Sergio Corbucci

Corbucci was born in Rome in 1926. He had a younger brother Bruno (1931-1996), also a filmmaker.{{cite book |last1=Bondanella |first1=Peter |author-link=Peter Bondanella |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tbM2DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA490 |title=A History of Italian Cinema |last2=Pacchioni |first2=Federico |date=19 October 2017 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=9781501307645 |page=490}} He originally studied economics at university, before working as a film critic. For a period after World War II, he wrote for Stars and Stripes.

Corbucci made his directorial debut in 1951 with Salvate mia figlia. His early works were mainly melodramas and crime films. Beginning with 1961's Goliath and the Vampires, he directed sword and sandal movies. He also made several popular comedies, featuring the likes of Totò and Franco and Ciccio.

In 1963, he directed the ensemble war comedy The Shortest Day, which was produced as a benefit film for the studio Titanus. A parody of the Hollywood epic The Longest Day, the film featured an all-star cast of dozens of well-known performers, many of them in brief cameo appearances.

Corbucci's first Westerns were the films Grand Canyon Massacre (1964), which he co-directed (under the pseudonym, Stanley Corbett) with Albert Band, as well as Minnesota Clay (1964), his first solo directed spaghetti Western.

His biggest commercial success was with the cult spaghetti Western Django, starring Franco Nero, the leading man in many of his movies.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/movies/a-spaghetti-western-roundup-at-film-forum.html |newspaper=The New York Times |title=Once Upon a Time in Italy |first=Alex |last=Cox |author-link=Alex Cox |date=1 June 2012 |access-date=23 January 2019 |page=16 }} He would later collaborate with Nero on two other spaghetti Westerns, The Mercenary (1968) — where Nero played Sergei Kowalski, a Polish mercenary and the film also starring Tony Musante, Jack Palance and Giovanna Ralli — as well as Compañeros (1970) — which also starred Tomas Milian and Jack Palance. The last film of the "Mexican Revolution" trilogy - The Mercenary and Compañeros being the first two in the installment - was What Am I Doing in the Middle of the Revolution? (1972).

After Django, Corbucci made many other spaghetti Westerns, which made him the most successful Italian Western director after Sergio Leone and one of Italy's most productive and prolific directors.{{Cite web |title=Mondo Esoterica - Sergio Corbucci Film Reviews |url=https://mondo-esoterica.net/links_pages/Sergio%20Corbucci.html |access-date=2023-04-24 |website=mondo-esoterica.net}} His most famous of these pictures was The Great Silence (Il Grande Silenzio), a dark and gruesome Western starring a mute action hero and a psychopathic bad guy.{{Cite news |last=Scott |first=A. O. |date=2018-03-28 |title=Review: 'The Great Silence,' a 1968 Spaghetti Western Unchained |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/28/movies/the-great-silence-review-sergio-corbucci.html |access-date=2023-04-24 |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news |last=Hoberman |first=J. |date=2018-12-28 |title='68 Rides Again: The Return of Sergio Corbucci |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/28/movies/sergio-corbucci-the-great-silence.html |access-date=2023-04-24 |issn=0362-4331}} The film was banned in some countries for its excessive violence.

Corbucci also directed Navajo Joe (1966), starring Burt Reynolds as the title character, a Navajo Indian opposing a group of bandits that killed his tribe, as well as The Hellbenders (1967), and Johnny Oro (1966) starring Mark Damon. Other spaghetti Westerns he directed include The Specialists (1969), with Johnny Hallyday; Sonny and Jed (1972), with Tomas Milian, Susan George and Telly Savalas; and The White the Yellow and the Black (1975), with Milian and Eli Wallach.

Corbucci's Westerns were dark and brutal, with the characters portrayed as sadistic antiheroes. His films featured very high body counts and scenes of mutilation. Django especially is considered to have set a new level for violence in Westerns.{{Cite news|last=Tarantino|first=Quentin|date=2012-09-27|title=Quentin Tarantino Tackles Old Dixie by Way of the Old West (by Way of Italy)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/30/magazine/quentin-tarantino-django.html|access-date=2020-06-27|issn=0362-4331}}

In the 1970s and 1980s Corbucci mostly directed comedies, often starring Adriano Celentano. Many of these comedies were huge successes at the Italian box office and found wide distribution in European countries like Germany, France, Austria and Switzerland, but were not widely seen in English-speaking territories.{{Cite web |title=SERGIO CORBUCCI BOX OFFICE |url=http://www.boxofficestory.com/sergio-corbucci-box-office-a129824140 |access-date=2023-04-24 |website=BOX OFFICE STORY}}

He directed the Terence Hill & Bud Spencer film Who Finds a Friend Finds a Treasure (1981), as well as the solo Terence Hill vehicle Super Fuzz.

His last film was the action-drama Women in Arms (1991), starring Lina Sastri and Donald Pleasence.

Corbucci was married twice. His nephew is filmmaker Leonardo Corbucci.{{Cite web |title=Behind the Scenes: The Legendary Series with Leonard Corbucci on Apple Podcasts |url=https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-legendary-series-with-leonard-corbucci/id1177268196?i=1000452322740 |access-date=2020-06-27 |website=Apple Podcasts |language=en-us}}

Corbucci died of a heart attack at his home in Rome, five days before his 64th birthday, on December 1, 1990.{{cite news |last=Flint |first=Peter B. |date=1 May 1989 |title=Sergio Leone, 67, Italian Director Who Revitalized Westerns, Dies |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/01/obituaries/sergio-leone-67-italian-director-who-revitalized-westerns-dies.html |access-date=23 January 2019 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=8}} His remains were buried at a family plot in the Campo Verano.

Corbucci's Westerns were rarely taken seriously by contemporary critics{{Cite book |last=Wong |first=Aliza S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tUNvDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Sergio+Corbucci%22+%22cult+following%22&pg=PA124 |title=Spaghetti Westerns: A Viewer's Guide |date=2018-12-15 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-4422-6904-0 |pages=123–124 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Bondanella |first=Peter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QGr8DwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Sergio+Corbucci%22+%22critics%22&pg=PT331 |title=The Italian Cinema Book |date=2019-07-25 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-83902-024-7 |language=en}} and he was considered an exploitation director, but he has managed to attain a cult reputation.{{Cite book |last=Mask |first=Mia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3HqpEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Sergio+Corbucci%22+%22cult+following%22&pg=PT139 |title=Black Rodeo: A History of the African American Western |date=2023-02-28 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=978-0-252-05402-0 |pages=139 |language=en}}

The website Cinema Archives ranked Corbucci as the 199th greatest director of all time.{{Cite book |last=Missero |first=Dalila |url=https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474463249.001.0001 |title=Women, Feminism and Italian Cinema |date=2021-12-29 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |doi=10.3366/edinburgh/9781474463249.001.0001 |isbn=978-1-4744-6324-9}}

In 2021, was released a documentary about Corbucci, directed by Luca Rea, Django & Django, that relies to a considerable extent on an interview with Quentin Tarantino.{{Cite web |last=DeFore |first=John |date=2021-09-08 |title='Django & Django': Film Review {{!}} Venice 2021 |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/django-django-venice-2021-1235009565/ |access-date=2023-04-06 |website=The Hollywood Reporter |language=en-US}}

In 2022 German thrash metal band Kreator released the instrumental song "Sergio Corbucci is Dead" as an intro to their album Hate Über Alles. According to vocalist/guitarist Mille Petrozza, "Sergio Corbucci was someone who was very anti-authoritarian in his film. In all his films he has a protagonist who rebels against the authorities. Often these characters are very obscure. I was wondering if there are still people like that who make really political films without trying to preach anything to you. It's a bit of a dig at the bands who don't speak their minds out of fear of losing fans."{{Cite web| url=https://www.metal.de/interviews/kreator-mille-petrozza-im-gespraech-zu-hate-ueber-alles-439238/3/ |language=de |title=Album review: Kreator – Hate Über Alles |date=8 June 2022 }}

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• Salvate mia figlia (1951)
• Foreign Earth (1954)
• Island Sinner (1954)
• Acque amare (1954)
• Baracca e burattini (1954)
• Carovana di canzoni (1955)
• Suonno d'ammore (1955)
• Supreme Confession (1956)
• Ángeles sin cielo (1957)
• I ragazzi dei Parioli (1959)
• Who Hesitates is Lost (1960)
• An American in Toledo (1960) *Only writer.
• Totò, Peppino e... la dolce vita (1961)
• Goliath and the Vampires (1961)
• Duel of the Titans (1961)
• The Two Marshals (1961)
• The Slave (The Son of Spartacus, 1962)
• Lo smemorato di Collegno (1962)
• The Shortest Day (1963)
• Il monaco di Monza (1963)
• Gli onorevoli (1963)
• ''Castle of Blood (1964) (uncredited)
• Grand Canyon Massacre (1964) (as Stanley Corbett)
• Minnesota Clay (1964)
• I figli del leopardo (1965)
• The Man Who Laughs (1966)
• Django (1966)
• Ringo and his Golden Pistol (Johnny Oro, 1966)
• Navajo Joe (1966)
• The Hellbenders (The Cruel Ones, 1967)
• Death on the Run (1967)
• The Great Silence (1968)
• The Mercenary (A Professional Gun, 1968)
• The Specialists (Drop Them or I'll Shoot, 1969)
• Compañeros (1970)
• Er più: storia d'amore e di coltello (1971)
• La Banda J.S.: Cronaca criminale del Far West (Sonny and Jed, 1972)
• What Am I Doing in the Middle of the Revolution? (1972)
• The Beast (1974)
• Shoot First... Ask Questions Later (The White the Yellow and the Black, 1975)
• What's Your Sign? (1975)
• The Con Artists (1976)
• Mr. Robinson (1976)
• Three Tigers Against Three Tigers (1977)
• Ecco noi per esempio... (1977)
• The Payoff (1978)
• Odds and Evens (1978)
• Neapolitan Mystery (1979)
• Super Fuzz (1980)
• I Don't Understand You Anymore (1980)
• I'm Getting a Yacht (1980)
• Who Finds a Friend Finds a Treasure (1981)
• My Darling, My Dearest (1982)
• Count Tacchia (1982)
• Sing Sing (1983)
• Questo e quello (1983)
• A tu per tu (1984)
• I Am an ESP (1985)
• Rimini Rimini (1987)
• Roba da ricchi (1987)
• Days of Inspector Ambrosio (1988)
• Night Club (1989)
• ''Women in Arms (1991)

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• Suonno d'ammore (1955) - Bank customer (uncredited)
• Who Hesitates Is Lost (1960) - Billiard player (uncredited)
• Totò, Peppino e... la dolce vita (1961) - Man waiting in the line for the telephone (uncredited)
• Lo smemorato di Collegno (1962) - Man waiting for the Minister (uncredited)
• Gli onorevoli (1963) - Manager of the hotel in Roccasecca (uncredited) (final film role)

{{reflist}}

• {{IMDb name|0179281}}
• {{find a Grave|10287301}}

{{Sergio Corbucci}}

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Category:1926 births

Category:1990 deaths

Category:Film directors from Rome

Category:Italian comedy film directors

Category:Parody film directors

Category:Spaghetti Western directors

Category:Italian parodists

Category:Burials at Campo Verano

Category:Italian film directors

Category:Italian male screenwriters

Category:Italian film producers