I’ve just watched the film for the first time, and I’ll have to say that it’s one of the better films in the genre, and that it’s quite remarkable in an overall sense.
The camera-work is outstanding…Castellari’s camera is almost always moving, and most scenes have foreground objects in the frames, adding depth. It’s very skilled work, yet it isn’t distracting.
The music was indeed hit-or-miss, and this is probably the major failure of the movie. Whatever quality Cohen’s music has is missing in this imitation, and the female singer basically sounds like Yoko Ono. But there are times that it’s quite good, such as when the synths are brought forward in the mix. I can’t fault the director for trying for a different sound (there’s no real reason that the surf-guitar sound should always represent the Spaghetti Western, especially by the 1970s), and it’s certainly better than the mellow rock soundtrack to 4 of the Apocalypse.
The scriptless plot seems to work very well, as it should when good actors and a skilled director are in control and understand what direction the film is always going.
I couldn’t decide whether to give the film 4 stars or 5 stars. I settled on 4 because it does have a few distracting flaws. But, overall, I think it’s an amazing and must-see film.
