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Bandit Tomas Milian survives an impromptu execution by double-crossing partners. Crawling out of a pit, he's nursed by two Indians who ascribe mystical reasons for his not dying. Soon he tracks the others to a strange town where inhabitants strung up the gang and took the gold, which another violent big shot is willing to kill to possess.

I don't quite get what others say about this being "surreal" or "hallucinatory", as the film appears to be pretty straight-forward to me. It's weird, but it's not Eraserhead or Alejandro Jodorowsky weird.

It's more along the lines of an artiste tying to make a political statement about capitalism, using shocking, violent imagery to attract the attention of the bourgeois and perhaps make the movie attractive to the art-house and grind-house crowds.

Although pretentious, this stays interesting throughout, with a good performance by Milian. However, teen-aged Ray Lovelock's implied gang-rape by Zorro's (Yeah, that's the villain's name!) horribly-dressed goons was a bit silly and gratuitous.

The first time I watched this spirited spaghetti western, I was somewhat disappointed after a promising opening thirty minutes of a certain eerie quality. Watching it again the story soaked in a bit more, but I didn't find it all that captivating even with its oddly sprawling and grim nature that ends with poetic justice. It's rather an unconventional effort into Gothic territory, but I found it to go on for too long and completely drag and flounder about after the half-way mark. I was really into it until Tomas Milan's character 'the stranger' made himself at home with the town's occupants. There it seemed to stall, not knowing which way to go and being disorienting. Nothing against Milan's turn, as he was astounding (even if most of the time he feels like nothing more than a passenger), but I guess I expected way too much from this highly regarded genre film. It's weird and unbalanced, as the atmosphere is quite tripped out (wait for the hallucinatory torture scene involving bats) and the maniac violence is sadistically graphic (the restored scalping scene comes to mind) and underneath the surface is a homoerotic edge. It's a boundless and at times wicked mixture. The structure of the psychedelic story is solid (a melodrama leaning on greed, corruption, religion and retribution) and the script squeezes out a morbid sense of humour, while director Guilio Questi infuses some striking images (hanging corpses) and modestly staged shoot-outs. What it seemed to lack though, was a real kinetic edge to its violence. Ivan Vandor's saucy score and Franco Delli Colli's elastic photography shape up well.

It first seems it's going to be a standard "hunt-down-for-revenge" western, but then half an hour in it takes a surprising turn. In fact, at first you don't know where it's going, and it's a lot of fun trying to figure it out. There's certainly a lot going on (various subplots), and it's directed in a slightly surreal style that keeps you interested. In the end, the movie bites off more than it chews - some things seem unresolved at the end (where did Django's Indian friends go, for example?), though since I saw the 110 minute version instead of the 117 minute version, maybe some things got lost in the cut. Though it's not perfect, spaghetti western fans will find enough to make it worth their while.

"If You Live, Shoot!" offers an intense diversion for fans of the Spaghetti Western. It goes on for quite a long time, and gets dull on occasion, but it's also noteworthy for its content. It's on record as one of the most utterly nasty of all SWs, with plenty of bright red movie blood and depictions of sadism.

It's actually not particularly surreal most of the time, telling a rather linear story of The Stranger (Tomas Milian), who was double crossed by his partners in a heist, and shot & left for dead. The opening credits see him emerge from his grave, and two Indians (Miguel Serrano and Angel Silva) witness this. They vow to stay at his side and assist him, under the condition that he tell them what it's like on the "other side".

However, this isn't really what you would call a revenge saga. Soon, The Stranger is getting caught up in greed and corruption in a small town known to Indians either as "The Field of Anguish" or "The Unhappy Place" (depending on which version you're watching). He gets involved as a few warring factions try desperately to lay their mitts on the gold snatched by The Stranger & gang.

Co-writer / director Giulio Questi ("Death Laid an Egg") takes his time telling the story, but does populate it with some enjoyably despicable villains, such as Oaks (Piero Lulli), Hagerman (Francisco Sanz), Sorrow (Roberto Camardiel), and Bill Templer (Milo Quesada). There's an especially fun comeuppance for one of them. Add to that an atmospheric score by Ivan Vandor, two beauties (Patrizia Valturri and Marilu Tolo), and a sense of mysticism, and the results are generally agreeable. The handsome young Milian has charisma sufficient enough for one to remain invested in his character. Ray Lovelock of "The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue" fame also appears.

Good entertainment overall, and worth a look for any SW completist.

Seven out of 10.

Spaghetti western with Tomas Milian as "The Stranger", who is left for dead and buried in the desert after being betrayed by his former compadres. He's "resurrected" by a pair of odd Native medicine men who agree to assist the Stranger as long he imparts the wisdom he's gained from being in the spirit world. They end up in a small town where various factions are fighting over bags of gold dust.

Also featuring Roberto Camardiel as "Sorrow". This is a bizarre western even by spaghetti standards. It's violent, bloody and outrageous. The "hero" uses bullets made of gold, so if someone survives a shooting, others try to tear them apart to get to the valuable nuggets inside their bodies. The oddest aspect to the film may be the "Sorrow" character, a portly bearded rancher with a small army of gay gunfighters in his employ, all wearing matching uniforms. The script is a mess, and the direction by Giulio Questi is uneven, but cult film fans may enjoy seeing this for the uniqueness of it. Oh, and it has no characters named "Django", or any connection to other films with Django in the title.