Saw this last night, mainly wanted to see it since it was directed by Petroni and feature Gemma in the lead. Two scenes really stood out as noteworthy, the first being the opening ten minutes or so, which show the massacre, billy boy weeping, and burying the dead, and him riding away from the carnage. Pay close attention because this is wonderfully shot, and the score is perfect. My other favorite scene is of course the turkey eating scene, which I have to say is just plain silly. Their is no real plot, other then Harry and Billy Boy causing a lot of trouble, and sometimes Billy Boy get’s on Harry’s nerves, but in the end he realizes that truly needs him by his side. So I would say this is one of those “epic buddy” westerns. Guilano Gemma of course is great as Billy Boy. This film also features a " mermaid girl", a wrecking of tent, a fake bank so to speak.
I didn’t like it that much when I first saw it (I thought it was an uneven combination of comedy, buddy movie and diehard western), but it has grown on me and today it’s among my favorites. I love that melancholic touch that Petroni always adds to his movies. And both actors are terrific in this one. It has a few uninspired moments, true.
Watched this one last night, and enjoyed it for what it was - an early love-hate, buddy, buddy film.
Enhanced by a beautiful score from il Maestro, Ennio Morricone, the story - for what it is - tends, for me, to take a back-seat to the engaging chemistry between Giuliano Gemma and Mario Adorf.
I watched this film a few years back, on a pretty rotten DVD transfer, which didn’t do it any favours. Last night, I watched it on ‘Koch Media’s Italowestern - Enzyklopädie 1.’, which made the viewing experience a hundred times better.
The picture, and sound quality, really do, sometimes, make, or break a film…
Those Enzyklopadies are on my shopping list, they seem promising.
PS. This film has one of the most weird and awkward titles ever.
All three volumes are well worth picking up from ‘Amazon.Germany’. The picture quality is very good, indeed.
As for the film title…yes, it’s a bit of a handful, so it’s just as easy to call it ‘Amigos’. This appears to be the title for it on the front of ‘Italowestern - Enzyklopädie No. 1’. Bearing in mind the relationship between Giuliano Gemma and Mario Adorf, I think it’s a more appropriate title.
I think it’s a beautiful title. Maybe not that fitting particularly for this film though. I’ve always assumed that it was sort of a phrase, vagabonds have only stars for a roof or something like that.
Of course that’s the idea behind it, and it does make sense for the film, at least a bit.
It’s a better title than all those long days, ringos, djangos and dollars
8 posts were merged into an existing topic: Cemetery Without Crosses / Une corde, un colt … (Robert Hossein, 1969)
When I first came across the title for this film, in a catalogue from the old Soundtrack & General mail order service (anyone remember them?), it was mistranslated as A Roof for a Skyful of Stars, which really is meaningless, but I’ve always found it wonderfully evocative.
As for the film itself, I agree with other posters about its uneven tone, but my imagination was caught at an early age by the gritty and stylish clips from it which were used in the Italian thriller “Closed Circuit”, from the days when they used to show subtitled European films on BBC2 in the UK.
2 posts were merged into an existing topic: Cemetery Without Crosses / Une corde, un colt … (Robert Hossein, 1969)
So, I finally watched this…
I’ll state the obvious first; the opening scene is great and the score is lovely!
Despite the very uneven tone throughout, I quite enjoyed this film as far as ‘buddy’ plots go. Oh I was also surprised by how much of an asshole Gemma’s character was.
Just put this on for a first viewing, and definitely agree what’s been stated by others about that opening - its got to be one of the best of any spaghetti and one of Morricone’s finest works
Just finished viewing. I wasn’t expecting much due to comments about it turning a bit comedic for the bulk of the film, but I thought this was pretty good actually. The strength of the music actually was enough to push this up a notch for me, as there were at least 3 or 4 scenes which made effective usage and took on a somber tone which is helped a bit by being unexpected- you’re just kinda dropped into a change in tone which works very well for me.
It likely helps that my first viewing bypassed previous, lesser releases and was instead the very clean blu ray print, and I listened on a nice pair of headphones which really emphasized the good music.
re-watched yesterday, very nice movie in the line with the Trinity saga. Gemma did a great job also in this comedy. 4 out of 5 stars!
This is actually something I sort of disagree with. I think at heart this movie is quite a more serious film and either through pressure from the producers or via cuts and redubs, it is turned into a more comedic film. Having seen the uncut restored BluRay fairly recently I noticed how much more serious this is both in comparison to what I remembered from a long while ago and in comparison to the strongly cut versions and the German “funny dubs”. It is still a movie with comedic elements, but It feels like an aspects that|s tacked on
I just got the vinyl for this one and it’s beautiful sounding. Underrated!
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I just watched this one last night on YouTube and was happy to see that others were reminded of Providence(which I actually quite enjoyed). Some of the scenes end rather abruptly and tend to meander a bit, but it didn’t ruin anything for me. I loved the scene where Harry slapped Billy for calling him a bastard, telling Billy that he told him never to curse at him, only to realize he never said this(you’d just have to watch it to be understand). The action scenes are few, but beautifully done. I highly recommend this classic.