Iām glad not to be the only one who is excited about the new release.
I re-read Sherps Mercenario Review (which is excellent by the way) and I appreciated that he mentioned the character of Columba. Giovanna Ralli is a fine actress and IMO she shows that in her role too. I would have liked to see her in the SWDB Hall of Fame. Columba is one of the few females in SW which is not just the seduced helpless woman (like Maria in Fistful of Dollars). Claudia Cardinale in OUATINTW and Iris Berben (with a similiar role and portrayel in Companeros!) are of course two other examples. 8)
[quote=āPaco Roman, post:181, topic:177ā]Iām glad not to be the only one who is excited about the new release.
I re-read Sherps Mercenario Review (which is excellent by the way) and I appreciated that he mentioned the character of Columba. Giovanna Ralli is a fine actress and IMO she shows that in her role too. I would have liked to see her in the SWDB Hall of Fame. Columba is one of the few females in SW which is not just the seduced helpless woman (like Maria in Fistful of Dollars). Claudia Cardinale in OUATINTW and Iris Berben (with a similiar role and portrayel in Companeros!) are of course two other examples. 8)[/quote]
I agree completely about Giovanna Ralli and the character of Columba! In my opinion, in the genre of the Spaghetti Western, there are four outstandingly strong (to slightly varying degrees) female roles essayed by four outstandingly strong actresses. Namely: Claudia Cardinale as Jill in OUATITW, Giovanna Ralli as Columba in THE MERCENARY, Rosalba Neri as the evil (but strong) Samantha in JOHNNY YUMA, and Martine Beswick as Adelita in BULLET FOR THE GENERAL.
Iris Berben is certainly worth a mention, but I didnāt find the character of Lola in COMPANEROS to be quite as strong as the aforementioned five.
Nicoletta Machiavelli gave some strong performances, but most of the roles she had were of weak characters. Nicoletta did the best she could with what she had been given to work with. I think if she had been given the chance to play characters like Jill, Columba, Samantha, Adelita, and Lolaāshe would definitely have done as well, if not better than, the rest.
[quote=āStanton, post:183, topic:177ā]Yes, she would.
What about Garter Colt, which I havenāt seen yet.[/quote]
Well, I like the way Nicoletta looks in GARTER COLT; but, frankly, the movie is awful. I have watched it quite a few times simply to see Nicoletta and another favorite SWās actresss of mine, Silvana Bacci; but, beyond those āperksā the film holds nothing of interest.
The character Nicoletta plays is, indeed, a strong oneābut, it is to no avail.
Iāve recently watched the new Koch release, which is one nice piece btw. The picture quality might not be what we usually expect from Koch but I think they did a good job with the restauration anyway. When I saw the movie last time in Magdeburg (Western von Gestern), the German master they were showing was quality wise even worse (but only in parts) than the German trailer included on the disc. It was a real Grindhouse experience watching the movies (Il Mercenario and Sabata) in the Kulturfalterās tiny cinemaā¦
Il Mercenario is good entertainment, of course, and the Koch release is really worth getting. I think the movie wasnāt presented that well until now. The featurette āThe rules of the Revolutoinā is a very nice extra, informative and entertaining at the same time.
Verdict:
Itās a must see and buy for fans of the Revolution Western and worth more than one look for people like me, who prefer the more traditional, classical (plot-wise) SWs !!!
One of the wonders of Il mercenario is that the film manages to be both, a Brechtian parable about the revolution (or the image of a revolution) and an innovative action filled spectacle.
Mercenario and Companeros are both films in which the western elements are much stronger than in Quien sabe, Tepepa and Giu la testa. They are both still real genre films.
I regard the discussions wether the revolutionary flicks are westerns or not rather fruitless. Didnāt we talk about that matter somewhere else before?
I consider these movies as Spaghetti-Westerns (Tepepa etc.) but not in the traditional or classical way. The Revolution Westerns were usually made in the late 1960s, early 1970s when there was a huge political interest in them. Their plots are concerned with the topics of Revolution and politics, which isnāt a bad thing. Iām just more interested in the classical SW plots of the early SW phase in the sense of ārevenge for a slaughtered family(-member)ā for example.
I needed some time to realize the following detail:
[Spoiler]
The pole is visiting an Arms Dealer living in a brothel from whom he bought the machine gun. This Arms Dealer is Paco Friend Pepote who will be punished (castrated) later. In the Italian Version he is introduced as Pepote to the Pole and he says that he once bought all these weapons for something which doesnāt exist anymore (the revolution?). Funny because he sold his weapons to the Pole Paco had started sucessfully his revolution.
[quote=āPaco Roman, post:197, topic:177ā]I needed some time to realize the following detail:
[Spoiler]
The pole is visiting an Arms Dealer living in a brothel from whom he bought the machine gun. This Arms Dealer is Paco Friend Pepote who will be punished (castrated) later. In the Italian Version he is introduced as Pepote to the Pole and he says that he once bought all these weapons for something which doesnāt exist anymore (the revolution?). Funny because he sold his weapons to the Pole Paco had started sucessfully his revolution.[/quote]
This is true. But , I thought it was quite obvious that he was the same man (same actor). In the English version he says to the girls something like, āGo away, now, this man wants to do business with Pepoteā.
