Keoma (1977)

I watched this wondering about Keoma Rises and am a fan of the director's work. I love any Spaghetti Western that is better than mediocre. So, bottom line, it was a disappointment to watch one that I basically just didn't like.I think we all agree the soundtrack is awful. But the awful songs can be muted while they're wailing away (I don't know one can really call it singing). But the big problem for me was that it was obvious that the director had been told it was the last SW the studio was doing and he's WAY too conscious of that fact. Also, we watch SWs for what they are, not for how they inspired other genres, creating some kind of weird cinematic echo chamber. Elements of Peckinpaugh and Hong Kong action flicks- but not integrated in any way. Just kind of, "Let's do some of that..."If you notice the firearms and the year it'll drive you nuts. Obviously supposed to be circa 1870, mostly it's what you'd expect to see immediately after the Civil War. But it's like they ran out of period arms and just grabbed whatever else was around for some scenes. Lots of 1873 Winchester rifles and I thought even saw the odd 1890's model. Ditto the Colt Peacemaker, alongside your standard issue Civil War Colt. I suppose it could be 1874, but were those arms instantly available everywhere??? Given the rest, one thinks they weren't too concerned about it.Bottom line for me, it was a seriously misguided attempt that is waaaay too conscious of its being what it is, the swan song of the classic pasta western.

Poor Keoma, played by Franco Nero,who played Valentino in the movie of the week on a.b.c. back in the 70's, does still look like him.But poor Keoma,an adopted Indian,who just came back from the civil war,does discover that his home town is run by renegades in which the leader is Caldwell ,played by Donald O Brien.Keoma's step brothers,Butch ,played by Orso Maria Guerrini,Lenny played by Antonio Marsina ,are a part of the gang and still don't respect him,as they use to beat him up.Why didn't his daddy punish his brothers for it?His daddy played by William Berger, still respects him,but still loves his other three too.One of the actor who play the brother looks like Donald Sutherland,it's just coincident.There a plague,but Caldwell won't allow medicine to come in the town.Then there's ex slave George ,played by Woody Strode, who's now an alcoholic , cause he found out how people still don't except him.Then you have pregnant women ,whom Keona rescues from being murder by Caldwell's men,Lisa,played by Olga Karlatos.Keoma interest in her for the moment.Then theirs the witch,played by Gabriella Giacobbe,who tell Keo that he can't change any thing in this town.The singer who sings the back ground music for this movie sound like billy Jack audition ,for singing that title song of that movie,reject.Then you have the male singer ,who duos with her in some parts of the back ground music ,who sounds like a Johnny Cash Impersonator.Well a lot of violence to kick the bad guys out of town,which offend both conservative and phony liberal censors.Lisa has the baby and dies quickly Keoma is a free soul he does not want to have any responsibility for the child.Gives it to the which who is unable to take care of it too,whom she tell him that she can't take care of him and he might die,his answer,"He can't die,he's born a free soul,"part of a double feature of spaghetti westerns on Blu- ray,I got at Wall Mart.04/18/13

Director Enzo G.Castellari who also created other classic flicks, High Crime 1973 and The Inglorious Bastards 1978 has created another gem in Keoma.Starring Franco Nero who has also been in another classic spaghetti western flick, Django 1966 and Enzo G.Castellari's High Crime.Also starring William Berger who has also been in another classic spaghetti western flick, If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death 1968.Also starring Olga Karlatos who has also been in another classic flick, Once Upon a Time in America 1984.I enjoyed the shootouts and the slow motion sequences.If you enjoyed this as much as I did then check out other classic spaghetti western flicks, Day of Anger 1967, A Fistfull of Dollars 1964, For a Few Dollars More 1965, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly 1966, The Great Silence 1968, Have a Good Funeral My Friend Sartana 1971, Once Upon a Time in the West 1968, Deadly Trackers 1972 and Run, Man, Run 1968.

Keoma (Franco Nero), a half-Indian half-Caucasian civil war veteran returns to his homeland to find it in squalor and disrepair at the hands of gang leader and presiding landlord Caldwell (Donald O'Brien) and his enforcers; keeping the inhabitants in poverty and cureless from the plague that's going around. Those who do circum are rounded up and dumped at the old mine on the outskirts. It is here that a passing Keoma saves a pregnant woman (Olga Karlatos) – wrongly assumed to be infected – from imminent murder.Keoma is a solid, gripping and mythical western that is incredibly stylish and not entirely without substance either. The only major flaw is the film's overly-insistent and frequently agitating score in the form of a warbling diva and throaty male vocalist taking it in turns to sing what is happening in the film as it happens with some very on-the- nose lyrics: "Now I'm here in front of these men/Gun in hand, I'm waiting for what will be…" and; "There's my father and my brothers and me/Tell me now father, why they hate me so." The instrumental sections fair a lot better providing some effectively cathartic moments.