Dead Aim / Arde baby, arde (José Bolaños, 1975)

Hi all,
Does anybody have any cover, lobbycard or poster images for this movie (also known as Dead Aim)? All I could find was the messed up one as featured below.

->DATABASE LINK[url]http://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Arde_baby%2C_arde[/url]

Well, I just finished watching it. It’s probably the weirdest western I’ve ever seen. In this case it’s a good thing I guess, because it was strangely compelling. The music is very untypical, stuff that you would expect in a 70s blaxploitation movie. It’s not a bad thing here, since it’s a very untypical movie. I’ve read reviews about this flick that say it doesn’t make sense, bu I don’t agree with that. On a metaphorical level there’s stuff in there. As far as the plot goes: weird, but not incomprehensible. The acting is ok and visually this film has style. I will definitely watch this again. I’d rate it somewhere between 6 or 7/10.
Does anybody else have any thoughts on this movie? I’m curious wat others think.

I have this film on a vhs copy, I’ve seen it once but I didn’t like very much I’m afraid.
I think it felt somewhat like a television-movie, even if it was pretty weird :smiley:

It makes sense, it’s just boring and pointless :P,another sw dud!

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Yeah, this movie is nothing special. The breathing corpses were kinda funny anyway :stuck_out_tongue:

An odd one this. The plot meanders all over the place and never really finds any cohesion. The music, as Bad Lieutenant points out, is more like a Blaxploitation score. And I couldn’t really say I would recommend it and yet I found it strangely compelling in a low budget, trippy kind of way.

As to whether or not it can actually be classified as a spaghetti western? I’m not sure. Weisser has it listed as a Mexican / Italian co production, but we all know how problematic that information can be. The only mention of Italy I can find on the credits is the actress, Venetia Vianelloa and a listing of personel as part of the “Sound Crew: Rome”.

Does anyone have any more concrete info on this film’s origins?

Is also listed in Western All’Italiana vol. 3 as a Mexican-Italian co-production but don’t know if they just got the info from Weisser’s book even though I can’t see it referenced anywhere. The film isn’t mentioned in “the bible” Bruckner’s Für ein paar Leichen mehr unless it’s listed under a title I am not familiar with.

I found it the small version of Bruckner’s book [the one that comes with Sergio Sollima box] under the title Lucky Johnny, so it should be in the big one as well.

I checked Western All’italiana 3 and it is listed in the filmography at the back but marks it as being discussed more in volume 2 which I don’t have.
Anyone got that book who can shed some more light?

And it is, don’t know how I missed it :-[ Well spotted (and corrected alk0)…

Bruckner lists it as being mainly Mexican-produced which may account for it lacking the Italian co-production info some places.

I got this one as ‘Lucky Johnny’ on Archer Video. It is a bit messy (plot-wise) but it has a charm (literally). There are some nice touches - the rattler charm and the ‘rattle’ sound for the shootings, and overall a dark humour permeates the film. I enjoyed it. Spag or not - it’s closer to this genre than it is to Hollywood.

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Perhaps not the best of plot at times, but like the Reverend mentioned the film has a certain charm.
I myself on the whole though quite liked alot of the story, and enjoyed the negative elements to the film.
The score is a product of its time and guess at the time this music score for some was considered ‘hip’, and still is to some ;D.

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I have only viewed this once, it seemed very slow-paced as i recall.

[quote=“Lindberg, post:3, topic:433”]I have this film on a vhs copy, I’ve seen it once but I didn’t like very much I’m afraid.
I think it felt somewhat like a television-movie, even if it was pretty weird :D[/quote]agree. i didn’t like it much ethier, storyline jumps all over the place and just becomes boring and confusing, spent half the time wondering what the hell was going on. starts off ok and then just loses it. very poor.

Two men operate a mobile burial service and things do not always run smooth. Sometimes there is a shortage of bodies to bury though, so one of the men has to solve the problem by killing a few men.

Viewed a widescreen print and enjoyed even more this time round. Phil said in a previous post ‘strangely compelling’, and could not put it better myself.

I really enjoyed the first half of this film and thought it had some great visual moments. The second half drifts off and is not as tight. It was as if the director and screenwriter didn’t know how to tie it together and give it a compelling ending. :-\

I completely agree with Tom. IMO not a bad movie but the director could’ve done more with it…

I really like this film, but have only come across not so good prints, usually severally cropped and whatnot.

Does anyone know of any good looking versions, VHS or otherwise?

Just watched the german VHS. After all a surprising movie with some really strange and unusual ideas. For me it’s a kind of a low budget Matalo! Love it or hate it. I really enjoyed watching. A really dirty SW - edited by Nino Baragli, who also was the editor of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Django ec. - a can be seen low budget, some weird elements - as shooting inocent people to bury them for money - and a bitter and really surprising ending. Absolutely above the SW average…

This is a indeed a really weird film. The disjointed story seems to come from at least 3 different screenplays which are somehow merged together by chance.