Death Rides a Horse

Has anyone heard of 'Ennio Morricone' who has composed and conducted for this film in which gives this movie and other of his soundtracks in other movies such integrity and passion and sensitivty? 'WAKE UP'.Here is an unsung hero among masses for his involment in the movie industry. Ive seen him perform live in 'LONDON'.Give credit to the master.

Oh, this film is trying so very, very hard to be 'For A Few Dollars More'! It borrows so much! OK, so this time around it's the younger man who wants revenge for the slaughter of his loved ones, and therefore constantly has red-tinted flashbacks (somewhat pointlessly, since we saw this unfortunate event in great detail in the first five minutes). But his older and wiser buddy is still Lee Van Cleef, and the villains include Indio's two main sidekicks - big fat Mario Brega (playing a bank clerk!) and slimy Luigi Pistilli; and Ennio Morricone contributes the music - unfortunately some of his least inspired. And just in case we're still missing the point, several scenes from 'For A Few Dollars More' are replayed almost word for word. In one such sequence, not only do very nearly the same things happen, but the villain has the same name, and the piano-player is playing the same tune! However, as if the scriptwriter felt guilty about pinching so much from one film, towards the end it suddenly turns into 'The Magnificent Seven' with bits of 'Rio Bravo' thrown in. That being said, there's plenty to enjoy. Lee Van Cleef pretty much carries the movie, but then he could probably do it in his sleep. Unfortunately, John Philip Law really does seem to be doing it in his sleep. It's interesting that in 'Barbarella' his character was blind, since in this film, which, being a spaghetti western, features lots of close-ups of peoples' eyes, he is so woodenly expressionless that he does at times look as though he might really be blind. Indeed, his acting is so awful that I honestly couldn't figure out whether he was as atrociously dubbed as the minor characters or if that's his actual performance. Though in a strange way it doesn't really matter. This is a spaghetti western, and as such, realism on any level simply isn't an issue. All the usual things happen, and they happen with a good deal of zest. And although the opening scenes are genuinely quite nasty, the rest of it is so stylized that the grimness soon evaporates and you can just sit back and enjoy the rip-roaring nonsense. It's formulaic and not the best of its kind, but it's very far from being the worst. If you like spaghetti westerns, you'll get your money's worth, so long as you can cope with a hero who looks a lot more like an android than Yul Brynner did in 'Westworld'. By the way, is this possibly the film with the least surprising surprise ending ever?

good old western with lee van Cleef showing no mercy !!

The spaghetti western can be the most reductive, and therefore the dullest, of genres. Trawling through them looking for the odd gem is a reasonable cure for insomnia. But, when a good one does turn up, it really is a gem. This is one such, utilizing some tried and tested characteristations in the service of an unsurprising plot, but directed with unusual seriousness by Giuliani Petroni, and iconically cast: John Philiip Law, even by his standards, is deadpan wooden (but also super-cool and impossibly handsome); and Lee Van Cleef simply rules. Throw in a Morricone score (not one of his best, if truth be told) and some spectacular scenery, beautifully used, and you have a nifty little number which should appeal to all fans of the genre.

If you enjoyed the Eastwood Spagetti westerns you can only enjoy this one, and even if you have not seen any Eastwood spagetti then this will get you curious.