For the majority
of movie goers out there westerns made by the Italians in the sixties,
affectionately called “spaghetti westerns”, were limited to the films directed
by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood. But the genre was much bigger than
that. While the western genre in the U.S. had dwindled down to mostly TV series
and an occasional John Wayne movie, Italy took hold of the genre and made it its
own. It’s only now, years later, that many have discovered these past works
with their emergence on DVD. Thank Arrow Video for offering some of the best
and treating these releases like gold.
REQUIESCANT opens
with the slaughter of a group of Mexican villagers slaughtered at the hands of
ex-Confederate soldier George Bellow Ferguson (Mark Damon) and his men. Among
the group is a young boy who receives a head wound that leaves him unconscious
but quite alive. Picked up a day or so later by a religious family, he travels
with them growing up side by side with their daughter Princy. Of course the two
fall in love but as they grow up Princy is attracted to the bright lights,
colorful costumes and attention she sees the saloon hall girls getting. She
leaves with one of these troupes and Requiescat sets out to find her.
Here is where the
story gets a twist of sorts. The now grown up boy chooses the name Requiescant
(Lou Castel) and finds himself on the street after a holdup. Picking up the gun
of one of the fallen robbers, he accidentally shoots the other two off of their
horses. While watching this I wondered if we were going to get a comedy of
errors in the mode of the Trinity westerns. Fortunately that’s not the case.
Requiescant takes the gun for his own and begins to learn how to use it. He
continues on his way in search of Princy until he comes to San Antonio, the
city where the opening scene took place.
The town is now
owned by Ferguson. This includes the local cathouse where Requiescat finds
Princy, tossed aside by the dance hall troupe she took off with and forced to
work here not to make a living. The innocent Requiescat attempts to reason with
Ferguson to get Princy’s release but the odds of that actually happening are
pretty slim. An eventual faceoff between Requiescat and Ferguson with his men
is bound to happen. Add to that Requiescat being reminded of where he came from
and what happened and a blood feud is sure to erupt.
The movie has all
the hallmarks of a spaghetti western with a score filled with the vocals
stylings common to the genre. The land is desolate like these westerns were,
usually shot in Spain. You can feel the rising dust in your nostril with each
footstep taken down a dirt road. The bad guys are bad and the good guys are
just.
A number of
reviews I’ve read about the film discuss the political implications behind the
story and the subtle suggestions that were being made in various scenes. Not
being aware of most of that I didn’t notice it but will do so with subsequent
viewings. And that’s the thing. I will be watching this again. It was that
entertaining that I feel I can watch it again and enjoy it just as much as I
did the first time. For me that’s a determining factor as to how I rate a
movie, is it worth watching more than once or is one time more than enough. For
me I feel like I could watch this several times with no problem.
As with all Arrow
Video releases they have outdone themselves with this release. Not only do you
get a spectacularly clean edition of the film in blu-ray format but the extras,
as always seems the case with their releases, are perhaps the best out there.
For me they outshine Criterion films with their quality and much more
accessible pricing. Included in this release are an all-new 14 minute interview
with Lou Castel, a 28 minute archive interview with director Carlo Lizzani, a
booklet offering a ton of information and the film in both English and original
Italian.
If you enjoy
spaghetti westerns then by all means seek this one out. It is one of the better
examples of the genre and as I keep saying, Arrow Video has outdone themselves
with this release. I know it’s a keeper on my shelf.
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