Vengeance Is Mine / Per 100.000 dollari t’ammazzo (Giovanni Fago, 1967)

Once more a superb review sherp!

100,000 Dollari is a great one, the deserves being written about like that.

You write, that for some critics it is too melodramatic, but in my opinion in these melodramatic parts you can find the quality of the flick.
Take the soft focus flashbacks. They got a leonesque quality, they remind me of Giu La Testa, four years before Giu La Testa…

On the one hand, it’s understandable why the use of flashbacks - and the melodramatic tone they introduce - would have been criticised at the time (and may be off-putting for some viewers today). Anything that smacked of ‘artiness’ or pretension seems to have been slammed as directors getting ideas above their station; after all, this was ‘only’ a Western.

Of course, for those of us who appreciate the reach and scope of the genre, artistic flourishes - providing they’re not entirely out of touch with the general mood and style of the movie - and experimental touches are what keep us interested and deepen our admiration. Give me a film with an ambitious approach over a run-of-the-mill production any day.

I’m not exactly sure what to think about this film, but the flashbacks are often only slo mo kitsch.

Per 100 000 is at best in the scenes between Garko and Camaso (but not as intensive as in 10 000 $ Blood Money), and is at worst in the senseless long action scenes, in the parts where the film is a real SW, only that these scenes are suffering from their lousy action direction. In the Stagecoach robbery and in the ghost town fight with Lulli’s gang all the extras are killed at least twice, and all are killed in this amateurish looking way with people hiding on roofs only that the stuntmen could do their “falling down from a roof with a half loop” routines.
And these long drawn out action scenes are also a bit unnecessary for the narrative. At least in their length.
As is the opening scene which introduces Garko as Bounty Hunter, but for what?

Not bad, sometimes a real good film, but also one of the “could have been much better” category.

The opening scene(s) is/are an ‘answer’ to 10.000, both to the opening scene of that movie (Garko as a bounty hunter talking to his victim) and to Sancho’s cameo (in that film contributing to the conclusion, here opening the movie). It also illustrates Garko’s social downfall, from a member of a aristocratic family to a social dropout who is forced to make a living as a bounty hunter. The opening, with its near ghost town and old sheriff, also anticipate the scenes showing the bloody consequences of the Civil War. I like this contrast between the tongue-in-cheek, half-serious opening and the more bitter, melancholic tone of the rest of the movie.

I do agree about the flashbacks, I think they’re simply overdone, but others like Dillinger seem to like them.

I also agree that the film could’ve been better. They could have (maybe even should have) done more with the ending, with the army gold mirrorring the wealth of the family both Garko and Camasio come from. 10 and 100 thousand are both good films, but both also leave things to desire. I prefer this one, maybe because there’s more contrast between Garko and Calasio and their scenes aren’t as ‘intense’

I don’t mind the melodrama too much. Its the mascara that I hate.

It’s the intensity in 10,000 that I like best.

Well, we live in free countries, Phil

I’d love to get a copy of this with Italian audio but don’t want to buy the Django box.

I am thinking of getting the Suevia release but only if it has Spanish subtitles for the Italian audio. Does anyone here know if this is the case?

[quote=“Novecento, post:28, topic:1234”]I’d love to get a copy of this with Italian audio but don’t want to buy the Django box.

I am thinking of getting the Suevia release but only if it has Spanish subtitles for the Italian audio. Does anyone here know if this is the case?[/quote]

No, I have the suevia disc and could make you a copy, but it has no subs

Thank you for your kind offer Scherpschutter but without subtitles I think I’ll give it a miss.

[quote=“Novecento, post:28, topic:1234”]I’d love to get a copy of this with Italian audio but don’t want to buy the Django box.

I am thinking of getting the Suevia release but only if it has Spanish subtitles for the Italian audio. Does anyone here know if this is the case?[/quote]

I’m sure there will be also a single re-release similar to the 10 000 film from the Koch sub-label Cine Plus. Maybe in one of the next months.

That’s a possible and good explanation.

But I still think that the church shoot out isn’t connected with the rest of the movie, and the bounty hunting job of Garko seems not to fit his character and doesn’t have a relevance for the films actual plot. I always had the feeling these early parts of the film were maybe only there because bounty hunting was in these days the typical SW in-job.

The typical SW parts of Per 100 000 are for me in an aesthetic conflict with the main drama between the brothers, which is the interesting center of the film.

A typical problem of the director. Fago’s 3 SWs are all at odds with themselves. (boy, a damn clever remark)

That is of course true, Sancho’s part in 10.000 is much better integrated into the narrative.

I could do without the over dramatic flashbacks myself & the bounty hunting point I never really noticed but you make a good point. He was a bounty hunter in 10,000. Could be a transitional thing or maybe it’s just closure for Garko’s character. What really draws me to this film is what Garko goes through for the last 20 minutes or so. beat, hung, stretched, beat again, hung upside down to watch your love slowly die while crawling to your aid. To me, that’s the sort of stuff you can only get in this genre. It overshadows some of the plot flaws brought up here but does not deter my love of this movie.

Mr. Hudson is definitely lucky to have such resilient friends and girlrfriends in these two flicks. And if you’re paying too much attention to the plot flaws, you may be watching the wrong genre :-\

Over dramatic flashbacks, pah!

SWs ARE over-dramatic!

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Any particular reason this one recycles the same cast as Blood Money? Or vise versa?

Go with what works I guess. I’m happy with the output.

Well, the producers thought De Niro and Pacino together again would work but Righteous Kill sucked!

Did you also notice in Heat, they were never seen in the same shot together. RK just looked awful.