Mark Damon is wonderful in the lead
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Didnât impress me either but I re-watched it the other day and really enjoyed it. I get the feeling Iâll enjoy it even more on a third viewing as well.
Love it. Thanks mate
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Watched Johnny Yuma over the weekend. A bit uneven film, sometimes comical and later on (very) brutal. Somehow this did not make the movie very coherent.
I liked Damon in his rol, as well as most characters that are staged. The usage of the Mexican sidekick somehow lost my attention and I still can not get his usage. I will have to rewatch and pay some more attention to him.
Guerrieri stated in his interview he was forced to implement the brutallity and that he was against it. I think without this brutallity it would have become a comedic wester, ahead of the trinity films and without the beans 
.
I am very positive about the movie, not my top 10 but in the top 25.
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Itâs a nice looking film with an excellent soundtrack and good direction but itâs just a bit too talky at times and lacking in action. This is my second viewing and I think that this is a watchable but still very average spaghetti western. I like Damon in the lead but Iâve got to say that Lawrence Dobkin is the coolest guy in the film.
Yes, today I received the fine Colosseo DVD with Johnny Yuma which was a huge positive surprise for me even if several opinions in this thread had created certain expectations. There is, (as also in The Stranger Returns 7/10) a clear Leone feeling here with reminders of For A Few Dollars More (10/10), Once Upon A Time In The West (10/10) and Sollimaâs The Big Gundown (8/10) .
The beautiful Rosalba Neriâs character reminds me of Nieves Navarro in The Big Gundown but more depth and more stage presence.
Mark Damonâs Johnny Yuma is not so very far from Clint Eastwoodâs Man with no name but of course with his own personal distinctive and very slightly feminine, charisma in spite of all the hair on his chest.
Acting in general was very good.
The saloon fight didnât bother me much and the long final shootout in eastern Almeria was really OK. The different Almeria locations were nice to see.
The very good stylish story could also remind of The Forgotten Pistolero (7/10).
The music was ocacionally top class in true Morricone style and maybe could have been used more. The title song in the beginning and end is also OK even if I had preferred instrumental themes a la Morricone there as well. The very good image quality of the Colosseo DVD also strengthens the positive feeling.
Johnny Yuma will after my first watching jump all the way up to rank 11 on my Top 40 with a very strong 7/10 rating (just after Requiem For A Gringo but before The Great Silence).
Sorry, but I donât put this film in high regard as many others do. To me, itâs very bland and average. Immediately after watching for the first time, I forgot what it was about. I tried rewatching it multiple times but the same thing happened. It didnât feel that exciting to me, maybe because of it having too much needless dialogue from what I can remember. The theme song is awesome, though.
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That parrot is worth the ticket price on its own.
Good film⌠Not great but ok
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Another re-watch, and this one was always a pleasure and still is. All flaws, and there are some, are kicked aside by Guerrieriâs inspired directing. 7/10
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Also re watched a few weeks back.
Very entertaining view, which ticks the boxes.
Very true!
Just rewatched yesterday and i really forgot how good this movie is. Great story, really good actors with great performance expecially by the charming Rosalba Neri.
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Johnny Yuma has been updated to the new layout (3.0). Let us know if you can add anything: pictures, posters, trivia, facts, figures, links, etcâŚ
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Poll for Johnny Yuma, top of the page.
Agree with the others that this is an uneven western but that Neri is excellent and Dobkin is good. The big shoot-out at the end is a copy from In a Coltâs Shadow (which featured Helga Line as the Neri -like character) although this one is more inventive. The killing of the husband whilst he is practicing shooting is similar to a pre credits murder in the German Wallace Krimi Again the Ringer (1965).
I imagine its unevenness stems from the different writers. Did di Leo write the brutal beating-up of Yuma?
Some incongruity:
- why didnât Neri just seduce Yuma and bring him over to her side rather than try and kill him?
- how did Yuma suddenly end up in the main room with the hidden safe? There was no build up to that at all. In fact, that 5-10m section was very choppy.
- the boy Yuma was hiding out with? Who was he and why was he living on his own?
- I thought the death of Neri wasnât well realised. I assume she is supposed to have died of thirst but Yuma and irritating sidekick look to have only ridden a few miles outside town. She isnât far from the horse either and surely she would have tried to water it long before it collapsed?Why was her whole head covered by a blue scarf? I assume that was because they were using a double as Neri wasnât available? I thought that could have been a lot better - possibly added as an afterthought??
There is a line when Johnny and his sidekick hold up the bullet hole riddled canteens about Carradine being âa good shotâ. So, yes, it appears she is supposed to have died of thirst. I like the twist, but yes, it would have felt more plausible if we had a sense of more time passing. They could have been tracking her for a couple of days, but we donât see much of a journey. Itâs a pretty good flick, but takes some shortcuts at times at the expense of fully capitalizing on certain plot points.
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