Director: Massimo Dallamano (as Max Dillman)
Year: 1967
Country: Italy/Spain
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Spaghetti Western
Plot:
Traveling by train to meet a friend, a top marksman shooter discovers that a former friend is holding up the trip and attempting to rob the train with his henchmen. Out of respect for his old teacher, he shoots his friend in the hands and leaves with the stolen loot and the rest of the train passengers and crew dead. Picking up the pieces of his life, he eventually finds a new student to take under his wing and teach in order to seek revenge on the leader as he's determined to stop him from continuing to live out a life of crime at his expense. However, a series of twists revealed about the relationship between all three complicates everything they've attempted and brings out a side of everyone they never knew existed as they head towards a bloodsoaked confrontation.
Review:
There was a highly enjoyable and entertaining effort. Among the films’ most likable qualities is a strong storyline that showcases quite a lot of intricate setups for a generally fun time. The main storyline involving the former star gunfighter who meets his old student by chance, is injured to the point of never being unable to ever operate a gun again, and left to his own devices is a fantastic starting point that leads to plenty of fun side-stories as this one goes on. Featuring the revelation of the new student and his backstory that indirectly ties them together in the train robbery long before they realized it while also offering the kind of motivation that sets their quest in motion appropriately.
As well, there’s also an interesting storyline here involving the other members of the criminal gang who are going tired of the bosses’ cruel matters and try what they can to get rid of him. The leaders’ exploits involving all the criminal actions and shooting instead have turned them against him and try to set him up in order to get him out of the way for their own good. Through a clever series of back-and-forth double-crosses, not only is this turned around into the leader outwitting the group members who want him gone but he inadvertently teams up with the protege who intends to perform his own brand of retribution for what’s going on. It’s a rather unique and impressive setup that goes a long way to keep this one interesting.
Even though there’s a lot to like here with the storyline, the film is somewhat light on general action and stuntwork that’s usually found in these kinds of films. After the admittedly brilliant train robbery to open the film which is exactly what’s supposed to be found here, the film takes quite a while before getting to anything else resembling action. The focus on their mentorship and him learning the ropes of the business comes at the expense of some of the more frequent shooting, brawls, and stunt-work that instead comes into play all at the back-end of the film as they set out to take their revenge like they’ve been training to do. Despite people being shot quite frequently, there’s a lack of it until this part of the film which could be somewhat disappointing although in no way a true detriment since it’s all quite fun anyway.
Overview: ***/5
One of the more enjoyable and storyline-driven genre examples, that there’s quite a lot of fun to be had here even though it doesn’t necessarily focus on the action as much as other entries in the style which can be slightly off-putting doesn’t detract from this being one of the better entries in the style. Fans of the genre, intrigued by the positives or the creative crew will have quite a bit to like with this one while those looking for more exhilarating genre efforts should perhaps heed caution despite still giving it a chance.
Comments
Post a Comment