A Taste of Death / Quanto costa morire (Sergio Merolle, 1968)

What do you think about ā€˜Quanto costa morireā€™ ? How do you like the soundtrack by Francesco de Masi including its main theme ā€˜Who is the manā€™ ???


For more info visit:
Database page: Quanto costa morire - The Spaghetti Western Database

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Well, i do have the soundtrack, and really like it, especially the title song (which i also have on that ā€œWest Goes Popā€ cd), but unfortunately iā€™ve never managed to see the film. I would like to but canā€™t find it anywhere. Has it actually been released on dvd anywhere?

As far as I know thereā€™s no dvd release yet !!! Sad, sad !!! This movie really deserves one !!! I have an Italian tv-version !!!

I love the soundtrack, one of de Masiā€™s best !!!

I have never managed to see this film.

Wellā€¦after much searching i actually found a dvd release of this film It was on the American TCM site and is under the title ā€œA Taste Of Deathā€. I didnā€™t order it since there was all this stuff about having to work out your own postage and possible customs fees if you were outside of the states, and then they stated that there were no guarantees offered about it actually getting to you. Unfortunately i couldnā€™t find it on any other US sites that i know, which is VERY annoying >:(

Patience Silver, maybe this film will get a proper release in the future, something to look forward too :wink:

Havenā€™t seen it myself, but itā€™s really nice when people mention good SWs that are not so well known!!

I guess so. Well, letā€™s just hope some other company release it soon! In the meantime, there are so many others available at the momentā€¦

Watched this last night. my version is a dvdr from trash palace and looks like it may have been transferred from a vhs but its fine for me. its a quick movie especially for a spag no time to get bored,i thought it was average and would reccomend it as a middle ground spaghetti western.

Is it full frame? How was the picture quality?

Mine is 4:3 and awful quality.

I have a copy of Cine Cityā€™s DVD-R, fullscreen, no subtitles, normal 80s VHS quality. Not bad, not great.

This is one of the best SWs ever, ā€œunknownā€ or otherwise, clearly ā€œinspiredā€ by The Great Silence, as it even has this Tigrero-type character played by the guy who was supposed to be ā€œItalian answer to Klaus Kinski.ā€ Both movies have similar snowy landscapes and sad atmosphere. Stories, however, are quite different. (Note: POSSIBLE SPOILERS ahead!) The Great Silence is about few just men fighting for ā€œthe underdogsā€ against enemies who are clearly superior in numbers and, in the end, the heroes fail. The Taste of Death has somewhat similar storyline about people being enslaved by few strong (and violent) men but this time the few heroes who oppose the enslavers understand that they canā€™t win alone so they urge the normal townsfolk to ā€œdo their own riseā€ (as De Masiā€™s beautiful theme song puts it) whic leads to very different (yet still very tragic in a way) outcome. Thematically this films is quite a departure from the usual far-left ideology of SWs where ā€œthe peopleā€, as good, collective entity, fight against the strong leaders who are always portrayed as enemies of the average folk. The Taste of Death shows ā€œthe peopleā€ as conformists and cowards, realizing that they are being enslaved but very unwilling to do anything for ā€œthe good of the peopleā€ if it endangers their own lives. They find their (collective) strength only when some lonely hero, who is clearly more brave and ideological, ā€œinspiresā€ those inferior to him. I donā€™t know if scriptwriter wanted this film to have such bleak view on ā€œaverage peopleā€ but still, itā€™s very different from the revolutionary westerns where the people are almost a godlike collective power, always brave and right. Anyway, I like this film almost as much as I like The Great Silence and they are both in my top 20 SWs. Great actors, shooting locations, music and interesting storyline alone would make it a classic. Iā€™d give it 4.5 out of 5

[quote=ā€œSilver Wolf, post:10, topic:551ā€]I have a copy of Cine Cityā€™s DVD-R, fullscreen, no subtitles, normal 80s VHS quality. Not bad, not great.

This is one of the best SWs ever, ā€œunknownā€ or otherwise, clearly ā€œinspiredā€ by The Great Silence, as it even has this Tigrero-type character played by the guy who was supposed to be ā€œItalian answer to Klaus Kinski.ā€ Both movies have similar snowy landscapes and sad atmosphere. Stories, however, are quite different. (Note: POSSIBLE SPOILERS ahead!) The Great Silence is about few just men fighting for ā€œthe underdogsā€ against enemies who are clearly superior in numbers and, in the end, the heroes fail. The Taste of Death has somewhat similar storyline about people being enslaved by few strong (and violent) men but this time the few heroes who oppose the enslavers understand that they canā€™t win alone so they urge the normal townsfolk to ā€œdo their own riseā€ (as De Masiā€™s beautiful theme song puts it) whic leads to very different (yet still very tragic in a way) outcome. Thematically this films is quite a departure from the usual far-left ideology of SWs where ā€œthe peopleā€, as good, collective entity, fight against the strong leaders who are always portrayed as enemies of the average folk. The Taste of Death shows ā€œthe peopleā€ as conformists and cowards, realizing that they are being enslaved but very unwilling to do anything for ā€œthe good of the peopleā€ if it endangers their own lives. They find their (collective) strength only when some lonely hero, who is clearly more brave and ideological, ā€œinspiresā€ those inferior to him. I donā€™t know if scriptwriter wanted this film to have such bleak view on ā€œaverage peopleā€ but still, itā€™s very different from the revolutionary westerns where the people are almost a godlike collective power, always brave and right. Anyway, I like this film almost as much as I like The Great Silence and they are both in my top 20 SWs. Great actors, shooting locations, music and interesting storyline alone would make it a classic. Iā€™d give it 4.5 out of 5[/quote]

Iā€™m all with you on that one, Silver Wolf !!! :slight_smile:

picture quality is not great,with faded colors sometime.this may sound crazy to most, but in a way bad picture seems to fit some movies for me,it adds a certain atmosphere. probably has something to do with growing up watching badly recorded tv to vcr versions of leoneā€™s films(not that i want to see these like that any more).and ive seen the grand duel in washed out black and white before and it looked great ???whats wrong with me?

Another hidden gem of the genre. If this had been out on dvd Iā€™d bet it would be on our top20.

It borrows a lot from The Great Silence but itā€™s still a refreshing entry to the genre. I was thrilled from the very beginning which is a kind of a dark joke: film starts with funny country song while cowboys are herding their cattle. Then Bruno Corazzariā€™s Scaife enters the picture, music stops suddenly and he shoots the cowboys and the main titles start with De Masiā€™s fine ā€œFind the manā€ song. Yeah, this is no american western!

Andrea Giordana and John Ireland are fine as the heroes of the film but the real star of the film is Bruno Corazzari who is here at his best as the cruel Scaife. Though his character is clearly inspired by Kinskiā€™s Loco they are different enough and I think Scaife is more interesting villain who shows more emotions and is even capable of falling in love.

I do think this one is interesting, but let down by having to view via a crap copy.

I love this movie, itā€™s in my top 20

No doubt about it !!! BTW, the songā€™s title is ā€˜Who is the man?ā€™ ! ā€˜Find a manā€™ is by the same composer and the main title of ā€˜Johnny Hamletā€™ (also one of my favourite movies and scores) !!! :slight_smile:

[quote=ā€œBluntwolf, post:16, topic:551ā€]No doubt about it !!! BTW, the songā€™s title is ā€˜Who is the man?ā€™ ! ā€˜Find a manā€™ is by the same composer and the main title of ā€˜Johnny Hamletā€™ (also one of my favourite movies and scores) !!! :)[/quote]oops. :frowning:
By the way, maybe it was the song and the Giordana in the lead but I felt like this film resembled a little bit of johnny Hamlet too.

Thatā€™s 'cause they are both really good movies with great leading actors and nice scores :slight_smile: !

If you like this film in itā€™s current fullscreen version, imagine how good it would be in a flawless widescreen DVD print :wink:

What do you think, any hopes for a better version?

And btw, didnā€™t we have a thread for most wanted DVD releases? Canā€™t seem to find it now.

Have any requested films been released since then?

I have a fullscreen version too (thanks to a kind forummer), but I read somewhere (probably IMDB) itā€™s originally 1,66:1 (like Django and The Great Silence), so fullscreen isnā€™t too bad in this case. But impeccable image quality would be welcome, of course.

Iā€™ve put the film (nearly) on top of the 'to watch listā€™
Hope itā€™s as good as you guys say