Shango / Shango, la pistola infallibile (Edoardo Mulargia, 1970)

I noticed that too. Plus you can see the hat shuffling a bit, as the actors swap around. But it’s a nice touch.

Quite enjoyed this one. Decent enough plot with plenty of action.

Currently working my way through the last few Steffan films I’ve yet to see…

New poll for Shango available at the top of the page under the original post! :arrow_up:

@Admin Same for this one. :+1: Shango, la pistola infallibile - The Spaghetti Western Database

1 Like

Done.
The movie’s page in the database is now updated to the new layout. Please report any errors or additions. We could use more location info, trivial, dubbing information, facts and figures, reviews, links and pictures.

1 Like

On contrary to what I read this is imo a memorable western for several scenes. You will never forget Steffen in a cage and the ending. It is a gritty movie and there are even few heartbreaking moments. I agree that the middle part is bit overdone but I still like to watch Steffen shooting baddies. The funniest part is when Steffens says that he can’t do it all himself alone and needs the villagers to help him and then does it all himself alone. :grin:

3 Likes

I agree, Diamond, I really like this movie. The cinematography, the autumnal look, Steffen’s shooting and rolling … all good. And the cage was a great touch! The opening scene reminded me of a Hammer horror film. Possibly my favorite Steffen film.

5 Likes

I really love this Steffen flick too, one of his better and more unique ones. It stands out in his otherwise quite repetitive and same-y filmography.

I do think the final shootout is super lame tho. The main villain decides to just walk towards Shango in a straight line and not even aim his gun at him, then acts surprised when he gets shot :sweat_smile:

1 Like

Greek poster

6 Likes

Didn’t dig this one: the way it infantilizes the peasants and having to watch so many characters make terrible decisions followed by the dire consequences those have, makes it such a tough watch… But I do think there’s a lot to discuss here in terms of themes and messaging, and how much of that discomfort is intentional.

Does the film know that Shango, despite being a highly competent gunman, is also a total buffoon? Is the high body count of the peasants an intentional critique of the one man saves a village trope, or does that give the director here too much credit? Maybe someone more familiar with his other work could chime in on that.

Take the movie’s most questionable scene: when Shango just hands his only gun over to the big bad… two gunman had already snuck up on him anyway. So, the easiest way to get to the next plot point would be to just have them disarm him; but instead, they have him (in the most bewildering move I’ve ever seen onscreen) just hand his gun over, unaware, even, of the men behind him. So, that has to be intentional, right? Is it to show Shango as naive? incompetent? or maybe even chivalrous to a fault?

…or when Shango sets the wagon and hay on fire to root out those two dudes. He just stands there, kind of smug and victorious, while the farmers’ wagon is still burning (awfully close to other wooden structures). The film doesn’t seem to question that at all. I mean, Shango isn’t a morally dubious gunslinger. He’s very much treated as a saviour figure for these folks. Is it weird for me to have read that scene as aloof and callous?

The film’s not all bad though: there are a bunch of really memorable and visually striking scenarios (even if the way we get to them feels spotty).

Also, it’s nice to, when these films openly declare civil war allegiances, to finally have a union protagonist. I know the grain of salt SW’s need to be consumed with means divorcing one’s expectations from the factions depicted -especially because those factions are likely being used as loose allegories for, like, the rise and fall of fascism in Italy or whatnot- but it’s refreshing, after my last few watches, not being asked to root for defenders of slavery.

I also know another grain of salt with these is ignoring the brownface makeup, which is sometimes worse than others, but super tough to see on the child actor here. :sweat_smile:

1 Like

BluRay in March

2 Likes

Shango passed 12 today uncut by the BBFC.


1 Like

damn!

Meaning what?

You shouldn’t be using very bad language here, Seb! :grin:

1 Like

Very mild bad language u mean

1 Like

The first scene, when Steffen is in his cage , hanging in a tree…is so outstanding great and beautiful…I can’t give this flick an average rating. I know the continuity is awful, but it’s a lovely made bad movie. I love it.

Sorry for my bad taste. Love you all :wink:

2 Likes

Ich teile deinen ā€œschlechtenā€ Geschmack :wink:

1 Like

Dann sind wir schon zu zweit :grin:

1 Like

Just saw Shango and it has some good bits but clearly has problems.

  • It was quite like Django the Bastard with the scenes in which Steffen appears out of nowhere and kills the henchmen. He was also dressed in a similar way. I liked that clever shot in the cave when he morphed into a peon.
  • It is very cheap with very constricted and limited sets which I think has caused the director problems in choreographing his action scenes. Some of them just were not very good. Steffen fires about 10 shots from his pistol on-screen in one shot and never seemed to reload. That was worse than usual.
  • The plot was a mess. I think several posters have mentioned the missing ā€˜gold’ but my take on this was that Shango’s Union soldiers were ambushed because Fajardo thought they were carrying gold. Shango tells him they were not but Fajardo doesn’t believe him and thinks it has been hidden which is why he wants to capture/torture Shango although he doesn’t seem to have made much of an effort and just left him in the cage. Separately, Martinez is expecting the Confederates to pay him in gold and that’s why Fajardo won’t tell him the war is over. Because it will cause a confrontation with the Mexicans.
  • What I didn’t understand was why these renegades were ā€˜trapped’ in this little village and couldn’t apparently leave. After all, Shango had managed to turn up from outside. They didn’t do anything there productive except shoot the peasants. Why did they need to repair the telegraph rather than send a couple of blokes outside for help? Why couldn’t they leave?
  • Scene in which Shango hands his gun over to Fajardo for no apparent reason very badly done and senseless
  • Acting of some of the peasant extras was terrible, especially in the scene in which these women were buried up to their necks in sand. No reaction at all.
  • Terrible ending where Fajardo conveniently goes mad - no build up for this or forewarning.
  • My Koch DVD ran 82m50s which translates to about 86m20s in NTSC, 10m short of the 96m version signed-off by the Italian censor in March 1970. There were a couple of blatant cuts in the middle section - something definitely chopped between the scene where Shango kills the bad guys around the cart on fire and the following interior discussion between Martinez and Fajardo, whilst the scenes when the bad guys search the village were very choppy. I would guess that they have cuts scenes of Shango rehabilitating in cave with Fernandez after escaping because he jumps around a lot geographically. Gabriella Giorgelli is given a special credit and listed 5th in the end credits roll but hardly appears at all so her role might have been snipped. We see her for the first time when she is sent off by the bad guys to take a message to Shango but it looks as if we should already know her.
  • Koch DVD print was pretty good. Nice and clear. Koch DVD has Italian/German audio and German/English subtitles (latter not advertised on box and accessed only when you play the film, not on the disk menus). The forthcoming UK Blu Ray release is also the 86m version although that’ll have English audio and run at correct speed.
1 Like

Okay. Thank you for you thoughts on one of the only Steffen SW’s that holds. slightly, my interest.
The other is ā€˜Killer Kid’.

I have ā€˜Shango’ on pre-order at ā€˜Amazon UK’. If there are no horse-falls involved, we may get away with a relatively uncut ā€˜Shango’, perchance? Or am I wrong?
I ordered this, along with something else last year, so need to buy it, whatever.