Just watched this today. Good performances all around, it looks as though it was made twelve years earlier than it was (I mean that in a good way) and it’s by far the best Spag-Featuring-A-Sickly-Sweet-Irritating-Boy I’ve seen so far, although in competition with just Kid Vengeance and a couple of sub-par Zanna Bianca pics that’s probably a bit of a back-handed compliment. It hits the typically violent buttons that I love from a Spag, unfortunately though it’s also a little too sappy as well. One minute people are getting shot in the face, the next minute kind-hearted hookers are tripping pants-less oafs in hallways with a wink and a catchy line. And I really didn’t like that score. These flaws keep it from the Spag Premier League but overall it was an enjoyable movie nonetheless.
4/5. I went into this with low expectations because I saw California talked about so many times as the last great SW, and I hadn’t even heard of Silver Saddle until I saw it at the store. I liked Silver Saddle even more than California. It seems like every Gemma movie I see is better than the last. Such a likeable actor.
I didn’t care much for the main song that gets played over and over, but the rest of the music is good, even though it is all very familiar sounding.
I have overlooked it too. Just watched it for the first time. It didn’t make my top fifty. Two stars. One for the opening and one for being well made. I’ll stick with California as il gran finale.
I think it might be Gianni De Luigi.
This is a film I find myself revisiting from time to time. Not among my biggest favorites but one I enjoy watching nonetheless. I especially like the look of the film, beautiful landcscapes and cool looking places, old cemetary, abandoned old buildings and monasteries. Good cast and I like the theme song even though it’s repeated bit too often.
Last spag I’ve seen. Decent, but I wish they didn’t change the route it was going for the first 15 minutes: gritty, bloody SW with special spice in form of Geoffrey Lewis as more cynical version of Cheyenne.
Geoffrey pillaging the bodies after stagecoach massacre like a vulture, was the best scene.
Music was mixture of decent Morricone imitations and that dreadful literal ballads that were, as it seems, very much in vogue at the time of twilight SWs.
There’s many things I love about this film. I think the score is excellent and I really liked Lewis’ character. Fulci shows that he had an eye for locations, as well, as he manages to capture the landscape very well in some shots. Unfortunately the first half of the film is much better than the second. The ending was corny and irritating.
Cant find an english freindly, region free blu ray or dvd of this, anyone know of one?
Koch DVD is out of print. I bought a cheap pack released by Echo Bridge Entertainment. It includes this film in a nice widescreen transfer:
The Echo Bridge DVD is region 1 but you can solve this by making your DVD player play all regions. I’ve hacked three DVD players over the years. All you need to do is search online about how to hack the DVD player that you own (type in the make). Get a bunch of the codes given online and keep using them until one works. When it works, a little box should pop up with the current region listed. All you need to do then is press 0 (changing it to region all) and that should work. 
The Koch disc isn’t actually out of print. I was mistaken.
Thanks, the Echo Bridge Entertainment pack worked perfectly.
Fulci as I’ve stated before is a true genius, who’s westerns are bloody, angry, kettles filled to the top with revenge, sadness, and murder. By the end, your not sure weather or not the " heroes" are really " heroes" as each " hero" turns out to be just as mad, unpredictable, and dark as the " villians." Silver Saddle is no exception to this, and is by far my favorite Lucio Fulci film to date. Roy Blood ( Guilano Gemma) is our " hero" so to speak must avenge his father’s death. From an early age, Roy has learned to be a killer, and he knows very little else. Gemma is perfect in the role. The film is filled with scenes of dead bodies, shootouts, and untrustworthy criminals, yet somewhere, their lies in it’s heart the importance of freindship and love. The score is something you would expect in a film of Fulci’s, kinda obscure mid to late 1970’s pop music, and it works really well. I can’t stress this enough, if you like Fucli or Gemma to watch this as soon as possible. . After viewing the Echo Bridge dvd of this, I find that Silver Saddle, is in my top ten of the genre, and easily something I could rewatch over and over again.
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For some reason I thought you were also from the UK. Glad you enjoyed the movie!
Re-watched this one and it was better than I’d remembered. With Gemma, nice direction, great photography, decent music (that bass line’s awesome) and Geoffrey Lewis it’s hard to dislike it for all its flaws. I actually find it quite ironic, almost poetic even that the spaghetti western, which forever changed the ‘heroes’, violence and the style of movies ended on what is basically a Disney movie set in the west.
BTW Does anyone know if Gemma smoked or drank at all? It’s hard to believe he was practically 40 here.
He was definitely a smoker. Not sure about his drinking habits.
That’s easy. According to Tenebre he only drank on duty 
I read somewhere that Gemma wanted more of a “Disney” film while Fulci wanted a " violent, over the top, flick." to my knowledge, Fulci wasn’t happy with the end result, however I thought Fulci succeeded pretty well on his part ( look to the scene’s where the Mexicans are confronted, as well as the scene with the friars.)The second half Is more of what Gemma wanted, ( especially the ending) which I think fits the film perfectly, but certainly its not the grim ending Fulci would have wanted.
You can tell they compromised on a lot, and I think it would have been better if they’d have only gone one way. Either way wouldn’t bother me; an uber-violent and sinister Fulci outing would have been great and even a full on family movie would’ve been a bit different and could have worked really well too, the mix of the two is still enjoyable though.
The mix of the two ( I thought ) made the film special. Perhaps had Fulci had his way, he would have shown how the friars were massacred, and he would cut the time the boys on screen and added some type of " eye gouging" scene, or he might have went wild with special effects and given Barrett a ultra violent death. Let me ask you, would a more violent flick have worked better for you? or would you have wanted more a " Disney" type flick?
I think he would have gone a bit OTT, like the ‘meat’ scene in FOTA but worse, and I did always get the impression Thomas was meant to die originally, probably in an ultra-violent way in an attempt to top Frank’s introduction in OUATIW. I think if Gemma hadn’t done California not long before this could well have all happened.
Honestly, i think I’d have preferred a full on family film. Violent and gritty spaghetti westerns had been done to death and like I said I find it poetic the genre ended like this, and the more family friendly it was the more ironic it’d have been. On top of that there aren’t many spaghetti westerns you could watch with your kids so it would have been pretty different too.