Matalo review
From The Spaghetti Western Database
|
- Year: 1970
- Director: Cesar Canevari
- Starring: Lou Castel, Corrado Panni, Claudia Gravy, Antonio Salines, Luis Davila
- Music: Mario Migliardi
- Writers: Nico Ducci, Eduardo Manzanos Brochero
Outlaw Bart is about to be hung for an unkown crime. At the last moment, a gang of Mexican bandidos raid the town and free Bart. They take him to a crossroads and then part ways. But Bart, not being the kindest of souls, pulls out his winchester and begins to kill the entire gang. From there, Bart and his gang rob a stagecoach and retreat to their ghost town hideout. From then on, the film's pace slows down and a very mysterious character study unfolds.
Matalo is without a doubt the strangest and weirdest of any western. A lot of that is due to the unique camera work and creepy sound effects. Not to mention the film's structure. Unusual is how I world describe it. The hero is introduced 30 minutes into the movie and also has very little dialogue. In fact, there is very little dialogue throughout the film. Canevari prefers to let the intensity of the characters make up for both the lack of dialogue and action. Back to the hero. The very way he is introduced tells us immediatley he is not your usual spaghetti super hero. He is half dead from the heat and lack of water.Your usual spaghetti hero would be too tough to let minor details such as water slow him down. Our hero here is just a "regular" guy. He is named Ray Hassel (I think). Not Django, not Sartana, not even Ringo. Just Ray. The diferences in this film's hero make him very refreshing. He is similar to Tony Anthony's stranger character. More honouable but still pretty much careless. He spends most of the move being beaten, torrmented, stabbed, dehydrated, and whipped with chains. But he still comes back to kick some ass. With a shotgun? Nope. Pistol? Nope. Boomerbang? Yes! This factor alone has raised the curiousity of many a spaghetti western fans. Wild East points this out as one of the reasons for them releasing this film. Not to mention the absolutley brilliant intro. With Panni about to be hung. All the sudden a shot rings out an the acid rock starts rolling. Panni begins to strut about the town carelessly collecting his outfit and repossesing his duel Fronier model Smith & Wesson revolvers. It may seem strange to point out but this is another interesting fact of the film. Almost every single spaghetti westernanti hero has a 5.5 inch colt peacemaker. I also find it very rare for the anti hero to carry something as commonplace in the realwest as a full lwngth peacemaker. But onlyin Bandidos,Cut Throats Nine, and Matalo! do we see any other guns. I think there are very cool looking and I for one like a little variety in my pistols. But the intro of the movie is probably the best part of the movie. And the way this film is directed confuses me and I end up not knowing where the intro ends and the middle begins. The section of the film after the intro stay with the beginnings fast pace and this confuses me as to where the intro ends. In fact, what is so good about the beginning is the fast pace as I mentioned. It helps you forget that most of the film is rather slow. The intro and the pure crazieness of the rest of the film disguise this fact. Thee are some scenes brilliantley filmed. They don't serve much to the story but are very good none the less. Canevari makes little scenes into huge scenes. One example is the first night in the ghost town. Salines and Pani mope around the empty hotel in sucha way as to entertain you. You have to let yourself be caught in the moment though. Then there is a scene where Claudia Gravy is threatening Castel with a knife. This could have been just a small scene but Canevari makes it very cool with his use of great camera work, tention, and a little bit of romance. Also when Salines is torturing Castel, is a very good scene. What could have been just another torure scene is a fairly large part of the mvie. It starts toget very weird when Salines in twirling the chain. At first in regular speed but then the camera slows down and the rest isshown in slow motion. Then there is the "duel between Salines and Castel. Usually a showdown like this in a mainstream film would be over in a second. But thanks to the exotic weapinry, this is one of the best scenes of the film. But when it comes to the real action scenes, Canevari does a pretty damn good job. I already covered the intro. The stagecoach robbery is great. Played with great music in the back ground. An acoustic version of the opening piece. The bandits shoot wildly at the coaches guards. But with this scene, Canevari brings the only hint of realism of the film. In fac, quite possibly the most realistic feature of any spaghetti. The bandits, although skilled killers, cannot kill all the guards so easily. They are on horseback and can't aim that well. They empty there guns several times trying to kill a guard. Most spaghetti characters are sure shots and would have dispatched the guards with ease. A great scene anyway. There is only one other gunfight which is not handled all that well. The participants shoot at each other obviously but Canevari doesn't show too much of this. He shoots this scene from a strange viewpointand then uses a rotating camera trick to show the gunbattle. This obscures the action. But right afterthis gunfight, he films the duel and does an exceptional job at that.
The soundtrack by Mario Migliardi is also the strangest soundtrack of the genre. Much of it uses 12 string guitars with electro acoustic sound effects and guitars. It fits the film very well and adds to the unsettling and surreal feel of the film. He also does a great job with tiny sounds. Making a lot of strange sounds which soundlike a drip of water dripping in a tunnel. While Canevari films a graveyard, Migliardi uses recordings of creepy muttering or chanting sounds.
The acting ranges from over the top to underplaying. Lou Castel is pretty good even if he doesn't really look like a spaghetti anti hero. Corrado Pani's performance is way over the top but still good. It's as though Canevari told him to act like a bloodthirsty child. It is a lot of fun to watch him when he is on camera but another aspect of the film's structure is that he disappears for half of it. Claudia Gravy may not be the best of actresses but is certainly one of the prettiest. Antonio Salines is very over the top at times. A very cruel character. Luis Davilla does a good job but there is nothing special about his character.
The director, Cesare Canevari ,does a very good job. He uses almost every camera technique of the day and creates a West far removed from any other. This was his only good genre film and one of the best of the genre.
All in all, a very good film. I wasn't sure about it the first time I watched it but after a second viewing, I find it to be one of the best. A very good film if you want to explore he borfer area of the spaghetti western. Highly recommended.It may not have a real plot but it nontheless gets a 5/5 from me. MATALO!
Favorite Scenes
- When Corrado Pani mows down the Mexicans with the winchester.
- Stagecoach robbery.
- Boomerang fight.
--By Korano
