Keoma (Enzo G. Castellari, 1976)

Not agreed. Only Keoma

It’s been a long time since I last viewed California, need to revisit it some time soon. The beginning and the bottle scene were the highlights, can’t remember much about the mid part

Crap, sorry, 
 crepuscular.

Or something like that

Great word tho 8) - that fellah who does the Glittering Images books uses it a lot in relation to these ‘twilights’.

I don’t really understand why Keoma is so high rated, I don’t mind the music, I liked it a bit even.
But it was so cliché and pretentious.

“The world keeps going around and I always seems to end up in the same place” I didn’t really get that, and the “lovestory” made me want to vomit.

Maybe I watch it over again some day
(my mood can influence my judgement a lot I know)

I am sure I have stated my opinion regarding the music here, before; but, I am going to do it again, anyway! Just bear with me! ha ha!

The music, just the music
not the vocals, is fine in KEOMA. But, what ruins it are the vocals! It isn’t even a matter of the voices being too deep, gruff (for the male) or too high-pitched and whiny (for the female). It is the simple fact that the lyrics are so bad and the atrocious mispronunciation of the words make the songs ridiculously comical.
“yeah
ders my fahdda
and my brahddas
” (which should be “yeah
there’s my father and my brothers
”)!! That is simply the worst crap I have ever heard in my life in the context of a supposedly serious film.
If these lines were part of a track on a comedy record, along the lines of the goofy “Camp Granada” song (“hello mudda, hello fahdda”) from the 60’s, that would be a different story.

I realize that if you are not a native English speaker you might not understand why these vocalizations are so incredibly bad. But, trust me
they are.

In an email exchange I had with Enzo Castellari a few years ago, he told me that if he could redo KEOMA the only thing he would change would be the music.
He didn’t say anything about the costuming of Nero, though! ha ha!

But, even after all of that, I still like this movie! But, I certainly couldn’t put it in my Top 20.

I don’t remember any love story in Keoma ???

The wording is a little tricky, but he means that he never seems to make any progress in life.
A very fatalistic view.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. There is some stuff going on between the pregnant lady and Keoma; but, not enough to warrant a “love story” angle.
There is actually more of a “love story” in DJANGO than there is KEOMA, in my opinion.

For what it is worth, I was very disappointed by CALIFORNIA. Not a favorite of mine.

Lovestory I wrote with " " maybe I’d better rephrase it as man-woman story.
Actually I didn’t get it that the woman and Keoma cared for each other so much considering that she just lost her husband (is pregnant) and they just met. It seemed like a dramatically wrong move. (Sort of we must have a little man-woman-thing in the film) The costume of Franco Nero as you mention it was also way over the top.

As I hear no clumsy lyrics I don’t mind them (I like captian Beefheart or Tom Waits also)

I’ll re-watch it some day
maybe a different mood sets a different view for me.

I don’t like California very much either. But Keoma and Mannaja are two favorites of mine.

[quote=“Hungry_bear, post:132, topic:311”]Lovestory I wrote with " " maybe I’d better rephrase it as man-woman story.
Actually I didn’t get it that the woman and Keoma cared for each other so much considering that she just lost her husband (is pregnant) and they just met. It seemed like a dramatically wrong move. (Sort of we must have a little man-woman-thing in the film) The costume of Franco Nero as you mention it was also way over the top.[/quote]I think Keoma saves her at first place just because she’s pregnant and don’t want to see more people killed but at the same time he becomes responsible for her safety. And she’s helping Keoma because he’s the only one who’s been kind to him. I don’t see it as a man-woman -thing.

More importantly she is symbolic character in the film. Old woman symbolizes death and young pregnant woman is life.

But they get a child?

Its really funny. I love this movie, yet I absolutely agree with all the criticisms of it!

The music is fine but the vocals suck! Nero looks like a LSD hippy and with his european accent is totally unconvincing as a half breed. The dialogue is laugable (especially when the witch goes KEOOOOMMMAAAAAA!)and I agree, its pretentious and overly preachy! I do not like to be lectured while watching a film on why Racism is bad LOL!.

So which brings me to why I love this film.

  1. Castellari’s direction, great cinematography, great atmosphere, great symbolic imagery.

  2. The cast: Nero, despite looking he came back from woodstock instead of the civil war acts great. Wanna see Woody strode do a death howl while stangling someone? Its here! I wanna see Will Berger play an old man? Its also here!

  3. Action: This is what we want in our spaghetti folks, lots of violence, gunfights, and even a fistfight or two. Wanna see Nero take out an entire band of gunman while the odds are totally stacked against him? Its here!

  4. Emotion: For all its fault, this film has alot of heart. You feel for the characters, you can tell just by watching the film that all the cast and crew involved were really gung ho on making this the best film possible. The film was made with alot of love. (Shit man, Nero should’ve done a peace sign somewhere in he film LOL)

Put me down as someone who likes darn near everything about this one, including the vocals. And i generally understand English pretty well. ;D

I too like Capt. Beefheart, Tom Waits, and Leonard Cohen. Cohen is the artist Castellari gave the composers as a reference when asked what he wanted the music for his film to sound like.
But, none of those artists would have been caught dead singing such stupid lyrics as are used in the songs from KEOMA—and even if they had sung such goofy lyrics, they sure as hell would have pronounced the words correctly.

The same male vocalist and the same lyricist are responsible for almost ruining the music for MANNAJA, as well.
There the singer makes phrases like “a solitary man” sound like “a solid hairy man”! And the lyricist is responsible for really bad and meaningless couplings such as: “You 
 alone. A solitary man. And when the sun goes down
Your memory’s back around, When you 
 and your heart
is breaking down” What the
?? I mean I sort of understand what he is trying to say; but, he sure could have done a better job of it.

The odd thing about all of this is that regardless of the crap lyrics and vocals in both of these films, I still find them very enjoyable.
However, they would both be Top 20 material for me if they had better vocals or lyrics
or if they simply just had instrumental scores.
As it is, I don’t think KEOMA or MANNAJA even make it to my Top 50.

Well
no

Keoma wasn’t the father of the child. The lady was already pregnant when he met her.
Is that what you were asking, amigo?

No, it was me getting the film wrong in that aspect.