Prefer Jonathan Of The Bears myself.
I don’t care too much for overwrought preachy movies - us Americans cannot escape White Man’s Guilt… so what? Thanks Costner for pointing out 400 years of repression and genocide.
I have taken a renewed interest in Native studies and it really is appalling how downright shitty they got treated (I think anyone who used their brain could figure out their plight without Costner pointing it out).
Glad to see another fan Ennioo.
I did a little research and interestingly enough Floyd ‘Red Crow’ Westerman starred in both movies.
Oh, what the hell were they thinking with this leather gang? I didn’t even remember them until I rewatched the film yesterday. Leader of the gang looks so stupid and unconvincing wanna-be tough guy. And they don’t even have much to do in the film anyway, I wish they had made David Hess’ role bigger and erased this gang from the script.
But I still like this film quite a lot. Theme music is great, one of those you keep humming for days after watching. Apart from this leather-clown the cast is good and the action sequences are well made. I think it is just bit too overlong and there’s some shots and even whole scenes that are copied straightly from Keoma.
About time this got a proper dvd release.
Yeah I know LOL, but it wasn’t any worse than the stoner hippies in Gli Specialisti.
I dunno. Jonathan of the Bears at least tries to be more realistic movie than Corbucci film with western world of own kind with armor wearing gunfighter, mexican bandits in totally wrong region etc. So I can take hippies in weird Corbucci style western but not bodybuilder leather gang in serious film about indians.
Not likely to happen in the UK mate. Watched this one today and lost count of the amount of horse tripping that goes on. Quite shocking really for a film made in the 90s. Maybe that’s why they went to Russia?
It is kind of two films in one really and, as others have pointed out, seems to start off very much a reaction to Costner’s success a couple of years earlier before heading into more familiar Enzo territory as the picture progresses. The first 20 minutes or so is so sentimental it was like watching a particularly soppy episode of Grizzly Addams. It does get better though, with Saxon standing out as the villain and I wound up enjoying it more than I expected to. To be honest, I’ve avoided it for some time so was quite pleasantly surprised.
It’s Castellari, Jim. But not as we know it. 
WAS NOT VERY BAD
some scenes was like keoma…
has this an official soundtrack?
Never come across one for this film.
I also don’t get why this thread is under hybrids and eurowesterns.
Italian star, director, writers, producers.
actually i loved these sentimental inputs … consider the first half to be slightly better than the second one
The second half, which ignores most what was established in the first half, is actually boring. Only unimaginative spaghettiing.
[quote=“Stork Vulture, post:51, topic:1253”]I also don’t get why this thread is under hybrids and eurowesterns.
Italian star, director, writers, producers.[/quote]
Being directed by an Italian director, this should be indeed filed under SW. Just like every other Castellari western.
Cut Throat’s Nine should also be moved.
my complaints in second half relates to this : wasn’t very satisfied with fact that Saxon and his henchmen killed off whole leather gang and also the other rivals, i wanted to see how Keoma, erhm, Jonathan would deal with them
instead of that i got only two, i mean TWO bad guys, confronting him in the finale, which is, if one takes into account how many bad guys were in the movie, precious few
on the other hand, the finale is imo very good, even if it feels somehow diet - Saxon/Nero showdown is great in my book
also attack on the village could be better, although contains one of the best stunts i’ve seen in a spaghie - but it just feels too static sometimes
The final confrontation was pretty boring for me. The bad guys were all totally uninteresting. That’s probably the Castellari touch …
For my thoughts & take on it:
https://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Jonathan_of_the_Bears_Review
What did you think of the songs in the film ?
Wouldn’t have given it the Oscar for Best song(s).
Not that bad maybe, but they sounded as if they were improvised on the spot, especially the lyrics, with all this Jonathan of the Bears, Jonathan of the Bears (x7) and Black Gold, Black Gold (x6). Bob Dylan in a Bad Mood.
Yes a fair few of “Jonathan of the Bears” in the lyrics. Bit to many for me. With of course the last western the star and director made together they had songs in aswell of course, so I am sort of thinking the songs could have been given a miss in this one perhaps…just for a change I suppose.