Keoma

DFW (Dutch version)

Anchor Bay US

Ah, the good old spaghetti western. So-called because it was a western-type film made by Italian producers, generally in Spain, for the European market. In many ways they turned out far more realistic films than their U.S. counterparts. The characters looked real – filthy, half-shaven, bad tempered. The villains could look really evil – even if they were U.S. imports, they somehow managed to look more evil in the harsh Spanish lighting. Lee Van Cleef in the classic The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is a prime example. Even the towns looked more like what you would expect from the wild west – cheap wooden shacks lining a dusty main street, with the saloon the only pretentious building and not a tree in sight.

With cheap actors and construction costs, producers could indulge themselves. Films could be crafted, with superb photography lovingly perfected rather than rushed to a schedule. The slow buildup as the protagonists confronted each other in a gunfight became a trademark. Closeup shots could dwell on every pimple on a baddie’s nose. If you wanted a town full of people, or a huge mob of cattle, or a large group of cowboys to rustle them, extras were cheap. Reputations were well made on the spaghetti western, and it’s good to see the genre continued in this film.

Franco Nero’s career goes back to 1966, and he has done a number of westerns. Perhaps his most famous was as the gunslinger Django, and that may be why this film is alternatively known as Django Rides Again. After 150 films, Nero has slowed down a bit and now prefers to do smaller supporting roles. In this film, however, he doesn’t appear to have slowed down much.

The story is fairly conventional. Keoma (Nero) has been off at the Civil War, leaving his father and three half-brothers behind. The brothers have fallen in with the evil Caldwell, a mine-owner whose intention is to drive the people out and take over the town. A plague has broken out and Caldwell’s men are interning the plague victims in a camp at the mine. Keoma arrives in time to witness the shooting of some of the victims, and rescues a non-infected pregnant woman, the wife of one of the victims. From here on he is marked for death by Caldwell’s men and his brothers. There are the expected chases through town, gunfights in the saloon, fistfights, etc. In the end Keoma loses and is tied to a steam engine wheel (a very thinly veiled crucifixion) to await his hanging. Help arrives from an unexpected source and the final showdown between Keoma and his half brothers ensues. And at the end of it all he rides off into the sunset in the approved manner.

Nero doesn’t get much of a script to work with. The film is strong on action and short on characterization. Director Enzo Castellari keeps pushing the action right through the film, so there is not much time for character development, but the action is great. There are some fine supporting actors, though, mostly fairly unknown Italians, and they contribute to a film that is a fine example of the genre.

There is an amusing point about the Dutch edition. The cover slick seems to have been taken from a leftover Rambo poster and had Nero’s head stuck on it, badly out of scale. The character carries a machine gun (there isn’t one in the film) and much less hair than Nero. It also has a riverboat in the background, which is has nothing to do with the film – it takes part in a desert town. I must assume the cover designer was having a bad day and didn’t actually watch the film. I did watch it, however, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

This review will appear in Volume 2:1 (2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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