davidleedonnell Reviews

The Drifting Avenger (1968)

Interesting Concept

[6/10 · 15 August 2018]

Definitely a must have for collectors of the genre, simply because of its uniqueness. Pretty straight ahead sushi western; I've seen a lot worse experiments in westerns. Sticking to a revenge theme was smart. Allows good genre development of the action.

I'm informed that the copyright has expired on this, so you can download it directly, for those that were complaining they couldn't get a copy. Here's a link.

20,000 dólares por un cadáver (1971)

Liked Watching it, though it was Pretty Mediocre

[6/10 · 21 February 2017]

I watched the original Spanish version undubbed. I couldn't find any extant subtitles, so I had to rely on my fair to middling Spanish. I never read a synopsis before seeing it and wrote my own afterwards to see how much I had gotten, and was surprised it was pretty much spot on, so I think I understood what I was seeing.

Best part: 100% Mexican spaghetti western. Surprisingly few of the Paella sub-genre, the Italian-Spanish co-productions are in Spanish. I like the Italian, but I'd like to see a few that take place in Mexico where they're actually speaking Spanish. And it's filmed in Mexico. That part is really great.

I liked the weapons. I'm a re-enactor and member of the Single Action Shooting Society, so I'm always noticing the weapons, techniques and seeing if it matches the time period. I liked these. Pretty much identical to all my replicas, that gave the gun play an added dimension.

Weakest factor? The freaking' SOUNDTRACK. It is awful- in a trite sort of way- beyond imaging. Cringeworthy. They reuse the same awful melody constantly, not only being tedious, but often totally out of emotional sync with the action.

The plot is really simple. Hey, I understood it. Kind of a nice take on the "everyone's a jackass except me" kind of spaghetti western. The special effects cinematography is really awful, like the sound track, though. Everything from dynamite moving a railroad tie about a quarter of an inch to a .45 revolver blowing up a locomotive head on.

I enjoyed it, in spite of the weaknesses, so I have to give it at least a six, though, technically speaking, it's no six. Like I said, I liked it. Maybe I'm just chuffed at the fact I understood the gist of it. If so I guess I shouldn't complain that the plot was pretty simple.

One Hundred Thousand Dollars for Ringo (1965)

The Only Italian Director that I Totally Dislike

[5/10 · 16 January 2017]

Well, I never thought I'd slag off ANY spaghetti western director's entire body of work, but I think in A De Martino's case I'll make an exception. There are VERY few of the genre that I don't enjoy watching, even when not very good. I've watched all of this director's SW's now (including the rare Gli Eroi di Fort Worth) and I have to say that if all SW's were like this, I would not own even one and I've over 200.

It's hard to put your finger on what's so...boring and irritating...about his movies (yeah, Banditi a Roma is just as bad). I mean, there are LOTS of plot inconsistencies and anachronisms and poorly constructed sets on MOST SW's, and that never irritates me. It does with this guy, though. His errors err on the side of Hollywood. The screen writing is something I'd expect from a primary school production. You never care about his characters- even that they get what they've got coming. HORRID special effects, and like I said, that usually doesn't bother me much. ALWAYS messes actual history up in a way that makes no artistic statement. Fixated on Apaches- they were only in West Texas. Really poorly done Apaches. There's a girl with really, really thin, dyed black hair...but her braids are as thick as my first.

His stuff must be hell for method actors. There's never a rhyme or a reason for the characters' behavior. The kid in this one has two faces he can pull- cheering someone on and being upset. So, he randomly chooses between the two. Constantly. Every 3 seconds. No reason. No reason he'd change so quickly, then back, then change. That's acting, right? We never have a clue in this why the protagonist is interested in Cherry or how he knows what he does. Was this supposed to be like the Return of Martin Guerre??? I kept expecting we'd hear that he knew the character they all keep mistaking him for, but no. That would be a coherent plot, and this bloke's screen plays NEVER have that.

I guess the only use for his work is to see if a SW fan is of the knee-jerk, ego identity variety, or if they still retain some discrimination. If they like this one, they're definitely in the first basket.

Bottom line, this one is the visual equivalent of the soundtrack to Keoma. Yeah.