5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :- Walk, don't run..., 14 June 2005
Author:
westerner357 from U.S.
(aka: RUN, MAN, RUN)
Decent sequel to Sollima's great spaghetti western, THE BIG GUNDOWN
(1966), this one involves the return of Cuchillo (Thomas Milian) who
helps revolutionary Santillana (John Ireland in a small role) return
$3,000,000 in gold from Texas back to Mexico. Cuchillo also makes a
promise to an old revolutionary before he dies to also help return the
gold in order to help finance the revolution and overthrow the
dictator, Porfirio Diaz.
But Cuchillo also has to deal with former sheriff Cassidy (Donal
O'Brien) who also wants the gold for himself. Then there are the French
assassins and bounty hunters who also want a share as well as blond
Salvation Army turned gold huntress Penny (Linda Vargas) and many other
bandits, too numerous to name. As comic relief we have Cuchillio's
girlfriend (Chelo Alonso) following Cuchillio across the desert, trying
to force him to give up the search for the gold and marry her.
Cuchilio's relationship with her can be funny at times.
The nighttime gunbattle in the Texas town with the Mexican bandits is
suspenseful as we see Cuchillio go to work on the bandits with his
slick knife throwing skills as he kills each bandit, one after the
other. It doesn't hurt that Cassidy also helps him since he needs
Cuchillio to help him find the gold. The two of them eventually find
out that the gold was melted down into the shape of an old printing
press and painted black in order to hide it. Now that's an imaginative
touch instead of the usual cave or hole in the ground plot device where
people want to hide gold.
The ending is roughly the same as in THE BIG GUNDOWN only not as good
since Donal O'Brien can't hope to top Lee Van Cleef in the earlier
film. In fact, if there's one big flaw about this film, it's that Van
Cleef isn't in it. Otherwise I'd rate it a couple of notches higher.
Blue Underground's anamorphic DVD looks pretty good and the sound and
dubbing is excellent. As an earlier reviewer mentioned, there is an
interview with director Sollima and Milian and their reflections on the
film, as well as an interesting 1969 mini-documentary on the making of
spaghetti westerns and their (then) popularity in Italy, including
behind the scenes looks at this film as well as Sergio Corbucci's THE
GRAND SILENCE (1968).
Decent flick although I think there are better.
6 out of 10
5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :- Lesser "sequel" to the Big Gundown, 25 February 2003
Author:
cengelm from Germany
This film reuses the lead character of LA RESA DEI CONTI and is the
third of the Sollima/Milian series. Cuchillo (spanish for "knife") is
pretty skilled with this weapon and proves its usefulness in a lot of
occasions. During the plot he acts as a maverick, with the only help of
his fiancé Maria who wants him finally to get married. As a cultural
counterpoint there is the other maverick Cassidy who is depicted as
Nordic precise and cold. While being competitive at first they later
join for purpose. Overall this sequel suffers from an overload of duel
and fighting situations which often seem to be completely senseless,
e.g. the duel between Cassidy and José in the beginning. The revolution
is not more than a background. Less characters and more character
development would have helped. Milian plays with his typical humor and
very often we see his suffering face in repetitive scenes of torture. .
Recommended for fans of the genre and of Milian. Rich daughter Penny
(Linda Veras) is working for the salvation army and wears black
fish-net stockings which I consider a minor inaccuracy ;-)
The Nicolai/Morricone score is nice but too hammering for my taste,
cinematography is well above average. For me this film is the most
humorous of the 3 Sollimas.
6/10
4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :- Great And Humorous Sequel To The Big Gundown, 10 November 2006
Author:
Benjamin Gauss from Salzburg, Austria
Sergio Sollima's "Corri, Uomo, Corri" aka. "Run, Man, Run!" of 1968 is
a great and very funny sequel to his 1966 masterpiece "La Resa Dei
Conti" aka. "The Big Gundown". As Sollimas two other Westerns, this is
once again a quite political film, but unlike "The Big Gundown" and
"Face To Face", it is so humorous, that it could actually be described
as a Spaghetti Western Comedy.
After a dying revolutionary entrusts the hideout of a fortune to him,
Mexican petty thief and excellent knife thrower Cuchillo (Tomas Milian,
who already played Cuchillo in "The Big Gundown") is chased through the
Mexican/Texan borderland by a gang of Mexian bandits, two French
mercenaries, who work for the Mexican government, and Nathaniel Cassidy
(Donal O'Brien), an American gunslinger who, although primarily
interested in money, still has some of his former ideals left.
Furthermore Cuchillo is constantly followed by his loving girlfriend
Dolores (beautiful Chelo Alonso), who is sexy and passionate, but also
very jealous and short-tempered. On his run, Chuchillo first meets, and
travels with a pretty blonde Salvation Army activist called Penny
(Linda Veras), much to Dolores' disfavor, and later teams up with
Cassidy against their mutual enemies.
The acting in this movie is great, especially Tomas Milian (one of my
favorite actors) and Donal O'Brien deliver excellent performances as
the two main characters. The supporting cast is also very good, the
legendary John Ireland has a small role as a the leader of a Mexican
revolutionary squad. The cinematography is great, and so is the music
by Bruno Nicolai and Ennio Morricone. Many scenes in movie are very
memorable, some of them very funny , a Mexican bandit gang leader
orders his wife to hold off on giving birth to their child for a few
days for example, because he doesn't want his son to be a "Gringo" born
in the US, and the French hit men played by Luciano Rossi and Marco
Guglielmi are two very satirical villains.
Maybe not quite as brilliant as "The Big Gundown", but still an
excellent movie, "Run, Man, Run!" is a witty, great and very
entertaining Spaghetti Western, a must see for genre-fans, but also
recommended to everybody else. 9/10
3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :- RUN, MAN, RUN (Sergio Sollima, 1968) ***, 8 September 2006
Author:
MARIO GAUCI (marrod@onvol.net) from Naxxar, Malta
This is another fine Spaghetti Western, actually a sequel to THE BIG
GUNDOWN (1966), from the same director-star team; in the accompanying
interview, Sollima said that he felt the "Cuchillo" Sanchez character
from that film (who, basically had been a subsidiary to Lee Van Cleef's
lone gunman) was worthy of his own vehicle.
However, having perhaps overdosed on films from this subgenre over the
last two weeks, I was slightly underwhelmed by it (being preceded by my
first viewing of the German Expressionist classic WARNING SHADOWS
[1923; see my review elsewhere], which was well and truly impressive,
may also have had something to do with this!): throwing in everything
but the kitchen sink in the various characters' search for gold, the
film still offered nothing that was essentially new!!
In fact, here we have Tomas Milian's "Cuchillo" (whom Sollima admits to
have been inspired by Toshiro Mifune's role in Akira Kurosawa's SEVEN
SAMURAI [1954]) being helped, hindered or pursued by a mysterious
American bounty-hunter, a couple of French mercenaries, a bandit horde,
Mexican revolutionaries (led by John Ireland, who turns up for a
two-minute bit!) and the Army - not forgetting the attentions of two
beautiful women, his feisty and extremely jealous Mexican girlfriend
and a statuesque Salvation Army officer (but who's not above a little
greed)! All this tends to make the film episodic (but which doesn't
hang together as well as the first film), overlong (for no real
purpose) and exhausting (there's less action than usual for a Spaghetti
Western, with little of it that's actually memorable, but a good deal
of talk - this is one of the most overtly political films in the
genre!). The comedy, too, is more pronounced than in THE BIG GUNDOWN
and, indeed, apart from the lead character's constant running (hence
the title) and distinctive knife-throwing, he seems to be a different
person - as if the characteristics of roles Milian had played in the
interim, such as those in FACE TO FACE (1967; also directed by Sollima)
and DJANGO, KILL! (1967) had filtered through to his interpretation of
"Cuchillo" here!
There's still the shaky 'alliance' between the Mexican and an American
ex-sheriff (played this time around by Donal O' Brien, as a cross
between the Lee Van Cleef of THE BIG GUNDOWN and the William Berger of
FACE TO FACE!) and even the double duel at the end - but with the
former not being a chase and the opponents in the latter amounting to
only minor characters, i.e. not alter egos as in the earlier film,
these elements don't have quite the same impact (though I understand
that Sollima couldn't merely repeat himself)! Besides, after two hours
the film can only come up with an unresolved ending (with the gold
still unclaimed); Sollima, however, feels it was the right thing to do!
From this review, one might think that I didn't like the film all that
much or that I spent too much space comparing it to other Spaghetti
Westerns - but the star rating should indicate otherwise: it's solid,
flavorful and enjoyable (if overly familiar) with a few good action
highlights; best of all is the rousing and infectious score by Ennio
Morricone (although, due to some contractual glitch, it was credited to
his friend and habitual conductor Bruno Nicolai!).
With respect to the supplements included on the Blue Underground DVD:
I'll comment elsewhere on the TV special from 1968 about Spaghetti
Westerns; the 17-minute featurette which includes interviews with both
Sollima and Milian (it was especially great to listen to him talk about
this period of his career, having missed out on his interview on BU's
edition of DJANGO, KILL!) is wonderful: Sollima is as eloquent and
witty here as he was on the interview featured on the Italian DVD of
THE BIG GUNDOWN; Milian, apparently, was hurt by the director's
put-down of his "Actor's Studio" background and here he comments how
his carefully developed characterization of "Cuchillo" as a trapped
rabbit was more or less ruined during the editing stages (Milian even
allows himself a self-compliment by saying that he's "f***ing talented"
but, then, he made poignant comments about his approaching old age)!;
we're also offered the original Italian credit sequence (which adds
some blue to the red tones of that in the English version), the
trailer, a poster gallery and talent bios for both star (I was
distressed to learn that when he returned to the U.S., all his great
work in Italy meant naught to the Hollywood producers and that, in
order to get even a supporting part, he had to reduce himself to
testing for it!!) and director.
5 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :- Once upon a Time in Mexico, 13 April 2005
Author:
movieman_kev from United States
Tomas Milian returns as Cuchillo, a petty thief who after being
imprisoned helps his cell-mate and himself escape. He then gets
entangled in a run to get the 3 million dollars in gold that his
cell-mate, whom also happens to be a Mexican Revolutionary, hid in a
town across the border in Texas. He's chased by his overbearing
girlfriend who wants desperately to get married, a bounty hunter
(Donald O'Brien), as well as some others.I have yet to see "The Big
Gundown", so I can't compare the two, but I really enjoyed this movie
and found it to be humorous well still maintaining some good action.
And I certainly liked it much more then the previous Thomas Milian film
that I've seen "Se sei Vivo spara" (Django Kill, if you live shoot)
My Grade: B+
Blue Underground DVD Extras: Part of BU's Spaghetti Western Collection.
Uncut; 17 minute'Run man Run: 35 years Running' Featurette; 38 minute
'Westerns Italian Style' Featurette; Italian Main Titles; Posters &
Still Gallery; Talent Bios for Sergio Sollima & Tomas Milian;
Theatrical Trailer
3 Easter Eggs: Highlight the hidden knife in the Extras menu for
Trailers for "Django", "Dajango Kill", and "A Man Called Blade";
Highlight the knife in the main menu for Tomas Milian telling of his
run with a tax man; The hidden knife over the face in the Chapter
Select menu for an unsubtitled interview of some sort
1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :- Final installment from Cuchillo trilogy and again a magnificent Tomas Milian, 17 January 2008
Author:
ma-cortes from Santander Spain
This sequel is the third part from Sergio Sollima trilogy, starred by
Tomas Milian, as the roguish Cuchillo and formed by Big gundown, Face
to face and this one. Now as absolute starring Tomas Milian supported
by Donald O'Brien in similar role to Lee Van Cleef from ¨Big gundown¨.
It's set during early Mexican revolution with Porfirio Diaz ruling,
approximately in 1910s. The McGuffin is a hidden treasure by Benito
Juarez beyond frontier. The revolutionaries aren't Pancho Villa or
Emilio Zapata , but is an imaginary Santillana, well performed by John
Ireland in a brief acting. The Cuban Thomas Milian, as usual, puts
faces, grimaces, crying and overacting, but plays splendidly. Enjoyable
appearance by also Cuban, the gorgeous Chelo Alonso, usual of Peplum
and Western: The good, the bad and the ugly. Furthermore, appear usual
secondaries Italian Western as Jose Torres, Gianni Rizzo, Luciano Rossi
and Rick Boyd.
This Zapata-Western is inferior than previous entries but displays
stirring adventures, shootouts, riding pursuits and is pretty amusing.
Sensible musical score by Bruno Nicolai, substituting to the great
Ennio Morricone, author previous films. Colorful and evocative
cinematography by Mancori, reflecting marvellously the habitual Almeria
(Spain)outdoors. The picture is well directed by Sergio Sollima who
would be his last Western and following directing success such as
Sandokan.
1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :- Vila la 1968 Revolution!, 1 November 2007
Author:
Andrew Leavold (trash@trashvideo.com.au) from Brisbane, Australia
Imagine an Italian western inspired by Marx - not Groucho, but KARL.
Springing from the loins of the European mini-revolutions of 1968 comes
a western with a conscience, courtesy of spaghetti socialist Sergio
Sollima, who recycles his most memorable character from the 1967 The
Big Gundown and builds an entire film around him.
Cuban-born Tomas Milian returns as Cuchillio, a wily yet endearingly
naive opportunist who's quick with a knife but not so quick on the
uptake. A quick spell in a border prison sees him share a cell with a
seditious poet named Rodriguez, whose dying breath reveals the last
resting place of a $3 million cache of revolution-bound gold. And so
begins Cuchillio's journey, spreading his proto-revolutionary seed
across the Texas border whilst pursued by a sleazy assortment of
cutthroats and would-be revolutionaries, spaghetti western regular
Donal O'Brien playing a sheriff with a conscience, two French secret
agents, his jealous fiancé Dolores (played by the fiery Chelo Alonso),
and a blond sergeant in the Salvation Army, a woman who sticks out of
her unlikely surroundings like a turd tambourine. Cuchillio himself
spends most of his screen time bound, gagged with dynamite,
spreadeagled in some godforsaken location, or in one stunning sequence,
strapped to the blade of a windmill. And STILL He doesn't lose his
sense of humor.
Like The Good The Bad And The Ugly it's a deliberately open-ended epic
quest for hidden treasure, but without Leone's grandiose scale and
pretentious camera histrionics. It's more like The Wizard of Oz wrapped
in a burrito, and peppered with the most random of supporting
characters. The usual grimness of these spaghetti westerns is
contrasted with Tomas Milian's comic timing, a rousing score by an
uncredited Ennio Morricone, and a surprising cameo from veteran
American actor John Ireland as a crusty, battle-scarred soldier of the
class struggle.
Socialist westerns don't usually come this entertaining - come to think
of it, socialists are rarely funny at all! So enjoy the picaresque,
picturesque and thankfully undogmatic 1968 Run Man Run.
2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :- A feel-good Spaghetti Western, if you will!, 22 April 2006
Author:
Golgo-13 from The IMDb Horror Board!
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
This humorous Spaghetti Western was rather enjoyable, a feel-good SW,
if you will! The story follows Cuchillo, a happy-go-lucky thief and
knife-throwing expert, who gets pulled into a race for a large amount
gold, which is supposed to be used to fund the Mexican Revolution. Of
course, there are several other greedy bandits after it as well. The
story is adequate, but not really original, and the action is paced
nicely and pretty cool to watch, seeing that it usually involves flying
knives. The real value of this movie, though, is in the character of
Cuchillo, excellently played by Tomas Milian. Milian displays fine
comedic timing and a honest delivery of dialogue, and is given many
chances to show it all off, whether he is dealing with women, being
tortured (is there a difference?), or, well, just running for his life!
The rousing musical theme was nice too, a welcome change from the
heavy, depressing one in Mannaja and the slower, more lyrical-based one
in Django (not that they're bad songs either though). Finally, what was
with the ending? Did they run out of money? I was really hoping for a
resolution here and it felt like there should've been one but oh
well...it was still a good movie.
Hands off my slice., 21 April 2008
Author:
lost-in-limbo from the Mad Hatter's tea party.
Hitting hard is the idealistic tone and free-flowing spirit that
engraves itself in director Sergio Sollima's sprawling spaghetti
western (a semi-sequel to "The Big Gundown (1966)") starring Tomas
Milan as the simple, but lethal knife slinging protagonist Cuchillo.
While the material is heavy on the comic banter and physical mishaps,
it never loses balance of the strenuously meaningful political side of
the story, as Sollima agreeably pulls it off. There's bounce, and zippy
energy as it moves along quickly enough, despite its lengthy story and
open-ended conclusion for another expansive adventure to begin. Rich
varieties of characters (maybe too many) come and go with a lot of
minor stories branching of the central premise. This leaves the story
feeling loose. So pretty much something is always happening, but the
resolutions and overall intentions come off cloudy in this largely
chatty script. There's a lot of running, but just as much talking.
Sollima skilfully directs with bold compositions and controlled
precision in his grand set-pieces. His camera-work imagery and
widescreen placement is professionally executed, and imaginatively
snappy. The rough and scorching desolate backdrop never looked so
sumptuously rich. Adding to the drama was Bruno Nicolai and Ennio
Morricone's downright superb alarmingly scheming and melodic score. The
performances are truly wonderful. Milan's ferret manner always amused,
and Donal O'Brien brings out an intriguing performance. The passionate
performances came from two fiery ladies; Linda Veras and Chelo Alonso.
They were great! John Ireland has a small, but potently hearty and
flavorful role as Mexican revolutionary General Santillana. Quite a fun
and well-made spaghetti western, but it does take quite a lot out of
you.
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Corri uomo corri (1968)
5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-

Walk, don't run..., 14 June 2005
Author: westerner357 from U.S.
(aka: RUN, MAN, RUN)
Decent sequel to Sollima's great spaghetti western, THE BIG GUNDOWN (1966), this one involves the return of Cuchillo (Thomas Milian) who helps revolutionary Santillana (John Ireland in a small role) return $3,000,000 in gold from Texas back to Mexico. Cuchillo also makes a promise to an old revolutionary before he dies to also help return the gold in order to help finance the revolution and overthrow the dictator, Porfirio Diaz.
But Cuchillo also has to deal with former sheriff Cassidy (Donal O'Brien) who also wants the gold for himself. Then there are the French assassins and bounty hunters who also want a share as well as blond Salvation Army turned gold huntress Penny (Linda Vargas) and many other bandits, too numerous to name. As comic relief we have Cuchillio's girlfriend (Chelo Alonso) following Cuchillio across the desert, trying to force him to give up the search for the gold and marry her. Cuchilio's relationship with her can be funny at times.
The nighttime gunbattle in the Texas town with the Mexican bandits is suspenseful as we see Cuchillio go to work on the bandits with his slick knife throwing skills as he kills each bandit, one after the other. It doesn't hurt that Cassidy also helps him since he needs Cuchillio to help him find the gold. The two of them eventually find out that the gold was melted down into the shape of an old printing press and painted black in order to hide it. Now that's an imaginative touch instead of the usual cave or hole in the ground plot device where people want to hide gold.
The ending is roughly the same as in THE BIG GUNDOWN only not as good since Donal O'Brien can't hope to top Lee Van Cleef in the earlier film. In fact, if there's one big flaw about this film, it's that Van Cleef isn't in it. Otherwise I'd rate it a couple of notches higher.
Blue Underground's anamorphic DVD looks pretty good and the sound and dubbing is excellent. As an earlier reviewer mentioned, there is an interview with director Sollima and Milian and their reflections on the film, as well as an interesting 1969 mini-documentary on the making of spaghetti westerns and their (then) popularity in Italy, including behind the scenes looks at this film as well as Sergio Corbucci's THE GRAND SILENCE (1968).
Decent flick although I think there are better.
6 out of 10
5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-

Lesser "sequel" to the Big Gundown, 25 February 2003
Author: cengelm from Germany
This film reuses the lead character of LA RESA DEI CONTI and is the third of the Sollima/Milian series. Cuchillo (spanish for "knife") is pretty skilled with this weapon and proves its usefulness in a lot of occasions. During the plot he acts as a maverick, with the only help of his fiancé Maria who wants him finally to get married. As a cultural counterpoint there is the other maverick Cassidy who is depicted as Nordic precise and cold. While being competitive at first they later join for purpose. Overall this sequel suffers from an overload of duel and fighting situations which often seem to be completely senseless, e.g. the duel between Cassidy and José in the beginning. The revolution is not more than a background. Less characters and more character development would have helped. Milian plays with his typical humor and very often we see his suffering face in repetitive scenes of torture. . Recommended for fans of the genre and of Milian. Rich daughter Penny (Linda Veras) is working for the salvation army and wears black fish-net stockings which I consider a minor inaccuracy ;-)
The Nicolai/Morricone score is nice but too hammering for my taste, cinematography is well above average. For me this film is the most humorous of the 3 Sollimas.
6/10
4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-

Great And Humorous Sequel To The Big Gundown, 10 November 2006
Author: Benjamin Gauss from Salzburg, Austria
Sergio Sollima's "Corri, Uomo, Corri" aka. "Run, Man, Run!" of 1968 is a great and very funny sequel to his 1966 masterpiece "La Resa Dei Conti" aka. "The Big Gundown". As Sollimas two other Westerns, this is once again a quite political film, but unlike "The Big Gundown" and "Face To Face", it is so humorous, that it could actually be described as a Spaghetti Western Comedy.
After a dying revolutionary entrusts the hideout of a fortune to him, Mexican petty thief and excellent knife thrower Cuchillo (Tomas Milian, who already played Cuchillo in "The Big Gundown") is chased through the Mexican/Texan borderland by a gang of Mexian bandits, two French mercenaries, who work for the Mexican government, and Nathaniel Cassidy (Donal O'Brien), an American gunslinger who, although primarily interested in money, still has some of his former ideals left. Furthermore Cuchillo is constantly followed by his loving girlfriend Dolores (beautiful Chelo Alonso), who is sexy and passionate, but also very jealous and short-tempered. On his run, Chuchillo first meets, and travels with a pretty blonde Salvation Army activist called Penny (Linda Veras), much to Dolores' disfavor, and later teams up with Cassidy against their mutual enemies.
The acting in this movie is great, especially Tomas Milian (one of my favorite actors) and Donal O'Brien deliver excellent performances as the two main characters. The supporting cast is also very good, the legendary John Ireland has a small role as a the leader of a Mexican revolutionary squad. The cinematography is great, and so is the music by Bruno Nicolai and Ennio Morricone. Many scenes in movie are very memorable, some of them very funny , a Mexican bandit gang leader orders his wife to hold off on giving birth to their child for a few days for example, because he doesn't want his son to be a "Gringo" born in the US, and the French hit men played by Luciano Rossi and Marco Guglielmi are two very satirical villains.
Maybe not quite as brilliant as "The Big Gundown", but still an excellent movie, "Run, Man, Run!" is a witty, great and very entertaining Spaghetti Western, a must see for genre-fans, but also recommended to everybody else. 9/10
3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-

RUN, MAN, RUN (Sergio Sollima, 1968) ***, 8 September 2006
Author: MARIO GAUCI (marrod@onvol.net) from Naxxar, Malta
This is another fine Spaghetti Western, actually a sequel to THE BIG GUNDOWN (1966), from the same director-star team; in the accompanying interview, Sollima said that he felt the "Cuchillo" Sanchez character from that film (who, basically had been a subsidiary to Lee Van Cleef's lone gunman) was worthy of his own vehicle.
However, having perhaps overdosed on films from this subgenre over the last two weeks, I was slightly underwhelmed by it (being preceded by my first viewing of the German Expressionist classic WARNING SHADOWS [1923; see my review elsewhere], which was well and truly impressive, may also have had something to do with this!): throwing in everything but the kitchen sink in the various characters' search for gold, the film still offered nothing that was essentially new!!
In fact, here we have Tomas Milian's "Cuchillo" (whom Sollima admits to have been inspired by Toshiro Mifune's role in Akira Kurosawa's SEVEN SAMURAI [1954]) being helped, hindered or pursued by a mysterious American bounty-hunter, a couple of French mercenaries, a bandit horde, Mexican revolutionaries (led by John Ireland, who turns up for a two-minute bit!) and the Army - not forgetting the attentions of two beautiful women, his feisty and extremely jealous Mexican girlfriend and a statuesque Salvation Army officer (but who's not above a little greed)! All this tends to make the film episodic (but which doesn't hang together as well as the first film), overlong (for no real purpose) and exhausting (there's less action than usual for a Spaghetti Western, with little of it that's actually memorable, but a good deal of talk - this is one of the most overtly political films in the genre!). The comedy, too, is more pronounced than in THE BIG GUNDOWN and, indeed, apart from the lead character's constant running (hence the title) and distinctive knife-throwing, he seems to be a different person - as if the characteristics of roles Milian had played in the interim, such as those in FACE TO FACE (1967; also directed by Sollima) and DJANGO, KILL! (1967) had filtered through to his interpretation of "Cuchillo" here!
There's still the shaky 'alliance' between the Mexican and an American ex-sheriff (played this time around by Donal O' Brien, as a cross between the Lee Van Cleef of THE BIG GUNDOWN and the William Berger of FACE TO FACE!) and even the double duel at the end - but with the former not being a chase and the opponents in the latter amounting to only minor characters, i.e. not alter egos as in the earlier film, these elements don't have quite the same impact (though I understand that Sollima couldn't merely repeat himself)! Besides, after two hours the film can only come up with an unresolved ending (with the gold still unclaimed); Sollima, however, feels it was the right thing to do!
From this review, one might think that I didn't like the film all that much or that I spent too much space comparing it to other Spaghetti Westerns - but the star rating should indicate otherwise: it's solid, flavorful and enjoyable (if overly familiar) with a few good action highlights; best of all is the rousing and infectious score by Ennio Morricone (although, due to some contractual glitch, it was credited to his friend and habitual conductor Bruno Nicolai!).
With respect to the supplements included on the Blue Underground DVD: I'll comment elsewhere on the TV special from 1968 about Spaghetti Westerns; the 17-minute featurette which includes interviews with both Sollima and Milian (it was especially great to listen to him talk about this period of his career, having missed out on his interview on BU's edition of DJANGO, KILL!) is wonderful: Sollima is as eloquent and witty here as he was on the interview featured on the Italian DVD of THE BIG GUNDOWN; Milian, apparently, was hurt by the director's put-down of his "Actor's Studio" background and here he comments how his carefully developed characterization of "Cuchillo" as a trapped rabbit was more or less ruined during the editing stages (Milian even allows himself a self-compliment by saying that he's "f***ing talented" but, then, he made poignant comments about his approaching old age)!; we're also offered the original Italian credit sequence (which adds some blue to the red tones of that in the English version), the trailer, a poster gallery and talent bios for both star (I was distressed to learn that when he returned to the U.S., all his great work in Italy meant naught to the Hollywood producers and that, in order to get even a supporting part, he had to reduce himself to testing for it!!) and director.
5 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-

Once upon a Time in Mexico, 13 April 2005
Author: movieman_kev from United States
Tomas Milian returns as Cuchillo, a petty thief who after being imprisoned helps his cell-mate and himself escape. He then gets entangled in a run to get the 3 million dollars in gold that his cell-mate, whom also happens to be a Mexican Revolutionary, hid in a town across the border in Texas. He's chased by his overbearing girlfriend who wants desperately to get married, a bounty hunter (Donald O'Brien), as well as some others.I have yet to see "The Big Gundown", so I can't compare the two, but I really enjoyed this movie and found it to be humorous well still maintaining some good action. And I certainly liked it much more then the previous Thomas Milian film that I've seen "Se sei Vivo spara" (Django Kill, if you live shoot)
My Grade: B+
Blue Underground DVD Extras: Part of BU's Spaghetti Western Collection. Uncut; 17 minute'Run man Run: 35 years Running' Featurette; 38 minute 'Westerns Italian Style' Featurette; Italian Main Titles; Posters & Still Gallery; Talent Bios for Sergio Sollima & Tomas Milian; Theatrical Trailer
3 Easter Eggs: Highlight the hidden knife in the Extras menu for Trailers for "Django", "Dajango Kill", and "A Man Called Blade"; Highlight the knife in the main menu for Tomas Milian telling of his run with a tax man; The hidden knife over the face in the Chapter Select menu for an unsubtitled interview of some sort
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Final installment from Cuchillo trilogy and again a magnificent Tomas Milian, 17 January 2008
Author: ma-cortes from Santander Spain
This sequel is the third part from Sergio Sollima trilogy, starred by Tomas Milian, as the roguish Cuchillo and formed by Big gundown, Face to face and this one. Now as absolute starring Tomas Milian supported by Donald O'Brien in similar role to Lee Van Cleef from ¨Big gundown¨. It's set during early Mexican revolution with Porfirio Diaz ruling, approximately in 1910s. The McGuffin is a hidden treasure by Benito Juarez beyond frontier. The revolutionaries aren't Pancho Villa or Emilio Zapata , but is an imaginary Santillana, well performed by John Ireland in a brief acting. The Cuban Thomas Milian, as usual, puts faces, grimaces, crying and overacting, but plays splendidly. Enjoyable appearance by also Cuban, the gorgeous Chelo Alonso, usual of Peplum and Western: The good, the bad and the ugly. Furthermore, appear usual secondaries Italian Western as Jose Torres, Gianni Rizzo, Luciano Rossi and Rick Boyd.
This Zapata-Western is inferior than previous entries but displays stirring adventures, shootouts, riding pursuits and is pretty amusing. Sensible musical score by Bruno Nicolai, substituting to the great Ennio Morricone, author previous films. Colorful and evocative cinematography by Mancori, reflecting marvellously the habitual Almeria (Spain)outdoors. The picture is well directed by Sergio Sollima who would be his last Western and following directing success such as Sandokan.
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Vila la 1968 Revolution!, 1 November 2007
Author: Andrew Leavold (trash@trashvideo.com.au) from Brisbane, Australia
Imagine an Italian western inspired by Marx - not Groucho, but KARL. Springing from the loins of the European mini-revolutions of 1968 comes a western with a conscience, courtesy of spaghetti socialist Sergio Sollima, who recycles his most memorable character from the 1967 The Big Gundown and builds an entire film around him.
Cuban-born Tomas Milian returns as Cuchillio, a wily yet endearingly naive opportunist who's quick with a knife but not so quick on the uptake. A quick spell in a border prison sees him share a cell with a seditious poet named Rodriguez, whose dying breath reveals the last resting place of a $3 million cache of revolution-bound gold. And so begins Cuchillio's journey, spreading his proto-revolutionary seed across the Texas border whilst pursued by a sleazy assortment of cutthroats and would-be revolutionaries, spaghetti western regular Donal O'Brien playing a sheriff with a conscience, two French secret agents, his jealous fiancé Dolores (played by the fiery Chelo Alonso), and a blond sergeant in the Salvation Army, a woman who sticks out of her unlikely surroundings like a turd tambourine. Cuchillio himself spends most of his screen time bound, gagged with dynamite, spreadeagled in some godforsaken location, or in one stunning sequence, strapped to the blade of a windmill. And STILL He doesn't lose his sense of humor.
Like The Good The Bad And The Ugly it's a deliberately open-ended epic quest for hidden treasure, but without Leone's grandiose scale and pretentious camera histrionics. It's more like The Wizard of Oz wrapped in a burrito, and peppered with the most random of supporting characters. The usual grimness of these spaghetti westerns is contrasted with Tomas Milian's comic timing, a rousing score by an uncredited Ennio Morricone, and a surprising cameo from veteran American actor John Ireland as a crusty, battle-scarred soldier of the class struggle.
Socialist westerns don't usually come this entertaining - come to think of it, socialists are rarely funny at all! So enjoy the picaresque, picturesque and thankfully undogmatic 1968 Run Man Run.
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A feel-good Spaghetti Western, if you will!, 22 April 2006
Author: Golgo-13 from The IMDb Horror Board!
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
This humorous Spaghetti Western was rather enjoyable, a feel-good SW, if you will! The story follows Cuchillo, a happy-go-lucky thief and knife-throwing expert, who gets pulled into a race for a large amount gold, which is supposed to be used to fund the Mexican Revolution. Of course, there are several other greedy bandits after it as well. The story is adequate, but not really original, and the action is paced nicely and pretty cool to watch, seeing that it usually involves flying knives. The real value of this movie, though, is in the character of Cuchillo, excellently played by Tomas Milian. Milian displays fine comedic timing and a honest delivery of dialogue, and is given many chances to show it all off, whether he is dealing with women, being tortured (is there a difference?), or, well, just running for his life! The rousing musical theme was nice too, a welcome change from the heavy, depressing one in Mannaja and the slower, more lyrical-based one in Django (not that they're bad songs either though). Finally, what was with the ending? Did they run out of money? I was really hoping for a resolution here and it felt like there should've been one but oh well...it was still a good movie.
Hands off my slice., 21 April 2008

Author: lost-in-limbo from the Mad Hatter's tea party.
Hitting hard is the idealistic tone and free-flowing spirit that engraves itself in director Sergio Sollima's sprawling spaghetti western (a semi-sequel to "The Big Gundown (1966)") starring Tomas Milan as the simple, but lethal knife slinging protagonist Cuchillo. While the material is heavy on the comic banter and physical mishaps, it never loses balance of the strenuously meaningful political side of the story, as Sollima agreeably pulls it off. There's bounce, and zippy energy as it moves along quickly enough, despite its lengthy story and open-ended conclusion for another expansive adventure to begin. Rich varieties of characters (maybe too many) come and go with a lot of minor stories branching of the central premise. This leaves the story feeling loose. So pretty much something is always happening, but the resolutions and overall intentions come off cloudy in this largely chatty script. There's a lot of running, but just as much talking. Sollima skilfully directs with bold compositions and controlled precision in his grand set-pieces. His camera-work imagery and widescreen placement is professionally executed, and imaginatively snappy. The rough and scorching desolate backdrop never looked so sumptuously rich. Adding to the drama was Bruno Nicolai and Ennio Morricone's downright superb alarmingly scheming and melodic score. The performances are truly wonderful. Milan's ferret manner always amused, and Donal O'Brien brings out an intriguing performance. The passionate performances came from two fiery ladies; Linda Veras and Chelo Alonso. They were great! John Ireland has a small, but potently hearty and flavorful role as Mexican revolutionary General Santillana. Quite a fun and well-made spaghetti western, but it does take quite a lot out of you.
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