Thatās what I like about it, I think. It feels a lot different to most spaghettis and I tend to enjoy films that are ādifferent.ā I would like to watch the English dub though. Hopefully it wonāt spoil the film for me.
I watched the film today, a little upset that there hasnāt been a new release for the soundtrack as itās a really fun piece. However I found the 7" single on youtube, thought you wouldnāt mind giving it a listen.
Also FINALLY found the main theme, it was released on the Amazon digital music store on an excellent Nini Rosso EP. Crazy that itās from the master tapes on not the LP!
I should watch this again. It surprised me at first viewing years ago that it was made in 1966 and not later.
I gotta admit that I love the heck out of this film. The heavy visuals in this film make it a joy to watch, and Philippe Leroy gives such us such a different type of hero with his sly smile and overly confident attitude. The thing is I watched this film in Italian with no subs, so I was completely lost except for a few phrases and words I managed to pick up, but even without them I was able to really enjoy the film. Personally I think thatās quite a testament to the watch ability of this film.
I wonder if the film would have benefited from Brassā original vision? Maybe he had something just to unique for the time? Or maybe this was an emergency effort to salvage the film?
My Koch DVD just arrived today, if I get home from work early enough iāll watch it tonight. Looks pretty good.
I finally watched this Tinto Brass directed western
I had heard a few good things about it, but was still surprised to get a very entertaining spaghetti western
The story isnāt anything special, but Brassā visual flair and frenzy editing keep thrings moving.
https://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Yankee_Film_Review
Terrific review as ever Scherp, though Iād be lying if I said this picture was a favourite of mine by any stretch.
Itās a favorite of mine, and Iāll be honest the whole reason I love it is the beautiful cinematography and color palette. Every frame is just oozing style and demands your attention. Sad though that the films plot is weak.
Itās not a favorite, no Top 20 material, but itās a lot better than I expected, knowing the directorās reputation. His early work (I saw one or two things, long ago) is not really my cup of tea, and his later work, well, the man knows how to film female buttocks, thatās for sure. These frenzy editing tricks that are quite irritating in his experimental movies, work quite well here.
I have a problem with a film where the hero cannot mount his horse without standing on something. Think Brassā later films are more interesting.
The whole scene in the mine with Leroy moving the coin around and the camera zipping from eye to eye is fantastic. Really neat stuff!
I thought this one was alright. Nothing special but the great cinematography certainly made it feel fresh even if the script wasnāt.
I received my DVD today, around 1.5-3 weeks before schedule but the Amazon sellerās info was false regarding subtitles since no English were included, and my German reading was too slow this first watching. The image quality of the Koch DVD was fine.
Some trumpet music was good as was the cinematography, but I canāt say much more now without my hopefully future better understanding of the dialogue. The plot itself appeared to be rather simple though. The antihero looked a bit old and fragile, and the same actor was a potentate in wheelchair in Mannaja. My feeling or intuition is that Yankee could be another SW rated 6/10 by me.
English subtitles should be available by pressing them from your remote control.
Ooops, thank you !!! I tried the same button on Sabata yesterday but it didnāt work.
But in this case it functioned !
The first 30 minutes with English subtitles gave some new flesh on the SW bones, and at least it is more entertaining to know what they were saying. In the following hour the dialogue wasnāt that important I believe, but I will wait till tomorrow to watch the rest.
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And today after having watched also the last hour with English subtitles I say this SW has a rather thin plot and with exaggerating emphasis on El Grande Concho.
Its simpleness reminds me of Django The Bastard which also has a very uncomplicated plot and also looks OK.
The start of the Yankee is weaker, a lot of minutes are spent on riding scenes and vain talk, and thereās too much Leone-imitating zooms. Yet, somewhere in the middle, from a superbly directed one-against-all battle scene in the ruins of an old village, it becomes a much more solid film and keeps that level to the end.
If you consider the context, that it is an Italian film, it is not difficult to recognize the motives. Concho ruling over a remote rural area like a Roman emperor controlling everything that is happening clearly symbolizes the most (in)famous plague of modern Italian society - the mafia. Concho is the undisputed ruler of his territory, the official authority - the sheriff - is puppet, subject to Concho. In his entourage are also a philosopher, a painter, etc., symbols of the infiltration of the mafia into all pores of society, corruption that goes from workers to intellectuals. The fact that Conchoās throne is in an abandoned church is also not accidental, it is a comment on the connection of the Mafia with the Church. After townspeople anger Concho his punishment is horrible, he sets fire to the whole town as a warning. The only one who can oppose Concho and disrupt such a structure is a mysterious outsider. He has no personal motives (other than a prosaic desire to make money), no score from the past that he has to settle with Concho. We learn nothing about his past during the film, nor the future that awaits him. He is simply a symbol of an external force that purifies a corrupt society. Modeled after Shaneās prototype, but cynical like Eastwoodās Man With No Name, at the end of the film without pardon he takes all the government gold that Concho tried to steal for himself and rides off in the sunset (thereās no way the protagonist of American western would do that - taking of the gold part, not riding off in the sunset).
It can be seen that Brass invested a lot more heart in the second part of the film (which can probably be explained by alleged producerās intervention in his ideas), especially in action scenes that have a lot of attractive camera work. Philippe Leroy is OK in the title role (there have been a lot of worse lead roles in spaghettis), and Adolfo Celi is great as a Bond-style Iāll-kill-you-later-after-we-play-this-game villain. However, it should be said that the film is not too original. It is yet another spaghetti western with a story taken from Fistful of Dollars. Some things are thrown out (no 2 gangs, only 1, no family with which we empathize), but thereās the gravedigger and the boy again. The stripping down doesnāt help the plot, it wonāt be overly intriguing to anyone who wonāt look for the subtext.
Yankee has been updated to the new layout (3.0). Let us know if you can add anything: pictures, posters, trivia, facts, figures, links, etcā¦
New poll for this one at the top of the page, for those still interested.