Leofwine_draca A spagwest classic and a combination of a LOT of talent both in front of and behind the camera, KEOMA stands true as one of the best spaghettis made in the 1970s and another feather in the hat of stylish director Enzo G. Castellari. Aside from the spectacular action which one comes to expect from a pro like Castellari, KEOMA offers an intelligent script, strongly-drawn characters and an intriguing story. Physically, the film is shot magnificently, mixing in sweeping vistas of lush plains with horses crossing them to painting a picture of a decayed and ruined town, full of fear, dirt and disease. Seeing this film in its original widescreen format is necessary to realise just how beautifully shot it is throughout. The dialogue is often snappy, with memorable one-liners and interesting character traits. Castellari takes us through the low points of pathos and tragedy to the high points of blazing justice and companionship and somehow keeps his film gripping throughout, even when nothing much is happening. This is all the more surprising when one knows of the pre-production chaos which resulted in a story being made up as it went along, with plentiful contributions from cast and crew members.Castellari regular Franco Nero is the bewigged Keoma, a supposed Indian half-breed. Nero puts in a typically strong performance, and is allowed to use his own voice to add to his portrayal of his layered character. Supporting cast members include old-timer William Berger, playing Nero's heroic dad, and Woody Strode in one of his finest parts as an alcoholic banjo-player subject to racism and hatred until Nero's presence returns him to his former fighting state. Olga Karlatos is the pregnant woman whom Nero rescues from certain death, whilst Donald O'Brien enjoys himself as the conniving chief villain. Genre vets like Giovanni Cianfriglia fill out the rest of the cast, and mention must go to the actors playing the three ambiguous half-brothers who are excellent.The film's only real flaw is with the wailing folk music, employing both shrill female vocals and Nero himself singing out-of-tune on the soundtrack! Sadly the music is far from the quality work of an Ennio Morricone score and extraordinarily irritating and/or grating in parts - the only detraction. Thankfully Castellari contributes some of his finest action ever directed, with plenty of slow motion deaths to behold, all amazingly crafted, and an extended fight sequence near the end of the film in which Nero, Berger, and Strode take on O'Brien's entire gang and very nearly beat the lot of them. This action features about a hundred bad guys getting wasted, including extra-cool points for Strode shooting men dead with his bow and arrow! Keep an eye out for the super-stylish auteur shots that Castellari includes, like the point-of-view shooting target and the four-finger victim count. With better music, this would have been a masterpiece; as it stands its only very good indeed.

gavin6942 A half-breed ex-Union gunfighter (Franco Nero) attempts to protect his plague-ridden hometown from being overridden by his racist half-brothers and a Confederate tyrant (Donald O'Brien).While participating in the filming of "21 Hours at Munich", Franco Nero was approached by his longtime friend and collaborator Enzo G. Castellari and producer Malono Bolognini on the proposition of appearing in a Spaghetti Western, despite dwindling demand for films of that genre. The original treatment was written by actor George Eastman and developed into a script by Mino Roli and Nico Ducci, neither of whom were experienced writers of Spaghetti Westerns.This ends up being one of the better latter-day spaghetti westerns, with great slow-motion fights, horses falling and everything that should be in a big budget western. There is a great examination of race -- both native Americans and more -- that is honest and fair. The one big down side, as others have pointed out, is the awful soundtrack. The score is alright, but every time someone sings it is just atrocious.

Scarecrow-88 Hated half-Indian Keoma returns from the war finding soldiers condemning plague-ridden townsfolk to quarantined camp, rescuing a healthy pregnant woman from being sent there. This decision doesn't bode well with the soldiers(accompanied by his rival half-brothers)and Keoma is often at odds with them trying to keep the woman out of the camp so that she can have her child in a more comfortable, less dangerous environment. With help from freed slave George, his mentor, and father William Shannon, Keoma will have to shoot it out with Caldwell's innumerable army who have been keeping supplies and medicine from the town and sick of the plague. Meanwhile, The Shannon trio plan to let Keoma and Caldwell kill each other in the hopes of taking over the town when those two are out of the way.Brilliantly utilizing Peckinpah slow motion to superb dramatic effect, along with some breathtaking tracking shots throughout, not to mention terrific lengthly gunfight between Keoma, his father, and George against Caldwell's endless army in the town, Enzo G Castellari crafts one hell of a western, further building the iconic status of Franco Nero as a formidable gunslinger hero. Enzo simply understands how to build a scene to it's crescendo, and his camera is able to capture so much, in terms of both exciting action and expressionistic faces of the many different characters who enter the picture. Heavy emphasis on musical influence to envelope the viewer, and Enzo's use of dusty wind(and rain at the end as Keoma is bound to a wheel overlooking the town)is phenomenal. Definitely an underrated western, and deserves to be more well known than it is. Woody Strode is such a welcome presence, as Keoma's idol, fallen into alcoholism, having sold his beloved bow to purchase liquor, now a laughingstock treated with ridicule. Olga Karlatos, even as a pregnant woman falling on hard times, is astonishingly beautiful as shot by Castellari, her face, like so many in the film, revealing so much without saying a word. I believe the greatest compliment to give to this movie is how Castellari arranges poetic scenes of characters communicating to each other through silence, eyes meeting yet speaking much louder than words(like the heartbreaking capture of William Shannon, by Caldwell, as Keoma knows he's defeated, only to witness a horrifying tragedy despite his surrender). William Berger, as Will Shannon, shares wonderful scenes with Nero, during their father and son chats, and their joining forces signifies their characters' love for one another. Gabriella Giacobbe has a fascinating part as "the witch" someone who reappears at various points in the film when Keoma is confronted with difficult tasks. Donald O'Brien is scoundrel Caldwell, a real dirtbag who uses his men to wield his power, with Orso Maria Guerrini, Antonio Marsina, and Joshua Sinclair as the Brothers Shannon. Castellari closes the film with the Brothers Shannon out to finally rid themselves of their lifelong nuisance, the gunfight juxtaposed with Karlatos' childbirth..it's kind of anti-climatic after all that preceded it, but we knew it would come down to this.

OldAle1 The mystical, eerie and rather sombre opening of this late (1976) entry into the Italian western cycle, with its at first somewhat confusing flashback structure and alternation of bright, colorful daylight and gloomy, dusty apocalyptic destruction, all dominated by the fierce old witch-woman who will keep reappearing in the film, might lead you to think you are in for a deep, metaphysical and narratively challenging experiment.Hold on, pardner! "Keoma" soon settles down into a fairly typical Civil War vet comes back to hometown taken over by bad guys/vet saves town all by his lonesome tale, and Keoma bears more than a little resemblance in attitude and wild appearance to plenty of cowboy antiheroes in the past. That's not to say it's boring or formulaic, because over that basic storyline there's plenty to marvel at: gorgeous photography, particularly in the bright daylight scenes, a terrific folk-rock score highlighted by a Leonard Cohen-type male vocalist, a typically solid performance by Franco Nero, and some interesting story touches like a plague that ravages the town (plague? yes) -- a town that seems ready to fall apart, more dreary and decayed even than the one Django rides through in the film of the same name. Keoma not only has to confront the evil gunslinger who has taken over the town, but his henchmen turn out to be Keoma's three half-brothers, and oh -- Keoma is a halfbreed Indian (yes, despite being blonde, blue-eyed and hairy-chested) and his best friend is a black man (the great Woody Strode, looking pretty good at the age of 62). The film doesn't really dig much into the racial aspects of the story, though it doesn't ignore them either. But it all really boils down to a couple of really terrific gunfights at the end, lots of slow-mo Sam Peckinpah-type action (but without much blood), a Christ-on-the-cross image, and a hero riding off into...bleakness? Death? Who knows. A perfect coda to the spaghetti, in any case.