La resa dei conti

This is the original installment from Cuchillo trilogy and again an awesome Tomas Milian . This is the first part from Sergio Sollima trilogy, starred by Tomas Milian, as the roguish Cuchillo and formed by ¨Face to face¨ with Gian Maria Volonte and ¨Run Cuchillo run ¨ with Donald O'Brien and this one . It deals with Jonathan Corbett , a real-life character well played by Lee Van Cleef , who pursues a Mexican bandit accused of rape and murder . The solitary , self-reliant Corbett tracks down Cuchillo who is wrongly accused of killing . The relentless chase is set against strong environment , risked mountains and hazardous trails. Later on , the dangerous pursuit includes a motley posse formed by Walter Barnes, Angel Del Pozo , Gerard Herter , among others . Now as absolute starring Tomas Milian , nicknamed Cuchillo , and supported by Lee Van Cleef as an obstinate pursuer . It will be a long and dangerous pursuit with continuous getaways . It's set during early Mexican revolution with Benito Juarez ruling . And the Cuban Thomas Milian, as usual, puts faces, grimaces, crying and overacting, but plays splendidly.

This Zapata-Western is superior than subsequent entries because it displays stirring adventures, shootouts, riding pursuits and is pretty amusing. It's an exciting S. W. with breathtaking showdown between the protagonists Lee Van Cleef , Tomas Milian and the nasty enemies as Walter Barnes and his hoodlums as Angel Del Pozo and the German officer Gerard Herter . Tomas Milian is very fine, he ravages the screen, he jumps, hit and run , besides receiving violent punches, kicks and wounds . Gerard Herter playing a cruelly baddie role as Prussian baron with monocle is terrific , subsequently the would play similar role in other Spaghettis . Furthermore, it appears usual secondaries of Italian/Spanish Western as the femme fatal Nieves Navarro or Susan Scott as a black widow , in addition a lot of familiar paella faces as Robert Camardiel ,Lorenzo Robledo, Luis Barboo , Fernando Bilbao, Barta Barry , Frank Braña and , of course, Fernando Sancho in his ordinary role as a bully Mexican . The film blends violence, blood, tension , high body-count and it's fast moving and quite entertaining. There is plenty of action in the movie , guaranteeing shootouts or stunts every few minutes. There are many fine technicians and nice assistant direction and excellent production design by Carlo Simi , Sergio Leone's usual , he creates a magnificent scenario with barren outdoors, dirty landscapes under a glimmer sun and a fine set on the final scenes . As always , the musician Ennio Morricone, composes a nice Spaghetti soundtrack and well conducted ; it's full of guttural sounds and emotive score . Interior filmed at Elios Studios and outdoor sequences filmed at Tabernas , Cinecitta Studios , Rome and of course Almeria, Spain.

Sergio Sollima's direction is well crafted, here he's less cynical and humorous and more inclined toward violence and too much action. Colorful and evocative cinematography by Carlo Carlini , reflecting marvelously the habitual Almeria outdoors . The picture was well directed by Sollima , it would be his last Western and following directing successes such as Pirate films as ¨ Sandokan ¨ and the ¨Black Corsario¨ . Rating : Better than average Western . Essential and indispensable watching for Spaghetti Western aficionados .

As a big fan of Spaghetti Westerns, two of my all-time favorite directors are Sergio Leone and Sergio Corbucci. Out of all Spaghetti Westerns directed by neither Leone, nor Corbucci, Segio Sollima's "La Resa Dei Conti" aka. "The Big Gundown" is my personal favorite, and doubtlessly one of the greatest films the genre has ever brought forth. An exciting and extremely stylish film with brilliantly drawn characters, "The Big Gundown" is a masterly Spaghetti Western with a political message.

Jonathan Corbett (Lee Van Cleef), a famous gunman and bounty hunter, is sent to hunt down a Mexican small-time crook named Cuchillo Sanchez (Tomas Milian), who is accused of the rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl. Corbett is an experienced and successful lawman, but Cuchillo is very clever too. On the his long hunt Corbett gets to know Cuchillo, whose guilt he finds more and more doubtful. Although this is a very serious Spaghetti Western in most of its parts, there are some very funny characters, like the almost cartoonish aristocratic Austrian gunman Baron Von Schulenberg (Gérard Herter), a cold-blooded but extremely arrogant and almost Nazi-ish killer wearing a monocle and always looking neat as a pin.

Sergio Sollima's directing is truly outstanding. The acting is also great, especially the brilliant performances of Tomas Milian and Lee Van Cleef, two of my personal favorite actors. The score by Ennio Morricone is one of a kind, outstanding, even compared to most of the other Morricone soundtracks. In one ingenious part of the movie, for example, Morricone mixes Ludwig Van Beethoven's "Für Elise" with a Mexican guitar and his typical dynamic Spaghetti Western drums. The cinematography and settings are overwhelming in a manner that is en par with Leone. In short: "The Big Gundown" is a formidable gem that even Leone would be proud of, and an Italian Western highlight that no lover of the genre could possibly afford to miss! 10/10

Here we have two legendary actors together, the stereotyped Lee Van Cleef & Tomas Millian, the first a true American from New Jersey that went to stardom after working with the master Sergio Leone, Tomas Millian a Cuban that made an impressive career at Italy and Spain on spaghetti genre although both had a fine experience on Italian Poliziotteschi on the seventies.

As strange as it may seems Lee Van Cleef plays a good guy Jonathan Colorado Corbett, a bounty hunter that swept the western territory of those outlaws, bank robbers and related, such striking performance impresses the greedy and wealthy financier Brokston (Walter Barnes) that is willing underwrite Corbett to run of the senate's seat, however appears an unexpected sad news, a twelve years old girl was raped and murdered by a Mexican outlaw called Cuchillo (Tomas Millian), they require to Corbett bring him alive to be punished rather than he cross the Mexico frontier.

The savvy Corbett finds him sooner than he had ever hope, Cuchillo was calmly shaving at a small village, nonetheless the slippery cat burglar escapes with rare smartness, the next stop is a Mormon's wagon train passing by the river area, Corbett finds him about to rape another young girl, once more Cuchillo has a lucky at his side, the young girl shot at Corbett's shoulder, next meeting at widow farmer where the dirtiest runaway at last was arrested, meantime all it took was a small slip up for the cunning outlaw slips away, a new rallying point takes place in a desert waterhole, where the crafty bandolero sticks a cactus's thorn at Corbett's back pretending a snake's bite that is near him, what scene, anyway Cuchillo still gets running over and over until weary confess that he wasn't rape the girl whatsoever, although he knows who did.

Isn't all that Tarantino regards this movie one the best spaghetti ever, the both leading actors had a flawless performance, the final showdown is priceless , the director Sergio Sollima lived up at Leone's style, I'll look forward for a better restoration preserving the fabulous Aspect Ratio 2.35 : 1, due my copy was of the first generation of DVD!!



Thanks for reading.

Resume:

First watch: 1993 / How many: 2 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 8

Retired sheriff is persuaded by a politician to come back and hunt down a Mexican who has raped and murdered a twelve year old girl but he slowly realises the Mexican has been framed to cover up the real murderer. Good, stylish spaghetti western,this is the longer uncut version of the film and not the hacked up Amercian version that lost nearly twenty minutes of footage.This has a rather slow start and develops into a chase movie in a kind of western version of "the fugitive".Lee Van Cleef is his usual dependable self and the Ennio Morricone soundtrack is good although i'm not sure about the screeching title song!Film is good and satisfies overall.

In this Italian spaghetti western from director Sergio Sollima, Lee Van Cleef stars as "Colorado" Corbett, a feared bounty hunter looking to hang up his guns. He's convinced by rich fat-cat Brockston (Walter Barnes) to go on one more manhunt, and in exchange he'll be rewarded with backing for a potential political career. Corbett's quarry is a Mexican known as "Cuchillo" (Tomas Milian), who's accused of sexual assault and murder. What Corbett believes will be an easy takedown turns ever more complicated and dangerous. Also featuring Nieves Navarro, Gerard Herter, Maria Granada, Roberto Camardiel, and Angel del Pozo.

This has the usual over-blown sound effects and striking musical score (courtesy of Ennio Morricone) that I love in spaghetti westerns. The story doesn't hold a lot of surprises, but fans of the spaghetti sub-genre should dig it.

I try to avoid promoting individual products, but in this case of the Grindhouse Releasing Blu-ray, it is a fantastic release featuring the remastered American cut on both Blu-ray and DVD, the original Italian version on Blu-ray, and a CD of the soundtrack. The film discs also include commentary tracks and interviews with cast and crew.