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A year ago, legendary director Martin Scorsese had declared his intention to help preserve classic Italian films from half a century ago, beginning with Sergio Leone's masterpiece Spaghetti Western Once Upon A Time in the West (C'era Una Volta il West). This came at a time when Clint Eastwood, one of Leone's most recognized protgs, had unveiled his creation, Letters from Iwo Jima..

With only a small number of original prints left, Leone's works of genius are still in serious danger of deteriorating beyond repair. At the Rome Film Festival in the summer of 2006, Scorsese acknowledged, "You can find that color (deterioration) can happen as quickly as within six years ... Millions of dollars goes into this industry and nobody thought about preserving the film. It's incredible."

Letters from Iwo Jima was the second film to premiere by director Clint Eastwood memorializing the sacrifices of the greatest generation. In October of 2006, millions of Americans were given a cinematic interpretation of the U.S. marines who raised the American flag on Mt. Surabachi. Flags maintained a Leonean theme of realism, and applied it to the Pacific theater of WWII. Eastwood has had over forty years to think about bravery and the philosophy behind it. Considering that he dedicated his 1994 Western Unforgiven to Leone, there's no doubt that his experience in working with him has influenced his creations as a director.

Italians have been involved with movie-making since the French born Lumire brothers first discovered the medium at the turn of the twentieth century. Italy's otherwise subordinate role to motion pictures changed in the 1950s when she gave birth to "Neorealism." Out of this exciting new genre arose several sub-genres, or "filoni," which artistically created historical dramas and emotional tragedies.

By the 1970s, a new Italian genre known as the "Spaghetti Western" was a household name throughout the entire world. Filmed in Italy and Spain, the films portraying the American West were produced and directed by, you guessed it, Italian studios. The most celebrated director was Italian Sergio Leone. Two of the most famous were The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly and Once Upon A Time In The West.

Both Flags and Once Upon A Time convey defining moments in our history. West depicted the final stage of the winning of the frontier with the arrival of the railroad, the introduction of which signified the appearance of American civilization and the fading away of what American historian Brooks Adams (great grandson of founding father John Adams) talked about as "spiritual man." Just as surely as Leone's climactic gun battle between Harmonica (Charles Bronson) and Frank (Henry Fonda) symbolize the end of an era, Eastwood's recreation of the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima epitomizes the conclusion of the Second World War and the birth of the "American Century."

Learn more about this author, Vincent Traina.
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