spaghetti horror / thriller could have been a name for Italian Giallo movies but it doesn't sound as fancy haha
I don't think it was meant to be derogatory. I think it was just "Wow, how weird is it that Italians are making Westerns!" Westerns being the quintessential American film genre and all that. We tend to not realize how much our movies and TV and music impact the rest of the world.
That definitely makes sense :>)
Plus in the early 60s, spaghetti was the only type of Italian food that Americans knew about.
That's very possible! I believe pizza's ( and possibly lasagne and other pasta ) became only widespread in the 70s but, being a kid from the 1980s I'm not too sure about that :>)
Wow, that's interesting. I don't know much about manga, but that's a great bit of trivia. PS -- we've got a film club on Discord now. If you've got the time, we'd love to have you. The link is on @namiks blog.
The cultural impact of the spaghetti Western is amazing!