Buckaroo: The Winchester Does Not Forgive / Buckaroo (il Winchester che non perdona) (Adelchi Bianchi, 1967)

[Mickey13]

Copied from the Spagvemberfest 2023 thread:

@Mickey13

Even if the motion picture incorporates certain stylistic touches which constitute a tacit nod to Leone’s classics, the work feels more like a pre-Leone oater in that it replicates most of the corny clichés one hopes not to encounter, but this is not as much of a shortcoming as film’s stodgy action, moldy drama and remarkably pedestrian writing which fling it way below the average and render the overall viewing quite listless and forgettable. The editing and overall action directing come out so inert and inanimate that following the gunfights is about as exciting as watching the mandala assembly in slow motion.

The dialogues and the dramatics prove exceedingly corny and sometimes verge on being outright cringeworthy, but what ultimately mummifies the whole narrative is the extremely lazy storyline which helplessly endeavors to combine the tale of an imperious mogul terrorizing the region with the more straightforward revenge yarn. Neither part of the equation appears to be sufficiently developed or compelling enough to stand on its own: the vendetta feels artificially appended in that following the opening scene, the motif completely ebbs away and does not resurface right until the climax. The domineering bigwig is just your customary bully conniving with a bunch of Mexican bandits in order to assert his dominance over the territory. Some other themes come to the fore en route such as the saloon girl subplot, but they all turn out so inchoate, vague and underdeveloped that they hardly merit any mention whatsoever. Subpar material executed in a substandard fashion.