Directed by Giorgio Stegani. Music by Bruno Nicolai (conducted by Ennio Morricone). Starring Anthony Steffen and Eduardo Fajardo
This is in general an enjoyable film, however the ending is weak in comparison with the rest of the story line. Steffen gives a good effort and Fajardo is a solid pick as the villain, however it would have been nice to see his character fleshed out a bit.
I enjoyed the music and found the beginning theme to be a thrilling, unique choice.
Watched this one this weekend, pretty decent spaghetti overall. Steffen was capable, but I thought Eduardo Fajardo completely stole the show as the main baddie. “Muchachito!”
And I completely agree about the weak ending. What was up with that?!?
So I had to watch this one again after just listening to the soundtrack. An enjoyable spaghetti…love the music, especially the theme. Eduardo does steal the show with his crocodile smile. Hard to picture this as the actor who played the main villain in Django - two completely different characters.
Surely there have been more people to have seen this flick?
Talking about Steffen/Stiffen, for this film Anthony earned his money by simply switching to the zero acting modus.
Just enough for this routine actioner which mostly stumbles along without any ideas.
Some shitty action scenes are even done with fast motion, the most miserable solution to get some dynamics in scenes which are boring anyway.
Si, Fajardo got the best moments of the picture, but mostly restricting himself to only showing his pearly-whites is not enough to add this to the galery of his memorable baddie performances.
[quote=“stanton, post:5, topic:864”]Talking about Steffen/Stiffen, for this film Anthony earned his money by simply switching to the zero acting modus.
Just enough for this routine actioner which mostly stumbles along without any ideas.
Some shitty action scenes are even done with fast motion, the most miserable solution to get some dynamics in scenes which are boring anyway.
Si, Fajardo got the best moments of the picture, but mostly restricting himself to only showing his pearly-whites is not enough to add this to the galery of his memorable baddie performances.
3/10[/quote]
Ouch! Stanton, you must be in an owly mood tonight amigo!!! I’ve seen much worse that would warrant a 3/10 rating…
I really quite liked this one. My favorite Steffen film maybe, along with Killer Kid. Sure, it’s not great but I thought Steffen was really likeable in this. And Fajardo was great.
I particularly liked the attempted murder by alcohol poisoning. I tried that once (on myself at age 20) with Early Times bourbon. Didn’t make it to three bottles though. I still remember losing consciousness as I was in mid-fall.
It took me years before I could drink bourbon again.
The music in this is rousing and energetic. The opening credits really pump me up. Reminds me of a first date I had with a juicy girl who became a girlfriend. We went to see an opera(?) called Carmina Burana. Maybe I carry pleasant memories for this score by association. Like I said, she was juicy.
I LIKE the ending. It finely plays with the common expectations associated with the cavalry rescue. It gets points for that alone.
I pretty go along with the majority here. Good film … poor ending.
I can see what Brother RF means by the ‘play’ at the end - on the not expecteding of the bleedin obvious cop-out nonsense, but then getting it anyway. I think ???
But I felt let down anyway and had to console myself with a cider.
The music is pretty rousing in this, as is the gorgeous and epic O Fortuna in Carmina Burana. There is a bit of a feel about it.
About that other matter … I’m not surprised she was ‘juicy’. This has to be one of the most juice-making bits of music in existence. To hear it live must be awesome.
The opera eh? You smooth bastard RF … she didn’t stand a chance! ;D
Here’s a coupla links to a coupla versions … the first in all its glory,
The second one we filmed at the Priory with me and the choirmistress …
Speaking of poor ending to good movie - another Steffen/Fajardo collaboration - Shango, has to got one of the most ridiculous and terrible endings i’ve ever seen and it makes me rate it a little bit lower than i would otherwise
Watched this one this morning and have to say RF pretty much sums up my feelings on it. One of Steffen’s better efforts for my money and I found the ending a kind of interesting twist on a convention if still something of a cop out.
3 out of 5 for me.
[quote=“Phil H, post:16, topic:864”]One thing that did strike me though was the names of some of the Mexican bandits. Larry and Bruce ??? :-
What kind of bandit names are they??[/quote]
For me…the epitomy of medicore Spaghetti Western. Interesting gimic that almost pays off but the poor pacing and structure leaves the long spaces between killing extremely boring.
