Deadlock

Deadlock is a metaphysical western filmed in a dust-trap out in the Negev desert. It's an effective homage to Leone though very much its own film as well. A couple of guys pull off a heist and make their separate ways out to the desert to hole up until attention has died down. There are three inhabitants of the small mining town, Dump who has some sort of caretaker role in relation to the disused mine, Jessy a young girl, and Corinna, an older lady, each waltzing with their own personal oblivions, as crazy as you like. There's a cartoonish element to most murder in the movies, but the first part of this movie rather emphasises how difficult it is to kill someone, how you have to go against all the hardwiring in your head that says not to. So when the violence does happen, it hits home pretty hard. It's a tough movie, with no happiness at all, filled with loneliness, and it sort of hints at the impossibility of friendship and the abject selfishness baked into us all. For me it felt like watching it was a spiritual exfoliation.

"Deadlock" came as something of a surprise as I only bothered to hunt down a copy because of the inclusion of Can on the soundtrack. While Can's contributions are quite notable -- their music works perfectly with the stark imagery -- the film itself holds up quite well on its own. Shot almost entirely in the desert, the filmmakers make use of the threadbare environment and utilize it to heighten the sense of isolation and persecution which propel the characters of the film. Slightly overlong at 92 minutes, "Deadlock" is nevertheless well worth investigating.

In the immensity of the desert, three men dispute a suitcase full of money.

A German western spaghetti, in the form of homage to one of the greatest classics in cinema (The Good, The Bad and The Ugly).

It lacks the mystique and mood of the film that inspires it, but doesn't become a cheap copy, has its own personality and that's good.

It's interesting for fans of the genre, and can even be considered superior to some american westerns, when we talk about the score and the way it plays an important role in the story itself.

The cinematography is also pretty good, to be honest.

It's dark, with a lack of joy or hope, showing that excessive ambition and selfishness lead the human being to commit the most perverse acts.

The movie is so slow paced that you may not like how it evolves. It also only has a few characters and a very contained location setting. But if you buy into it and do not mind that it tends to get violent, tends to have weird characters to say the least and sounds like it has been dubbed (the english allegedly original audio) - then you will have a movie that will have your attention from start to finish.

I really dug the weirdness of it, the setting, the character quirks and how it went on with the intertacting and backstabbing. Certain things are quite predictable - which may be because I've seen quite a few movies and because they rely on cliches too. Still a low budget sort of western, that might be able to tickle you in all the right places. Be aware of what this is and how its pace is and mood are ... and decide for yourself

I only wanted to check this so to hear how the music of "The" Can had been used and was surprised to see that the answer was: very effectively .... never really thought of Can's tunes as filmic despite the album Soundtracks but yes and very good here

The film is mostly to me interesting because of the landscapes we are informed The Negev in Israel sometime after the 6-day War; there is great use of a broken-handed wooden advertising board and many other cool touches photographic and landscape-driven

The actual tale is duller than dishwater the acting fairly good but not memorable

All in all would rate it a five or a six.