My observation has been that there is a funhouse mirror relationship to reality in films.
For example, when viewing American films, people native to Asian cultures often notice that people often get up from bed and go to work without taking a shower, which would almost never happen in their culture. They think that all Americans […]
News
Oct
3
Reel Life vs Real Life
≡ Category: News, Talkin' Trash | ≅ Leave a Comment ≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus
Jan
26
The Big Gundown - The Hunter And The Hunted
≡ Category: Essential, Italy, Spaghetti Western | ≅ Leave a Comment ≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus
Country: Italy
Genre: Spaghetti Western
Director: Sergio Sollima
Year: 1966
Rating: 
TRASH CINEMA ESSENTIAL MOVIE
The Big Gundown has the reputation of being one of the very best spaghetti Westerns. It turns out that reputation is well earned.
The story seems simple enough at first. Cuchillo (Tomas Milian) is wanted for raping and murdering an 11 year old girl. Bounty hunter Jonathan Corbett (Lee Van Cleef) is sent after him by Brokston (Walter Barnes), a kingmaker who promises to make Corbett a Senator if he captures Cuchillo.
Even on the basis of this seemingly straightforward plot, the script by Sergio Donati, Sergio Sollima, Tulio Demicheli, Fernando Morandi, and Franco Solinas (incredibly, the screenplay plays like a unified vision instead of of mass confusion by committee) is superb. The dialog is cutting. The episodes, in which Cuchillo manages to evade Corbett time and time again, are witty and diverse.
Gradually, the screenplay starts to broaden and deepen. The writers ask us, “When does the pursuit of justice become vengeance?” and “How aggressively can you pursue law breakers before you become lawless yourself?” Sadly, these questions are more relevant than ever since the planes flew into the two towers. I’m thinking of extraordinary rendition and Bin Laden’s summary execution in Pakistan.
Not content with that, the writers start to question who the law serves. It is citizens in general or is the law a tool to be used by the wealthy to retain power and money by force?
I might be giving the impression that The Big Gundown is blatantly political but that is the opposite of the truth. The filmmakers bring up those questions in the process of making a ripsnorting Western. The script is incredibly economical. Not a word is wasted or unnecessary. No speechifying here.
Director Sergio Sollima, perhaps aware of what a great script he had, does a terrific job, too. The pacing is even. The action scenes have snap. The fights register as real fights in a time when fight choreography was at a very primitive stage. Sollima makes sure that when someone gets hit in the face or flattened by a charging bull, that they have the appropriate cuts and scrapes to show for it. And Sollima directs the actors well, too. There’s not a weak performance in the bunch.
The standout is clearly Tomas Milian as Cuchillo. The character is wily, underhanded, and a rascal. Milian makes him fully three dimensional and indecently entertaining. Lee Van Cleef gives some edge to Corbett. We understand how he could easily go to the dark side, the way Dick Cheney urged us to do in the aftermath of 911. Finally, Walter Barnes captures the slickness of a man of privilege, then and now.
The Big Gundown manages to give us an exciting, dramatic Western that is thoughtful as well. It all adds up to grand entertainment. Bravissimo!