10,000 Ways to Die

A Director's Take on the Italian Western

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by Alex Cox

Type

Essays

Subject

Genre > Western

Keywords

Italian westerns, western, Alex Cox

Publishing date

2020

Publisher

Kamera Books

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 352 pages
5 x 7 ¾ inches (12.5 x 19.5 cm)

ISBN

978-0-85730-338-7

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Book Presentation:
"Forty years ago as a graduate student I wrote a book about Spaghetti Westerns, called 10,000 Ways to Die. It's an embarrassing tome: full of half-assed semiotics and other attenuated academic nonsense. Thirty years later I wrote an entirely new book with the same title, about the same subject, from a different perspective—that of a working film director. What interested me was what the filmmakers intended, how they did that shot, how the director felt when his film was recut by the distributor, and he was creatively and financially screwed. Now I have prepared a new edition of the 10,000 Ways to Die. It reflects my changing thoughts about the Italian Western, which I still greatly admire. It includes corrections, additions, and new sections on films I changed my mind about, or hadn't seen—including Lina Wertmuller's Belle Star—the only Italian Western directed by a woman." —Alex Cox

About the Author:
Alex Cox directed Repo Man, Sid and Nancy, and Straight to Hell.

Press Reviews:
"Great on influence and anecdotes, with plenty to chew on for spag-buffs." —Empire Magazine

"Enlivened with humor, vivid descriptions, and an infectious enthusiasm, this book is an informative take on an offbeat, short-lived genre." —Library Journal

"Rigorous in thought yet unruly in spirit, it's hard to think of a more apt guide to the Italian West." —Total Film

See the publisher website: Kamera Books