Keoma (1976)
Directed by: Enzo G Castellari
Music by: Guido & Maurizio De Angelis
Cast: Franco Nero (Keoma), Woody Strode (George), William Berger (Shannon), Donal O’Brien (Caldwell)
96 minutes
Story
After the Civil War, half-breed Keoma returns to his home town to find it doubly cursed. The town is oppressed by a group of ex-Confederates led by Caldwell, while the population is riddled with the plague, which is rapidly decimating them. Keoma finds that his old mentor, George, is now the town drunk and his adopted father, Shannon, is powerless to stop Caldwell’s tyranny, even though his three natural sons are members of Caldwell’s outfit. Keoma saves a pregnant woman from the gang, but realises that he can’t run away and must face his destiny. He convinces Shannon and George to help him and they face Caldwell’s bunch, but George is killed, Caldwell murders Shannon and then takes Keoma prisoner. Meanwhile, Keoma’s three half-brothers see an opportunity to take over the town. They kill Caldwell and his men but Keoma escapes and kills them all in a showdown.
Background
Often praised as one of the greatest Spaghettis of all time, this isn’t a patch on films from the heyday of the genre in 1965–67. That said, it is a very good Western, completely different in style to the classic Spaghettis and boasting a fine performance by Nero, in his best Western role outside his movies for Corbucci. The film belongs to the very last sub-genre to emerge from Italian Westerns – the socalled ‘twilight’ Westerns – before the genre finally capitulated shortly after Keoma was released. Its style was strange, mystical and Gothic, the story steeped in memory and narrated by mournful Leonard Coen-esque ballads on the soundtrack. But though it was successful, Keoma failed to keep the genre afloat.
Keoma is excellent in all departments, but one of the best aspects of the film is the trio of actors in the leads – Nero, Berger and Strode. Nero, looking nothing like his previous incarnations, gives one of his best performances as the half-breed Keoma. With a beard, long hair and a sawn-off shotgun, the film is an obvious attempt to shed his Django image once and for all, though it was marketed as a Django movie in some countries. Berger ages well, to play Keoma’s stepfather, while Strode (who continued to make European Westerns after his appearance in Once Upon a Time in the West) highlighted an anti-racist aspect to the action. The treatment of both the half-breed hero and his black mentor is simultaneously hard-hitting and topical and deals with themes already broached by Corbucci’s Navajo Joe, amongst others. What makes the film atypical is its innovative use of flashbacks. The usual style of the time was that the hero looked off into the distance, the screen dissolved and the reverie (usually sepia-tinted) would materialise from the blur. Though some of Keoma’s flashbacks use that device, there are also moments where the memories seem part of the action so that, when a character reminisces, the flashback takes place around him. Consequently, Keoma arrives back at his old home and, in a surreal moment, he watches himself as a child running past. Such instances add to the mystical and religious atmosphere, where the past and the present collide, in preparation for the future.
The film was also released as The Violent Breed and, looking at the action sequences, it’s an apt title. Castellari (real name Enzo Girolami) emulated Peckinpah’s approach to action scenes, with much slow-motion photography of bodies pirouetting as bullets slam into them, intercut with action shots at normal speed. This makes the set pieces memorable, especially when coupled with the very unusual setting and the extraordinary music. Other stylistic aspects involve some shamelessly contrived camerawork, including a scene where Nero and Berger are filmed through a series of bullet holes, as they shoot at a target – a simple enough masking effect that is very effective. The plague-infested town owes much to Django (it’s the same set, at Rome’s Elios Studios), and some of the action occurs at night, with the street atmospherically lit with torches. This bizarre imagery is made even weirder by the score by Guido and Maurizio De Angelis. Throughout the film, two ballads sung by Sybil and Guy – ‘Keoma’ and ‘In Front of my Desperation’ – comment on the action, but, after a while, their unrelentingly doom-laden tone begins to wear on the nerves. Guy sounds like an even more gravely voiced version of Leonard Coen (whose laments had been used to similar effect in Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs Miller [1971]), but shrill Sybil gets extremely irritating, though the fusion of music and image often produces undeniably powerful moments.
In the sixties Castellari made a career out of parodying Leone and pioneered the fusion of Spaghetti Western and comedy, but really came into his own with this mystical style. His scenario here is heavily influenced by Bergman’s The Seventh Seal (1957) – a soldier returning after his ‘crusade’ through a plague-wracked landscape. Throughout the film, Keoma repeatedly encounters two characters – an old woman and a young expectant mother. The old woman appears at crucial moments in the film and signifies death, while the young woman (symbolising life) gives birth during the final gunfight. As Keoma kills the town’s oppressors (who have been stopping much-needed medicine from reaching the infirm), her child is extremely fortunate to be the first born into a ‘free world’, while she perishes giving birth to him. As if to reinforce the religious element to the story, Keoma is symbolically crucified on a wagon-wheel and Castellari is to be commended that he doesn’t allow a totally upbeat ending.
The Verdict
Keoma is a dark morality tale that managed to say something new at a time when it seemed everything had been said. It also influenced Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven (1992), particularly the characterisation of Ned Logan (played by Morgan Freeman), which is similar to Strode’s portrayal here. Nero is exceptionally proud of this film and rightly so.
~ ~ ~ ~
If you haven’t found your favourite Spaghetti, then I’m sorry. Space dictated that it was impossible to cover more than 34 films and I’ve attempted to discuss a fair representation of the genre’s finest. Over 500 Euro-Westerns were released and rarities are still showing up today. Spaghetti Westerns are enjoying renewed popularity, with DVDs being released all the time, allowing fans to see long-forgotten gems and re-mastered classics. Astute distributors are finally looking beyond the Dollars films and issuing Van Cleef’s Italian work, the best Hill and Spencer comedies, and classics from Corbucci, Sollima and Castellari, among others. I personally think that The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is the best Italian Western of all time, as well as one of the greatest Westerns. But ten more Spaghettis in a dead heat for second place are The Return of Ringo (1965), For a Few Dollars More (1965), Django (1966), The Hills Run Red (1966), Navajo Joe (1966), The Big Gundown (1967), The Big Silence (1967), A Professional Gun (1968), Sabata (1969) and They Call Me Trinity (1970).
REFERENCE MATERIALS
SPAGHETTI BOOKS
Sergio Leone – Something To Do With Death by Christopher Frayling (Faber and Faber 2000) The finest book on Leone’s life and Westerns. Hugely informative, tirelessly researched. Definitive in every department. Buy it.
Sergio Leone – Once Upon a Time in Italy by Christopher Frayling (Thames and Hudson 2005) An excellent, colourful companion published to coincide with an exhibition at the Autry National Centre devoted to Sergio Leone’s Westerns; includes interviews with many who worked with Leone, including Morricone, Carlo Simi, Luciano Vincenzoni, Sergio Donati and Lee Van Cleef.
Italian Westerns – The Opera of Violence by Laurence Staig and Tony Williams (Lorrimer 1975) Hard to find but an excellent look at the entire Spaghetti genre. Lots of stills, plus useful notes on composers.
Spaghetti Westerns by Christopher Frayling (Routledge and Kegan Paul 1981, reprinted 1998 and 2006 by IB Tauris) The bible of Spaghetti Westerns. Mostly devoted to Leone’s movies, but brings in Corbucci, Tessari and Sollima. Good filmography. Essential.
Sergio Leone by Oreste De Fornari (Gremese 1997) Good on-set stills and interesting interviews with Leone’s associates including Morricone, Donati, Valerii.
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sp; Once Upon a Time: The Films of Sergio Leone by Robert C Cumbow (Scarecrow Press 1987) Leone-only analysis, reprinted in 2008 as simply The Films of Sergio Leone.
Spaghetti Westerns – The Good, the Bad and the Violent. 558 Eurowesterns and Their Personnel, 1961–1977 by Thomas Weisser (McFarland 1992) Breathtaking in its scope. Massive and invaluable, but not infallible. Reissued in paperback in 2005.
Once Upon a Time in the Italian West: The Filmgoers’ Guide to Spaghetti Westerns by Howard Hughes (IB Tauris 2004, reissued 2006) Twenty important Italian Westerns discussed in detail, from A Fistful of Dollars and Django, through The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Navajo Joe, to Sabata and My Name is Nobody.
Essential reading for fans is Westerns All’Italiana edited by Tom Betts, the excellent American fanzine, first published in 1983, still going strong and now available online. Other Euro-Western sources include a series of three books in the ‘Glittering Images’ series, under the titles Western All’Italiana: Book One: The Specialists; Book Two: The Wild, the Sadist and the Outsiders; Book Three: 100 More Must-See Movies, all of which are beautifully illustrated with full colour posters and stills. Also available are The Art of Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West: A Critical Appreciation by John Fawell, The Spaghetti Western: A Thematic Analysis by Bert Fridlund, The Pocket Essential Sergio Leone by Michael Carlson and 10,000 Ways to Die (Kamera Books, 2009), Alex Cox’s entertaining director’s-eye take on 51 important Spaghettis.
In Germany there is Für ein paar Leichen mehr (literally ‘For a Few Corpses More’) by Ulrich P Bruckner and in France Il Était une Fois… Le Western Européen by Jean-François Giré. Both of these books are well illustrated and include extensive Euro-Western filmographies, and are worth buying even if your German or French isn’t fluent. Dizionario Del Western All’Italiana by Marco Giusti is Italian language only, with no illustrations, but is a similarly exhaustive filmographic source. Further magazine sources include Spaghetti Cinema edited by William Connolly (which looks at all aspects of Italian popular cinema) and Cinema Retro edited by Lee Pfeiffer and Dave Worrall (which covers films of the 1960s and 1970s, including Euro-Westerns and Clint Eastwood). For useful TV documentaries, see The Spaghetti West, Viva Leone!, Ennio Morricone and Once Upon a Time.
Also worth tracking down are the numerous biographies of Clint Eastwood (especially Richard Schickel, Patrick McGilligan, Iain Johnston, François Guérif and Daniel O’Brien), The Aurum Film Encyclopaedia – The Western by Phil Hardy (which briefly reviews all the main Spaghettis), A Pictorial History of Westerns by Michael Parkinson and Clyde Jeavons (whole chapter, good stills), Wild West Movies by Kim Newman (accessible, excellently researched), Westerns by Philip French (updated in 2005, this includes a chapter on the Italian Western and three bibliographies of essential Western books) and Injuns! Native Americans in the Movies by Edward Buscombe (a chapter covers Native American Euro-Westerns, including the Winnetou movies). Of my own books, Stagecoach to Tombstone: the Filmgoers’ Guide to the Great Westerns includes a chapter on Once Upon a Time in the West, and Aim for the Heart: The Films of Clint Eastwood has a chapter on Eastwood’s Westerns, including the Dollars trilogy.
SPAGHETTIS ON DVD
Since the first publication of this book in May 2001, video tapes have become a distant memory for many collectors, as DVD has taken over as the format of choice. The following films have been released on Region 2 DVD in the UK: A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), A Bullet for the General (1966), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), Django (1966), The Hills Run Red (1966), Navajo Joe (1966), The Big Silence (1967 – as The Great Silence), Death Rides a Horse (1967), Django Kill (1967), Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), Sabata (1969), They Call Me Trinity (1970), Adios Sabata (1970), Duck You Sucker (1971), Trinity is Still My Name (1971), My Name is Nobody (1973) and Keoma (1976).
In addition, in the US The Hellbenders (1967), Day of Anger (1967), Compañeros (1970), A Man Called Sledge (1970) and the ‘Stranger’ films are available on Region 1 DVD.
In Japan One Silver Dollar (1964), A Pistol for Ringo (1965), The Return of Ringo (1965), Navajo Joe (1966), The Big Gundown (1967), Face to Face (1967), Cemetery Without Crosses (1968), A Professional Gun (1968), Today It’s Me…Tomorrow You (1968), The Price of Power (1969) and Blindman (1971) are available on Region 2 DVD. Seven Guns for the MacGregors has been released in Italy, with an English language track, Region 0.
There are two volumes of Spaghetti Western trailers: A Fistful of Trailers and For a Few Previews More, from Wild East Productions (www.wildeast.com) who also have an extensive back catalogue of rare Spaghetti Westerns, including Day of Anger and Kill Them All and Come Back Alone. Koch Media in Germany are also releasing some top-notch DVDs, including a Sergio Sollima boxed set.
In addition to the above Spaghettis, here is a chronological list of other key Euro-Westerns referenced in this book, by their best-known title. Included are the original release year, director and star in parentheses, followed by a rating. All are available from Spaghetti Western and Euro-film specialists – for example try René Hogguer at Cine City, PO Box 1710, 1200 BS Hilversum, The Netherlands (www.cinecityplanet.com).
The Treasure of Silver Lake (1962, Harald Reinl/Lex Barker) 4/5
Gunfight in the Red Sands/Gringo (1963, Riccardo Blasco/Richard Harrison) 3/5
Winnetou the Warrior/Apache Gold/Winnetou I (1963, Harald Reinl/Lex Barker) 4/5
Bullets Don’t Argue/Pistols Don’t Argue (1964, Mario Caiano/Rod Cameron) 2/5
Last of the Renegades/Winnetou II (1964, Harald Reinl/Lex Barker) 3/5
Among Vultures/Frontier Hellcat (1964, Alfred Vohrer/Stewart Granger) 3/5
Buffalo Bill – Hero of the Far West (1964, Mario Caiano/Gordon Scott) 2/5
Massacre at Canyon Grande/Red Pastures (1964, Sergio Corbucci/James Mitchum) 2/5
Minnesota Clay (1965, Sergio Corbucci/Cameron Mitchell) 3/5
Viva Maria (1965, Louis Malle/Brigitte Bardot) 5/5
For the Taste of Killing/Lanky Fellow (1966, Tonino Valerii/Craig Hill) 3/5
Fort Yuma Gold/The Rebel Lieutenant (1966, Giorgio Ferroni/Giuliano Gemma) 4/5
The Handsome, the Ugly and the Cretinous (1966, Giovanni Grimaldi/Franchi & Ingrassia) [never released in English language version] 3/5
Massacre Time/Django the Runner/The Brute and the Beast (1966, Lucio Fulci/Franco Nero) 2/5
Ringo and His Golden Pistol/Johnny Oro (1966, Sergio Corbucci/Mark Damon) 2/5
Seven Women for the MacGregors/Up the MacGregors (1966, Franco Giraldi/David Bailey) 3/5
The Stranger Returns/Shoot First Laugh Last/A Man A Horse A Gun (1966, Luigi Vanzi/Tony Anthony) 3/5
$10,000 Blood Money (1966, Romolo Guerrieri/Gianni Garko) 3/5
Texas Addio/The Avenger (1966, Ferdinando Baldi/Franco Nero) 3/5
Three Golden Boys/Death Walks in Laredo (1966, Enzo Peri/Thomas Hunter) 3/5
The Tramplers (1966, Alfredo Antonini/Joseph Cotten) 2/5
Bandidos (1967, Massimo Dallamano/Enrico Maria Salerno) 3/5
Dead or Alive/A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die (1967, Franco Giraldi/Alex Cord) 2/5
God Forgives – I Don’t/Blood River (1967, Giuseppe Colizzi/Hill & Spencer) 4/5
Little Rita of the West/Rita Kid (1967, Ferdinando Baldi/Rita Pavone) 3/5
Man Pride and Vengeance (1967, Luigi Bazzoni/Franco Nero) 2/5
Requiescant/Let Them Rest/Kill and Pray (1967, Carlo Lizzani/Lou Castel) 3/5
Seven Winchesters for a Massacre/The Final Defeat/Payment in Blood/Blake’s Marauders (1967, Enzo Girolami/Edd Byrnes) 2/5
Wanted (1967, Giorgio Ferroni/Giuliano Gemma) 2/5
Ace High/Revenge at El Paso (1968, Giuseppe Colizzi/Hill & Spencer) 3/5
Django Get a Coffin Ready/Viva Django (1968, Ferdinando Baldi/Terence Hill) 4/5
Kill Them All and Come Back Alone (1968, Enzo Girolami/Chuck Connors) 4/5
Run Man Run (1968, Sergio Sollima/Tomas Milian) 3/5
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p; White Comanche (1968, Jose Briz/Joseph Cotten) 2/5
Boot Hill (1969, Giuseppe Colizzi/Hill & Spencer) 3/5
Chuck Mool/The Unholy Four (1969, Enzo Barboni/Leonard Mann) 2/5
Django the Bastard/Django the Avenger/The Stranger’s Gundown (1969, Sergio Garrone/Anthony Steffen) 3/5
The Five Man Army (1969, Don Taylor/Peter Graves) 2/5
Sartana/If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death (1969, Gianfranco Parolini/Gianni Garko) 4/5
The Silent Stranger/Stranger in Japan (1969, Luigi Vanzi/Tony Anthony) 2/5
Tepepa/Blood and Guns (1969, Giulio Petroni/Tomas Milian) 3/5
The Forgotten Pistolero/Gunmen of Ave Maria (1970, Ferdinando Baldi/Leonard Mann) 4/5
Heads I Kill You Tails You Die/They Call Me Hallelujah (1971, Giuliano Carmineo/George Hilton) 3/5
Long Live Your Death/Don’t Turn the Other Cheek/Long Live Death… Preferably Yours (1971, Duccio Tessari/Franco Nero) 3/5
The Return of Sabata (1971, Gianfranco Parolini/Lee Van Cleef) 3/5
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