Le Dernier Face à face

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!

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

Among those who know my tastes, many will be surprised that I say a spaghetti western is a masterpiece. Because I hate spaghetti westerns. I hate the pace, music, zooms and other camera angles, I hate actors, gun shots and fists fights sounds. I hate everything in spaghetti westerns, especially if they tell the exact same schemes which the American ones already bring to us. I speak of the good guys vs evil guys schemes. With the expected f...happy ending. BUT But if the spaghetti westerns bring us something different from the SCREENPLAY and ONLY the screenplay, such as this one or for instance THE GREAT SILENCE and a handful of others, with no happy f...endings, then I can be highly interested in spaghetti westerns. This said, I won't add much to the other comments, this film was a true delight for me. The topic reminded me James B Clark's ONE FOOT IN HELL or Spencer G Bennet's BOUNTY KILLER where the main characters - Alan Ladd for the first and Dan Duryea for the second - began as the good guys in the beginning and then slowly became bad as the story resumed. You had here very excellent character's study with a good focus on their psychology. And very sad stories too.

That's what I love. Nothing else.

"Face to Face" (1967), directed by Sergio Sollima, who made only three Spaghetti Westerns, all now considered classic in the genre, the other two being "The Big Gundown" (1966) and "Run Man, Run" (1968), is a great Western, Spaghetti or otherwise, with a trio of great performances from Gian Maria Volonté, Tomas Milian and William Berger.

The plot, an allegory on the rise of Fascism in Europe, concerns a sickly teacher from New England called Brad Fletcher (Volonté), who is kidnapped by by a wounded outlaw, Solomon "Beauregard" Bennet (Milian), and they form a friendship, and eventually Fletcher joins Bennet's gang, which unleashes Fletcher's inner "heart of darkness", while Bennet starts to question his role as a bandit.

With a potent script by Sergio Donati and himself, Sollima loads the screen with great action scenes, gunfights and duels, all the while showcasing Volonté's brilliant performance, as his character completely transforms for the wore, as Milian's role shows him going the exact opposite way. It is a stark tale of contrast, powered by an epic Ennio Morricone score (conducted by a composer of not inconsiderable talent, Bruno Nicolai), grand direction, and photography (by Emilio Foriscot and Rafael Pacheco) and editing (by Eugenio Alabiso), with art direction by Carlo Simi, who worked on Sergio Leone's masterly "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" (1966). A Spaghetti masterpiece, which is one for the Top 10 Western lists.