Faccia a faccia

Faccia a facia (Face to face) is directed by Sergio Sollima and Sollima co-writes the screenplay with Sergio Donati. It stars Gian Maria Volontè, Tomas Milian and William Berger. Music is by Ennio Morricone and cinematography by Emilio Foriscot and Rafael Pacheco.

Brad Fletcher (Volontè), a New England professor, is plagued by ill health and is advised to relocate to the West for better climate conditioning. Once in Texas he is unfortunately taken hostage by wounded outlaw Beauregard Bennet (Milian), the result of which begins a turning of the character based tables...

Sergio Sollima followed his excellent La resa dei conti (The Big Gundown) with this similar, if more complex, classic piece of spag cinema. Often cited as a picture with deep political motives, which Sollima denied, it really is in simplified terms a story about a good man going bad and a bad man going good. There are of course political and social observations, coming as it does down in the South post the Civil War, while some of the literate philosophising rewards more on subsequent revisits to the pic.

Very talky for sure, it does however contain some superb action sequences, particularly in the last quarter, which in turn is crowned by a very Leonesque finale of quality framing. The trio of lead actors, each a Spag Western legend, are on superb form, while Sollima and his cinematographers provide an epic location based scope to the piece. Be sure to not see any abridged or dubbed version, see it only in its full length with natural Italian accompanied by the various subtitle options. 8/10

This Italian western is often mentioned as one which is well known for having political undertones, specifically a storyline that is an allegory on the rise of fascism and the then current Vietnam War. While it's certainly true that you could make these interpretations if you look deep enough, you really need to be looking for them and the film works just fine without these readings. It's about a professor who moves from the urban east coast to Texas to retire for health reasons and immediately becomes involved with a bandit who is on the run from the law. As the story progresses their partnership results in a transformation between the two where the good guy's behaviour gets worse and the bad guy develops a conscience.

It was directed by the third Sergio of the spaghetti western genre, Sergio Sollima; the other two being Leone and Corbucci. He directed three well received westerns in total, including the impressive The Big Gundown (1966). Like that one, this one features the talented actor Tomas Milian in another shifty role, in this case as the bandit. He is joined by another two regulars of the genre in William Berger, playing a character based on a real life Pinkerton detective, and Gian Maria Volonté, most famous for his two highly memorable turns in the first two films in Leone's 'Dollars Trilogy'. Volonté is especially good here in a role that shows how good an actor he is. It's his character's transformation from meek intellectual to callous gang-leader that really drives the narrative. His performance, along with Milian's, is very convincing and illustrates how easy it is to cross a line and become immoral. It's this aspect in particular where the fascism allegory comes from, while the massacre of a group of innocents later in the film echoes the events in Vietnam. As well as being a well-acted and directed affair, it has a good script and another impressive score from Il Maestro himself, Ennio Morricone. Needless to say, when you have all these ingredients coming together you are left with a great western, which is certainly enhanced by having more going on under the surface than most.

There are few Italian westerns that have more satisfaction for the viewer in my mind than 'Faccia a Faccia' does, Intelligent, fluid characterizations with shifting moral sands, there is nothing typical or predictable about this film. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Morricone's soundtrack is one of his best as well.

Volante & Milan both are excellent but it's really Volante's character arc that drives the narrative & he is top notch in every respect. Highly recommended film that should be on every serious spaghetti western film fan's top 10 list IMO. It's a fairly complex film for the genre & challenges the viewer on many levels. Intelligent film making within the confines of the genre. Don't miss it!

Imaginative weren't the main qualities of the spaguetti genre, but this really surprised me entirely for an unprecedented plot where the real logic defy the common sense for us, where an intellectual professor played by Gian Maria Volonté starts a backward moviment, changing slowly to worst among of the criminal gang lead by a bloody guy called "Beau" the unmatched Tomas Milian, the professor under the wings of the chief is increasingly getting worse and finally becomes a dangerous mind, also has the great actor William Berger as a disguised Pinkerton's agent to get them, Solima made an upper classic italian western without american stars, accomplished with success!!!

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First watch: 2019 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 8.25

Sergio Sollima's Faccia a faccia (1967) is a very great Italian western with the genre icons Tomas Milian and Gian Maria Volonte. A seemingly "good" teacher, a professor (Volonte), gets by coincidence on the same path with a seemingly "bad" and infamous bandit (Milian) only to see how hollow and meaningless those terms are, used alone, without the other, the opposite. The way how both characters begin to change (the professor away from his usual, sophisticated environment and society) is very believable and well-written with the development that steps on the all necessary steps, not jumping from one point to another and thus making it all very unnatural: when an unexpected character does something against his "persona", it has been well argumented by the previous happenings and words. Like in the masterpiece western Il grande silenzio (Sergio Corbucci, 1968), there are no entertaining heroes that end up killing the "bad guy" in a spectacular finale. Sollima concentrates on the dualism of the human nature and the fact how easy, in the right circumstances, it is to change and cross the line, for every human being, no matter what the past or status in society. And he does it very well, both script-wise and image-wise.

The imagery and compositions are great, intelligent and use the whole aspect ratio very carefully. Sollima uses some very low and radical angles very effectively, to make the imagery as rich as possible. The actors are professionals and both leads possess perfect faces for their roles. The soundtrack by Ennio Morricone is once again very pleasing but not among his greatest works, like in the mentioned film by Corbucci, or several films by Sergio Leone. This is simply a fantastic western from the time very many were made, after the success of Leone's first film with Clint Eastwood in 1964, A Fistful of Dollars. Corbucci's Il grande silenzio is even more stunning in its visuality and silent despair, but after all Sollima's film's statement isn't any more positive, untrue and calculated, in other words.