He uses it to lesser effect, but the technique is the same.
I think not. He just uses long, long Slo Mo shots, while Peckinpah intercuts them with other shots, and by the rapid editing counters the deceleration of the action through the Slo Mo.
Peckinpah’s Slo Mo action is very dynamic, the one in Keoma is only slow. I don’t like that in Keoma btw , I don’t like most of the other action in Keoma either, despite liking the film to a certain extent.
You still have an undying love for Mannaja though right?
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Actually, if I remember correctly, Castellari DOES intercut with the Slo Mo. The example I’m thinking of is the 4 cents scene.
Yes, indeed! Just watched the Mill Creek Entertainment BR edition, and it looked just great.
However, the film for me fell somewhat due to the poor script and dialogue, which I have overlooked earlier, probably numbed by Castellari’s awesome filmmaking and Cesare De Natale’s abominable singing.
Just read the things said about the movie. I like the movie and have seen it several times, as opposed to Jonathan of the Bears that sometimes is referred to as Keoma 2. I would love to see it on the big screen sometime.
I allways tought the lyrics were the toughts of the main character. The dark voice are the thoughts of Keoma, the female voice of Liza (Olga Karlatos). If you read the lyrics above it makes sense. I think the music adds to the atmosphere in the movie.
There are a lot of nice scenes. Some scenes that make this movie stand out for me:
- The 4 cents with a bastard behind each finger;
- The shooting scene where Keoma and Shannon are reveled by the bullet holes;
- The discussion between Keom and Shannon about the civil war, “Now we have freed the black people so we can continue on killing indians”. Very confronting but indeed that was happening at that time
; - Death scene of George (I do not find his screaming laughable) with the sound of the banjo snares snapping when he dies;
- Discussion between Keoma end George about what his freedom is worth;
;For a movie without a script they have used a lot of inventive ideas and conversation.
Apart from the above mentioned, the whole atmosphere in the movie an the characters are well chosen.
Perhaps I overlook the fact that dialogue was never one of Nero’s strong points, ( considering I saw this after Django, Companeros, and The Mercenary) and am just drawn into the emotional context of the film. Django I thought suffered from average ( at best) script but the dialogue seemed “copy and pasted”.
I agree that Nero always struggled a bit with English dialogue, he never really seemed fluent. But the movie really has something. There’s a level of imagination and improvisation that you just don’t get in any other SW I can think of.
On Django… the English version is atrocious, one of the worst dubbing jobs ever but the movie somehow manages to overcome it. I find that incredible!
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I was never the greatest fan of ‘Keoma’ … I think it was one of the first non Leone SWs I’d seen, so of course by comparison it was disappointing.
I like it more now, and although I can’t see it as a classic, it has lots of great stuff in it.
Love the soundtrack music, and I even enjoy Franco Nero’s slightly wooden performance … the film overall is so over the top with ideas from other flicks, that it takes on it’s own surreal dreamlike quality.
Rewatched it recently after a long gap since the last viewing, and I can understand it’s cult appeal … and I was certainly not bored by it, that’s for sure. 
Can’t understand why some fans complain about the music … to me that’s like objecting to the music from ‘Jaws’ or ‘Psycho’ … it’s what makes the film so unique, and that male vocal probably inspired Arnold Schwarzenegger to learn English! ? 
Sherpschutter’s review has some interesting information on the making of the script, see Keoma Review - The Spaghetti Western Database
As for the score, i do like the Keoma theme a lot. Other parts I think borders on parody, especially by that guy Guy. And I must admit I don¨t search out a spag for peace and love…
The same here. I remember I recorded it on VHS from some TV channel, but I didn’t keep it.
Since it wasn’t Nero’s voice in Django (in English or Italian), it’s not really fair to criticize him in that regard.
I’ve always liked Nero’s Italian accented English
I second that.
True, but look Companeros ( for example) the script and dialogue suffer from mediocrity. Can’t say the same About the Leone films ( most of which have above average to great scripts)
SourNote was right, Guy is Guido De Angelis (from the most reliable source, Maurizio De Angelis interviewed in this book) 
The female singer is Sibyl Mostert, De Natale and Susan Duncan Smith are lyricists
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Susan Duncan Smith, sister of failed British politician Iain Duncan Smith!
I would put , and put, easily this film in a top 10 without Sergios. This música scares me when i was a child . . .
This movie’s page in the SWDb has been upgraded to the new “SWDb 3.0” format. Please have a look and let us know if there’s something you can add (information, trivia, links, pictures, etc.)
Alright. After more than two years on the Spaghetti field i had somehow not yet seen this film until the other week, when i borrowed it from the library. I should admit one of the reasons i hadn’t gotten around seeing it was the feeling that, despite the top-notch cinematography and good lead actors such as Nero and Berger, this really wasn’t my kind of movie (and not only because of the title character’s appearance). It wasn’t, although it certainly doesn’t lack its qualities.
I don’t know if i’ve been on a hiatus from SW:s too long, but somehow i felt the lack of a “vein” - that is, the feeling that something exciting and important is unfolding - until about the last half hour, and even then it wasn’t as powerful as it would have been with a better build-up, and the final showdown is more weird and outdrawn than effective. That lack of “vein” is however not the same thing as boredom, as i found the film progressing in a steady pace that kept me entertained troughout.
As for the soundtrack, i must count myself as one of the detractors. The music itself isn’t bad, in fact i cannot really see how a more traditional SW score would have been better, but it’s slightly repetitive and the vocalists, although not really that awful, almost give you the feeling that you’re watching a fantasy movie (a genre of which i’m not a big fan anyway) rather than a western, and furthermore it doesn’t quite succeed in raising the mood due to my aforementioned perceived lack of tension.
Perhaps the best scene of the whole film is the scene where Keoma first reunites with his father and they discuss the civil war and Native American genocide, which is both beautifully shot and, in all its quietness, provokes a stronger emotional investment from my side than the more melodramatic scenes. Next to Charley Siringo in Face to Face, it might be William Bergers finest SW performance, which is naturally a big plus to the movie - once he was asked to play something more than a simple bandit or double-crosser, he did it exceptionally. The villains are really well played too, but written a bit to flat to become truly interesting. I get the Cain and Abel situation, but it seemed to cartoonish to me to work completely. The good part is that the aforementioned acting performances manage to raise them at least a slight bit above what is a trio of slightly simplistic characters. Caldwell, although mostly a rather straightforward villain, is better developed i think. Their shootout against he heroes in the town is another of the highlights.
Overall, i definitely appreciate the ambition of a new take on what was by then a nearly dead genre, and it definitely benefits from having its own style - which has its shining moments troughout) as opposed to just being a rehash of standard genre conventions. I feel there is something quite interesting themes about power and freedom (represented by George being a former slave who things didn’t quite go right for in life, Caldwells use of the plague to seize power, as well as Keoma’s own background as a half-blood and his miraculous survival of the massacre) that never quite get explored well enough to live up to their potential, but are intriguing nevertheless. The “witch” (is she ever called that?) is an interesting concept too. She seems like some kind of spirit or manifestation of death (or, rather, maybe the thin line between life and death), but it’s not entirely impossible to interpret her as a human being with a striking ability to be at the wrong place at the right time. Well, probably not, as the film strongly implies something much more mystical (we never see her in the flashback from the massacre) but it’s an interesting part of the film which leaves you with something to think about.
In conclusion, I figure I’ll give it a grade of 6/10 for now (slightly too generous, but probably fair due to the fact that i didn’t really watch it in an SW mood). I will probably give it another try sometime, and maybe it will grow a bit, or further sink in to me as an overrated genre entry. It could go either way (although hopefully the former).
(Yes, as usual when i write longer posts i didn’t manage to finish it until after a few days. But at least i got it posted before the Spagvember)
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