Arde baby, arde

I love westerns, so I'm always excited when I come across one I haven't seen before. When I came across "Dead Aim", I was more pumped than usual because this was a Mexican western - I haven't seen that many movies from Mexico, and I was interested to see if it was a fresh spin on the genre. Well, it was... but in a *very* strange way. A lot of it is surreal - you can obviously see the influence of another Mexican western - "El Topo" on this movie, because there are several similar images and themes present. Also, this movie has a lot of atmosphere, with every scene coming across in a creepy or haunting fashion. But ultimately, the movie does not work - there are far too many unanswered questions from the very beginning to the ending. Still, I'll admit that I am glad I saw this movie, because it's unlike any other western I've seen. If you do decide to watch it, try to find a widescreen version, since the pan-and-scan print I saw is very awkward at times.

Here's a spaghetti western that barely gets a paragraph in Thomas Weisser's excellent overview of the genre---it's THAT obscure. Much to my delight, the film is far better than Weisser's brief synopsis implies. Lucky Johnny (as a child) is rescued by an undertaker just as a rattlesnake is about to pounce. The two of them go about their ghoulish business until they decide it's time to strike it rich. There are two intriguing subplots involving a pair of down on their luck stage robbers and a black cavalryman who is victimised by greedy bounty hunters. The film was originally shot in Panavision, and even the crummy pan and scan TV version I caught couldn't obscure some outstanding cinematography. Topped off with a fine score, highlighted by an excellent (uncredited) 70s soul song over the end credits, Lucky Johnny is another obscuro film waiting to be rediscovered by our good friends at Anchor Bay. I'll be first in line for the DVD.

Fans of Heavy Metal series "Hombre" by Antonio Segura, Luc Besson's "Le Dernier Combat", or the cult classic "Zachariah" looking for a similar romp in the hay from a movie will find this strange euro spaghetti western to be a pleasure to their violent and strange taste. It quickly establishes our anti-hero Johnny--who is an uncanny double for Peter Fonda in Clint Eastwood garb, from a babe in the desert with one of the coolest violent beginnings to a film since "The Sorcerer" with Roy Schieder, to a young gunslinger adopted by the area's undertaker. I won't detail the plot because I think for most of us who will enjoy the movie the mystery of what will happen next, and what rogue's gallery of characters will be added, are the whole reason for watching. This movie really does take some strange turns as it wanders through the desert underworld. One should probably suspend disbelief, fore continuity, rationality, character motivation, and Oscar performances this film does not have. However, in the world it creates for that 90 minutes, everything makes complete sense. For a time this film is showing on Joox.

About the only thing I liked in Dead Aim was its highly logical and original notion that out on the great plains and deserts there were a lot of people who would succumb to the elements or to violence where there would be no one to bury them. That's where James Westerfield comes in, the traveling undertaker who buries folks. His job must have taken a certain amount of nerve because in the case of several of them they could really have been ripe.

So traveling undertaker Westerfield in his final film role finds a toddler on a desert and saves him from a rattlesnake. The kid who lost his parents, father to a robber, mother to the desert, grows up to be Glen Lee. He serves as Westerfield's assistant and in the meantime learns some skill with a colt. And then of course he becomes a source for Westerfield's trade.

Being on in the desert his education has been neglected in certain matters so when he catches sight of Venetia Vianello, he decides to pursue the areas he's been lacking. The fact she belongs already to Virgil Frye does complicate things and serves as the basis for the rest of the story.

This was a Mexican production that aspired to pasta status, but fails to meet even those standards. It's got some dull stretches in it and a musical score which does not measure up to that which you hear in spaghetti horse operas.

There are a lot of fine south of the border westerns which you can catch occasionally on Spanish language television in the USA. Dead Aim just isn't one of them.

This Mexico / U.S. film is reminiscent of "spaghetti westerns" of the late '60s and '70s. It has the same cinematic style and emphasis on a winding, convoluted, and somewhat ridiculous plot, decorated by a lot of very accurate gunfighting.

This was James Westerveld's (a talented character actor) last film, and his performance is no disappointment. Westerveld co-stars in support of relative unknown Glen Lee. Lee's character - "Johnnie" - is a psychological case-study. Applebee (Westerveldt) rescues him from a rattler right after Johnny is orphaned in the desert in the spectacularly disorienting opening scenes. As it turns out, Johnny has an almost mystical connection with his gun and becomes Applebee's bodyguard as Applebee raises Johnny like a son. Applebee is an itinerant mortician. With this set up, the plot possibilities seem unlimited - and they are explored nicely! Dead Aim, despite the lightweight title, is a fine little western. the cinematography is good, the acting is good, and the story is entertaining. The script suffers a little from translation, but even this helps give the story and characters a slightly "off" feeling -which is very appropriate given the story-line.

I do not know much about the short-lived Jose Bolanos - who directed this - but I will keep an eye out for therest of his films now that I have seen this.

Recommended for fans of '70s westerns.