Re-watching Che c’entriamo noi con la rivoluzione? – “what do we have to do with the revolution,” knowing it “will not be televised” or released on BD/DVD? – brought a very pleasant surprise: this time I was prepared for the irritating English dubbing and the not-so-excellent image and audio quality of the AVI file made from a German television broadcast, and I really enjoyed the film; in particular its wide-ranging references, from Vincenzo Bellini’s English Civil War opera I puritani (1835), whose famous duet “Suoni la tromba” opens the movie, and Giacomo Puccini’s French Revolutionary Wars opera Tosca (1900) via two Shakespeare plays, Othello and Richard III, to historical figures such as Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807–1882) and Emiliano Zapata (1879–1919). “In many ways the least ‘western’ of all his westerns” (Phil_H), Corbucci’s third Mexican Revolution venture may be a mess – a “sporadically entertaining mess,” according to Kevin Grant (Any Gun Can Play, p. 215) – but I think it’s also a smart film – “an intelligent movie” (scherpschutter) – whereas Howard Hughes deems it “similarly aimless” as Vamos a matar, compañeros (Once Upon a Time in the Italian West, p. 214).
Tonight, Sunday, November 13: Corbucci’s thirteenth Western, or twelfth or eleventh, in any case his nadir: Il bianco, il giallo, il nero (1975). Verflixt!
