Les quatre de l'apocalypse

Four lowly criminals that meet in jail; card shark Stubby, pregnant prostitute Bunny, a drunk Clem and the loony Bud manage to escape a vigilante slaughter of the town they were in and end up on a rugged journey in the open frontier. They soon encounter the Chaco, but after helping them out. He soon turns on them, with his sadistic habits coming through and they find themselves at the other end of it. After raping Bunny, Stubby's increasing feelings for her, makes him vow vengeance on Chaco.

Apocalyptic to-right! This cruel, sparse and bleakly nightmarish spaghetti western from Italian maestro Lucio Fulci is one uncompromising trek, where four unique individuals end up guiding us. The episodic screenplay pulls you along for one emotionally domineering and pain-filled excursion into the souls of four (very ordinary) characters longing to make something important from their lives, especially after what they've been through… together. This destiny-bound aspect and redemption angle takes over the odd story, where these rag-tag characters are flung around in manipulative sense and realistically drawn up with rich, quirky and sullen details. It tries to be a passionate and diverse character story, and this makes it one interesting and downright original crack at the flooded sub-genre. I see mentioned a bit, Why's apocalypse in the title? I see this as a reference towards the characters' and their final outcomes. Hope just seems to fade off their faces, after one degrading, macabre and tragic situation after another in a reprehensibly desolate land that can easily break you and take away the things you hold close. Everything that was significant is stripped away, which leaves only one thing on mind for one character… revenge. Tomas Milan's scummy character is the main tool of that torturous downfall.

Fulci is one never to shy away from something in your face, and this one has no boundaries to its depressing nature, relentless violence and unsparingly gritty landscape. His patiently accomplished and pastel direction can feel plodded, but he gracefully lenses it with gusto and the up-close and personal framing illustrates many moody sequences. He knows how to depict haunting images, rough landscape and brutal carnage to fit right in with the film's material and destination. Despite a pretty bumpy rhythm, Fulci keeps it tight and ominous for most part. The opening scenes set the appropriate tone of what's to come and even a slight sense of surrealism. It's technically, a good job. The open and breezy ballad folk soundtrack is a complete delight and gels into the presentation nicely. Performances from the main four are sensitively brought across with a compelling rapport. Fabio Testi's strong performance all round carriers the film. Lynne Frederick is beautifully touching. Michael J. Pollard's screwy town drunk amuses and Harry Baird is fine as the loony black slave. Competing with Testi's performance has got to be the memorably brooding performance of Tomas Milan. He chews up the scenery in what few sequences he does get, as the pitilessly striking bandit Chaco.

The sub-genre was coming to an end, and while Fulci's effort was very late to the fodder. He manages to craft Gothic-laced spaghetti western that has heart within its narrative and guts found in the visuals.

Utah, 1873. A young card-sharp named Stubby Preston arrives in a small town called Salt Flat. On his arrival, the town sheriff (Donald O'Brien) throws him in jail with 3 petty criminals - a pregnant prostitute (Frederick), a hopeless drunk (Pollard) and a mad black slave (Baird). That night, KKK-masked gunmen wipe out most of the town, and the next night, the four are put on a cart and forced out of town, into the bandit-filled wilds. One such bandit (Tomas Milian) forces himself upon the group, soon revealing himself to be a wicked sadist. After kneecapping Pollard, raping Frederick and torturing the other two, Testi swears revenge if he is left alive. Milian heads off, and the four characters set out to follow their dreams and destinies - in Testi's case, a slow, violent death for the bandit...

This unusual, horror-tinged effort suffers from slow pace and some awful music ballads, as well as Frederick phony Transatlantic accent. Where it does score highly, is in the 'feel' of the film. Sergio Salvati's photography is superb, and really presents the Old West as a desolate wasteland where only the most ruthless will survive. Also, Milian's villain is superbly evil, and there are some excellent action sequences, such as the opening purge of the town, and Testi's score-settle.

Some of the violence is truly shocking, and all prints of the film were cut down - Milian gouging into a man's stomach with a knife after pinning a sheriff's badge into his chest (commonly seen in stills), and some of Frederick's harrowing rape ordeal.

Don't get the Swedish Sun Video entitled 'CHACO' - it's heavily cut down. This version misses out some gory bullet-hits at the start, much of Milian's torturous antics (including him stamping Testi's testicles), and Testi cutting Milian's face open with a razor. The most complete version available at present (though it still misses out the pre-studio cuts described above), is the Japanese AT International tape.

Even with what does remain, it's a nihilistic, grim piece of work, and remains one of the most violent of the Spagwests. It's a shame that Fulci, after this and the excellent MASSACRE TIME, would disgrace himself with his third western effort, the limp SILVERSADDLE.

This movie, about four petty criminals - three men and a pregnant woman - who wander through the trackless terrain of Utah, is an okay spaghetti-western movie.

I really like the story. It is not complex, but it is about a friendship that develops out of nowhere. The movie has some sweet and sad moments and the characters are likable while the locations and props strengthen the visuals and genre. However, it is flawed. It is very slow, making it slightly boring sometimes, and the editing is inconsistent, I think. Although the characters are likable, the actors are not the best. Their performances can feel a bit melodramatic at times, and it rarely gets impressive overall.

In conclusion, despite an interesting story about an unlikely friendship, this movie is hampered by slow pacing, inconsistent editing, and melodramatic acting. While the visuals and likable characters offer some redeeming qualities, they cannot overcome the overall mediocrity.

I am surprised nobody has commented in any reviews that this film is based on 2 Bret Harte short stories - " The Outcasts of Poker Flats" and " The Luck of Roaring Camp". Names and details are slightly altered but the plots are very much intact.As far as I can determine this is the only European western based on Bret Harte's works. "The Outcasts of Poker Flats" has been filmed several times before including a 1930's version with Preston Foster and a 1952 version with Dale Robertson.Harte's stories have a touch of the sentimental about them and this is reflected especially in the "Luck of Roaring Camp" part of this film.

Director Lucio Fulci is most (in)famous for his ultra gory horror movies, such as Zombie Flesh Eaters, however, as with others such as his psychedelic giallo A Lizard in a Woman's Skin, this one shows once again that Fulci was in fact an excellent director. Sure, it does showcase the violence and brutality he is known for but it also is surprisingly emotional too, with actual three dimensional characters, which is hardly a given for this kind of thing. The story has four petty criminals meet in a jail and then trek across the desert, where they encounter various obstacles including a very sinister Charles Manson like bandit played excellently by Tomas Milian. The storyline and characters mainly avoid the typical spaghetti western cliches, with Fabio Testi's central character pretty far removed from the usual loner with incredible weapons skills. Also atypical is the score which is nothing like a Morricone bells and whistles affair, surprisingly it sounds more like Pink Floyd! This one also has a good turn from Lynne Frederick as one of the title characters, along with No Blade of Grass, Phase IV, Vampire Circus and Schizo this one makes up the Lynne Frederick 70's cult quintet.