Requiem pour Gringo

A fairly successful Euro western, DUEL IN THE ECLIPSE occupies a fairly middling position in the sub-genre, its quality eclipsed (pun intended) by the Leone classics along with the endless Django and Sartana films. This is a Spanish/Italian co-production with plenty of weird style to recommend it, although it's not quite as weird as CAPTAIN APACHE! The film was made on the cheap and it shows, and yet it holds a certain charm despite the deficiencies present. Square-jawed Canadian star Lang Jeffries plays a gunslinger clad in a leopardskin who makes it his job to take out a gang of sadistic ruffians led by the boorish Fernando Sancho. The presence of an expect black-clad shooter allows the film it's German title, REQUIEM FOR DJANGO, although the original title was the more generic REQUIEM FOR A GRINGO.

DUEL IN THE ECLIPSE was directed by a pair of Spaniards who are better known to fans of the Euro-horror film; Jose Luis Merino made the excellent Gothic horror shocker KILLERS OF THE CASTLE OF BLOOD, while Eugenio Martin handled the all-time classic HORROR EXPRESS. Thus the film's horrific and sometimes sadistic overtones are all the more welcome and the style generally makes this a winner, although there are some crucial mis-steps along the way (including an interlude with the zoom lens which must have made Jess Franco a happy man!). The storyline might be simple and familiar, but as a whole this is a workable western with some neat, unique elements, not least the titular event.

For some reason, the guide on my TV displays channels that I don't have access to, so it's beyond me what the point of that is. I don't know if they're just teasing me or what, but good thing I happened to discover this film when I was scrolling through. I thought the title sounded cool, so I went to see if it was available online. I'm glad it's on Plex, because I could definitely plan on watching this more than once. Ross Logan (Lang Jeffries), a celestial enthusiast whose favorite article of clothing is a leopard printed poncho, seeks to avenge the murder of his brother that was committed by a ruthless gang occupying a hacienda. The relationships of the supporting characters are also explored within the background of the main story, most notably the affair of Porfirio Carranza's (Fernando Sancho) girlfriend (Femi Benussi), the gang's leader, with one of his men, Tom Leader (Ruben Rojo). There was also a scene that implied an upcoming sexual encounter, between Logan and the female worker of the hotel where he's staying. Another woman named Nina (Marisa Paredes) is being mistreated by one of the gang members. She keeps trying to get away from him, and one of the times he catches her, he seems highly frustrated that she's not ready, and says something along the lines of he can't keep waiting. Whatever it is, it's something that makes her uncomfortable. The subtly of it leaves the audience to guess, so there's room for interpretation, but anyone older than 12 knows what he's referring to. So this film was actually quite racy. I loved the isolation, suspense, and the intense emotion. There's scenes where no one has to say anything, and you can feel the tension. Just as a warning though, the camera work towards the end might cause dizziness. I thought it made the movie feel cheap, as it only emphasized its low budget, but it wasn't enough to ruin the whole film. I just thought I'd put that out there for anyone who experiences vertigo.

Previous user comments posted for this movie have been mostly positive, which confuses me because I found the movie a real chore to sit through - and I normally love spaghetti westerns! True, the movie has a nice musical score, there's a wet t-shirt sequence, and the director occasionally manages to compose the stuff on the screen to produce striking images. But this good stuff in no way manages to compensate for the bad stuff. The characters are bad - the bad guys don't really ooze evil, and the good guy (who wears a ridiculous-looking leopard skin poncho) only makes a limited number of appearances. Most of the movie is composed of the characters endlessly talking, resulting in little action. And the little action there is is not only spoiled by dubbed gunshots that sound extraordinarily wimpy, but passionless direction. The end results are like eating cold spaghetti with no sauce.

Once sheared of twenty minutes, "Requiem for a Gringo" is now available to be seen in a full uncut version. Not that it's outrageously violent or sexually repugnant, it would appear some stiff backed suits back in the late 1960's had a bug where the sun doesn't shine.

This is a little treat for fans of Euro-Westerns of the 60's. Plot holds familiar traits, where a ruthless gang of scumbags terrorise locals and kill indiscriminately. Enter a lone stranger, Ross Logan/Django (Lang Jeffries), who after having been dealt a family mortal blow, sets about revenge - good job he is one seriously hard and smart dude!

Logan is a wonderful creation, he rides a mule, he wears a leopard skin poncho, and crucially he is a lover of astrology and uses it to define his life outcome (the best weather man in the history of Western genre cinema). There's a nice bit of splintered narrative used by directors Eugenio Martín and José Luis Merino here, while they also give the pic a supernatural vibe (Martin had his roots in horror).

Pic is full of macho brooding, murder death kills (splendid stunt work), scuzzy close ups, intense fights, beautiful girls (seriously, some of the prettiest girls ever in a Pasta/Paella Western), stunning Almeria location cinematography (Mario Pacheco) and some inventive camera work.

Very underseen, this may not be a high point in the genre, but it's certainly one that fans of such should be seeking out. One question though - how the hell did Lang Jeffries get to marry Rhonda Fleming? Must have been the gringo look that did it... 7/10

"Requiem para un gringo" is the kind of eurowestern that is hard to define. The main character is dressed in a Leopard suit...but he's also an Astrologist!!! Apart from that, the story is simple as in many westerns vengeance is the only point, but not the usual vengeance, I wont say much, don't want to spoil it...I gave you a clue already.

L. Merino, the director, was more interested in horror and sci-fi than in westerns, maybe that is why this film looks (and works) as an horror film in many moments, which makes it much more interesting and bizarre, the dialogues are somewhat silly, but the camera work is very rich and the acting is good enough, as you can imagine the movie is full of stereotypes as it was made in Spain in the late sixties "golden age" of Spanish westerns. Marisa Paredes (Pedro Almodovar's favorite actress) appears in this film (at the age of 18) more beautiful than ever, but also check out for other beautiful women...

Must say that I enjoyed the movie a lot. Don't miss this one if you have the chance.