10,000 Dollars for a Massacre / 10.000 dollari per un massacro (Romolo Guerrieri, 1967)

(The Stranger) #81

Good review, El Topo.

This film is very good. Garko with a good performance.
A bounty hunter who pursues only at a price of $ 10,000 of his work.
Simple, but good idea.

And then the ghost town. Beautiful. The wind whistles through the streets. And at the end of it Garko rides alone. Robbed of hope that he can begin a new life with his love. Nope. He has all killed. Cold and ruthless.

The only other survivor is a daughter of the landowner. She was kidnapped. They went as a virgin. And comes back as a whore. There are only victims in the end. And so should look like a SW: Hard, dark, no hope.

A good work, and certainly a little underrated.

(dicfish) #82

Seven Dollars looked actually pretty happy at the end :wink:

(The Stranger) #83

Oh, you’re right. I forgot Seven Dollars.
How could this happen.
This man is very happy … with its seven dollars. :wink:

(korano) #84

This is the second time I’ve watched this one. I liked it the first time. And a second viewing is even better. Very atmospheric and stylish. I did recognise some odd homsexual implications and ofcourse the religious imagery is quite prominent (hell, some lyrics to end song shot "AMEN!!"etc etc). The camera work was excellent. The second half of the film is quite downbeat in feeling. After Loredana gets it, it becomes a very meancholly picture. Maybe even fatalistic.

(scherpschutter) #85

A classic!

Mean, melancholic + jolly = meancholly

Long live Korano, for he’s a trolley good mellow

(Dillinger) #86

They call him mellow yellow! :smiley:

(korano) #87

And I thought it was bad in the Once Upon a Time in the Wild Wild West thread. I’ve got to be more careful.

(Dillinger) #88

Never mind - neologisms like that are quite stimulating.

(Jude) #89

I decided to check the alternative top 20-list because i had already seen all the top-10 movies from essential list. So, this was a solid western, although there was couple weak scenes here and there.

Pros:

  • Good main characters: Gianni Garko, Loredana Nusciak and Claudio Camaso did all great job. I especially liked Camaso’s part, even though some might say he has lots of eyeliner etc, but he looks good to me. Good enough for a “bad guy”. Garko does a great job playing Django and Nusciak’s part was also good.
  • The old guy who always was making bets of how things are going to turn out: That was hilarious! :smiley: At first i didn’t notice him so well, but in the end that character became even more funny, in a good SW-way. If you’re gonna make a good Spaghetti Western, you have to have characters like this.
  • Soundtrack was solid, nothing to complain about.
  • The visual style was beautiful, and the ghost town was stunning, a little bit like in the “Cemetery Without Crosses”
  • I liked the part where Mijanou was killed and Django realizes it: these things give more depth to film. There could have been more stuff like this going on. Otherwise the story was kind of basic style.

Cons:

  • Couple stupid or just weak scenes, like that one where Vásquez’s wife dances and others watch.

But like i said, all in all this was a good SW. 4/5 stars.

(Col. Douglas Mortimer) #90

Yeah that was a pretty wierd scene.

(AngelFace) #91

I watched this about 8 years ago on a Danish VHS tape and it didn’t do much for me but I’ve just rewatched it via the KOCH DVD (about 5 years after buying it) and I was very impressed!

It had a cool style, visuals, atmosphere and a good score with good action. A very good example of the genre. I like Garko in every western I’ve seen him in.

The spaghetti-isms still grate - the funny old timer, the multiple captures and escapes, the dynamite in the canyon , Django’s over elaborate game with the the gold. It seems like every SW has to lessen it’s impact with some of these cliches and touches. Also, it doesn’t really make as much as it could of it’s central ideas i.e. Django’s weird attraction to Camaso’s criminal character and the terrible miscalculation Django makes with the stagecoach and the price he pays.

Still a very good film with some “bad” touches which is way, way better than just a plain bad film!

Recommended.

(MrE2Me) #92

I thought this was excellent! (Thanks to Phil H for suggesting I watch it ASAP.) AngelFace raises some good points about the most cliched elements, but they didn’t detract from my experience in this case, especially the old geezer - I enjoyed the way he basically spoke for the audience throughout the film. I’ve seen far more annoying elderly characters in other SWs, for sure.

The only two things that bothered me about this were 1.) Claudio Camaso’s insane eye makeup (it deserved its own credit at the end) - he seriously looks like a transvestite at times - and 2.) The fact that Dolores ends up siding with her kidnapper/raper/abuser/etc. It provided a nice surprise twist, and I suppose it’s not even necessarily that far-fetched, but it still left a bad taste in my mouth.

Otherwise, I think this deserves to be higher up on the Top 20 (i.e. actually ON the Top 20). Lots of fun. Only my second Garko film and I like him a lot already. I definitely preferred this over …Pray for Your Death.

(Andy) #93

I watched this because I’m a big fan of Garko and noticed some people on here said it was a better performance than his Sartana (and Sartana-esque) movies that came later. Well, I can see what they were talking about. Garko’s character in this is much more dynamic than Sartana (but still not as cool ;)). I usually am not too into the romantic stuff but the romantic element to this one was really good. The music is also a great thing about this film. This must be one of the first spaghetti westerns to have a scene where one of the main character’s body is buried in sand (the two big ones that come to mind are Death Rides A Horse which came out later that year and then Compañeros in '70). Some of the scenes were a little boring but on the whole I really liked it. 4 stars.

(JonathanCorbett) #94

Making a comparison with screenshots taken from A Man Called Sledge and The Big Gundown you find that as I suspected is not the uncredited Herman Reynoso to interpret Mendoza: in all probability on this point Anica data are right and the character was played by Franco Bettella, credited as Frank Little in some international versions.

(Hornet) #95

Does the Koch DVD have English subtitles?

(JonathanCorbett) #96

Now it’s sure, Mendoza was played by Bettella (the screenshots are from Uno sceriffo tutto d’oro/A Golden Sheriff, in which he’s credited as F. Betella)

(ION BRITTON) #97

Gave this one another spin. 100% italian in style, no way this film could have come from the other side ocean. Camaso and Garko are both lethal and it definitely has my favorite Fernando Sancho performance. Nora Orlandi’s score is flawless. The ending sent shivers down my spine for one more time. Hell, I even like the excessive make-up… One of the ten SW I’d recommend to introduce someone to this genre.

(John Welles) #98

Having seen Guerrieri’s Johnny Yuma previously and really rated it, I had high expectations for $10,000 for a Massacre. And while the film never manages to surpass it’s wonderfully surreal opening on the beach, worthy of anything in Django Kill! If You Live, Shoot!, the film is still very entertaining, Gianni Garko being perhaps the best of the unofficial “Django”'s. The romance for once is carefully worked into the film and helps to finally give overall a melancholy air to the picture, the final triumphal ride into the sunset not withstanding. Claudio Camaso’s performance is exemplary, as is Guerrieri’s customarily excellent direction. Taken as a whole, I predict this is one film that will be joining Johnny Yuma in my Top Twenty.

(Stork Vulture) #99

I guess I’ll be one of the few who dislikes this movie. Won’t be in my top 20, I don’t even know if I’d vote for it in an alternative 20.

My problem is that Django as a character in this movie so stupid. I have a hard time enjoying a movie where the lead is such a buffoon in a non-comedy. When the stagecoach revealed the saloon woman’s corpse I burst out laughing at Django. I didn’t enjoy any of the revenge setpieces after what a dolt Django had been the whole movie.

Filmed nicely, okay music, nice setpieces, nice to see Sancho. Didn’t care for the “raped into love” aspect of the film.

(Reza) #100

A nice movie i think…lol