It’s a really great piece of film-making - definitely worth watching.
Hossein and Leone are so different - both are auteurs in their own right. It’s why the Leone-shot scene in “Cemetery without Crosses” is so obvious (once you know of course ). I really don’t understand what that reviewer is talking about.
Both are definitely worth watching. See if you can spot the influences on “Star Wars” when watching “Hidden Fortress”.
I haven’t seen that but reading the reviews it sounds seriously disturbing. I think I’ll probably pass on it unless you can convince me otherwise.
After seeing the movie i couldn’t help but reflect long afterwards on the immense suffering that the main character Perez is forced to endure. The physical deprivation associated with fighting as a war-time guerilla fugitive would be hard enough but also consider the amount of emotional stress that he must be under. His two most trusted comrades betray him from the outset and he literally loses everything bar his life by the end of the story. Its remarkable when you think about it. In what other film or narrative does the main protaganist suffer so much for literally no payoff at the end. He gets beaten further and further down and by the end of the story he achieves nothing. Can you see where I’m going with this? Perez’s story represents Jesus life on the earthly plain.
Evidence:
It goes without saying that Christian themes are prominent in this movie. The Madonna-esque female is extremely devout and the characters on a couple of occasions visit places of worship (monastery ruins and an actual church ceremony for fallen soldiers).
Jesus suffering is also a well established ethos of the New Testament. Consider who Perez is suffering for. Chamaco constantly derides Perez for foolishly failing to act in his own self-interest. But Perez is not an anti-hero his cause is the greater good. He is willing to sacrifice everything (his own life, his family friends) for the betterment of the people. What is truly tragic is that the very people he is striving to protect are willing to brutally murder him (villagers with machetes) for a few pieces of silver. Jesus dedicated his life to others and was similarly betrayed by peoples who formerly welcomed him as a saviour.
And consider Perez incredible capacity for forgiveness. We only ever see him resorting to violence in self defence. The audience knows that Perez knows from day one that Chamaco hates the plan and could kill him at any moment. He has to sleep with one eye open. HE KNOWS but he never acts on it, he gives Chamaco the chance to redeem himself. Chicho also gets caught in a lie which Perez lets slide and when he betrays them by stealing Ralli away he forgives him. When Perez confronts him about the lie he lies again. I wonder if he lies three times like Peter did to Jesus.
But notwithstanding all of the above I still wasn’t sure if i was stretching the comparison a bit too far. But then something clinched it for me. On the beach towards the end they come across a soldier who has been strung up in crucifixion pose. On the beach Ralli and Perez just before they find out the resistance cause is lost lie spreadeagled on the sand again in a pose reminiscent of Christ. For me this imagery speaks to the fundamental message of this movie.
Hi, I watched this movie by adding an English subtitle file as follows - the movie was well worth watching:
I purchase the DVD with French audio. Then I found an English sub-title file (.srt file) on the internet (https:/subscene.com) for this movie (check that the sub-title file is the same length as the movie and use the same name for the sub-title file as the name of the movie).
Next, play the movie on a PC using a media player package such as VLC and add the subtitle file to the movie being played. The audio and video should sync up.
Over half a year after I said I’d get Amazon Prime I finally did the other week and got round to watching this great film. If it was a full on spag it would probably be in my top 30 but as it is I’ll stick it at the end of my top 50 with Man, Pride and Vengeance.
I wouldn’t make this eligible for top 20 lists myself purely because it was made before the spaghetti western was born. I haven’t seen the film but hope to one day.
Agreed, but I don’t really see this as a western but more of a “quasi-spaghetti” which is how I see MP&V. I’ve always put the latter at the end of my top 50 even though I actually prefer it to some others I rank between 40-50 like Texas Adios and Fort Yuma Gold etc. and I just did the same thing with A Taste of violence even though I definitely prefer it to the likes of Navajo Joe and A Pistol for Ringo (which I have ranked in the early 30s).
I wouldn’t rank it that high myself but I can definitely see why. I without doubt think Hossein’s one of the genre’s best directors after finally seeing both his films.
Of films Hossein directed I have seen Cemetery Without Crosses, The Vampire of Dusseldorf and now this. I would argue that first 2 mentioned are very solid films, but this one stands above them. I would also argue that this movie influenced Leone. 2 scenes illustrate this theory best. The one in which Perez iz looking at the field of burned trees (although during the most of the scene we don’t know what’s he looking at) and Maria is looking at him with the camera zooming in and out of their faces and the Latin song getting more and more louder and dramatic (the most beautiful scene in the movie not short of them). And than the ending scene, static shot which shows 2 horses far away riding in oposite direction.
But never mind Leone, it is also amazing that this is proto “Zapata western” which in terms of script, directing, acting, memorable scenes, message and thought provoking stands shoulder to shoulder with the best of them, Quien sabe?, Duck, You Sucker, Tepepa, you name it. Only it was made quite some time before those movies.
I would also argue that the ending of this movie is much bleaker and more disturbing than the one in Il Grande Silenzio. Later feels somewhat artificial, like it serves its own purpose. The ending of Taste of Violence feels real, and therefore it really hits in the guts.
Under the write-up for Cemetery Without Crosses, it says that this film is Hossein’s “single endeavor into the genre”. Isn’t The Taste of Violence also widely accepted to be part of the genre?
What separates it, in your opinion, from other political westerns within the genre? Because it doesn’t specifically say that it is Mexico? Just asking out of curiosity. And as far as it being widely accepted as part of the genre, it is listed in every compiled list of spaghetti westerns that I have ever seen.
). I really don’t understand what that reviewer is talking about.
), one of the most beautiful endings in films.