I heard about this movie for a while and I finally sat with my bong watching that movie yesterday⌠As a huge Corbucci fan, I was really surprised to be into that early movie from this great director according to all the bad reviews I read about it.
Althought the main caracter is not the greatest caracter ever (fat and old with very bad clothes), I love the fact that he is slowly going blind, thatâs a good Django-style weakness or like in âA Minute To Pray, A Second To Dieâ but with better end (I never saw that AMTPASTDâs alternate endingâŚ) Seriously worth seing for all Corbucci fansâŚ
4 stars!
I just watched Minnesota Clay last night. I thought it was good, but with the lead it had an American feel. I like the shoot out at the end with him loosing his site. It does foreshadow Corbucciâs later films.
What do you think, how would the film work if a more typical SW actor had been casted in the lead instead of C. Mitchell?
I think with G. Gemma or F. Nero nobody would have considered this film as an american influenced SW.
It was shot at the same time as Fistful and released shortly after, so it couldnât be influenced by Leone.
All the SW ingredients are there, including the hero caught between american and mexican bandits.
And it was the first SW with a director not hiding behind an american sounding pseudonym.
Not a great, but a nice SW.
I would prefer this one to Jonny Oro, The Hellbenders and of course Corbucciâs last 3 SWs. Not to mention his first.
[quote=âstanton, post:4, topic:454â]What do you think, how would the film work if a more typical SW actor had been casted in the lead instead of C. Mitchell?
I think with G. Gemma or F. Nero nobody would have considered this film as an american influenced SW.[/quote]Gemma and Nero would have been too young for the role. Anthony Ghidra maybe. But I think Mitchell does a good job anyway.
It wouldnât be a problem to change the role for a younger actor. The old man could be his father, the girl his sister, the cause of his blindness could be a an old bullet wound, the rest could be as it is.
I liked it very much. Specially cause breaks that style of good looking faces, young boys⌠Minnesota Clay, it´s a mature man, he has a growned daugther and his past is still some kind of a doubt⌠Pretty good locations, and villians, that woman Estella, Ortiz and Fox. One of the best !!!
sorry my writing.
I really like this movie and also think it is under rated. Itâs not Corbucciâs best by any means but as an early spaghetti it shows a lot of what was to come. It is definitely more American in style than later films but I agree with previous entries that it has a suprising amount of Spaghetti ingredients despite being pre Leone. (or at least not post Leone)
I also like Cameron Mitchell in this. Maybe itâs all those years watching him in The High Chaparral but I like him and think he is right for this role. (He was also great in âRide The Whirlwindâ, A Monte Hellman classic) The lead in this film needs to be older like him for the story to work as it does.
I also like the ending with the night shootout and him losing his sight. Altogether well worth a watch if you havenât got around to this yet.
I also think that Mitchell is good, and Anthony Ghidra (like Bill san Antonio said) would be really good (cause heâs a better actor and much more charismatic).
The idea of a younger actor is, that it could have been a greater success, could have been developed starmaking qualities, and could have been so much more influential.
With a typical SW lead nobody would have labelled Minnesota Clay as american influenced.
I also think that Mitchell is good, and Anthony Ghidra (like Bill san Antonio said) would be really good (cause heâs a better actor and much more charismatic).
The idea of a younger actor is, that it could have been a greater success, could have been developed starmaking qualities, and could have been so much more influential.
With a typical SW lead nobody would have labelled Minnesota Clay as american influenced.[/quote]
Good point. Mitchell cuts anything but an iconic figure and probably is notâsexyâ enough to have made this film really popular and influential. For me though, he is right for the part as it was presented. He is clearly older, physically worn out, even shuffling in some parts which is how Clay has become from too many years of gunfighting and travelling.
Iâm just glad I got around to seeing this movie. It eluded me for years.
watched it again tonight, not seen it for quite a few years, good entertaining western but as it is Corbucci i thought it could have been a bit better (but this is also pre-Django Corbucci).
SPOILER
And the version i saw had a different ending, The one i saw years ago finished with him dying in the street as the credits roll, in this version you see him alive and well (obviously set a while after the event) wearing glasses, he throws them up in the air and shoots them, then rides off on his horse with the camera panning down to see the glasses with a bullet hole between each lens.
The extra footage was in Italian so i didnât understand what they were saying but it appears that Clay got a pardon and was a free man.
For me Clay has to die in the end. He is blind and old and the final showdown stands a last act at redemption. It fits perfectly that he should die at the end. The idea of him getting a pardon and his eyes fixed smacks of a lame attempt at a happy ending a la The Great Silence alternate ending to me.
[quote=âPhil H, post:18, topic:454â]For me Clay has to die in the end. He is blind and old and the final showdown stands a last act at redemption. It fits perfectly that he should die at the end. The idea of him getting a pardon and his eyes fixed smacks of a lame attempt at a happy ending a la The Great Silence alternate ending to me.[/quote]I agree, thatâs the true Corbucci spirit. The happy ending doesnât even have any sense just like the happy ending in TGS. I have the version with happy ending but I usually stop watching where Clay dies or if I watch it I just think it as an extra material.
