Day of Judgment (1971)

¨Doomsday day¨ , or "Il Giorno Del Giudizio" , or ¨Eye for an eye¨ or ¨Day of the judgement¨ is a so-so Ravioli Western , being professionally , though mediocre , realized by a craftsman called Mario Gariazzo and proceeded in Italian style . The film packs action , shootouts , drama , high body-count and it's fast moving and quite entertaining . For money, for pleasure , for revenge , he doesn't care why he kills or how ¡ . The film deals with an Union soldier (Ty Hardin stars as a relentless revenger) whose family (his wife played by Rosalba Neri in a brief role by flashbacks) is killed by cutthroats . He then seeks a merciless vengeance on the six killers (Rick Boyd , Stelio Candelli , Bruno Corazzari , Riccardo Pizzuti , among others) who murdered his spouse & child and burned his home . A bit later on , he meets for blind vendetta , as he aware how to chase the murderers and he kills any one by one . He tracks down and kills each man one by one until he finds the leader of the gang .This exciting western contains a story full of violence , good dramatic pace and slick direction . Acceptable but average Spaghetti Western ; it follows the Sergio Leone wake , including close-up , zooms , crusted faces , choreographic duels and no being carried out in American style . It's a thrilling western with poor outdoors and breathtaking confrontation among heartless protagonists , Ty Hardin , against heinous powerful murderers and other underlings . Well-staged action sequences with rousing crossfire and spectacularly bloody shootouts . Charismatic performance for the whole casting . Ty Hardin is good in his usual tough role . Ty Hardin may be a name best remembered by Spaghetti Western aficionados, but in his day, from the mid-'60s to the early '70s, Hardin was one of the most popular actors of the television . Ty began working in films as a secondary . From there, he began acting in TV shows , later moving onto the Western genre , where he found his niche . Unlike fellow Spaghetti star Clint Eastwood, however , Hardin never became a top international box-office attraction . Ty then moved west to California and won some minor roles in B movies . Soon, Ty had his own show, ¨Bronco¨ (1958), which ran from 1958 to 1962 . From here, he moved into a brief flurry of film activity : Merrill's marauders (1962) , PT 109 (1963) , Wall of Noise (1963), and Battle of the Bugle (1965) . After this, Ty's career drifted off into a series of forgettable movies made in Europe and , later, he worked in Prescott, Arizona , as an evangelistic preacher . Though often dismissed as just a hunk of "beefcake" but he had a decent career . Support cast is pretty well , filled with familiar faces from Spaghetti , such as : Gordon Mitchell , Federico Boido or Rick Boyd , Stelio Candelli , Bruno Corazzari , Riccardo Pizzuti , Craig Hill , Nando Poggi , Andrea Fantasia , and Giovanni Cianfriglia or Ken Wood . Furthermore , the slimy, menacing outlaw played by Ralf Baldassarre , here in his ordinary role as a bandit and in a cruelly baddie character .The great musician Ennio Morricone composes a nice soundtrack , well conducted , this turns out to be one of the most memorable parts of the movie , as it's plenty of enjoyable sounds and haunting musical background and with agreeable leitmotif . Although Ennio Morricone is credited for scoring this film , it was actually written by him for ¨The Hellbenders¨ (1967) by Sergio Corbucci and it was lifted, uncredited, from that film . Faded cinematography by Lanzoni , including discolored images , being necessary a perfect remastering . The motion picture was middlingly directed by Mario Gariazzo . Mario was a professional filmmaker who wrote and directed all kinds of genres , such as : Sci-Fi : "The Brother from Space" (1988) , "Eyes Behind the Stars" , "Very Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind" ; Erotic : ¨Sor Emmanuelle¨, ¨Play Motel¨, ¨Erotic Flash¨, "Top Model" ; Action : "Execution Squad" , "Il Carabiniere " ; Terror ¨L'Ossessa¨(1987) and Western : ¨The Long Day of the Massacre'(1968) , "God Will Forgive My Pistol" (1969) "The Masked Thief" , ¨AcquaSanta Joe (1971) also stars Ty Hardin and this one , ¨Day of the judgement¨. Rating : Passable and acceptable , though contains some flaws and gaps and excessive zooms . Worthwhile watching for the Spaghetti Western aficionados

According to this movie vigilantism should be preferred over real justice. This movie is an orgy of brutal shooting scenes without much story. It does therefore make no sense to watch it. Even if the longer Italian version should have more story included, the morals behind the movie remain questionable. Moreover, the director did a terrible job cutting the scenes. Everything seems to be cut together carelessly, so that at no point in the movie any suspension can develop. Also the characters remain flat and are not developed at all. The audience only learns a minimum about the main character. His life and motivations remain unclear. I therefore highly recommend to watch the classic Westerns before turning to this movie.

A man returns home from the Civil War to find his wife and child have been murdered. He vows revenge and sets off to get it. Before he kills he sets in motion a small mechanical drummer that was one of his son's toys. As the body count increases the town where the killers reside gets nervous wondering who is next.I saw the shorter 75 minute version of this film and can only wonder how this plays in the full 99 minute Italian version. Here the film is a series of brutal gun downs by our "hero" with very little in between them. To be honest the action is not bad, its just that with little more than the gunfights for the first half of the movie any interest is lost before the second half gets under way (I ended up picking up the paper and reading). There is no character development and little plot beyond the quest for revenge and the sheriff trying to stop him by standing around looking concerned. Making things worse is the dubbing which is so loopy as to be nonsensical.This is not a movie I can not recommend, at least in the shorter version, unless you are need to be put to sleep or are trying to see every Spaghetti Western ever made.4 out of 10

A Yankee officer returns from war to find his wife and son murdered by a band of killers. A toy drummer is the only remaining memory for him, because they burnt down his house. The officer takes the toy drummer with him as a symbol of his vengeance. He lets him play every time he found one of the murderers, and kills one by one. This extremely simple story serves as a formula of ritual. 1971, there had been several years in which the Italian western had formed its typical clichés, and I believe writer/director/producer Mario Gariazzo is quite aware that he uses them all. Ty Hardin as the officer uses masks so nobody knows who he is. An excellent cast supports him. Rick Boyd, Lee Burton and Ken Wood are familiar faces from earlier westerns. Gordon Mitchell is the deputy sheriff, and Craig Hill gets the role of a circus director with a Kaiser Wilhelm mustache. Beautiful Edda Di Benedetto appears as an Indian girl who helps the avenger. Despite some confusion probably due to the cuts (copies in most countries are 20 minutes shorter than the Italian original) and lack of original music (soundtrack mostly borrowed from "I Crudeli"), this is a good revenge western movie for the fans of the genre.