D, S: Enzo Girolami ("Enzo G. Castellari"); S: Franco Nero, Lorenzo de Luca; C: Mikhail Agramovic; M: Clive Riche, Alexander Biliaev, Fabio Constantino, Knifewing Segura; with: Franco Nero, Knifewing Segura, John Saxon, Ennio Girolami

The find of some gold doesn’t bring little Jonathan Kowalski’s (Igor Alimov) family luck: Gangsters kill Ma and Dad and steal the gold; Jonathan remains as an orphan. He hangs around with a little motherless bear, until he joins an Indian tribe. As an adult he leaves the indians to take revenge for his murdered parents. The years go by, and during this time Jonathan realizes, that violence sucks. He returns to his family and takes some white trash under leadership of gunslinger Maddock (David Hess) on. But Maddock, who rules a fucked up little town with the euphemistic name Gold City, is just the beginning. Things become much harder, as rich businessman Fred Goodwin (John Saxon) and his mob join the scene, to take over the leadership in Gold City. Goodwin is anxious to exploit the rich oil spings, situated under the Indian’s land. Jonathan firstly tries to solve the conflict with peaceful means. But Goodwin is not only a violent swine, but moreover he was involved into the murder of Jonathan’s parents. A carthatic lead- and bloodbath ist unevitable.

I/Rus 1993

The Gunslinger says:

Nearly 20 years after the making of Keoma, Castellari and Nero joined once again to create a Western, and if you’re honest: They didn’t come up with many new ideas. Formally the film tells a similar story with similar means and takes over whole scenes of its predecessor. For example Castellari uses again slomo for some of the action scenes, but not as excessive as he did in “Keoma”. Here and there we find a special kind of flashbacks as a stylistic device: past and presence taking place parallel in one scene. Torturing and crucifixion of Jonathan seem veeeeery familiar too. Jonathan himself to me seems to be an elder revenant of Keoma, concerning i.e. outfit and during hard years acquired stage of wisdom connected with a denial of violence.

Really bothersome are the weird mysticism and the story around brother bear, which not only drags on, but sometimes is hilariously funny naive. The clear distinction between good and evil is quite unusual for the SW and has not necessarily succeded: indians = “wise, good, tolerant”; palefaces: “greedy, violent, potentially fascistic (i.e. Gaspar (Rodrigo Oregon) and his uniformed gang). Furthermore Franco Nero is clearly too old for his character, so that the story gets in a tilt from its time flow.

Camerawork and atmosphere are however great, and the score is good: The character of the musician (Clive Riche) reminds me strongly to Bob Dylan’s singer in “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid”, but as far as I know, Peckinpah is anyway one of Castellari’s role models.

Rating: $$$+

Bodycount:

ca. 60, 1 woman

Explicit Brutalities:

- Goodwin’s men torture Jonathan by letting horses drag him through the mud. After this treatment they crucify him at the church

Luv’:

Jonathan has a blast with a young squaw (Melody Robertson) 3/10