gavin6942 Unofficial lawman John Corbett (Lee VanCleef) hunts down Cuchillo Sanchez (Tomas Milian), a Mexican peasant accused of raping and killing a 12-year-old girl."The Big Gundown" hit American theaters thanks to the success of Sergio Leone's Clint Eastwood films. Despite being made before "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", it was that film's power that attracted people to "Gundown" and star Lee VanCleef. Unfortunately, the folks at Columbia did not give the film the respect it deserved and tried to pass it off as a film starring "Mr. Ugly" (who was actually Eli Wallach, not VanCleef, showing how little they cared).Ennio Morricone, the biggest name in Italian composing, provides the score and it is among his best work. Actor Milian was actually Cuban, not Mexican, but he filled the role as well as anyone could (and starred in two more Sergio Sollima westerns in 1967 and 1968).Through Grindhouse releasing, the film is now available on DVD and Blu-ray, completely uncut, looking sharp and sounding great. There are interviews with Sollima and Milian, as well as a complete commentary from Western authority C. Courtney Joyner. If the film itself were not enough, the booklet has a few essays and a bonus CD contains Morricone's entire soundtrack.

Spikeopath La resa dei conti (The Big Gundown) is directed by Sergio Sollima and written by Sollima and Sergio Donati. It stars Lee Van Cleef, Tomas Milian, Walter Barnes and Gerard Herter. Music is by Ennio Morricone and cinematography by Carlo Calini.Superior Spaghetti Western with shades of Zapata for good measure, The Big Gundown finds Van Cleef as bounty hunter - cum - unofficial lawman Jonathan Corbett, whose reputation for bringing in the criminals, dead or alive, has caught the attention of business baron Brockston (Barnes). With an interest in getting into politics, Corbett is sold on Brockston's offer of political help if he will do a job for him. The job is to hunt down a Mexican rogue by the name of Cuchillo (Milian) who is alleged to have raped and murdered a 12 year old girl. Tracking Cuchillo across the land, the Mexican proves to be a slippery customer, and more importantly, Corbett begins to doubt the veracity of the charges against him.Adios Amigo.What do you need for a great Italo Western? A leading man with screen presence supreme? Check! Rogue antagonist able to overact opposite the leading man whilst still exuding charm personified? Check! Scorching vistas? Check! A musical score so in tune with the story it's a character all by itself? Check! And violence? Check! Sollima's movie has it all.Much of the film is about the manhunt and how the two men involved develop a relationship. Cuchillo claims he's being set up and seems to have friends in every town featured in the play. Corbett is a dandy with a gun, but he's not perfect, he can be outsmarted and get caught cold. There's good thought gone into the screenplay in this respect, not putting the anti-hero up as an infallible superman.Then there's the side-bar narrative strands that show Sollima's political bent, even though this is hardly a heavily politico piece. From class struggles and racism, to asides on the justice system and the fat cats who operate around the system, Sollima does enjoy dangling such carrots. With zippy set pieces fuelled by brooding machismo that is in turn enhanced by the top work from Carlini and Morricone (it's one of Moricone's best scores, real dynamite), this is grade "A" Spaghetti and well worth feasting on. 9/10

oOgiandujaOo_and_Eddy_Merckx Wow, this jaded viewer has finally been convinced that there's a spaghetti western out there to match Leone's in craft. The Big Gundown is a beautiful and florid movie that has a protean narrative, playing with sympathies, exploring sexuality and eroticism, being downrightly philosophical at times, and always fun.There's a scene in Robert Bresson's movie Lancelot du Lac, a movie where you mostly see big-headed though slightly vague and navel-gazing Arthurian knights, where one peasant prophesises to another that, "He whose footfalls precede him will die within a year." "Even if they're his horse's steps?" "Even then. he whose footsteps proceed him shall die within a year". It's a moment's contrast that illuminates the whole movie. Remarkable strange to see that sort of moment pop up in a spag. There's a scene where Corbett enters a bordello to question a prostitute, he barges into the place, and a ponchoed local moves to the side and around him, without anger, like one of these ephemeral shoal fish, flashing out of the way of a tuna. The next guy in the room looks at him with the same sort of understanding, in the manner of a person who treads softly. The meek shell inherit the earth.It's a film that's often boldly homoerotic, with guns very much positioned in as phallic a manner as possible, and a suggestive shot of three bullets superimposed on three men's groins. The "thorn" scene between Cuchilio and Corbett heightens this impression quite a bit and the men never seem quite at home with women.It has a similar sort of mythic feel to it that is often commented on with Leone. There's this weird predestination that sees protagonist and antagonist separate and meet up in the most unlikely of manners. It's one of the most surreal movies I've seen for a while, particularly the part where the bull wrangling takes place, eroticism incarnated, made all the more weird because it positively looks like the grass has been painted green.The only thing that I felt it lacked was a score that matched those of the second two "Dollars" movies. It was Morricone again, good, but not the same deal.

classicsoncall One of the things I like about the IMDb is reading the reviews of serious fans who often offer even more perspective than the film itself. For this picture, I would direct you to the reviews of FilmFlaneur and MARIO GAUCI, who almost make me envious with their obvious passion and insight for the spaghetti genre. As for myself, the best I can muster is that I liked the picture, particularly as a vehicle for one of my favorites, Lee Van Cleef. By now I've seen him in so many variations of the Western genre, that his presence is almost expected. That would include a guest appearance in just about every classic TV Western series at least once.So even though this is one of the better Italian Westerns I've seen, I had to scratch my head over the treatment the script gave to hero Corbett (Van Cleef). Not only was he bushwhacked from behind by a thirteen year old girl, but he was also bamboozled by a phony snake bite gimmick engineered by the nominal villain Cuchillo (Tomas Milian). That bothered me, because even as a layman, I could tell that wasn't a poisonous snake, so a desert traveler like Corbett should have known it too. That was a little weak.As for Cuchillo himself, I thought it pretty odd that he would play into the story planted about his being a child rapist and murderer. Always on the run and barely eluding Corbett a number of times, his actions did more to convey guilt than the final resolution would ultimately suggest. However the big gundown of the finale is worth the wait, and aptly involves not one, not two, but three showdowns that bring together the film's principals, somewhat in the manner of "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly". If you think about it, this one had the three of those as well.