On Mike Malloy - I saw an excellent documentary he made on the Eurocrime genre last week. Really well done with good stuff from Franco Nero and John Saxon.
I am sure this is long overdue since I think it was released in 2012 but I am just catching up, Funny to see the most well known leftist SW directors working in different genres like Sollima, Lizzani, and Damiani. ,and Milian is over the top in anything he does in this genre.
I want to see that!!
I am a fan of the genre but not a die hard collector. The politics of Diamiani are as usual are lost on me. Sollima is more a morality tale director than a political director in my opinion.
I think Sollima was also a political filmmaker. Face to Face was an allegory on Fascist Italy’s involvement with Nazi Germany. Big Gundown and Revolver were about the exploitation of the law by capitalism for its own ends. He was certainly political.
FACE TO FACE! I forgot about it! I made a similar observation on it a while back (didn’t go down well). I saw it as allegory on the rise of fascism. But what you said puts it in a more political context.
Never thought of BIG GUNDOWN like that. I saw as class persecution. You have given a different spin. REVOLVER is brilliant. Ollie Reed gives a great performance. He had real chemistry with Fabio Testi.
You’re right, it is also about class persecution, which is very much a political theme. Sollima was both a political and moral filmmaker. All of these interpretations of this director have equal validity.
Face to Face is about always having a gun under the table when you’re talking to someone. It’s also about the better educated you are, you better villain you can become.
Yes Indio, the better educated you are the better villain you become.
Fletcher, a highly educated man enters a lawless and uneducated land in disarray.
He learns the power and usefulness of violence and runs the show becoming more and more dangerous.
I want to see his Eurospy movies. I want to see what themes are in the S3S movies.
Has anyone seen Sollima’s Sandokan stuff? Are they any good?
I have seen the one with Steve Reeves did he direct it? I think Uberto Lenzi did one too.
Sollima’s Sandokan is Kabir Bedi; Reeves was directed by Umberto Lenzi in Sandokan the Great and Pirates of Malaysia. Both Lenzi’s movies are good. I saw Sollima’s Black Corsair shot around the same time as Sandokan, and thought it was very poor. I also just watched Duccio Tessari’s Zorro, which was dire, and Tessari made such great movies as Sons of Thunder and A Pistol for Ringo. What happened?
The 70s happened. Smaller budgets, shorter shooting times. The directors got sloppy; they were practically shooting for TV, not widescreen for the big cinema experience. And well, they had to earn a living.
Oh the actor from OCTOPUSSY!
I think Tessari’s ZORRO is better than the Frank Langella in terms of presentation but the Langella version was better written. Delon was campy and over the top. Langella was more suave.
The 70s…
The slow decline of the European industry is something that we are still recovering from.
Yep, the guy from Octopussy. He was then Sandokan and the Black Pirate.
I absolutely hated Tessari’s Zorro. By the time they got to the big swordfight, I was bored and wanted it to end quickly. The opening was so long and drawn out before you got to the first appearance of Zorro. A good cure for insomnia. And they must have cut stuff out, because there’s a bit where the dog puts its paw on the button that opens the door to a secret chamber. Then, next minute, Delon is in his Zorro outfit. No explanation. Did he find the costume? Did his mute servant whip it up on a Singer? Was the old governor Zorro before him? Make sure you’ve seen all the other Zorro movies so you understand the back story, because this movie doesn’t bother to do it. It assumes you know. Then there’s the bit where the priest hands out little Zorro outfits to the kids so they can confuse the pursuing soldiers. But then you never see the kids doing any diverting. That could have been fun. (Remember fun, Duccio, you used to do fun). Instead, you just get a diversion from a scarecrow in a Zorro outfit. And Alain Delon is a plank, cut him in half and count the rings to find his age. Tessari should have used good old reliable Giuliano Gemma, but I guess he wouldn’t have got the money without Delon. I’m almost tempted to cut a half hour out of it, and see if it plays any better, but I doubt it.
I think Violent City is my favourite Sollima!
Mine too probably. I have seen it more times than his other films.
I agree that Sollima is more morality tale than the others but he is definitely political as mentioned by both of you. In The Big Gundown DVD special feature Sollima interviews, his political passion is obvious.
Blue Underground RUN MAN RUN Sollima offers more of his political views in the extras. But the political context of that film… Escapes entirely.
Just received this in the post today … got a new copy on ebay at a reasonable price, but I wouldn’t have bought it if I’d known about the audio quality.
Wild East fail again! at the customer’s expense !!! - They have used an audio de-noise filter, when it was quite unnecessary, the result being a constant whirring echoing effect throughout the soundtrack.
As I watch my TV with headphones, there is no escaping this horrible noise. The whole thing sounds like you’re listening to a warped audio tape playing in a damp cellar … fucking shit!!!
Also, the main titles have been altered for some reason - We’re looking at an Italian print with all credits in that language, but "A Bullet for the President’, a title no-one likes has been photo-shopped over the original.
Stop tampering with source material persons at Wild East.
Now I’m going to see if I can get a refund on this item. Not happy!
I have a beef with them over SONNY & JED. The picture jumps roughly every second throughout the movie, as though they’ve cut out every 24th frame. You can see it in any scene with movement. You see it when the camera pans, when horses ride across screen, even when someone is talking in close-up and the lips jump. Are these people rank amateurs or what?
