4 nights of spaghetti
westerns from glorious film prints (well some of them were quite worn
down to be honest). That's what I call a great film festival! So I
tried to cram every film to my schedule, which I would have managed
otherwise as I have three of them on DVD. But unfortunately I'm
getting too old for these marathons so I had to leave 2 night
screenings out as I just couldn't stay awake anymore. Still, I saw
some amazing movies and here's a recap of them.
First of all I must
confess, I have never seen a Sartana movie even though they seem to
have been quite popular and there is quite a many of them. Ye I know
and I dare to call myself a spaghetti western fan... But well, better
late than never. At the beginning I was rather troubled as this
didn't look like a spaghetti western at all and the music surely
didn't sound like one either. But luckily it found its tracks towards
the end and there were some quite brilliant scenes. The music though
didn't really strike me at any point, but the visual side was well in
hand towards the end so it didn't really matter that much. Also at
the beginning I was quite confused to say the least, the plot seemed
to make no sense at all. Some stage coaches were robbed and everyone
was killing everyone and that was about all there was. It didn't
really become that much clearer towards the end, but the general idea
was that everyone betrays everyone for a case of gold which everyone
tries to steal in one way or another and there's some big conspiracy
and this undertaker and oh fuck it, I give up. All I know is that
amongst it all there's Sartana, this mystical seemingly bulletproof
gun slinging “pall bearer” who at least seems to know what's
going on. All the while you are just completely puzzled and mostly
wondering did the body count hit one hundred already and where do all
these “henchmen” come from. But it didn't really matter as the
movie was still a blast. I can see why Sartana spawned so many
sequels, spinoffs and even ripoffs as it's an intriguing character
and this first movie was quite a great one even though it took a
while to get going.
76%
Tarantino's newest turned
out to be a bit uneven but still highly enjoyable ride. It had a lot
more drama in it than you'd expect from a Tarantino movie, but it was
actually a good thing as the movie is cracking jokes at quite a
touchy subject for the Americans so it kept it from turning into a
total farce. First the things that didn't work. It's the first
Tarantino movie I thought could have maybe been a tad shorter, though
thinking about it afterwards I can't think of anything to leave out.
Would have to see it again to say for sure, but that's definitely a
good thing as I really want to watch this one again. The soundtrack
is mostly good, though it wasn't as brilliant as I would have
expected and what made it even worse was the rap. It's not your usual
western soundtrack with the likes of Jim Croce or Anthony Hamilton
and Elayna Boynton in it, those worked quite well actually, but the
rap, oh come on. Jamie Foxx wasn't exactly great either, but then
again he's being overshadowed by Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio
and Samuel L. Jackson in pretty much every scene in the film. Partly
the fault of the script as he's not given those moments where an
actor can shine, he's the unsung hero amongst these great crazy
characters, but partly also because he's not really in the same
league as the others. Speaking of the others, I was also a bit
disappointed that Christoph Waltz has a very similar role as in
Inglorious Basterds (2009) and Samuel L. Jackson is also playing in a familiar turf. They are of
course brilliant at what they do, but would have hoped to see
something completely new and different from them as well. Leonardo
DiCaprio on the other hand is definitely out of his element and does
an amazing job at it, I'd call it his best performance since
What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993). Also need to note Don Johnson who was a nice surprise as well. For
a Tarantino movie those above are a surprisingly lot of things which
I didn't really like, but in the end they didn't really matter that
much as the rest of this movie was pure dynamite. Also as an old
spaghetti western fan I was going crazy with all the references and
nods towards the classics of the genre.
85%
Like I've said before
Sergio Corbucci is the second best spaghetti western director right
after Sergio Leone, so the chance of seeing one of his classics on
the big screen was something I was surely not going to miss, even
though I've seen this already couple of times before. Anyway this
movie is quite an oddity amongst spaghetti westerns, mostly because
of the story. It's a story about a Confederate colonel, his three
sons and a woman who after the Civil War steal a ton of money from
the Union in hopes of rebuilding the Confederate in the Southwest.
The problem is getting the money to safety so they have a plot where
they hide the money in a coffin and play a role of mourning family on
their way to bury their family member. Even though they have a great
disguise things of course don't go as planned as they get trouble
from Union search parties, cowboys, indians, bandits and even between
each other. The movie starts with a bang, but then slows down and
that's pretty much my only gripe with this one, it's rather slow
paced. Then again as tensions build between the group and outsiders
and also within the group, the pace most of the time fits it quite
well. I loved Morricone's score and the movie looks great. Joseph
Cotten is brilliant in the role of the colonel not willing to let the
past go. Rest of the cast is not that strong, but they are mostly
fine. This one is a must see for every spaghetti western fan out
there as kind of a different subject done in the spaghetti western
style. And it's definitely not a bad movie even if you're not that
into spaghetti westerns.
82%
My second Sartana film
I've seen and after this I must say I really need to watch the others
as well as this was just plain stupid but still tons of fun. Again
the plot is far from clear and simple, sometimes it just doesn't make
any sense at all, but again there's some gold and apparently
counterfeit money and everyone is after them. And I really mean
everyone, there's so many side characters and double crosses that I
honestly lost count. Sartana is still bulletproof and seems to know
everything before everyone else. There's some very nice spaghetti
western moments, even though the plot with a smaller body count could
just as well be from some detective thriller. About the body count,
towards the end it just goes crazy with a huge shootout with organs
pissing fire and brimstone! The music was rather good and supported
the mood nicely most of the time. It's not a great movie as it's
rather uneven and well it just goes a bit too stupid some times, but
still it was surely entertaining and well worth the watch. And damn
that Alfie is a strong little toy.
74%
Joshua the Black Rider(1976)
Joshua, played
by Fred Williamson, is a civil war veteran who returns home from the
war only to find his mother killed. He then goes on pursuit of the
five men responsible. This is a very straight forward western with
only one spice to the mix, the lead character is black. That
unfortunately doesn't make this weak effort any better as it's simply
put boring. The photography was quite good and there were some nice
sceneries caught on film from time to time, but not exactly in the
same league as the stylistic spaghetti westerns. Music was just bad
and annoyingly repetitive. You can see that Tarantino took quite a
few influences from this movie as well, but at least he had the
skills to make them work. Some of the ways Joshua decides to kill the
murderers were just stupid beyond belief. And I couldn't really
understand the motives of the kidnapped woman, first you get
kidnapped and raped by a bunch of murderers and then you act like
they are the nicest bunch of people around. Anyway I guess it was
worth the watch mostly out of curiosity, but I'm sure I won't be
revisiting it either.
35%
I didn't see this one at
the festival, but as I have it on DVD I decided to revisit it and put
a review here as it was in the festival lineup. This is another
oddity amongst the spaghetti westerns as it adds kung-fu in the gun
slinging. Chin Hao is a Chinese immigrant who travels to the wild
west in hopes of becoming a cowboy. He soon finds out that the west
is not a hospitable place for foreigners and he of course needs to
kick some cowboy ass to prove his worth. He gets a promising job as a
rancher, but soon finds out that the cattle is actually Mexican
slaves. Righteous man as he is he then turns against the slavers and
ends up in some serious trouble. The plot is rather straight forward
with not much finesse to it, but that's what you'd expect from a
movie like this. Funny thing is that Klaus Kinski is billed as the
star of this movie on the title credits and he actually appears in
the movie not much longer than 5 minutes. Well that's exploitation
for you. Chen Lee plays the main character and does a solid job even
though the role is incredibly stereotypical. This movie was
surprisingly bloody even compared to the others of its kind and the
action was quite good, even though I'm still puzzled why everyone
were such bad shooters. Then again it wouldn't make much of a kung-fu
movie if the guy is shot down before he can hand out a single punch
or a kick. I liked the score by Bruno Nicolai, very spaghetti western
style, even though the action was quite different it still fit it
very well. Even though the entertainment values were high, it still
got a bit tedious at times. Well worth the watch though.
67%
Feel good western of the
festival. It's a story about two naive big city snobs who come to the
wild west to visit their father. As they are rather dumb they end up
pissing off a group of bandits and end up in some serious trouble.
Luckily they meet a mysterious stranger with incredible gun skills,
called Cemetery, who decides to help them out. However the bandits
hire their own mysterious gunslinger called Duke and there of course
needs to be a standoff. It seems that Gianni Garko is the actor of
this festival as he's the main character in this one as well, in
addition to the Sartana movies. That's a good thing as he's a great
character for the parts, kind of like a mix between Clint Eastwood
hardness and Terence Hill charm. Comedy is the name of the game in
this movie and it surely doesn't take itself too seriously. Some of
the jokes are rather bad to be honest, but most of them end up
digging a few laughs out of you and as the mood is so light it's a
great feel good spaghetti western. I absolutely loved the
theme song by Bruno Nicolai, one of
the all time bests, even though it's played so often I didn't mind
the repetition. The movie has it's flaws and at parts it kind of
stalls from the fun swing it has, but in the end it left me with a
good feeling.
75%
This is not really a
spaghetti western, even though most spaghetti westerns were done in
Spain. I guess you could call this a paella western, a Spanish
western. This movie is grim to the bone and a highly nihilistic view
of the west. It's a story about a cavalry sergeant, his daughter and
a group of seven sadistic convicts who survive an ambush by a bandit
gang. They are left without transportation in the middle of nowhere,
while the sergeant tries to get the prisoners to their destination
keeping his daughter safe from them and the bandits chasing them. If
that wasn't enough trouble, he needs to figure out which one of the
prisoners raped and murdered his wife. This was by far the most
brutal western of the festival, both graphically and emotionally.
There's not much hope in the world this movie builds and to be honest
it got a bit tedious after a while. Even though it was a refreshingly
different amongst the others in this festival, I can't really say I
liked it that much. It's rather straight forward and lacking finesse
to the point it becomes unintentionally funny. I did like the story
however and in better hands it might have become an intense thriller,
now it's just focusing on the exploitation aspects of it too much. I
mean it's definitely not a bad movie, but can't really say it's a
great one either, if you want to see a darker and more brutal western
then this is a must see for you.
66%
Another one I didn't see
at the festival, but as I have it on DVD I'll put it up here as well
as it was in the festival lineup. This one is kind of like a
Hitchcockian murder mystery in a spaghetti western disguise. I guess
that's thanks to the writer Ernesto Gastaldi who's more known from
writing a handful of giallo classics. Lee Van Cleef plays Sheriff
Clayton who helps a man framed with murder. A powerful trio of Saxon
brothers want the man dead, but the sheriff has other plans in his
mind. The cast is solid and while Lee Van Cleef surely runs this show
the others aren't that bad either. I especially liked the Saxon
brothers. The movie includes some fairly surreal flashbacks, but
other than that it's rather straight forward direction. And even
though you can guess the mystery before the end there's still a twist
which will make you second guess enough to keep the "surprise"
even somewhat as a surprise. The title of the movie may be a bit
misleading, but I guess it references the end which indeed you could
see as a grand duel. I love the main theme by Luis Bacalov, but the
rest of the score doesn't really come close to it. Not bad in any way
but still noticeably in a different league. There's many things right
in this one, but unfortunately it's quite uneven as a whole. At parts
the mystery is swept aside from the entertainment values of big
shootouts and then the movie wastes time to remind you of the plot
again. Better balance between them and this would have been a very
good movie, now it's "just" good.
68%
I really wonder who
came up with this English name for the film, it kind of spoils one of
the biggest mysteries of this movie. Oh well, luckily there's more
than one twist at the end so it still managed to surprise me. Bill
'Niño' Tate is a mysterious young man who joins a group of train
robbing bandits lead by El Chuncho. Together the group rob weapons
from the soldiers and sell them to the rebel leader General Elias.
Everyone in the group seems to have different motives wether it's
just money, patriotism or religious beliefs and of course the motives
clash on the way. The movie starts off great as it's entertaining and
leaves you with tons of questions. Unfortunately it gets quite dull
in the middle, but the end saves a lot as it's rather brilliant, even
with the spoiling name. The story was quite good and reflecting back
to the time it was made, very political as well. What I was most
surprised was the soundtrack, once I saw both Luis Bacalov and Ennio
Morricone in the titles I was expecting to be blown away by the
score, but I must say it wasn't anything special, quite forgettable
to be honest. Even though this wasn't an audio-visual beauty like
what you'd expect from some of the spaghetti westerns, it was still
well worth the watch and actually a great ending to a brilliant
festival as it made me want to see more from the genre apart from the
usual Leone and Corbucci classics.
70%
Like I said, unfortunately
I had to leave the two night screenings of
Viva Cangaceiro (1971) and
Death Rides Along (1970) out as I'm getting way too old for these kinds of movie marathons.
I'm especially sad I couldn't see Viva Cangaceiro as it's a very rare
spaghetti western and I really don't know if there's ever going to be
another chance of seeing it. Anyway, this festival was a blast and I
hope they will do it again in the future.
