Le Dernier Face à face

Spaghetti with Chorizo Western co-produced by Italy (Alberto Grimaldi , P.E.A Productions , which financed ¨¨The Dollars trilogy) and Spain (Arturo Gonzalez who co-produced ¨For a few dollars more) . This is the original second installment from Cuchillo trilogy and again an awesome Tomas Milian accompanied by an extraordinary Gian Maria Volonte . Very good S.W. about a relentless and exciting confrontation set against spectacular scenery of Almeria . History teacher named Brad Fletcher (Gian Maria Volonte) heads Texas for his health, but falls in with Soloman Bennett's (Tomas Milian) bandit group . Fascinated by their way of life , Fletcher finally takes over the band , leading a sad event and cruel happenings . Turned into a ruthless outlaw Fletcher makes rush deeds , showing that not always a good action produces good results . Solomon 'Beauregard' Bennet is a roguish thief and being pursued by Charlie Siringo (William Berger) . Charlie chases the band called ¨Manada Salvaje¨ ; as the solitary , self-reliant Siringo tracks down Solomon . It will be a long and dangerous pursuit with continuous escapes and double-crosses . The relentless chase is set against strong environment, risked mountains and hazardous trails .

This is the second part from Sergio Sollima trilogy , starred by Tomas Milian as the roguish ¨Cuchillo¨ and formed by ¨La Resa Dei Conti¨, or ¨The big Gundown¨ or ¨ The hawk and the prey¨ with Lee Van Cleef and ¨Run Cuchillo run ¨ with Donald O'Brien and this one , all of them belong among the best Spaghetti . It deals with Solomon , splendidly performed by Tomas Milian , he is fine as the hero/villain of the story . Tomas Milian is very nice , he ravages the screen, he jumps, bounds and leaps, hit and run , besides receives violent punches, kicks and wounds . His performance is astonishing , above average to level of these films . The story is wrapped in an aura of sadness , a tragic event on the metamorphosis of Fletcher , a good man turned into a crazed psychopath , being magnificently interpreted by Gian Maria Volonte . Worthwhile watching for a demonstration of the strange relationship between Tomas Milian and Gian Maria Volonte with some looks that say it all . William Berger is the tough but upright law-man and although he doesn't reaches the level of Milian , is also quite restrained . Charlie Siringo was an actual personage who really existed and did what the character in the film does , as he worked as an agent for Pinkerton , being well played by William Berger . This Western is superior than subsequent entry because it packs stirring adventures , shootouts, riding pursuits , treason and is pretty amusing . It's an exciting SW with breathtaking showdown between the protagonists Tomas Milian , Gian Maria Volonte , William Berger and the hoodlums enemies as Rick Boyd , Goffredo Unger , Ivan Scratuglia , Alfonso Rojas , Aldo Sambrell , among others . Aldo Sambrell plays a cruelly baddie role as a traitor killer is terrific , subsequently the would play similar role in other Spaghettis . Furthermore, there appears usual secondaries of Italian/Spanish Western as Italian actors as the femme fatal Jolanda Modio as Maria , Gianni Rizzo as Williams , Rick Boyd as nasty Sheriff , Nello Pazzafini ; as well as Spanish players : Angel Del Pozo as Maximiliam , Jose Torres as Aaron , Antonio Casas , Lorenzo Robledo , Francisco Sanz , Alfonso Rojas and of course Frank Braña in his ordinary role as a bandit . 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 . Being spectacularly filmed on location in Almería, Andalucía, Spain ,Alto de la Morcuera, Madrid, Colmenar Viejo, Madrid, Hoyo de Manzanares, La Cabrera, Madrid, La Pedriza, Manzanares el Real, Madrid, Spain and interiors in Elios Studios, Rome, Lazio, Italy(studio). As always , the musician Ennio Morricone, supported by Bruno Nicolai , compose a nice Spaghetti soundtrack and well conducted ; it's full of guttural sounds and emotive score .

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 Emilio Foriscot and Rafael Pacheco , reflecting marvelously the habitual Almeria outdoors . Director Sergio Sollima achieved in "Face to face" possibly one of his bests works of a modest career , with some memorable scenes and good camera movement such as the bank hold-up and the ending duels ; all of them make only can say that this movie seemed to be a true surprise . The picture was well directed by Sollima and following directing successes as Pirate films such as ¨ Sandokan ¨ and ¨ Black Corsario ¨ . Rating : Better than average Western . Essential and indispensable watching .

"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.

Take three of the finest Spaghetti Western actors (Gian Maria Volente, Tomas Milian and William Berger), the great direction of Sergio Sollima (The Big Gundown) and a gripping topsy turvey story of power and you get Face to Face.

Volente stars as Brad, a Professor that inadvertently becomes embroiled in Beau's (Milian) revolution when taken hostage by the bandit. It is not long before Brad becomes attracted to Beau's way of life, with the film superbly capturing his gradual corruption by power. Meanwhile, Beau's character develops an increasing compassion for his people and their life. The interplay between these two actors works brilliantly, and ably assisted by Berger as Siringo - a lawman disguised as one of Beau's gang.

Morricone's soundtrack is, as ever, fantastic. All in all, this is a true Spaghetti gem - Italian cinema at its near finest.

Sergio Sollima's Faccia a faccia (1967) is a very great Italian western with the genre icons Tomas Milian and Gian Maria Volonte. A seemingly "good" teacher, a professor (Volonte), gets by coincidence on the same path with a seemingly "bad" and infamous bandit (Milian) only to see how hollow and meaningless those terms are, used alone, without the other, the opposite. The way how both characters begin to change (the professor away from his usual, sophisticated environment and society) is very believable and well-written with the development that steps on the all necessary steps, not jumping from one point to another and thus making it all very unnatural: when an unexpected character does something against his "persona", it has been well argumented by the previous happenings and words. Like in the masterpiece western Il grande silenzio (Sergio Corbucci, 1968), there are no entertaining heroes that end up killing the "bad guy" in a spectacular finale. Sollima concentrates on the dualism of the human nature and the fact how easy, in the right circumstances, it is to change and cross the line, for every human being, no matter what the past or status in society. And he does it very well, both script-wise and image-wise.

The imagery and compositions are great, intelligent and use the whole aspect ratio very carefully. Sollima uses some very low and radical angles very effectively, to make the imagery as rich as possible. The actors are professionals and both leads possess perfect faces for their roles. The soundtrack by Ennio Morricone is once again very pleasing but not among his greatest works, like in the mentioned film by Corbucci, or several films by Sergio Leone. This is simply a fantastic western from the time very many were made, after the success of Leone's first film with Clint Eastwood in 1964, A Fistful of Dollars. Corbucci's Il grande silenzio is even more stunning in its visuality and silent despair, but after all Sollima's film's statement isn't any more positive, untrue and calculated, in other words.

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.