Colorado

What I liked about this film was an intriguing storyline, superb music by Ennio Morricone and Lee Van Cleef. The action scenes are almost on a par with Leone's films and Van Cleef is top-notch (more convincing as a 'good guy').

After watching my tape of this film, I found out that it was a (badly-cut-by-Columbia) 84 min version. This would explain some confusing sections of the dialogue/narrative.

I'm told that the fuller versions (there is one of 114 min) are superior. Let's hope this film gets a decent treatment on DVD (hello Sony-Columbia) - it certainly deserves it more than most.

Retired sheriff is persuaded by a politician to come back and hunt down a Mexican who has raped and murdered a twelve year old girl but he slowly realises the Mexican has been framed to cover up the real murderer. Good, stylish spaghetti western,this is the longer uncut version of the film and not the hacked up Amercian version that lost nearly twenty minutes of footage.This has a rather slow start and develops into a chase movie in a kind of western version of "the fugitive".Lee Van Cleef is his usual dependable self and the Ennio Morricone soundtrack is good although i'm not sure about the screeching title song!Film is good and satisfies overall.

This film is often referred to as "the best non-Leone spaghetti western." That may very well be true. For me, it's difficult to decide because there are a couple of others that I like about as much as this one. This movie is brilliant. It has everything that makes the spaghetti western such a great film genre.

The music score is a masterpiece. It is one of Morricone's best. The title song sends shivers up my spine. I love the voice, the melody, and the lyrics. It is absolutely unforgettable. The melody of the theme song keeps on recurring, but in totally different ways, each one unique and wonderful, sometimes haunting, sometimes playful, and sometimes serious. There are parts where the music is choreographed with the action on the screen in a way very reminiscent of the Leone westerns. Cuchillo's run through the cane fields is driven by the corresponding music, making the music and the action inseparable. The musical accompaniments to the gunfights near the end of the film are operatic, suspenseful, and appropriately grandiose. This score is not background music. It is a dominating force in this movie, and could even be considered the most important part of the film. Ennio Morricone may very well be the biggest "star" of the spaghetti western genre, even though he never physically appeared in a single one of the films!

Director Sergio Sollima uses politics and social commentary not only to get a message across, but also to make us relate to and sympathize with some of the characters, and to despise some of the others. He also throws in some great strange, eccentric, and over the top characters (no spaghetti western is complete without em). You just gotta love the lady ranch owner and her lovesick ranch hands, and the nazi-like Baron Von Schulenberg with his monocle and Dracula cape. That baron really gets on Lee Van Cleef's nerves, and Van Cleef has a couple of great smart-ass remarks for him. This is classic stuff all the way.

Lee Van Cleef is perfect for the role of Corbett. This is classic Van Cleef, playing the cool, confident, unflinching bounty hunter type. Sollima definitely picked the best possible actor for the role. The same can be said for his choice of Tomas Milian for the role of Cuchillo. Milian plays the part of a man that is being hunted like an animal. He sometimes has to act and think like an animal would to stay one step ahead of his predators. Milian conveys this very well. I can't imagine anyone else in this role.

See this movie! And if you are a spaghetti western fan, you need to have it, so find it and add it to your collection!

In this Italian spaghetti western from director Sergio Sollima, Lee Van Cleef stars as "Colorado" Corbett, a feared bounty hunter looking to hang up his guns. He's convinced by rich fat-cat Brockston (Walter Barnes) to go on one more manhunt, and in exchange he'll be rewarded with backing for a potential political career. Corbett's quarry is a Mexican known as "Cuchillo" (Tomas Milian), who's accused of sexual assault and murder. What Corbett believes will be an easy takedown turns ever more complicated and dangerous. Also featuring Nieves Navarro, Gerard Herter, Maria Granada, Roberto Camardiel, and Angel del Pozo.

This has the usual over-blown sound effects and striking musical score (courtesy of Ennio Morricone) that I love in spaghetti westerns. The story doesn't hold a lot of surprises, but fans of the spaghetti sub-genre should dig it.

I try to avoid promoting individual products, but in this case of the Grindhouse Releasing Blu-ray, it is a fantastic release featuring the remastered American cut on both Blu-ray and DVD, the original Italian version on Blu-ray, and a CD of the soundtrack. The film discs also include commentary tracks and interviews with cast and crew.

Here we have two legendary actors together, the stereotyped Lee Van Cleef & Tomas Millian, the first a true American from New Jersey that went to stardom after working with the master Sergio Leone, Tomas Millian a Cuban that made an impressive career at Italy and Spain on spaghetti genre although both had a fine experience on Italian Poliziotteschi on the seventies.

As strange as it may seems Lee Van Cleef plays a good guy Jonathan Colorado Corbett, a bounty hunter that swept the western territory of those outlaws, bank robbers and related, such striking performance impresses the greedy and wealthy financier Brokston (Walter Barnes) that is willing underwrite Corbett to run of the senate's seat, however appears an unexpected sad news, a twelve years old girl was raped and murdered by a Mexican outlaw called Cuchillo (Tomas Millian), they require to Corbett bring him alive to be punished rather than he cross the Mexico frontier.

The savvy Corbett finds him sooner than he had ever hope, Cuchillo was calmly shaving at a small village, nonetheless the slippery cat burglar escapes with rare smartness, the next stop is a Mormon's wagon train passing by the river area, Corbett finds him about to rape another young girl, once more Cuchillo has a lucky at his side, the young girl shot at Corbett's shoulder, next meeting at widow farmer where the dirtiest runaway at last was arrested, meantime all it took was a small slip up for the cunning outlaw slips away, a new rallying point takes place in a desert waterhole, where the crafty bandolero sticks a cactus's thorn at Corbett's back pretending a snake's bite that is near him, what scene, anyway Cuchillo still gets running over and over until weary confess that he wasn't rape the girl whatsoever, although he knows who did.

Isn't all that Tarantino regards this movie one the best spaghetti ever, the both leading actors had a flawless performance, the final showdown is priceless , the director Sergio Sollima lived up at Leone's style, I'll look forward for a better restoration preserving the fabulous Aspect Ratio 2.35 : 1, due my copy was of the first generation of DVD!!



Thanks for reading.

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First watch: 1993 / How many: 2 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 8