Well I must disagree here, this movie is undoubtedly one of the better spaghetti-westerns ever made. It is short on dialogue and explicit violence with a purpose. I think the main roles are well played by Hossein and Mercier (what a good looking widow even with all the sadness and sorrow she rocks!). It’s climbing in my top 20 list.
the movie has a very good song!! ;D
AHoy digging a post from the tombs I see but I’m not starting a new topic so…
I just saw this for the first time and thought it was an epic tale of despair brought on by what appears to be sheer stupidity or unwillingness to just kill motherfuckers and keep them from causing trouble. How many bad decisions can the two main characters make before they bring about their own doom (!?) becomes the plot hook, for me at least. I dunno if the two mains were paralyzed by severe emotional overload or what, but if they’re gonna allow two dudes to rape what is probably a 19 year old girl they’re holding hostage then the next scene they should have had her head on a stick in her father’s front yard. I’d like to see a movie with some ruthless don’t give a shit “good guys” and have it be a spag western, someone point me to this movie I seek. I love The Wild Bunch but damn I wish it had some spag-western music in it.
That aside I thought this was a daring and original film. The color palette made the Leone-esque close ups seem more real and threatening than most spag-westerns, the first shootout in the saloon was one of the best I’ve seen in a while followed by a really creepy dinner scene (I bet Argento had something to do with that one). Around that point the movie starts to drag its feet a little and the scenes seem kind of pieced together getting the plot a-to-b involving little skill or craft up until the last half which was rocking very much in my opinion. I’ll go ahead and say its above the pack and is easily justified being on someone’s top 20. I enjoy ruthless bleak visions told without compromise as people usually fight tooth n nail to alter or bury such films. Luckily in an overflowing crowded sorta fish stick factory type of film market its easy for real artists to slip through the hack cracks and bring us something from dank dark recesses.
short review: Its like The Great Silence, but lots of sand instead of snow!
Dinner scene is directed by Leone according to some sources.
Hossein himself has stated that Argento had nothing to do with the whole movie but who knows…
I coudn’t agree with you more mate! This one is not for everyone, but it is one of the better made spaghetti-westerns. I love everything about it. It’s in my top 30 list.
I saw this last week , after reading Alex Cox’s good review in his book and agree with him, its an unheralded classic . Great looking ghost town, looks like something from a horror film…Michele Mercier is very good as the vengeful wife , Robert Hossein is also good ( i’ve seen him in a lot of 60s spy stuff like OSS117-PANIC IN BANGKOK / NO ROSES FOR OSS117 ) he should have been a bigger star, Michele Lemoine is good as the cowardly brother, saw it along with ONE AFTER ANOTHER (DEFINITE VIOLENT CLASSIC…).
I’ve just finished watching it and liked it quite a bit. I was hoping to like it more though. Still, a remarkable movie with a very original treatment of a regular plot and some very interesting scenes. It dragged a bit in parts but I liked the fact that most of the actions, decisions and motivations of the characters were quite different from the usual and the ghost town setting was great.
Maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood for this and needed a more action filled movie.
I didn’t like so much with the first viewing.
Well… it’s a very good movie, but still only very good and not for top 20 for me, maybe top 30 and definitely top 40. 
I’ll watch this one once again. It’s a bit weird because most of times I like slow paced westerns, and I need no violence and no action to be entertained, but in this one something is missing (definitely 4 star stuff, maybe 5?).
Anyway very well made spaghetti, the must see without any doubt.
It’s middle of the road here for me, i like the soundtrack (even if it gets overplayed a little) the lead actors and the mood, but the movie has things like the idiotic two brothers going around acting like complete assholes. Not on my top 20, but still a respectable entry in the genre.
There is a certain type of SW that can really do the trick for me; the bleak, gloomy, grim ones with few walk-ons and a handful of desolate surroundings - Django, Mannaja, Keoma etc - and from all i´d read about this film i thought it would more than please me.
Unfortunately it didn´t.
It certainly has a quite differing style, very minimalistic with it´s absence of dialogue and gunplay - an idea that doesn´t sound bad at all (i´m not one of those who necessarily need a shooting every 10 minutes, there are more ways to create a harsh atmosphere) - and a lot of quiet, sad faces. This tactic didn´t manage to create the tragic feeling i wanted, though. It never lost me, but it didn´t grab me by the throat either.
One thing that would have raised this one a couple of notches is an overall better look. A sandcovered ghost town should be about the coolest thing you will ever see in a spag western, but even that spice tasted quite bland. The town in, say, Django or the small settlement in GBU´s opening scene make my saliva run much more.
The outfits are dull and make the actors look anonymous - bleak in a bad sense.
Bandidos is another example that springs to mind that would have benefited from cooler costumes and a bit more inspirational locations.
I would say this one is an average/slightly above average. There´s really nothing wrong with it, but nothing that particularly attracts my attention either, despite the wayward and sometimes surprising style.
[quote=“Saddle Tramp, post:190, topic:403”]There is a certain type of SW that can really do the trick for me; the bleak, gloomy, grim ones with few walk-ons and a handful of desolate surroundings - Django, Mannaja, Keoma etc - and from all i´d read about this film i thought it would more than please me.
Unfortunately it didn´t.
It certainly has a quite differing style, very minimalistic with it´s absence of dialogue and gunplay - an idea that doesn´t sound bad at all (i´m not one of those who necessarily need a shooting every 10 minutes, there are more ways to create a harsh atmosphere) - and a lot of quiet, sad faces. This tactic didn´t manage to create the tragic feeling i wanted, though. It never lost me, but it didn´t grab me by the throat either.
One thing that would have raised this one a couple of notches is an overall better look. A sandcovered ghost town should be about the coolest thing you will ever see in a spag western, but even that spice tasted quite bland. The town in, say, Django or the small settlement in GBU´s opening scene make my saliva run much more.
The outfits are dull and make the actors look anonymous - bleak in a bad sense.
Bandidos is another example that springs to mind that would have benefited from cooler costumes and a bit more inspirational locations.
I would say this one is an average/slightly above average. There´s really nothing wrong with it, but nothing that particularly attracts my attention either, despite the wayward and sometimes surprising style.[/quote]
I didn’t like it so much, but it doesn’t mean it’s average. It’s a bit unfair to say such things IMO. Even though I don’t like it so much (something is missing for me, but it was nice viewing), it is very good and so is Bandidos.
However, I consider Bandidos to be slightly better (The Great Salerno steals the show for me…) 8)
Anyway both movies are great but not for everybody’s taste I guess.
Well, i don´t like it that much either and i thought it would be fair to be honest.
I don´t see any point in posting anything else than my actual opinions ??? 
[quote=“Saddle Tramp, post:192, topic:403”]Well, i don´t like it that much either and i thought it would be fair to be honest.
I don´t see any point in posting anything else than my actual opinions ??? ;)[/quote]
Of course you should. Every honest opinion is fair.
You may even say it is total booooring crap, that’s also fair.
Watched the German Buoi Omega DVD release yesterday – and was impressed because of the allusion to ancient Greek tragedy.
The entire protagonists act on the “tina-principle” – means: “there is no alternative” of acting due to the structuring power of divine predestination, destiny, vanity or something else, which lies beyond human recognition. Manuel has no other choice as to act as angel of revenge on behalf of Marias (!) mission to retaliate her husband Ben’s death, caused by the Rogers family. On the contrary the Rogers family can’t allow losing face on that. After being compelled by Maria and Manuel to bury their victim Ben on a regular cemetery (with crosses) and to provide Ben’s corpse a funeral with dignity, they have to restore the family’s honor at all costs. All the protagonists are bound to a given and limited framework of rules originated in religion, insincere familial solidarity, and unanswered tragic love. That’s why acting of protagonists sometimes isn’t open to a rationale measurement of common sense for example Manuel killing four gunmen showed up to fight the Rogers family and put an end to their terror regime. Manuel adheres to something that is beyond the borders of human rationality. The whole plot is culminating in a tragic catharsis or showdown, which nobody will survive as winner.
Taken all in all the magnificent soundtrack, the iconic strength of that movie which is told with an astonishing little amount of spoken words and - as far as I remember – an unprecedented strong and powerful female role make this movie a little masterpiece. But this special mixture is admittedly a matter of taste (and mood, as stated by cochino) – top 10 IMO.
Besides: Hossein mentioned in the interview to be found on the DVD, that Sergio Leone directed the dinner-scene while visiting his friend Hossein at the set in Almeria. Argentos name was mentioned in the credits for reasons of production and financing, Hossein said.
Tucobene, why not making also a top 20, now that the voting circus probably starts again …
Yep - already working on this since I discovered there’s a new gun in town 8) http://www.fuereinpaarspaghettimehr.de.rs/die-top-30-der-fans
I hadn’t seen this since my first viewing about 5 years ago, and needed to remember why it flys so high in my memory and Top 20…
There is such a paired-down plot and starkness about this film that I could remember most of it, but the doom-laden mood needed to be tasted again… and still moved me as much as before.
This is a beautiful and haunting film and still thoroughly deserves its high ranking in my list… it hasn’t diminished one jot after this re-viewing (unlike TGS which had lost some of its impact for me on a subsequent viewing).
There’s a lovely little cemetery set upon the hill (with crosses) worthy of a mention in the favourite cemetery thread maybe…
and I hadn’t realised before that Phil’s mate Lorenzo gets to kill someone and survive the film (although I didn’t see him around the table for the meal?) - I’ve since read Phil’s excellent review and realised his fleeting visit hadn’t gone unnoticed by him though ;D
It’s the inevitability of it’s journey and the world-weariness of the main players that makes this such a wonderful film… still.
I’ll watch it again, but not for another 5 years. It’s to be savoured.
5 stars.
5 stars.
A deeply felt tragedy told with empathy through visual metaphor.
I could criticize a few minor things, but why bother. This is the spaghetti western as pure cinema.
After co-starring in six Angelique bodice-rippers, Michele Mercier and Robert Hossein work so well together. They seem to feed off each other’s energy. It’s fun watching them do a western. I wish Hossein had directed a dozen more. The genre could have fed for another decade on what this writer-director had to offer.
My favorite spaghetti western, together with THE BIG GUNDOWN and ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST.
Simple plot, great locations (the ghost town looked great), a sombre tone (almost) entirely throughout… whole thing played out like a visual representation of a murder ballad. In a way, Robert Hossein was a better “deadly protagonist” than the usual front men purely because he didn’t look so steely, badass or magnetic as your Eastwoods, Neros or Van Cleefs. From the off, his portrayal conveyed doubt, regret, mortality. I know as I was watching it I thought, hm, its reputation seems to have preceded it; it’s good, but it’s not up in that highest bracket of elite Spags. But that’s not true; it’s a real grower, this one. Left me thinking about it for days afterwards. Like The Great Silence or the more divisive Django Kill, Cemetery Without Crosses works its magic after the event.
This is a movie between “one upon a time in the west” and “the great silence”.
Nice directing and nice casting also an excellent story…
for me this is one of the best SW ever made.