Spagvemberfest 2023 - or the crows will drink our beers

Vamos a matar Sartana (1971) - Directors: Mario Pinzauti, George Martin - 2/10.

This one is genuinely tough to sit through not only by reason of the paltry execution, but also in virtue of the fact that a large portion of the narrative is dedicated to the leisurely trek on foot through the mountains, so we do not even get the usual serving of horseriding with a bit of gunplay; the viewer is forced to watch Chris Huerta make an utter fool out of himself (again) and Mitchell wincing while killing mosquitos and throwing tantrums en route and well, there is not much else here to take interest in here, the movie basically reels from one half-baked scene to another and that is pretty much it. It it entirely conceivable this could have turned out legitimately solid had it been helmed by a more adept director capable of infusing the yarn with suspense and psychological tension.

Nevertheless, the end result is completely removed from any considerations of this sort. The flick is terminally vitiated by the scroungy montage, which despoils the narration of its focus, and by its cheapjack camerawork, which breaks the 180-degree rule among other things, all of which is further exacerbated by the incompetent direction, the lazy writing and the sluggish pacing compounding the said shortcomings threefold. At the end of the day though, film’s biggest drawback consists in the fact that a large chunk of the narrative basically boils down to the characters gallivanting through the countryside with little to no variation in the way the story unfolds which accounts for as many as forty minutes of the whole running time, making the outing remarkably wearisome to follow. Do yourself a favor, do not try to be original and if it is the cheap stuff you are after, simply pick a Fidani or Mauri oater instead of this useless, otiose piece of garbage, it is really no good, being obscure for a very good reason.

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