Wanted

Although "Wanted" is not a classic of its genre - the spaghetti western - it does provide enough good stuff to be a perfectly good example. For starters, there is a good gritty feeling here. There is some good background scenery, for starters. A lot of the movie was obviously filmed during the winter, and the cold, mud, and visible breath of the actors gets to your bones. Actor Giuliano Gemma makes for a good hero, one that you'll hope gets to clear his name by the end. In fact, there are some tense moments that will make you wonder if indeed he'll be able to. And if you are looking for action, this spaghetti western delivers it in spades - lots of gun battles and fist fights are on display.

This is not a perfect spaghetti western. For starters, it's oddly paced. It takes over a half an hour for the protagonist to find himself in his dangerous predicament. And at one hundred minutes in length, the movie is overlong; it could have been cut by ten to fifteen minutes. But if you are a spaghetti western fan like myself, the positive attributes of the movie more than make up for its shortcomings.