L'Homme, l'Orgueil et la Vengeance

This is a peculiar adaptation upon the known classic novel written by Próspero Merimee . Here a gypsy , Tina Aumont , seduces a straight-lace brigade called José , Franco Nero . This one falls big time for the beautiful gypsy who is working at a cigarette factory . The soldier then runs off after he kills an officer , Franco Ressel , and quits the army . José abandons everything to follow her band formed by various nasty brigands as Klaus Kinski , Lee Burton , José Luis Martín and Alaberto Dell'Aqua . José becomes interested in robbing , but Carmen tired of the pretty boy wanders upon a prize bullfighter .

This is an exciting story about a crazy love , in which a soldier , Don Jose , falls in love with a beautiful factory worker , but she does not reciprocate his feelings , she is a gorgeous gypsy who becomes the object of obsession for a local brigade and things wind up badly of his jealousy . Here cast does a fine job , giving acceptable interpretations . Nero and Tina Aumont are great to look at and the film's main selling point . Passable support cast plenty of secondaries from Spaghetti/Paella Western , as Klaus Kinski , José Luis Martin , Franco Ressel , Guido Lollobrigida or Lee Burton who is Gina Lollobrigida's brother , and Alberto Dell'Acqua who played along with Franco Nero in the classic ¨Adios Texas¨ . It packs colorful cinematography shot on location in Guadix , Granada and desert of Tabernas , Almeria , where was filmed a lot of exteriors and marvelously shown . Thrilling and atmospheric musical score by Carlo Rustichelli . This Carmen film version was well directed by Luigi Bazzoni who gives a surprisingly effective realization . Luigi directed a few films , 3 giallos as ¨The Firth cord¨ , ¨Footprints on the moon¨ and ¨Donna Del Lago¨ , and 2 Spaghetti Westerns : ¨Blue Gang¨ and this one.

The story has been adapted several times , such as : First silent retelling (1915) by Cecil B De Mille with Geraldine Farrar , Wallace Reid , Pedro De Cordoba . Hollywood rendition 1948 ¨The loves of Carmen¨ by Charles Vidor with Rita Hayworth , Glenn Ford , Ron Randell , Victor Jory , Luther Adler . ¨Carmen De Ronda¨ by Tulio Demicheli with Sara Montiel , Mauricio Ronet , German Cobos . ¨Carmen Jones¨ by Otto Preminger with Harry Belafonte , Dorothy Dandridge . ¨Carmen Baby¨ (66) by Radley Metzger . Musical rendition ¨Carmen¨ (83) by Carlos Saura with Laura Del Sol , Antonio Gades . ¨Carmen of Bizet¨ by Francesco Rosi with Julia Migenes Johnson , Plácido Domingo , a film version of the famous Bizet opera and to use spoken dialogue between all the musical numbers rather than being sung all the way through . ¨Carmen: A Hip Hopera¨ by Robert Towsend with Beyoncé Knowles , Mekhi Phifer . And ¨Carmen¨ by Vicente Aránda with Paz Vega and Leonardo Esbaraglia

An auto 9 for noir. A bit slow though and Klaus Kinski was in it.

Why are all the beautiful gypsies women so difficult? To make your life so miserable that you want to kill them? I had a similar experience with one, but I didn't kill her, in the end I found another woman. The film is well done, Franco Nero and Tina Aumont, in particular, they are very good, very believable and natural. What didn't convince me are two scenes: when they make love fully clothed and when Klaus Kinski shot the boy, although in the previous scene he had no bullets left in his revolver, because he had shot them all (far too many than a revolver can have - usually only 6) in the man he had been following on horseback. To appreciate the ease with which Klaus Kinski always knew how to make himself unbearable, to want to kill him too.

Luigi Bazzoni's "L'Uomo L'Orgoglio, La Vendetta" aka. "Man, Pride & Vengeance" is a quite original little film, as it narrates the story of the famous opera/novel "Carmen" in the style of a Spaghetti Western. Contrary to the common belief, however, this movie is actually not (originally) a Western. The film, which originally takes place in 19th century Spain, was made a Spaghetti Western in the German language version (and in the English version I suppose) by simply changing the plot. Spain becomes Mexico in these versions of the movie, and that's why this film that is often incorrectly referred to as a Western. The plot makes a lot more sense when the movie is regarded in is original context (I've never heard of Mexican Gypsies at least). Although this is actually no Western, however, it has all the elements of a typical Spaghetti Western, and can therefore be classified as a film of that genre, even though it actually takes place in Europe. Western or not, this is certainly a pretty original and entertaining (allthough in no way outstanding) film, with a brilliant cast. This movie unites two of the most outstanding Spaghetti Western actors, Franco Nero, since "Django" one of the greatest leading men of the Italian Western, and Klaus Kinski, one of my personal favorite actors of all-time, and furthermore features the great and stunningly beautiful Tina Aumont (who sadly passed away last year) in the female lead.

The plot, which is taken from the "Carmen" plot, begins when soldier Don José (Franco Nero) first meets the stunningly beautiful Gypsy woman Carmen (Tina Aumont), a femme fatale, who makes him range between his passion and his sense of duty...

As mentioned above, the performances are brilliant. Franco Nero once again delivers an excellent performance in the lead, Tina Aumont fits perfectly in her femme fatale role and Klaus Kinski is great as always in his typical role of the villainous psycho. The supporting cast furthermore includes Guido Lollobrigida, Franco Ressel and Alberto Dell'Acqua.

In German speaking countries this movie was, by the way, marketed as a "Django"-sequel, which is even more inappropriate with this movie than with other Franco Nero Westerns that were inappropriately given Django-titles (such as "Massacre Time" and "Texas Addio").

The movie is original and entertaining, but it also has its flaws, and gets quite boring in some parts. The best parts of the movie are those featuring Kinski (whose villain-role is unfortunately not too big). Anyhow, an enjoyable film that I recommend to my fellow Spaghetti Western enthusiasts as a quite different genre-entry that is, strictly speaking, not really a Western. 6/10

Intriguing hybrid adventure, as much a ripping yarn as a western.

Unredeemed human suffering, violence, lust and betrayal – this could be a spaghetti western inspired by Dostoevsky.

In a recent interview, Franco Nero contrasted the Hollywood western hero with the Italian spaghetti western hero:– the former is indeed a hero, while the latter is more a 'son-of-a-bitch'. Yet Nero plays no such 'son-of-a-bitch' role in this film. Trauma and tragedy are his lot. Nero's attitude to the marketing fixation with the 'Django' name was simply – 'It's their problem'. He maintains that he only ever made one 'Django' film, and it certainly was not this one, so don't be taken in by the German title of 'Mit Django kam der Tod' ('With Django Came Death').

It is hard to believe that such awesome landscapes exist within our very own EU (shot in Andalucia!). I particularly enjoyed the careful rationing of images of water, which contrasted so starkly with the bone-dry natural setting. The change of location from Spain to Mexico in the uncut German version gets away with murder. For example, one scene showing the longing for an escape from an outlaw's exile in the desert is expressed in some shot-reverse-shot images of a tortured gaze at flamingos taking off from a lake. The birds are fortunately native to both Spain and Mexico...

Gypsies too are native to both – though our Carmen (i.e. Django's 'Conchita' in the uncut German) would be a rather Spanish-looking gypsy for Mexico, were it not for the black mourning clothes she wears in remembrance of her mother. The Italian-to-German dubbing has been done to a high standard – no mean feat considering that the names of characters and locations have also been altered in the German. Soldiers of the Spanish Bourbon regime must have had uniforms that almost pass for those of the US Civil War – or can some military history hack out there expose the shameless German tampering ...?