Challenge of the McKennas / Un dólar y una tumba / La sfida dei MacKenna (León Klimovsky, 1970)

[Mickey13]

Copied from the Spagvemberfest 2022 thread:

@Mickey13

One of those rare spaghetti westerns in which dialogues are sedulously worked out to the extent that they are witty and smart, characters are veritably three-dimensional and the story does not feel like a contrived mock-up of a plot intended for providing an unobtrusive background to action sequences rather than recounting a concrete tale as such like it is the case here. The narrative has a proper flow to it, consecutive scenes relate to one another and all serve an overarching purpose, resulting in a highly immersive viewing experience and generally higher class filmmaking.

Long story short, this feels like an actual movie with properly delineated characters and an actualized blueprint as to film’s overall destination. I do not understand why it is not more renowned; I guess it is a lot more drama-driven than other genre examples, but it works just the same, features some of the most fleshed out characters you could ask for in a western of this kind, some traces of noir motifs and Bobby Woods puts on one of his strongest performances too; there is not a single dull moment either and everything sort of fits together, greatly benefitting from film’s tight focus and high production values. One of the few titles I would not mind revisiting in the not so distant future; the mere fact that it has not been released officially yet is a bona fide travesty.