Fidani is more like Fantasy or more like a parallel SW-World. ;D
;D ;D ;D
Great line! Anyone ever mention you might be a little warped?
While I do like this one, I too share the opinions of it’s flaws. While it works in TBG, I feel that the Cuchillo’s character is stretch thin in this one. Millian’s take on Cuchillo is more over the top in RMR. Reminds me of the complaints that Yul Brenner had about Steve McQueen during the making of The Magnificent Seven. McQueen was always making extra motions, even when the camera isn’t focused on him, drawing extra attention towards himself. If what I hear about Millian & his ego are true, that is apparent in this film. I also liked the pent up Christian sexual tension of Linda Veras as she says her prayers. It will be interesting when I get around to watching this one again, if my opinion changes at all.
This is true (and @ korano: this is what I was referring to when I called the film Run Chris Run), but it’s probably Sollima who’s responsible for this. In a very interesting interview added as an extra to the French disc, he says that the actor we see in the trilogy, is, so to speak, not the Milian from the Actor’s Studio.
Sollima says he told Milian, before their first collaboration (La Resa de Conti) to forget all about his study at the Actor’s Studio and especially all about the acting in the American westerns he had seen, because he wanted something completely different for the Cuchillo character. He adviced Milian to study Toshiro Mifune. I must say Milian’s style (especially in this movie) is close to Mifune’s behaviour in The Seven Samurai.
The interview is very interesting, I’ll see if I can make a transcription of it (it’s in French, or better an Italian variation of it, so I guess it’s not the same interview as the interview of the Sollima box, which i’ve never heard or seen; it’s also different from an interview - I suppose in Italian - I saw on another disc)
On page 3 of this thread Novecento claims also that Run Man Run is more stylish than its 2 predecessors:
And it seems I assented with his statement.
Noticed that too this morning. Nice.
It’s an excellent film, only the two Frenchmen fail to convince, and the finale probably tries too hard to ape the Big Gundown finale. Still, even that finale is well-written and well-staged. When it started, I thought: Oh no … but it turned out to be quite an enjoyable sequence.
The second half of the movie is a bit less convincing than the first; my idea is that there are too many characters (or groups of characters), and by giving them all enough head room, the film inevitably slows down a little. It also falls in a more predictable (and static) pattern once Cuchillo arrives in Texas. It’s never a real problem to me, but the fascination of the first half is gone.
I watched the film in Italian; the disc had no English soundtrack and I wonder how this film sounds in any other language than Italian. Considering dialogue, this is probably the most ‘Italian’ of all spaghetti westerns: especially Chelo’s character, despite being ‘Mexican’, behaves (talks, shouts, gesticulates) like an Italian working class woman from Rome or Naples (she’s clearly dubbed by an Italian voice actress). I don’t know much about Mexico, nor about Mexican women (never had the pleasure …), but I’ve seen (and heard) this kind of behaviour very often in Italy.
The film is definitely in my Top 20, I suppose even close to my Top 10
For me the French guys were good baddies.
I actually kicked it out of my latest top 20 (before it was on # 19), but it was a decision of the moment, and it still is as good as the “new” # 19 or # 20.
I think Face To Face is very stylish as well, but more serious in tone than RMR
TBG is to me the least stylish and interesting Sollima western
I think many probably rank it so high because it stars Lee Van Cleef
I like BG a lot but not necessarily because Lee Van is there. I find that the story is very interesting and involving with no shortage of ideas or scenes to entertain or educate us (me). And I thought it’s political message was appropriate for the time and not as half baked as soo many others.
There’s enough action for action fans, enough politics for intellectuals, and enough entertaining characters for the whole family. Referring to BG of course.
I think RMR would possibly be better if it was the only western of Sollima. Since it has the other two masterpieces to live up to which it fails to do and also tries to be epic and funny. It seems too confident and somewhat arrogant of a film.
But I’m probably over doing it…again (Fulci) 
Thanks!
This is one you should definitely watch in English.
TBG has the better story, and the better (= more charismatic) actors, but it has also a rhythmically problematic scene in the middle with the Ranch/Nieves Navarro scene. This scene is too long (about 20 min of a 107 min runtime), lets the film get too long away from the main plot, and contains a poorly directed shootout. without this scene, which has no narrative important function, TBG would improve a lot for me.
RMR shows that Sollima has advanced since then in directing. And I don’t think that RMR is too long.
Face to Face has by the way also a superfluous middle part with another poorly directed bigger shoot out.
RMR is thematically less ambitious (which is only a general statement, not a judgement), but the purest of the 3 films.
And I think Korano is maybe right. If RMR had been made by a lesser director it would probably less criticised.
Do you mean in Italian?
Otherwise I would like to know why you think you should absolutely watch this one in English.
Honestly, it doesn’t matter to me one bit who directed it (i still haven’t seen FACE TO FACE). My main problem was i found Milian’s character grating in this. And that in turn is probably why it seemed overlong. Also seem to remember not liking the music, but i could be mis-remembering.
It is always the same with the, let’s call them side-movies of the big SW directors…
Definitely check out Face to Face Spaghetti Monkey it is my favorite by Sollima. Volonte is brilliant in it as is William Berger and Milian is not his annoying pain in the ass self in it. Definitely one of the best in the genre.
It’s one of the most serious parts for Milian.
it is. All three play their parts brilliantly. Probably my favorite role for Berger.
Berger is really cool in that one. And you’re right, I can*t think of a better role right now as well…
Face To Face is the only Sollima I have seen.