Sergio Corbucci (; 6 December 1926 – 1 December 1990) was an Italian film director, screenwriter and Film producer. He was one of the main exponents of the Spaghetti Western genre during the 1960s and 1970s,
Corbucci is sometimes referred to as "the other Sergio", referring to fellow Spaghetti Western director Sergio Leone.
Early life
Corbucci was born in
Rome in 1926. He had a younger brother
Bruno Corbucci (1931-1996), also a filmmaker.
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.
Career
Early work
Corbucci made his directorial debut in 1951 with
Salvate mia figlia. His early works were mainly
Melodrama and
Crime film. 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 appearance.
Spaghetti Westerns
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.
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.
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 Gli specialisti (1969), with Johnny Hallyday; (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 . 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.
Later career
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.
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.
Personal life
Corbucci was married twice. His nephew is filmmaker Leonardo Corbucci.
Death
Corbucci died of a heart attack at his home in
Rome, five days before his 64th birthday, on December 1, 1990.
His remains were buried at a family plot in the
Campo Verano.
Legacy
Corbucci's Westerns were rarely taken seriously by contemporary critics
and he was considered an exploitation director, but he has managed to attain a cult reputation.
The website Cinema Archives ranked Corbucci as the 199th greatest director of all time.
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.
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."
Filmography
Director and writer
-
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 (aka The Son of Spartacus, 1962)
-
Lo smemorato di Collegno (1962)
-
The Shortest Day (1963)
-
The Monk of Monza (1963)
-
Gli onorevoli (1963)
-
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 (1966)
-
Navajo Joe (1966)
-
The Hellbenders (aka The Cruel Ones, 1967)
-
Death on the Run (1967)
-
The Great Silence (1968)
-
The Mercenary (aka A Professional Gun, 1968)
-
The Specialists (aka Drop Them or I'll Shoot, 1969)
-
Compañeros (1970)
-
(1971)
-
Sonny and Jed (1972)
-
What Am I Doing in the Middle of the Revolution? (1972)
-
Il Bestione (1974)
-
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)
Actor
-
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)
External links
