The Big Gundown / La resa dei conti (Sergio Sollima, 1966)

[Novecento]

@Dr. Menard

Hm, i didn´t really mind the Navarro ranch sequence, after all you can never have enough Nieves Navarro in a movie if you ask me. ;D To me it´s more the overall pace that just seems to drag in places and the repetitiveness of the events. I can´t really put my finger on it, but somehow i felt it could have done with at least 20 minutes less footage.

Yeh, I agree that the pacing is all off and the ranch scene is one of the biggest offenders. However, I do love the repetitive theme of Cuchillo getting caught and then escaping over and over along with the ‘never, never’ theme. The problem is that it gets a bit messy and long winded in the process.

[Paco_Roman]

@Stanton

What they cut out is e.g. the complete role of Baron von Schulenberg. (Didn’t they realise it was an Austrian and not a Prussian?)

He looks more like a Prussian as an Austrian to me If they really would have cared about the Nationality of Schulenberg they should have changed him into a Swede or any other Nationality. I remember when I watched this cut version once in TV I was dissapointed about the movie. This cut version is horrible.
While we talking about I had to put the DVD into my player

[ENNIOO]

@Paco Roman

He looks more like a Prussian as an Austrian to me If they really would have cared about the Nationality of Schulenberg they should have changed him into a Swede or any other Nationality.

Very uptight guy…he should have had a few beers or something to loosen him up.

[Paco_Roman]

@ENNIOO

Very uptight guy…he should have had a few beers or something to loosen him up.

Beer and Viennese Schnitzel always helps 8)

[Phil_H]

@Dr. Menard

… after all you can never have enough Nieves Navarro in a movie if you ask me. ;D

Couldn’t agree more!

[stanton]

[quote=“Paco Roman, post:162, topic:335”]He looks more like a Prussian as an Austrian to me If they really would have cared about the Nationality of Schulenberg they should have changed him into a Swede or any other Nationality. I remember when I watched this cut version once in TV I was dissapointed about the movie. This cut version is horrible.
While we talking about I had to put the DVD into my player ;-)[/quote]

His Prussían look is the only imaginable reason to cut him out of a German version. But I don’t know who could have been offended by it. The typical SW viewer? Unlikely.

Cutting him out means also to cut out half of the final duel, and it is the better half which was cut out. This is one of the strangest cuts I have ever seen. A stupidity and commercial suicide.

The easiest way would have been to dub him into a French officer, as the French had already been in Mexico for quite a while.
(In the German version of Die Hard the terrorists are btw also no Germans via the dub, despite their Aryan looks. But here it does not change the film in a substantial way.)

[stanton]

@Dr. Menard

Hm, i didn´t really mind the Navarro ranch sequence, after all you can never have enough Nieves Navarro in a movie if you ask me. ;D To me it´s more the overall pace that just seems to drag in places and the repetitiveness of the events. I can´t really put my finger on it, but somehow i felt it could have done with at least 20 minutes less footage. .

The Navarro scene runs by coincidence about 20 min.

[Dr_Menard]

Hm, maybe the Navarro ranch should have been cut then, although it pains me to say such a thing as Navarro fan. ;D But to be honest the scene doesn´t really serve a purpose in the long run so i could imagine doing without it. But it´s not only this particular scene that slows down the pace IMO. It´s just the overall pace of the movie, it just feels unevenly balanced.

[Silvanito]

Baron von Schulenberg looks sort of like von Hindenburg, who was Reichspresident of the German Weimar republic before the National Socialist revolution

[The_Stranger]

There are definitely too many photos of Nazis and fascists in this forum.
Sorry, but what is this for a shit.

[El_Topo]

[quote=“The Stranger, post:170, topic:335”]There are definitely too many photos of Nazis and fascists in this forum.
Sorry, but what is this for a shit.[/quote]

Yeah

[Novecento]

@Stanton

The Navarro scene runs by coincidence about 20 min.

If the Columbia guys had chopped that out and left the rest as is, it would have been better IMO

@Dr. Menard

Hm, maybe the Navarro ranch should have been cut then, although it pains me to say such a thing as Navarro fan. ;D But to be honest the scene doesn´t really serve a purpose in the long run so i could imagine doing without it. But it´s not only this particular scene that slows down the pace IMO. It´s just the overall pace of the movie, it just feels unevenly balanced.

Dr Mernard, you would probably like the Japanese Columbia release best. Have you read Alex Cox’s comments in his book?

Now as for the title… Who on earth thought it would be a good idea to name a movie in which the main character, called “Cuchillo” (knife), shuns guns in favor of throwing knives, “The Big Gundown” ???

[Novecento]

@Novecento

Now as for the title… Who on earth thought it would be a good idea to name a movie in which the main character, called “Cuchillo” (knife), shuns guns in favor of throwing knives, “The Big Gundown” ???

My favorite foreign language title has to be the Spanish “El halcón y la presa” (“The Falcon and The Prey”).

[AvatarDK]

@Lindberg

Baron von Schulenberg looks sort of like von Hindenburg, who was Reichspresident of the German Weimar republic before the National Socialist revolution

I always confuse him with The Monopoly Guy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj1wcs7SZj0

[stanton]

@Novecento

My favorite foreign language title has to be the Spanish “El halcón y la presa” (“The Falcon and The Prey”).

Yes, that’s the best title.

The German one is again the worst. The Hounded Man of the Sierra Madre. I’m sure all the lovers of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre will have watched it (searching for Bogey).

[AvatarDK]

@Stanton

The German one is again the worst.

Perhaps but the Danish one is surely the most ridiculous : Manden Med De Sorte Støvler → The Man with the Black Boots :

[stanton]

I hope they didn’t wear actually brown boots …

[AvatarDK]

Incidentally they do look kinda brown on the Danish poster (not in my collection alas) at least:

I don’t know what the hell they were thinking when they came up with that title. I mean they were selling the movie to the western-watching crowd. Something like Death Wore Boots would have made a little more sense

[stanton]

I often think that thinking was and is not one of the qualities of film distributors. At least not in Germany.
Obviously they mainly think that their customers are mainly idiots.

[Novecento]

@Stanton

The German one is again the worst. The Hounded Man of the Sierra Madre. I’m sure all the lovers of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre will have watched it (searching for Bogey).

Good point ;D

@Søren

Perhaps but the Danish one is surely the most ridiculous : Manden Med De Sorte Støvler → The Man with the Black Boots :

Talk about nondescript. That’s definitely worse than the German one ;D

Wow, in relative terms, maybe the English title isn’t so bad after all ???