The Big Gundown (1966)

Corbett (Van Cleef), an ex sheriff, ex casino owner cum bounty hunter n now having the ambition to run for the Senate, is famous in Texas for cleaning out the whole area of outlaws. He is given an assurance in campaign funding by a railway tycoon in exchange for catching Cuchillo (Tomas Milian), a rape n murder accused. What ensues is a manhunt thru the rugged landscapes wher the hunted is a machiavellian person but with moral codes.

The film begins n ends with the song Run Man Run which is packed with powerful lines n amazing music. Morricone's music n the aesthetically pleasing landscapes r characters themselves n add to it Lee Van Cleef's towering screen presence. In the film he is shown as a man of relentless energy and boundless ambition. The screenplay is awesome n inspite of its dark story, it has sufficient humor n action going on n has two solid showdowns with amazin music. The end chase is psychologically tensed as we c Cuchillo running thru the cane bushes with dogs, mercenaries n the baron hunting him like an animal. The baron is intimidating with his looks n the Beethoven's 'Für Elise' on the piano by him makes him appear more sinister. Milian's character in the beginning title credit is shown doing a karate pose n viewer will dig it during the final shootout. I first saw this in the 90s on a vhs. Revisited it recently on a blu ray.

Fmovies: In 1966, Lee Van Cleef was a part of the greatest western of all time; he also made this film. Naturally, The Big Gundown has nothing on Sergio Leone's masterpiece The Good, The Bad and The Ugly; but it's still a more than decent little western that will surely satisfy anyone who considers themselves a Spaghetti Western fan. The film is directed by Sergio Sollima, who directed a handful of westerns in the late sixties before going on to direct successful Polizi flicks Revolver and Violent City. He's no Sergio Leone but his direction is certainly solid and the film benefits from the Spaghetti Western style. The plot focuses on the common western theme of one man chasing another through the desert. The lead character is Jonathan Corbett; a gunslinger turned police sheriff put on the trail of Cuchillo Sanchez; a Mexican bandit believed to have raped and killed a young girl. The Mexican is no match for the hardened gunman and he is tracked down quickly - but he has an uncanny ability to escape capture, and this drags the chase out long enough for the sheriff to realise that there may be more to the criminal than meets the eye.

The film benefits from two excellent leading performances. Lee Van Cleef made his name in Spaghetti Westerns for a reason; and that reason is performances like this one. He fits the style of the film very well and effortlessly fits into his role; which he has played many times before and since. His opposite number is the great Tomas Milian, who once again proves his versatility as the Mexican bandit. Milian has an amazing ability to make any role work for him and he's a constant source of entertainment. The Spaghetti Western genre is often best known for its entertainment value and this is true of many genre films; but this one stands out somewhat in that respect as it actually has some kind of point to make. It's not a great point and the film is hardly life-affirming but it still offers a little more than the average western. Of course, there are still plenty of gunfights, chases and general posturing and the director ensures that there's always enough going on to keep things worth watching. Overall, this is an excellent little film and well worth checking out. Recommended!

Lumpy and uneven production hurt an interesting story. It's a shame that this isn't better but if you consider the conditions films like this were made under it's a good job.

Van Clief does a variation of his role in "For A Few Dollars More" and succeeds. He carries the film, without him the movie would probably be unwatchable. Milan is his usual "poor everyman" but is less assured in the role. His character seems to be aimed at defiant 14 year old boys which is at odds with the more adult themes the film is based on.

The cinematography ranges from very good to harsh. The music is a Morriccone classic but is crudely edited during the course of the film. THe final showdown is strange as there are really two showdowns. The dubbing is passable but doesn't help.

Not counting the Leone films this is a top level Italian Western.

The Big Gundown fmovies. At the 61st Venice Film Festival, Quentin Tarantino named THE BIG GUNDOWN not only his favorite Spaghetti Western but one of the all-time Top 5 Westerns!; ironically, though I knew of the film's reputation and had actually already missed out on it on late-night Italian TV due to a power cut, I was all set to give it another miss because I had intended to attend a screening of the latest film by nonagenarian Portuguese film-maker Manoel de Oliveira during which he was also to be presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award...but when, during a Press Conference, Tarantino singled out this one as being the film to see at the "Italian Kings Of The 'B'" retrospective (which he and Joe Dante were presiding over), I just had to be there - since, unlike most other titles at the Festival, it was reserved just that one screening!

The show, then, was delayed by an unattended bag left inside the theater from the previous screening which, incidentally, had been Ferdinando Baldi's Spaghetti Western BLINDMAN (1972) and, given the paranoid state of affairs post-9/11, this necessitated the intervention of bomb disposal units/dogs/soldiers/police before anyone could be allowed to re-enter the hall and the projection of the next film could proceed! If that wasn't enough, Joe Dante - who was present at the screening and my brother and I could overhear him waxing lyrical to his wife about the film's qualities - had to leave the theater after the first few minutes of the projection because, for some reason, English subtitles were not supplied with the only available print!

Anyway, let's get to the film itself: from the accompanying interview with director Sollima, I learned that the Tomas Milian role was originally intended for Gian Maria Volonte', who was to have played a much older "prey" - but then the characters' ages were reversed. As it turned out, this was the first film to feature Milian's "Cuchillo" Sanchez character - a wily Mexican peasant and a dexterous knife-thrower - which he reprised in RUN, MAN, RUN (1968; also directed by Sollima and whose R1 DVD courtesy of Blue Underground I ordered following this viewing, also because it's the only remaining title from the company's "The Spaghetti Western Collection" set I have yet to watch!). The original treatment (by Franco Solinas) was much more politicized but, even if this element was eventually toned down, it's still palpable in the film's critical depiction of the upper-classes - arrogant, duplicitous and perverse - vis-a'-vis the struggling and downtrodden but lusty (and, by extension, virile) lower classes.

Lee Van Cleef has one of his best roles ever as renowned bounty hunter (with an eye on a place in the Senate) Jonathan Corbett; to me, his relationship with Milian's character is one of the strongest ever to be established within the entire Western genre, and it's this that elevates the film above most non-Leone Italian efforts. Ennio Morricone provides one of his most eclectic and haunting scores that's weird and exhilarating at the same time, especially towards the end of the film when the song (ironically called "Run, Man, Run" and with a heightened vocal rendition by Christy to match!) - which is also heard over the opening credits - is reprised. In contrast to the operatic and baroque styles adopted by the other two Sergios - Leone and Corbucci, respectively - Sollima utilizes a much more sober, humanist and, ultimately, realistic approa

Retired sheriff is persuaded by a politician to come back and hunt down a Mexican who has raped and murdered a twelve year old girl but he slowly realises the Mexican has been framed to cover up the real murderer. Good, stylish spaghetti western,this is the longer uncut version of the film and not the hacked up Amercian version that lost nearly twenty minutes of footage.This has a rather slow start and develops into a chase movie in a kind of western version of "the fugitive".Lee Van Cleef is his usual dependable self and the Ennio Morricone soundtrack is good although i'm not sure about the screeching title song!Film is good and satisfies overall.

This is absolutely one of the best so-called spaghetti westerns ever, after Sergio Leone's films of course, and it rates very highly among all westerns. Unlike many other non-Sergio Leone westerns, the cinematography, camera-work, etc., are all very good and some scenes are very artistic and even worthy of Leone himself.

Lee van Cleef is excellent as the pseudo-lawman/bounty hunter with integrity who believes in "justice" and "progress" for society.

Ennio Morricone, as usual, provides a great score for the film. The song is rousing, while the music for the chase scenes is excellent. Morricone also does a folk-music/square dance version of the theme for the wedding party, which is a neat touch.

The story is interesting and well-developed, as well. In its full-length version, it is in fact somewhat deep, with van Cleef's Corbett being a fairly complex character who undergoes a significant character development in the course of the film. In the abridged American version, unfortunately, he is shown as simply bounty hunter who mercilessly kills all before him in cold blood, who never bats an eye at his job, making his character two-dimensional and making the end more flat, more perfunctory, and less convincing or meaningful. In the full-length version, though, he cares about justice, gives outlaws a choice (and a chance), and there is significant development on how he becomes so obsessed with finding Cuchillo that he crosses the boundary between justice and personal obsession. He then re-examines himself and the events in which he finds himself to come to a significant realisation near the end.