Keoma (Enzo G. Castellari, 1976)

I really like this film a lot. What are your opinions?


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DATABASE PAGE: Keoma - The Spaghetti Western Database (spaghetti-western.net)

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One of the best movies of the genre and definitely Castellari’s best movie. It’s hard to believe that this movie is made basically without script because everything works so perfectly in it.

Good story , great performances by some of the greatest spaghetti actors. Very inventive camera work especially on the flash back sequences. Castellari has great talent for directing action scenes which shows in the shoot-out scenes.
And yes, people can say what they want about the music but I love the score.

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I have to agree to Bill. A very special shot flick. I simply can’t add anything, because Bill described it in the right way.

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I pretty much agree – a very nice spaghetti. I find it more interesting than I do enjoyable, however, which isn’t a bad thing at all. It’s good to be more engaged mentally at times, huh? :slight_smile: It is a nice departure from typical spag western. I think it probably plays better in contrast to other SWs as opposed to viewing it as a starting piece for getting into the genre.

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I liked it quite a bit

Wasn’t this one of the last westerns Italy did?

Keoma briefly revived the genre. Most people consider Mannaja the last true Spaghetti Western, but I think Keoma was the last great one!

I think Italy should do westerns again, those giallos and splatter films get boring really fast. Would help put them on the map again too.

A great late SW !!! Nothing else to say !!!

I love this, especially some of Nero’s lines and moves

The world keeps going around and around, so I always end up in the same place. Great stuff.

Keoma is a brilliant film, and in all honesty, I only seeked it out because I’m a huge fan of the crime thrillers made by Castellari and Nero. Keoma is a great film, though I do have one criticism; the usually reliable Guido & Maurizio de Angelis’ turned in a very cheesy and at worst, unintentionally hilarious score for the flick, with vocalists practically narrating the onscreen action. ;D “That’s my father” - pass me a cloth, I think I just pissed my pants!

Castellari has such a great eye for action and it’s definitely evident in Keoma - it’s hilarious how the critics were sucking the likes of John Woo off in the late 80s and early 90s, hailing him as the successor to Peckinpah’s throne - IMO, Woo owes as much to Castellari. A brilliant and again, criminally underrated filmmaker.

Ahh! Keoma and Mannaja are definately the last 2 best spaghetti westerns, but like i said before it’s not a great film but i do have a place in my heart for Fulci’s “Silver Saddle”, it even has an enjoyable theme tune.

I just saw this last night for the second time and just love it now after not liking it so much the first time. And I think John Woo deserves everything he gets, hes the best .

would have definitly been better without the singing! one of the top 3 Nero sw’s after the mercenary and companero’s and one of the coolest towns in any sw.

Its up with the best. One of my fav’s, just love the score, and the flash-backs are just so well done. A well made highly enjoyable film.

I caught it for the first time last night on WDR. I must say, I cannot agree with your opinions. This movie is passable at best. I find it done way too theatrically. It looks like Steven Spielberg directed it, in my opinion. A lot of things don’t work: The flashbacks (I’ve seen Fidani come up with better ones), the soap opera-esque storyline (“You love him more than us, boohoo”) and of course the horrible music with cringing songs that explain the story. Above all that, Franco Nero looks plain ridiculous as the halfbreed Indian. The action is alright and it is shot in decent fashion, with nice atmosphere. I did notice the symbolism in there, which was done in a subtle manner. But I didn’t care fo it that much. And why is there a total absence of humour? All in all this is not a bad movie, but sure as hell not good either. I’d say 5,5/10

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Keoma is a mixed pleasure for me. Some elements are working, some not. Like all of Castellari’s films it’s marred a little bit by his preference for needless (and badly staged) fistfights. Also he has not much talent for filming landscapes and faces. And no, he’s a bad action director, but in Keoma sometimes he succeeds in doing action scenes. Here he is influenced obviously by Peckinpah, but without understanding him.

I also think nevertheless that this is Castellari’s best SW, I like especially the mystic elements in Keoma, but I’m never sure if they are great or only a big heap of kitsch.

The music is more Leonard Cohen then Morricone, it’s kitschy too, but again I like it. And the music is surely not to everyones taste.

The last good SW. All that follows are some very tired looking movies, with tired stars in tired stories.

I love this movie, it’s one of my favourite spags. Story is great, I especially love the ending (I think it is somehow similiar to Django’s ending). Franco Nero it’s great in ths movie, so are William Berger and Woody Strode. Call me crazy but I also like the music very much :slight_smile:

Speaking of Django, there’s a scene in the beginning of Keoma where Nero gets the girl a room in the exact same fashion he does in Django.