Scalps

Cinema De Bizarre

DVD-R

Web: http://www.cinema-de-bizarre.com

English language with Norwegian subtitles

This is a reissue of an old film that is a little unusual in the genre. Most spaghetti westerns concentrated on the action, the gunfights and the women. Character development wasn’t too important. This film has all those but also manages to include a bit of characterisation and a look at the theme of the white men against the Indian cultures. That is not to say it is a great work of literature, but it does have that little bit extra over most films of the genre.

Colonel Connors heads a detachment of cavalry in Indian country. He is a hard, brutal man who resents the South losing the war. He takes out his frustration on the local Indians. He wants the daughter of the local chief and is prepared to slaughter her tribe to get the girl. She escapes and finishes up at a local ranch. The rancher is an ex-cavalry man himself whose wife was scalped by Indians so there is no love lost between them but he tends to her injuries out of humanity then helps her into the hills where the rest of her tribe is scattered. She repays him by saving him from a painful death at the hands of warriors of her tribe.

Meanwhile Connors and his cavalry are after them both. The pair must learn to cooperate to save their lives.

The film is taken from what looks like an old distribution copy. The colour is faded and the focus is soft, which loses the typical harsh look of a western. It’s still an interesting film, though, both as a piece of film history and as a good example of the genre.

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This review will appear in Volume 3 No. 4 of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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