I’ll p.m. ya and tell you all… 
I’ve watched this sans English and I adore the film. It’s in my top 5, right next to Cemetery Without Crosses.
I will buy the Gaumont burn-on-demand disc from amazonfrance and gift it to anyone stateside who will put English subs on a DVD-R clone for me. PM me.
As mentioned on another thread I have had this lying around for ages and for one reason or another hadn’t watched until now. But with the discussion running hot as to whether it is or isn’t classifiable as a western I jumped in and watched it this afternoon.
Well, two things.
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It’s a close call but, for me, this still cannot be called a western
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Shame on me for neglecting to watch this gem of a film for so long. Western or not is unimportant really. It’s a lovely film, beautifully and thoughtfully crafted by one of the rarest of things; a good actor who turns out to be an even better director.
Topo and Scherp have said plenty so I won’t go on any more other than to say it is a film I would heartily recommend to anyone who likes a film with patience and heart. I’ll certainly be seeking out some more Hossein directed films if I can.
I second that. A marvellous film indeed.
Is there any way of getting a version of this film with English subtitles at all? I’m a huge fan of Cemetery so naturally this is one I’ve wanted to watch for years but have never been able to.
I originally watched it in German and barely understood a word of it. Nonetheless I still very much enjoyed it (although was happy to get the French Gaumont release when it came out). I would recommend just watching it in French since like any really decent film it is very visual - particularly in the second half - so the language is not that important.
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The Amazon Prime Video stream is the Gaumont with English subs but atrocious PQ.
If it’s atrocious then it’s not the print the Gaumont DVD uses. I wonder who did the subs?
Hey muchachos, I watched french VHS rip version of this about 3 months ago. Found it on a greek western maniac’s website for download. Quality’s not so good but you can enjoy and admire Hossein after finishing the watch. It entered into my top 10 WESTERN list.
I wonder why nobody had recommended it to me before?
I saw the movie title while I was surfing that dude’s website.
That’s just akin to having a WB logo at the beginning. The actual Gaumont DVD is from their “on demand” series just like a “Warner Archive” DVD in the US
Good to know the Gaumont DVD has better PQ than that Amazon mess, even if it doesn’t have subs.
Is it available on Amazon Prime in the UK? If so I’ll get it just to watch an English-friendly version this film, even if the quality isn’t that good.
Out of curiosity I checked Prime UK (I’m in the US) and it is available apparently.
Thanks man, I didn’t expect you go out your way. I’ll deffo be getting the Prime free trial some time this week.
Hi all.
This is first post here.
By sheer fluke I sat down and watched “The Taste of Violence” (French version) earlier today and I was blown away by just how good it is. I won’t go into its many virtues because other posters have already done this so well but what I wanted to do was talk about this movie in the context of the Good the Bad and the Ugly.
There are just so many similarities between these two movies that I can’t help but conclude that this movie was the main inspiration for Leone’s epic SW. Before i go on let me just say that TGTBATU is one of if not my all time favourite movies. I have seen it more than any other movie and the last 30 minutes alone is in my opinion the height of cinematic masterpiece. So I’m in no way seeking to denigrate Leone/Morricone’s work.
Here are just some of the similarities I noticed between the movies:
My main discussion will be of TTOV with the TGTBATU references in brackets:
Spoilers ahead—>
The plot of Hossein’s movie centres around three main protaganists (Blondie, Tuco and Angel Eyes) who have very different characteristics and are motivated to pursue their goals in very different ways. Perez (Blondie) the lead is uncompromising in the pursuit of his goals but nonetheless has a distinctively strict code of honour, Chico (Tuco) is a coward but its somehow difficult not to like the character and Chamaco (Angel Eyes) is just a lowdown evil doer who we can’t wait to see get what he deserves.
The three men all want the President’s daughter (gold) for themselves and the film recounts a running battle, or a journey (to Sad Hill cemetery), at the conclusion of which the reward can be realised. Whilst Chico wants to steal her away on his own for love and Chamaco wants to sell her for a ransom Perez wants to deliver her to the leader of the resistance so he can secure the release of hostages which will help them all (Blondie is willing to share the gold with Tuco).
The backdrop of this movie is a civil war (American civil war) between a popular people’s movement and a ruthless government regime. A strong theme recurrent throughout the movie is the folly of war, Perez sister repeatedly laments the wasted lives (disillusioned Union Captain beside bridge) and we see a number of wide shots that chronicle the widespread carnage of war (again battle for bridge).
Along the way to the reward the group make a detour to visits Chico’s mother (Father Ramirez) and it forces us to empathise with the character despite their treacherous nature.
At the most pivotal point of the story when the daughter is transformed from hostage to love interest there is no dialogue and the magnificent score bombastically heightens the sense of drama. (final shootout), The camera alternates between close up and wide shot and zooms in and out (again the final shootout) to further dramatise the tension.
The final scene is an extreme wide shot with Perez and the daughter riding off into the distance in different directions (Blondie does the same).
There are other things that come to mind like the religious references in both movies, the portrayal of the deaths of innocents, the musical scores, the camerawork, the lack of dialogue of the main character ie Blondie v Perez (although Eastwood claims credit for that).
Anyway I am so glad i got to see this film that I probably never would have seen. In my view the two films fundamentally share the same story, the love interest is incidental IMO and whilst TTOV is an incredibly oppressive and melancholic film vs what is an action thriller TGTBATU they share so many stylistic and thematic similarities that i just had to mention it and give credit where it is due.
Interesting theories! Have you read Scherpschutter’s review comparing Kurosawa’s “Hidden Fortress”? Leone and Hossein certainly had a close relationship although I don’t know when that started - nonetheless there was clearly mutual respect for each other’s work.
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I did read Scherpschutter’s excellent review. There were some interesting influences that were referenced. I haven’t seen “Hidden Fortress”, so I’ll definitely check it out, along with “Cemetery without Crosses”. Although I will wait a while, this movie really affected me and I respect it so much I want to wait a while before I see something too similar.
Had a look at a review for “Cemetery without Crosses” on tomatometer. Here it is:
"Hossein has clearly studied Leone a lot, maybe a bit too much. The movie is trying to evoke a similar melancholic atmosphere…"
This guy clearly hasn’t seen Taste of Violence with Hossein doing melancholic Leone before Leone.
Another movie that this film reminded me of is “Irreversible” with Monica Belluci. Both movies for me are incredibly melancholic and dark, however in both cases they are punctuated by immaculately beautiful female leads who who are essentially objectified but nevertheless provide welcome relief from the sombre tone. Scherpschutter makes reference to the madonna which signifies hope and light and in “Irreversible” the use of light particularly towards the end of the film is used to great effect to almost transform Monica into an angelic figure. Giovanna Ralli and Monica Belluci are two of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen in film and the directors exploit their virtues in the respective films to the maximum advantage.
Apologies for going on and on. You can probably tell i like this movie.
The acting in this movie is incredible particularly from Perez, the Prez daughter and i also liked the coward Chico. How Hossein managed to deliver and evoke such performances whilst directing is incredible.
Without Giovanni Galli in this movie it would not work. Following on from my previous post, without her the movie would just be too dark and without variation. Leone uses humour very effectively as well as some great action scenes in his movie to keep viewers interested. TOV has no humour and virtually no action (the closest thing for me is the villagers chase with machetes in the field) so I’m not surprised so many don’t like this movie and its not the sort of movie that would do well at the box office.
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Welcome to the SWDB, Tuco!
Ha, nothing wrong with that! I can’t say that I’ve ever seen The Taste of Violence but your enthusiasm is inspiring. Maybe I’ll see if I can track it down.
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