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Review
by
Brian Lindsey
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6
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8 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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SNEAK
PREVIEW
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DVD Release Date: Jan.
7, 2003 |
Characteristic
of his style, director Sergio Sollima (Revolver)
infuses this comedic spaghetti western with a heavy dose of
leftist idealism, casting a romantic eye on the proletariat's
neverending struggle against the injustices of the corrupt,
wealthy elite. The film's humor comes from its protagonist,
an uneducated Mexican
peasant and petty thief, Cuchillo Sanchez, played by Tomas Milian
(Django, Kill... If You Live, Shoot!).
The character is something of a bumbler, even childlike, who
has Lady Luck to thank for getting him out of most of the jams
he finds himself in. No icy-cool bravado, no crack shooting
like we'd see from Eastwood, Nero, or Van Cleef. There is
such a character in Run, Man, Run
but he is not the hero. Milian, in fact, never uses a gun the
entire picture. Though proclaiming himself a "peaceful
man," his Cuchillo is heavily armed with an assortment
of hidden knives he can throw with uncanny accuracy. But he
only kills in self defense, avoiding bloodshed when possible.
The more gratuitous mayhem he leaves to an American.
Cuchillo's a simple fellow, concerned only
with living for the moment — filling his belly when hungry and
finding relaxation in the arms of his feisty girlfriend Delores
(Chelo Alonso). Thrown in jail, he shares a cell with Ramirez
(José Torres), a poet and revolutionary. Political prisoner
Ramirez is desperate to escape before his scheduled release
the next day. An assortment
of hired killers will be gunning for him the moment he steps
outside. Ramirez possesses a very valuable secret — the location
of a hidden cache of gold, worth millions, to be used to finance
the revolution. He offers Cuchillo 100 dollars to help him break
out that night and escort him across the border to Texas.
Cuchillo succeeds in getting them out of
the jail but Ramirez is shot down not long after by Riza (Danger!
Death Ray's Nello Pazzafini), the cutthroat leader of
a bandito gang. The revolutionary's dying words give Cuchillo
clues where to seek the gold. At first the thief thinks only
of taking the gold for himself but gradually realizes it can
serve a higher purpose if used to help the people fight their
oppressors. Trailing him every step of the way is Cassidy (Zombie
Holocaust's Donal O'Brien), a tall, mysterious American
dressed in black, an ex-sheriff who's absolutely deadly with
rifle or pistol. (Basically, it's the Lee Van Cleef part.) During
the course of Cuchillo's episodic adventures Cassidy appears
as both friend and foe, alternately saving and threatening Cuchillo's
life in quest of the hidden treasure. Eventually the Yanqui
joins forces with the Mexican peasant for the good of the revolution.
Cuchillo will certainly need his help. Both Riza's gang and
a coldblooded pair of French mercenaries are keen to claim the
gold either for themselves or the Mexican authorities.
Sollima does a fine job of balancing his
political message with the humor, sometimes slapstick in nature,
of the Cuchillo character. He never lets one element get too
heavy-handed or overpower the other. The Cuban-born Milian can
be extremely hammy at times but with such a broad character
the approach generally works. O'Brien is interesting in the
more clichéd part of the implacable gringo gunslinger,
despite a couple of real groaners for quips; with a bigger budget
it's exactly the kind of role Lee Van Cleef would've been hired
for. That Cassidy is played by a relatively unknown actor actually
adds to the enigmatic nature of the character. (It also serves
to keep Milian front-and-center as the film's 'star'.) Perhaps
too enigmatic... Cassidy's
conversion from soldier of fortune to supporter of the revolution
— to include an outburst of proletarian dogma — seems a bit
odd. ("You're hiding out here in this rathole waiting for the
revolution,"
he tells a trio of wavering intellectuals. "But the
revolution will never come until each one of you lets it burst
out, from inside.")
The film does drag in spots, particularly
in the middle section. It feels to be about 15 or 20 minutes
too long. There are a lot of characters on hand for such a basic
story, as Cuchillo also encounters a rebel Mexican general (one-time
Hollywood leading man John Garfield, who's dubbed even in the
English version) and a Bible-thumping Salvation Army officer
(Linda Veras) not above lusting for gold. Also, considerable
time is spent on Cuchillo's spitfire of a girlfriend, who vows
to chase him down until he marries her. But Milian's antics
are genuinely amusing; Sollima successfully pulls off the action
sequences and the requisite tension-filled standoffs. As a director
he's particularly adept at making full use of the widescreen
frame for his compositions, of which there are a number of interesting
ones on display. The film's score, credited to Bruno Nicolai
but also attributed in part to movie music maestro Ennio Morricone,
is simply terrific. Its main theme features one of those insanely
catchy melodies you can never quite get out of your head once
you've heard it. I still find myself unconsciously whistling
the thing...
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Another
first-rate disc from Blue Underground. A/V quality is high and
the widescreen 2.35:1 transfer is anamorphically enhanced for
16x9 TVs. Two mono audio tracks are provided, English and Italian,
with optional subtitles just a key-press away. The clean, hiss-less
English track is far and away the superior of the two, as the
Italian one sounds very muffled with occasional bursts of static.
Still, it's nice to have the option. (Unless you speak Italian,
you'll want to turn on the subtitles for the first few minutes
of the movie even if watching the English version. The film opens
with some poetry spoken in that language by Milian, as the camera
pans over a Guernica-type painting of a massacre of peasants.)
A number of interesting, worthwhile extras
are on hand. Aside from the usual staples of theatrical trailer,
poster/still gallery, and talent bios, there's the alternate Italian
main titles sequence (viewable separately) plus two documentaries.
The 14-minute Run, Man, Run: 35 Years of Running features
recent interviews of Sollima and Milian discussing the Cuchillo
character and the production of the film. The rare Westerns
Italian Style (38 minutes) is an oddball documentary shot
in 1968 and put together in an almost Mondo
Cane style. It practically turns surreal when directors
Sollima and Sergio Corbucci are asked questions about making spaghetti
westerns, only to have them respond in obviously dubbed English
like the characters in their films.
Run, Man, Run
is slated for release next week, available as part of Blue Underground's
Spaghetti Western Collection 4-disc box set (which also
contains Django, Kill, Mannaja,
and the original Django starring Franco
Nero). The Run, Man, Run DVD will
be sold separately as well. 1/01/03 |
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