Copied from the Spagvemberfest 2024 thread:
I remember it for having an interesting story, but the the directing, the acting and the photography all looked quite amateurish. And it was a tad boring. 3/10
But it is still one I intend to rewatch one day ā¦
Well, it is Baldanelloās flick after all, so certain infirmities in the execution are to be expected. Filmās directing and photography are somewhat underwhelming, granted, but not to the point of annoyance and quite tolerable all things considered, especially for a low-budget project of the sort. The acting is slightly hammy, but what with it being a bit of a soap opera, it kind of fits narrationās tone. Most importantly, the storyline gives Testi and Neri a chance to act, which is most uncommon, particularly in this genre.
Aside from the revenge subplot, I believe picās weakest element is the climax in the course of which the patriarch played by Ireland gets killed off in a highly theatrical, histrionic fashion. I think a more pessimistic and cynical ending would have suited the material much better, instead it turns out just schmaltzy and inordinately highfalutin, I basically rolled my eyes at that point.
What we have now is simply a jumble of cuts though, so it is tough to give it the thumbs up unequivocally. For the time being, what weāve got is about as complete as A Gunman Called Dakota which is to say it proves to be almost a complete mess at some stages.
Well, at the very least it is not another feckless slapstick comedy.
Ha ha, yes, Baldanello was a weak director, and his best one Black Jack could be better if done by a more talented guy. But still this one here looked astonishingly poor on a technical level, even for a very small budget.
If I had more time at the moment, I would rewatch it this evening. Or try to do so ā¦ 
Well, had Black Jack been helmed by a solid director, it could have made for Top 10 material easily. Throw in a dash of Greek tragedy, flesh out secondary characters more, make it even more diabolical and you could get a minor masterpiece in the end. Instead, it comes out good enough, acquiring a certain trashy charm along the way, yet without ever coming close to genreās front-runners.
Yes, yes and yes, could then have become a 2nd El puro ā¦
Kinda. Iād argue it could have become something along the lines of Vengeance Is Mine, but even better. El Puro sort of seems too singular to enter that sort of deliberation.
El Puro is unique, too unique I would aver, because aside from its other strengths, it is simply so off-the-wall it obtains precociously modern characteristics, there is simply nothing else quite like it in the genre, I am aware that you attach greater importance to its more classical facets though.
On the whole, Black Jack feels a lot more straightforward and conventional in its basic building blocks to draw comparisons of the sort and simply canāt compete with El Puroās experimentalism, YMMV obviously though.
Agreed, Black Jack needed more than some better directing to compete with El puro, but the story has the potential to be turned in something similar.
But Vengeance Is Mine is imo a Spag which doesnāt do much for me, my rating put it actually below Black Jack. 10 000 Dollars Blood Money would be the better example, or the Stranger films.
10.000 Dollars for a Massacre admittedly features better direction, but its story is just so arrantly one-dimensional, particularly in the midsection, that it doesnāt do much for me either, so for me itās the other way round actually, different strokes for different folks obviously. The Stranger films kinda constitute their own different category.