The hunted of the Sierra Madre
Movie | |
---|---|
German title | The hunted of the Sierra Madre |
Original title | La resa dei conti |
Country of production | Italy , Spain |
original language | Italian |
Publishing year | 1966 |
length | 110 minutes |
Age rating | FSK 12 |
Rod | |
Director | Sergio Sollima |
script | Sergio Sollima Sergio Donati |
production | Alberto Grimaldi |
music | Ennio Morricone |
camera | Carlo Carlini |
cut | Adriana Novelli |
occupation | |
|
The Gundown (Original title: La Resa dei Conti ) is a by Sergio Sollima turned 1966 spaghetti western with Lee Van Cleef and Tomas Milian in the lead roles.
action
Jonathan Corbett, a very successful and well-known bounty hunter , is persuaded by the wealthy businessman Brokston to run for senator . At a campaign event, Corbett learns of the rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl allegedly committed by the Mexican Cuchillo Sanchez. Corbett is now tasked with quickly capturing the fugitive Mexican and bringing him to justice. The fugitive does, however, play a tricky cat-and-mouse game with Corbett, which ends in a final showdown in the mountains of the Sierra Madre of Mexico. As the film progresses, Corbett begins to doubt Sanchez's guilt more and more, and ends up taking his side when he learns that Brokston's son-in-law, Chet Miller, had committed the crime.
analysis
As you would expect from Sollima, this western also contains a socially critical message. The director was first presented with a script with a classic plot in which a sincere sheriff chases a villain. Sollima was able to push through significant changes and created a veritable political western. Sanchez is the sympathetic crook who advocates revolutionary ideas (against the background of the reforms by Juárez and Lerdo de Tejada and the subsequent overthrow by Díaz ), and Brokston the unscrupulous businessman who abuses law and justice for his own ends. In between stands the bounty hunter Corbett, whose eyes are opened in the course of the plot so that he changes sides. Most of the political aspects have, however, been removed from the German version or dubbed in a distorted manner (see below).
In the last part of the Sollima Western trilogy, Run for Your Life , the character of Cuchillo Sanchez is taken up again - also played by Tomás Milián.
This film is often highly praised by film critics and fans and is traded right after Sergio Leone's western.
Cast, shooting and stylistic means
Sollima cast Sanchez with Tomás Milián, who achieved great fame with this film and then appeared in numerous spaghetti westerns (including the two other Sollima westerns) in similar roles. For van Cleef it was the first role that followed Two Glorious Scoundrels . With the role of Baron von Schulenberg (Gérard Herter), an Austrian aristocrat , Sollima paid homage to Erich von Stroheim .
Like most spaghetti westerns , this one was shot in southern Spain near Almería and in Cinecittà in Rome .
The music was written by Ennio Morricone , with Sollima insisting that each scene should have its own motif. For the final duel , Morricone varied Beethoven's Für Elise , which had already been performed by the character of Baron von Schulenberg. The song Run man run was interpreted by Christy .
Quentin Tarantino used Morricone's The Verdict (La Condanna) in his film Inglourious Basterds .
Frames
The longest Italian version lasts 110 minutes. However, there are numerous shortened versions. The original German version has been shortened by approx. 25 minutes and dubbed falsely. In addition to the critical message described above, scenes that were particularly disreputable or brutal for the time, such as B. in a brothel or the appearance of Baron von Schulenberg almost completely removed. The latter especially takes away the drama of the showdown at the end. A DVD version released in Germany in 2005 contains all the scenes, although the German soundtrack was not dubbed.
The original name of the film is La Resa dei conti , which roughly means "The Reckoning". In addition to the hunted of the Sierra Madre, there was also Cuchillo, the executor, a German title. In the American market it is known as The Big Gundown .
Reviews
"Apart from a few ostensible brutalities, an exciting, carefully staged spaghetti western."
"An exciting story with very good actors and excellent landscape shots as well as an incredibly good score by Ennio Morricone make this film a classic"
“Somewhat above the cheap cliché in the plot, but otherwise not particularly remarkable. Possible from 16. "
Web links
- The Gundown in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Detailed discussion
- Review including screenshots, trailers and music samples in an English-language spaghetti western archive
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Haunted of the Sierra Madre. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Ulrich P. Bruckner: For a few more corpses. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf Verlag, 2006
- ↑ Critique No. 262/1967