San Sebastian

The film has a good theme and set in quite genuine historical settings. It brings out the conflict between the indians and the settlers, the poor settlers and the ruling elite. It packs in quite some punch on the action category.

A spaghetti western surprise with Anthony Quinn as a "priest" and Charles Bronson as a Mestizo malcontent.

The movie has a theme, a developed plot, some actors with charisma and an Ennio Morricone score. That's more than most movies give you, regardless of genre.

I was pleased to find that Spaghettiville isn't a one-horse (Eastwood/Leone) town.

8 out of 10.

Anthony Quin plays Leon Alastray, part time revolutionary and full time bandit, on the run from the Spanish authorities in Old Mexico in the 18th Century. Through a series of unlikely but possible events, Quinn is mistaken for a priest whom has come to the small village of San Sebastian. The villagers are being victims by Jaime Fernandez and his band of Yacquis. Charles Bronson plays (badly, worst performance of his career) a half-breed whose loyalties are always suspect. Anjanette Comely, er Comer, plays the sultry love interest. Rather silly story, good cinematography, fairly good special effects, and outstanding music (by the master, Ennio Morricone) makes this a worthwhile view. Turner Classic Movies shows it in letterbox. Otherwise, you are out of luck. It's not available in video.

Over the years I seemed to have missed this great picture with Anthony Quinn, Charles Bronson, Sam Jaffe and Anjanette Comer. At first I was not sure if I was going to like this picture because Sam Jaffe,(Father Joseph),"The Dunwich Horror",'70, gave the impression it was going to be a long boring film about the struggles of a poor priest in the desert. I was soon fooled as Anthony Quinn,(Leon Alastray),"The Shoes of the Fisherman",'68 is befriended by Father Joseph and at one point takes over the church and rings the bell of the church to summon the local people who are hiding in the hills. Leon Alastray meets up with Anajanette Comer,(Kinita),"The Baby",'73, who has very deep romantic feels for Leon and wants to make love, however, Leon is overwhelmed with a strong religious feeling and is unable to cooperate. There is lots of action battles and even a cannon gets into the action along with plenty of arrows flying through the air. It is a very entertaining film and Anthony Quinn had me laughing in quite a few parts of the film.

The movie begins bad with some bad story-flow and also the rest of the movie suffers from this, though the movie definitely gets better as the movie progresses. In the beginning it isn't too clear were the movie is heading to and the movie makes a pretty formulaic and redundant impression. However from the moment on when the main character arrives in San Sabastian, the story gets developed well and becomes interesting and original. This certainly ain't no formulaic spaghetti western. The movie gets multiple layered, when it concentrates on the divine. It helps the characters to develop well and the story to become interesting. The movie certainly shows some parallels to the movie "The Mission", even though it isn't as beautifully and professionally made.

It doesn't seem like it at first but the movie becomes surprisingly action filled toward the ending, with some quite big scale battles. Also the ending most certainly does not disappoint.

The movie has some good actors that help to flesh out the flat characters. Anthony Quinn is a good main lead and he makes the moral change his character goes through seem believable. Charles Bronson plays a good movie villain, though his character is perhaps a bit underused. Further more the movie features Sam Jaffe, once again in the role of a Christian.

The directing isn't much good, since the story-flow of the movie is quite poor at times, which is also due to some bad editing. Nevertheless the movie is filled with some memorable and great looking sequences, although it's also definitely true that most of those sequences are being uplifted by the musical score by Ennio Morricone.

Definitely worth seeing if you get the chance.

7/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/