The Ruthless Four / Ognuno per sé (Giorgio Capitani, 1968)

[quote=“Bill san Antonio, post:100, topic:858”]Excellent film but with some minor flaws. Directing and cinematography are awesome, the gunfight scene in the middle part is great and you can really feel the tension between the characters in the mining scenes and during the journey. Cast is superb, none of the four main characters are not overshadowed by others as they all give their best to the role. I especially like Kinski here who makes these little things that are really memorable like wearing sack over his head in the mine, something he probably invented himself.

But the flaws… in my opinion the beginning and the ending are the biggest let downs. The first 15 minutes of the film is quite awkward but it gets better once Kinski enters the film. And the ending was a bit of a anti-climax. It would have been better if the last fight had been between the four protagonist.

Still very good sw… 4/5[/quote]
Sure it’s not top 10 stuff, but it’s in my Top 30 for sure. The beginning wasn’t good, agree. I like the ending though.
“Excellent film with some minor flaws” is a nice description for this movie. Sadly overlooked movie.

In my opinion the ending is more than satisfactory.

The music in that moment is fantastic which gives a great atmosphere.

[quote=“Mickey13, post:103, topic:858”]The music in that moment is fantastic which gives a great atmosphere.[/quote]Music was great indeed. When the film started I was thinking it was terrible but as the film went on the music really captured the mood.

I really like this film. I had just gone through a stretch where I watched one disappointing, obscure SW after another - which can feel like a waste of time, sad to say - and then viewed this. A good film! What a relief…just need a better quality print, but I can wait for now.

When you say the beginning you mean after the mine explosion and Van Heflin walking through the desert?

Thats one of my favourite opening scenes.

[quote=“chuck connors brother, post:106, topic:858”]When you say the beginning you mean after the mine explosion and Van Heflin walking through the desert?

Thats one of my favourite opening scenes.[/quote]

mine aswell, fine music there btw

[quote=“chuck connors brother, post:106, topic:858”]When you say the beginning you mean after the mine explosion and Van Heflin walking through the desert?

Thats one of my favourite opening scenes.[/quote]That was pretty good but the explosion in the mine is stupid scene imo. The guy is supposed to be deep in the mine but when they clear away the rocks later he’s lying on the opening. I didn’t like the drinking scenes that much either.

Here’s the cover to the old U.K. pre-cert release.

Sealing the mine with an explosion is a stupid idea anyway. Even more stupid is that Heflin dumps the gold dust into the river instead of hiding it.

Breaks my heart to see all that gold dust go in the river :smiley: .

[quote=“Stanton, post:110, topic:858”]Even more stupid is that Heflin dumps the gold dust into the river instead of hiding it.[/quote]Yeah, that was weird. What was the point in doing that?

I think Caminito/Di Leo/Capitani were depicting what we (the audience) would do if we were Cooper, rather than carrying those heavy sacks to some nearby spot after our food and horses were stolen. I was expecting Cooper to return to it though.

I’d rate the film as extremely watchable. The gunfight at the mission is intensely realistic, mostly via the sound-design. When I saw Roland doing an impromptu flamenco-jig as he ambled toward cover beforehand, I knew it was gonna be a great shoot-out. As for the characters of Hilton and Kinski being gay… I guess so, maybe. Hilton was flirting heavily with those schoolgirls on the stagecoach when he arrived.

Watched this last night. I’m still wondering why this isn’t on the SWDB top-50. Ok, this has a bit slow start (even though the opening scenes are excellent!) but after that things get better and better as the movie goes on. One great thing about this movie is the brilliant cast. George Hilton plays Manolo Sanchez nicely and Van Heflin plays the part of old prospector wonderfully. I’ve always loved Gilbert Roland’s work in spaghetti westerns and this movie is another great example of Roland’s acting talent. But the guy who almost steals the show is the one and only, Klaus Kinski. For example the way Kinski rides to this tiny town in the rain is magnificent, I simply loved that small scene in the beginning. Kinski does so powerful role here because sometimes he even doesn’t need to say anything and still he can be dominating the scene.

All in all this is an entertaining movie, highly recommended to all SW fans! The Ruthless Four has also great cinematography and a solid soundtrack. Like said before in this topic, this isn’t a perfect movie but very enjoyable spaghetti western anyway.

4 stars out of 5.

did you notice that the music during the end was Miserlou, which was used (in a more faster version by Dick Dale) in Pulp Fiction?

I fancied a bit more gold mine action after Kill Django… so opted to revisit this slow moving spag.

It’s very different in pace and style to most spags and miles away from the clichés of the last watched film Cjamango.
I liked the Annie the whore (Sarah Ross) character and the ‘upside-down’ filming bit. The stylish shootout when they sneak-swap guns and Gilbert does his dance is great, and there’s some fabulous moody scenes after this with only wind and creakiness as the soundtrack to the gunplay.

All four characters are perfectly cast and believable, and the relationships based on a clutch of uneasy alliances creates a palpable tension.
Roland is as suave and as cool as we’d expect, Van Helfin looking craggy and as dishevelled as somebody who’d been sun-baked and gold-fevered for most of his life.
But it is that strange relationship between Kinski (The Blonde, a fake man of God), who underacts brilliantly (yet keeps his twitch), and Hilton (Manolo - which means ‘God is with us’ in Spanish) that adds another unusual slant (I was gonna say bent) to this.
I tried not to see a homo-erotic edge to this to start with, seeing Hilton flirting with the girls and thinking that The Blonde had some other hold over him - but it does seem that a sado-masochistic/master-slave element is bubbling under (more evident maybe if that hand-burning scene had been included). Anyway, Manolo could have been rid of The Blonde if it was just out of fear that he brought him along, but chose to try to help him instead.

Seeing Hilton with a yellow umbrella (I must write that piece on The Psycho-sexual Symbology of the Umbrella/Parasol is Spaghetti Westerns one day ;)), and Rick Boido getting snuffed nastily, only added to the joy.

An intelligent and relatively cliché-free spag that made a refreshing change - (but back to more familiar spag territory for my next I reckon)… 4 stars.

Re-visited this today and enjoyed it as much as ever. Watched the Koch release this time which was pretty good but the day for night scene was painfully dark. Not sure quite what their intension was there but it failed I’m afraid. Very good film though. Certainly makes my alternative top 20 and maybe my actual top 20 at a push. Would have to re-visit all of my previous picks to be sure. Actually, that’s not a bad idea. I’ve spent far too much time watching bottom of the barrel stuff in the past year or so. It’s about time I went back to the good ones for a change. This is certainly one of them.

I know what you mean. Seems like even longer for me :wink: .

fantastic film in my opinion. love the tension from the impending threat of betrayal from the characters. watched it via the french dvd which has the mentioned ultra dark mugging scene and several minor italian audio scenes as well. didnt spoil it too much tho, very good.

[quote=“ION BRITTON, post:40, topic:858”]Is there a cut version of this one? Great film.

edit: I have a UK VHS of Mega Films, the running time is 96 min and there’s no scene with Kinski burning Hilton’s hand with the cigar. Were there any other scenes that were cut?[/quote]

At the request of censors, to obtain a T rating (all ages admitted) the scene with Kinski burning Hilton’s hand was cut and Kinski’s prolonged beating was shortened: the cut after the first three punches is clearly visible, at least in the Youtube version and in my recording from Italian TV, in which the opening credits are in English.

The runtime of the pre-censorship uncut version was 109m 30s.