A Bullet for the General / ¿Quién sabe? (Damiano Damiani, 1966)

Regardless of how you define it in terms of genre and/or subgenre, this is great film and worth the time of any fan of the art of film-making, whether a fan of westerns or not. The ending is absolutely perfect and caps off an exceptional movie experience.

I like this film very much and the music is wonderful, especially at the beginning.

I did NOT like the ending at all as I think the wrong person was shot :o I would have
SHOT Volonte as he is a “damned” pheasant nuisance throughout the film ???

I liked LOU CASTEL and Martine Beswick very much :smiley: now thats being “controversial” :wink:

Can’t see it myself ???

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I have finally watched it and liked it very much. Seeing another Volonte (in some cases) was a pleasure. Great female actors as well, a strong story and such a great Klaus Kinski. But I found out, that I am not a big Lou Castel fan in this movie. Didn’t like his appearance.

@ pheasant

C’mon, Rev, the guy said pheasant when he meant turkey.
One of those typical alcohol induced errors in the aftermath of the Christmas battle.

Ok - having a cheap shot at Gian Maria Volonte is one thing…
But just don’t be having a go at ‘Grouse’ Kinski, or your goose is cooked SD! ;D :wink:

Oh Dear me did I say Volonte was a “pheasant” like the turkey bird ? Very funny pic rev ;D
I think I meant to say a “peasant” like a rustic farmer/boor/oaf/bumpkin .
Well either one will do, but I DO like Volonte in some SWs, just here I preferred Castel.
No arguments at all on Klaus Kinski he was superb and wild as ever. Beswick lovely too.
I like very much the opening scene as Castel boards the train and the Mexican songs play.

[quote=“scherpschutter, post:45, topic:301”]@ pheasant

C’mon, Rev, the guy said pheasant when he meant turkey.
One of those typical alcohol induced errors in the aftermath of the Christmas battle.[/quote]

It would be amusing Scherp except for 1 problem I Do not drink alcohol or ever eat turkey
:smiley: But I have a twitching feeling of irritation when Volonte/Milian overplay or ham up the
poor/oafish/rough Mexicano peasant in SWs, in such cases I prefer the gringo like Castel.
:o

I can understand that, I’m a vegetarian too.

Me too, I do drink alcohol though ;). And vegetarions on a site dedicated to such a bloody genre: nice…

For the sake of correctness :o I should point out that I am NOT EVER a “vegetarian” as
I LOVE wonderful meats like chicken, beef, lamb, rabbit and I regard a real meal as
MEAT + Potatoes and some salad, I could not exist as a vegetarian or a vegan :-\ :'(.

I simply do not eat turkey because it is a dry meat lacking in taste and feels like plastic.
That is my assessment on the turkey ;D, somebody else may like it, I do not.

BULLET FOR THE GENERAL 1967 , jokes and peasants apart I must say that ALL the cast
were excellent, expressive and contributed to a classic SW (Volonte included ;)).

The Soundtrack from A BULLET FOR THE GENERAL 1967 is very memorable. :smiley:

Meh… A two starer for me. There’s nothing specifically wrong with it(though the ending is rather stupid IMO) but theres also nothing very memorable about it.

There’s also the fact that its a typical Zapata with the political BS being shoved in your face and as is often the case with the sub-gernre it has little “Western feel” to it. Of course being set in Mexicao during the 1900s and dealing with a very non western plot and theme really doesnt help.

Speaking of the story, its simply dull IMO. Nothing really happens. The characters are bland and the story isnt very interesting. It has no flow either, it just goes and goes and then all of a sudden its over. None of the possibilities the plot opened up were taken advantage of, like playing with the gringos obvious double nature for example.

I guess I just really dont dig the Zapatas.

Meh… A two starer for me. There’s nothing specifically wrong with it(though the ending is rather stupid IMO) but theres also nothing very memorable about it.

There’s also the fact that its a typical Zapata with the political BS being shoved in your face and as is often the case with the sub-gernre it has little “Western feel” to it. Of course being set in Mexicao during the 1900s and dealing with a very non western plot and theme really doesnt help.

Speaking of the story, its simply dull IMO. Nothing really happens. The characters are bland and the story isnt very interesting. It has no flow either, it just goes and goes and then all of a sudden its over. None of the possibilities the plot opened up were taken advantage of, like playing with the gringos obvious double nature for example.

I guess I just really dont dig the Zapatas.

On a side note Volonte was good and the score seemed like a lesser version of The Grand Duel’s.

[quote=“Goodfella, post:54, topic:301”]Meh… A two starer for me. There’s nothing specifically wrong with it(though the ending is rather stupid IMO) but theres also nothing very memorable about it.

There’s also the fact that its a typical Zapata with the political BS being shoved in your face and as is often the case with the sub-gernre it has little “Western feel” to it. Of course being set in Mexicao during the 1900s and dealing with a very non western plot and theme really doesnt help.

Speaking of the story, its simply dull IMO. Nothing really happens. The characters are bland and the story isnt very interesting. It has no flow either, it just goes and goes and then all of a sudden its over. None of the possibilities the plot opened up were taken advantage of, like playing with the gringos obvious double nature for example.

I guess I just really dont dig the Zapatas.

On a side note Volonte was good and the score seemed like a lesser version of The Grand Duel’s.[/quote]

I couldn’t agree less!
For my money the characters are far from bland, the story anything but dull and it all flows very well. This is a top ten film for me and one I would readily recommend to anyone, not just spaghetti fans.
Just goes to show the wide variety of opinion amongst our members I guess.

IMO the english Title destroys a little bit the story. I always see A Bullet for the General as something like the “Mother” of the Zapata SW. It’s a great one and IMO it influenced Corbucci’s Companeros, Il Mercenario and Leone’s Once upon a time the revolution.

I guess I can just do without the zapata’s.

Of all the ones Ive seen, they all suffer from similiar weak stories and structure.

That showed this on movies for men yesterday afternoon, have they not heard of the 9 o’clock watershed!

[quote=“Goodfella, post:57, topic:301”]I guess I can just do without the zapata’s.

Of all the ones Ive seen, they all suffer from similiar weak stories and structure.[/quote]Tepepa has very good script imo. But only uncut dvd available has distracting audio drop outs on english track.

Yes, i agree. I thought it was superior to Quien sabe and i loved it even though my version was probably cut [uncut version runs for over 2h, right?].