The Hills Run Red / Un fiume di dollari (Carlo Lizzani, 1966)

I rewatched it yesterday night because it was discussed on a facebook page. Didnā€™t like it at all when i saw it for the first time, probably 8-10 years ago, but my thoughts about it are more positive now. No masterpiece, by any stretch of the imagination, but a solid mid-tier genre entry. I noticed now that itā€™s a very good looking movie, beautifully shot, with several nice angles and compositions.

Iā€™ll be reworking my old review and publish a new one tomorrow

Do you keep your older reviews?

I have them in my computer, yes. But i should probably save them for the sake of security.

But sometimes you notice that you just wrote something stupid. Not in this case (I just changed my mind about a few things), but it happens.

I hadnā€™t watched this for ages because I didnā€™t like the film back then but like Scherp says in his review itā€™s a film that will improve after seeing hundreds of swā€™s. Itā€™s a film that is often praised by critics but doesnā€™t have much love among fans (I think itā€™s only listed by 3 members in their top20). I can understand that because the ā€œamerican styleā€ but itā€™s not a bad film, actually itā€™s pretty good. Many have criticized Thomas Hunterā€™s performance but I thought he was very good, he plays his character in style youā€™ll almost never see in western let alone spaghetti western, an avenger who isnā€™t a typical silent type but shows his emotions and even yells from time to time. Silva chews the scenery with his laughs but his looks make him convincing bad guy anyway.
Itā€™s a good looking film and I have to mention the horse herding/ambush scene which is one of the greatest looking scenes in any sw. Morriconeā€™s epic soundtrack fits the film well. My biggest complaint would be the dynamite fight at the end. Itā€™s spectacular and fun but it breaks the restrained ā€œamericanā€ style and goes into Castellari territory.
I watched the Japanese Stingray dvd. Thereā€™s better releases out there but Iā€™m happy to own this rarity.
My rating: 7/10

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Toscanoā€¦it is a good filmā€¦Iā€™m glad that you enjoyed itā€¦

Exactly, you donā€™t often see hero to be in such a state of mind. Very refreshing.

Great new article by @davidgregorybell

https://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Championing_the_Underdog:Carlo_Lizzani%E2%80%99s_The_Hills_Run_Red(1966)

I took me couple of days to get through this big essey on Hills, but it was worth it :slight_smile:

Yes, Hills is one of the most fun spaghettis and I too prefer it over Lizzaniā€™s other SW, Requiscant.

If it was lucky to receive the ending a la Great Silence (2 years before Great Silence), it would probably be considered cult gem nowadays like Great Silence. But, as I have already said in this thread, the obviously-tacked-onā€“by-studio ending it got adds to fun with campy madness of this movie.

More than 5000 words. In those days that I run a site of my own, I had as a rule, never write more than 800 words.

That is my rule as well. 800 is the maximum, with only a few exceptions for classics like Once Upon, GBU, Django, Great Silence. For not too well-known movies I even try to keep the text under 600 words. When I started writing for SWDB, my texts were too long, but I only noticed that when I started re-reading them after some time.

I guess this text by mister Bell was probably intended more like an essey/study than stanard magazine/website review.

That aside, I completely agree with you both on ā€˜less is moreā€™. I write music reviews for quite some time for one website. I started to become satisfied with them and believe they are good when I mastered this art of trimming or autocensure if you will: That it is okay to decide to leave some thoughts out, that it in fact gives an article more rhythm and impact.

In other field, Bruce Springsteen said something similar about his songwriting. On his first two albums they tried to model him after Bob Dylan and his songs were very wordy. He found his true voice as a songwriter by his fourth album Darkness on the edge of town, when he learned to strip away the words to bare essence, leaving his songs with much better focus and stronger impression on listener.

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Silva and Hunter killed it. :smiley: I actually felt bad for Silva when he got shot. Such a fun character. I somewhat hoped heā€™d piss on Seagull (what a name :smile:) when things got tough and with laughter leaves to Mexico. I did not even see his character as a bad guy for this hilarious performance. Hunter overacts as well but strangely it is along with Silvaā€™s overacting and the memorable score the highlight of the movie. Hunter looks and acts like he went nuts even in situations he has no reason for that which makes this movie special. I loved when he shouted his lines. Seeeeeeegulllllllll. If you say it sux I get it but honestly I donā€™t think I could enjoy the movie without that.

Rewatching this on BluRay and must sayā€¦ yea, it is very American-looking and all that, but it is a totally solid flick with great action and production value. Just the overacting by some is a bit distracting, and the script is very shoddy, for example Nicolettaā€™s character isnā€™t more than a footnoteā€¦

I have a very weird relationship with this movie. Every once in a while a get tempted to watch it, because I really WANT to love the movie (for some reason), but then when I watch it the movie leaves me somewhat blank afterwardsā€¦ I donā€™t know why. It has all the good ingredients but it lacks some kind of fun, it doesnā€™t have that comic book surrealism to it. There is none of the stylish visuals that Lizzani had such a good eye for in Requiescant. I find that majority of the more American-looking spags lacks just thatā€¦

This was a very solid flic. As others have already said, it does feel quite American but I donā€™t think that really hinders it in any way. Henry Silva looked like he was having an absolute blast in this - he sounds like a drunk man attempting to do a Scarface impression. Iā€™m surprised Thomas Hunter only did 2 spags, heā€™s a really solid protagonist and his action scenes were great. I also think he looks a bit like Eastwood (if you squint your eyes a bit).

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While I did like this film I donā€™t think itā€™s a patch on Almost Human or Manhunt, but Silvaā€™s role in this was my favourite Iā€™ve seen him in.

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Anyone know how the newer Kino Lorber release compares to the previous Explosive, video quality-wise? I know Explosive features 3 dubs and KL only English - KL has commentary by Alex Cox. Havenā€™t seen much else comparing the two releases or any of the usual press by Kino about it being a brand new transfer!

Thanks to the help of @Phil_H , this movieā€™s page in the SWDb has been upgraded to the new ā€œSWDb 3.0ā€ format. Please have a look and let us know if thereā€™s something you can add (information, trivia, links, pictures, etc.).

Go ahead and cast your vote on this one too. Poll is now open on the original post at the very top of the page!

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I relooked at the silly happy ending a few times. Nicolette appears in 3 shots. Sheā€™s alone but these arenā€™t outtakes from existing scenes because sheā€™s wearing a different costume to her other scenes. The background looks correct and you didnā€™t actually see her die earlier - she was still alive when they cut away from her. They are clearly shot at a different time to the other footage else they would have had her in with the others. I imagine they must have shot this later and then edited the earlier scene in post production so you donā€™t see her expire (do you see this in the Italian version?)