Sergio Leone provided the idea for, produced and directed some of this entertaining spaghetti Western - the opening sequence in particular feels very Leone, if a derivative of Once Upon a Time in the West; ditto the ending shoot out. The plot is reminiscent of The Gunfighter with Henry Fonda as the top gunslinger who keeps getting hassled by challengers.
Terence Hill is the young up and comer who is a massive fan of Fonda and uses him to get his own revenge. There is an awful lot of voice over by Fonda at the end of this movie, which is an odd combination of Leone western and the more comical Terence Hill Westerns (eg the slapstick moment where Hill slaps people in the face).
Hill is a good looking guy with intense eyes, though for me he's no match for Henry Fonda. (This may be because I'm more familiar with Fonda). I felt it was a bit too convenient that the 150 man Wild Bunch posse taken on by Fonda and Hill at the end all carried dynamite in their pouches to enable them to be defeated.
Still, once I got used to the fact this wasn't pure Leone, and there wasn't gong to be a third big part on it (I felt it needed one), I found it reasonably entertaining. Ennio Morricone provided one of this best scores, there is a decent amount of action imaginatively staged, it has some sweep, and I enjoyed the Sam Peckinpah in jokes. (His name is on a tombstone).
No comments:
Post a Comment