The Big Gundown is good for one watch, but once you know how the story will fold out, itās obvious and boring. I consider the score to be among Morriconeās weakest. It would fit better to Little House on the Prairie.
I watch many of my SWs in a corresponding way that I read my favorite old Disney comic books by Carl Barks, listen to certain music or consume specific delicious high quality filet steak dinners with Sangria in my favorite restaurant in Spain, that is I can repeatedly enjoy SWs over and over again regarding the details of the overall execution etc.
The better I like them the more often I repeat my enjoing of the pleasure in question but of course even I can get too much sometimes and seek new pleasures 
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Wow, I couldnāt disagree more. For me itās one of his best. I still get goosebumps when listening to it.
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The main theme with the hysterical vocals gives me goosebumps aswell, but not in a pleasant way.
Well, each to their own I guess
This sounds like a severe case of Spaghetti Western fatigue !?
Perhaps youāve always held that belief, but to knock āThe Big Gundownā as boring with a weak score, thatās beyond my understanding. How someone who presumably loves this genre, can dislike one of the top films, which ticks every box for Spaghettiness !!!
I know that some younger people like to champion lesser films and knock the classics because they think it ācool and eliteā ā¦ but thereās nothing really ācoolā about being a movie nerd, whichever way you wrap it. 
Interesting to hear such madness from time to time.
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I aināt looking to be either cool or elite, donāt worry. Why is it OK to dislike some movies, and others not? For example, alot of people consider Death Rides a Horse to be vastly overrated - I donāt. Why are we even voting for a Top 20 if we are not entitled to different opinions?
1.I donāt like the score, I donāt like Thomas Millianās overacting as a peon, I canāt understand the thing with Nieves Navarros and her ranch, to me itās just stupid. Should I say that I love the film just because Lee Van Cleef is in it?
Knocking off classics? Films like Adios Gringo, One Silver Dollar, $10000 For Ringo can be considered classics as well, but they are hardly talked about at all these days.
Certainly everyone is entitled to their opinion (How many times has that been said here!) ā¦ this one just shocked me a little, because as I said āThe Big Gundownā has all the fundamental elements that make the genre what it is - I also believe any of the films we discuss at the SWDB can be ripped apart, if one decides to do so ā¦ but thatās missing the point of why these films are such fun and great stylish over the top entertainment.
Nieves Navarro as a nymphomaniac rancher ā¦ why not!? LOL No more silly than the ace pistolero turned Monk ā¦ or the fact that Cuchillo can actually beat a gunfighter and hit them right between the eyes, is totally crazy, but itās great cinematic fun, and not, in my opinion, something that should be picked over and dissected in order to win an argument over whether itās a good film ā¦ realism is not their strong suit.
Sometimes weāre just not in the mood for such particular films ā¦ and I often take a break for 6 months or more from my favorite genre.
You havenāt broken any rules or offended anyone, I just found your comments on this specific film rather odd.
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Yes, I as prog/jazzrock music fan since 1970ās, consider Morriconeās music in the Big Gundown as a sort of related precursor, that is very creative and before its time and the title song ressembles of heavy metal a la Deep Purple/Ian Gillan Absolutely top class IMO.
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Whoa, pickle! 
You are most definitely allowed to like/dislike whichever movie you want, for any number of reasons or for no particular reason. Personally, Iām not especially keen on Once Upon a Time in the West. And last time I watched Once Upon a Time in America I thought it was bollock-smackingly dull. Iām going to need to reassess The Godfather part II again too fairly soon because it just recently fell out of my top 100 of movies from the 1970s. Thatās just my opinion. I donāt have to justify it to anyone. And neither do you. Neither does anyone!
That being said, itās a spaghetti western discussion forum. And stating that you donāt like one of the most popular titles in the genre (as is your perfect right, of course) is an interesting take, and not one we hear that often. If we heard it often, it wouldnāt be a popular title! 
So itās bound to invite some curiosity, and maybe some incredulity. Now, @aldo here can be a bit of a blunt instrument in the written word from time to time but heās definitely just interested in your take here, thatās all. Thereās no offense meant, I guarantee it. 
Just try to picture him with no clothes on and he immediately becomes less spiky and more cuddly. Iām imagining him naked right now.
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Thatās right.
To me it was as curious as letās say a person claiming to be a huge Humphrey Bogart fan, but then adding that they hate, āThe Big Sleepā, āMaltese Falconā or even āThe African Queenā ā¦ when I see, āThe Big Gundownā as a near perfect example of SW excellence, 2nd only to the best of Sergio Leone.
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Ok good everybody happy!!!
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Group hug.
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Isnāt it lovely how a group discussion, and a hug, can bring us all togetherā¦ 
Joy, everyoneā¦ 
āThe Price of Powerāā¦with Giuliano Gemma
I love itā¦great story, and magnifico music, with Giuliano at his primeā¦whatās not to love?
So what, if it has āpoliticalā themes running though it?
The associations with the āKennedyā, assassination, and which political party it potentially representsā¦does it really matter?
All of the tie-inās with real history, the accuracy of it, the need for it in 1969, when Valerii brought this to the centre-stage of the āSpaghettiā phenomenonā¦the film just borrowed - as so many have - a slice of history, and created itās own mystery around it.
Was it made to make us think? Not reallyā¦just to entertain usā¦
Rememberā¦the genre that brought us this pic was looked down upon as being a 2nd rate contender to the American Western recollection of historyā¦which makes it even more impressive, in my book.
It was made in the same vein that the Americans decided to invade upon Italian history, and the Germans decided to invade upon American Folklore, with 'āWinnetouā, āShatterhandā etcā¦
Bottom lineā¦Does āPrice of Powerā entertain?
In my humble opinion, a resounding YESā¦
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This movieās page in the SWDb has been updated to the new āSWDb 3.0ā format .
Please have a look and let us know if thereās something you can add (information, trivia, links, pictures, etc.).
Watched this again fairly recently in Italian with English subs. Some comments on names and actors:
- in the Italian dub the heroās name appears to sound like Wheeler and that is how it was translated in the subtitles
- presidentās wife is called Lucrezia
- obviously they seem to have got cagey about using real names in case of lawsuits maybe. The President, the Vice President and the Governor of Texas are not named. I am not sure of the source for calling the President Garfield. Is that in the original publicity material? Neither is the governorās lawyer played by Angel del Pozo (from Big Gundown)
- some of the other names are interesting. Wallace, (after George Wallace?) Jefferson (Jefferson Davis) and Pinkerton (the detective company infamous for strike breaking and killing several of Jesse Jamesās unarmed relatives) for example
- The actors playing Dr Stripe and Wallace donāt seem to be credited despite them having major roles. Not sure why.
- I noticed that Lorenzo Robledo kicked away the crippled newsmanās crutch in an obvious homage to Once Upon a Time in the West although the response was different and did have me laughing.
By the way what was cut from the shorter 96m print? Surely the Inquest sequence could have been trimmed and maybe some of Van Johnsonās early scenes?
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Just an act of typical SW cruelty ā¦ you donāt get homage to a film thatās only a few months old ā¦ Plus, these films, including Leoneās were not considered as āArtā, or anything more than action adventure flicks at their time of release - Itās really only after Leoneās death in 1989 that some of the less pompous critics started to admit these films were brilliantly made, despite being enormously popular, which critically had made them victims of their own success.
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But why not? OUATITW was released in December 1968 before this was shot, some of it was filmed on the same sets and Valerii has been Leoneās AD. The actors in the scene (Stefanelli, Brana) were also in OUATITW and may even have suggested the action. It canāt be a coincidence.
There are various self conscious references in these movies - for example in Corbucciās Sonny and Jed Telly Savalas drops a hand grenade out of his mouth and it explodes. Same thing happened when he played Blofeld in On Her Majestyās Secret Service.