Director: Lucio Fulci
Year: 1966
Country: Italy
Alternate Titles: Le colt cantarono la morte e fu… tempo di massacro; The Brute and the Beast; Colt Concert; Django the Runner
Genre: Spaghetti Western
Plot:
After hearing news of a family’s distress, a miner returns to his hometown to see what’s going on only to find the area overrun by a crime boss and his gang of ruthless, vicious sons. Trying to get his younger brother in hand to help him fight back, their estranged means and his drunken lifestyle put him at odds with his quest to clean up the town and get rid of the group terrorizing the community. As they try to settle the score with the gang when it becomes apparent that something far greater might be at stake in the situation, the two brothers are forced to mend their estranged relationship and take on the gang themselves for the sake of their family and the town.
Review:
There was quite a lot to like with this effort. One of the more likable qualities here is the fun setup that brings the villains into play for a worthy cause to fight against. Upon initially introducing them as a malicious, cruel band that plays games of setting captors free into the countryside and setting wild dogs after him to rip him to pieces while they laugh through the whole experience, it paints them as the perfect opposition for a movie like this. It becomes especially moreso as time goes on and he returns to find them overrunning the town and treat everything like their own personal playground intimidating everyone around, using them for their own whims, or just laying bullets into people who cross them which forces his quest to stop them all the more pertinent.
As well, the film manages to get quite a lot to like out of the various action scenes featured here which is incredibly fun. The first big encounter is a great barroom brawl that’s a fun, hard-hitting affair taking out the various thugs by themselves that signals the start of the fun. With the ill-advised solo-charge into the compound to confront them and getting beaten with a whip as a result, the idea is set for the finale shootout being a fun series of shootouts in the compound that offers up a lot to like. The stunts involving diving over walkways and carriages, shootouts across the layout of the house, and numerous gun-battles leading up to it ensure a great deal of fun present throughout here. Armed alongside the brutality present in these scenes, this one has a lot going for it.
There are some issues to be had with this one. The biggest flaw here is the overlong amount of time it takes for the two to get together and mete out justice. The majority of the scenes revolve around the brothers’ drunken state of doing anything he can to be as plastered as possible to skirt his responsibilities at all cost which is just time-consumed that could’ve been better served elsewhere. Since he’s as skilled and talented with the gun as he is, the fact that they could’ve cleaned up the town much faster could’ve been a fun time throughout here but is instead wasted with the unnecessary sequences of the two trying to get on the same page regarding the cryptic boss and the hold he has over everyone.
As well, the other slight factor here that makes no sense is a storyline revelation that comes to the forefront in the last half involving the familial relationships between characters who turn this into a different kind of film altogether. The reveal is a fine one that isn’t seen coming but the fact that it changes around what’s going on and why he was recalled to the village in the first place makes for a confusing point where everything that’s transpired could’ve been avoided had it come out much earlier on. Instead, it turns the film into a series of confrontations involving the gang keeping a stranglehold on the town and their ruthlessness to ensure that when the reveal would’ve meant a far more reasonable turn into a squabble over the rightful heir with the same reveal. Otherwise, there isn’t much to dislike here.
Overview: ***.5/5
A generally enjoyable Spaghetti Western that hits all the requirements with a great villain and some solid action while stumbling slightly with some underwhelming writing in the finale and a repeated tactic that didn't need to be there, there's quite a lot to like here. Give this one a look if you're a fan of the genre or looking into the exploits of the creative crew while most others should heed caution here.
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