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'''''# The Cultural Background'''''
'''''# The Cultural Background'''''


Like most spaghetti westerns made in the second half of the seventies ''Keoma'' is very melancholic. It's also mystic, symbolic and referential. With torches illuminating it at night, the town in this movie looks more like a ''medieval town'' than the traditional western town, while the atmosphere of despair and decay - the country ravaged by the plague, the people exercising purifying rituals - is reminiscent of the world of Ingmar Bergman's ''The Seventh Seal''. When he is asked by an old woman why he has come back, he answers her that the world keeps turning round and round, so a man always ends up in the same place. Originally this woman was to symbolize death, but the idea was changed and she is now functioning more like the classical ''Fate'' from Greek and Scandinavian mythology, a goddess of destiny who has the power to decide over life and death. She tells Keoma how she saved his life when his tribe was massacred, by leading his white father to the battlefield. She will exercise her special powers again near the end of the film, when saving his life and bringing the pregnant woman he saved himself to his feet: the wheel of life won't stop turning. This is all very symbolic: ''Christian'' ideas about death and resurrection fused with ''the cycle of destruction and rebirth of natural religion''. Maybe it's too symbolic to some people's taste, but that's what this film is all about.  
Like most spaghetti westerns made in the second half of the seventies ''Keoma'' is very melancholic. It's also mystic, symbolic and referential. With torches illuminating it at night, the town in this movie looks more like a ''medieval town'' than the traditional western town, while the atmosphere of despair and decay - the country ravaged by the plague, the people exercising purifying rituals - is reminiscent of the world of Ingmar Bergman's ''The Seventh Seal''. When he is asked by an old woman why he has come back, he answers her that the world keeps turning round and round, so a man always ends up in the same place. Originally this woman was to symbolize death, but the idea was changed and she is now functioning more like the classical ''Fate'' from Greek and Scandinavian mythology, a goddess of destiny who has the power to decide over life and death. She tells Keoma how she saved his life when his tribe was massacred, by leading his white father to the battlefield. She will exercise her special powers again near the end of the film, when saving his life and bringing the pregnant woman he saved himself to his feet: the wheel of life won't stop turning. This is all very symbolic: ''Christian'' ideas about death and resurrection fused with ''the cycle of destruction and rebirth of natural religion''. Maybe this is all a bit too to some people's taste, but that's what this film is all about.  




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Castellari has often called this his best movie. He has always been very proud of it and of his work with Woody Strode, who called him, when the film was finished, an heir to John Ford, which was, in Castellari's words, as much honour as an Oscar. It was also Strode who came up with the title of the movie: he had read it on the front page of a book he once read. He couldn't remember what the book was about, but had always liked the title. It turned out to be an autobiography of a prostitute, but Castellari didn't mind: he liked the title too.
Castellari has often called this his best movie. He has always been very proud of it and of his work with Woody Strode, who called him, when the film was finished, an heir to John Ford, which was, in Castellari's words, as much honour as an Oscar. It was also Strode who came up with the title of the movie: he had read it on the front page of a book he once read. He couldn't remember what the book was about, but had always liked the title. It turned out to be an autobiography of a prostitute, but Castellari didn't mind: he liked the title too.
'''References:'''
* Marco Giusti, ''Dizionario del western all’italiana''
* Mark R. Hasan, ''Keoma'', on: KQEK, A different kind of media site
* Interview with Enzo G. Castellari, added as an extra to the Danish DVD





Revision as of 22:43, 20 December 2014

Keoma Poster3.jpg
KEOMA (1976)
Cast:
  • Franco Nero
  • William Berger
  • Woody Strode
  • Olga Karlatos
  • Donald O'Brien
  • Gabriella Giacobbe
  • John Loffredo

Music:

  • Guido & Maurizio De Angelis

Director:

  • Enzo G. Castellari

Keoma

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1976 is often called the year in which the western had its last upswing before it fell into a decline and slowly became a moribund genre. John Wayne made his last movie, The Shootist, Clint Eastwood made his landmark movie The Outlaw Josey Wales and Enzo G. Castellari gave the already suffering spaghetti western a worthy conclusion with his twilight spaghetti Keoma.

# Synopsis

Keoma Review 03.jpg

The halfbreed Keoma, son of an Indian mother and a white father, comes home after the Civil War, but finds his hometown ravaged by the plague, the sick people interned in a sort of concentration camp. His three half-brothers, who had mistreated him when he was a boy, have turned their backs on their father and chosen to side with Caldwell, the local tyrant. After saving the life of a pregnant woman, Keoma decides to face Caldwell and his half-brothers, with the only help of his father and a former slave, now the town drunk. In a furious battle Keoma manages to eliminate most of Caldwell's men but his father and friend are killed and he himself is captured and tied to a wheel in the town's centre ...


# The Cultural Background

Like most spaghetti westerns made in the second half of the seventies Keoma is very melancholic. It's also mystic, symbolic and referential. With torches illuminating it at night, the town in this movie looks more like a medieval town than the traditional western town, while the atmosphere of despair and decay - the country ravaged by the plague, the people exercising purifying rituals - is reminiscent of the world of Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal. When he is asked by an old woman why he has come back, he answers her that the world keeps turning round and round, so a man always ends up in the same place. Originally this woman was to symbolize death, but the idea was changed and she is now functioning more like the classical Fate from Greek and Scandinavian mythology, a goddess of destiny who has the power to decide over life and death. She tells Keoma how she saved his life when his tribe was massacred, by leading his white father to the battlefield. She will exercise her special powers again near the end of the film, when saving his life and bringing the pregnant woman he saved himself to his feet: the wheel of life won't stop turning. This is all very symbolic: Christian ideas about death and resurrection fused with the cycle of destruction and rebirth of natural religion. Maybe this is all a bit too to some people's taste, but that's what this film is all about.


Keoma Review 02.jpg

# The Script

The first script for Keoma was written by a classic scholar and playwright Mino Roli, after an original idea by Luigi Montefiori (better known under his acting name George Eastman). But only some outlines were respected, most scenes were either improvised or re-written on the set by Castellari. Dialogue was partly rewritten by Gianni Loffredero (Joshua Sinclair), who plays one of Keoma's half-brothers (the one with the moustache), and who was not credited for it. Woody Strode was brought in very late, so a part for him had to be created in an already developed story-line. The treatment of both the halfbreed and the former slave (as well as Berger's dialogue about the fate of Indians and blacks) indicate that the movie tries to make an anti-racist statement, but the idea is not stretched. In the original story by Montefiori, Keoma discovered that one of the 'half-brothers' was his real brother. Not willing to kill his brother, he voluntarily chose a violent death.


# The Score

The highly controversial score by the De Angelis brothers was also written very late. Castellari was impressed by the way Bob Dylan's and Leonard Cohen's scores were used in, respectively, Pat Garret and Billy the kid (1973) and McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1970), and reportedly their music was played at night, when previously shot scenes were edited. Finally Castellari met the brothers and asked them to write a Cohen like score. Much has been said of the score. Most people think it's awful, especially the vocals of the female singer. And yes, it goes to the bone, but I still like this voice, but I do have some problems with the male singer, who occasionally sings sooo looow that it becomes ludicrous.

# Evaluation

Keoma Review 01.jpg

I first saw this movie in the eighties on a fullscreen VHS, then once or twice on German television, in the right format, but in cut form, and thought it was good-looking but slow-moving and over-sentimental. I only recently saw it uncut, and in the right format, and was more impressed. The uncut version is better balanced and actually seems shorter than the version shown on German television. The multiple re-writings and improvisations have left some traces; the mid-section of the movie is plodding and some scenes, like Keoma's fistfights with his half-brothers, feel uninspired. There are also too many scenes in slow motion, but the atmosphere is great and the elaborated shootout between Caldwell's gang and Keoma is violent and exciting, with a terrifying death scene for Woody Strode. Castellari's meticulously elaborated compositions are impressive. His use of often disorienting angles culminates in a scene in which Nero and Berger are seen through the holes they shoot in their target during a shooting practice. Even more impressive, is his innovative use of flashbacks, in which Nero seems to walk through his own past, completely breaking with the Leone flashback style that had dominated the genre. They give the film its dreamlike atmosphere, that is even further emphasized by the impressionist visual touches and colour palette. The film begins with a shot that seems reminiscent of the opening shot of The Searchers (1956): from what seems a shadowy porch of a house, we see a rider approaching, but this time the rider is not entering a house, but a western town that has been a battlefield during the civil war. During the entire movie, we see streaks of light fall through windows, cracks in walls or gaps in roofs. Apart from Leone's C'era una volta il West, this is probably the most breathtakingly beautiful looking spaghetti western you'll ever see.


# The Title

Castellari has often called this his best movie. He has always been very proud of it and of his work with Woody Strode, who called him, when the film was finished, an heir to John Ford, which was, in Castellari's words, as much honour as an Oscar. It was also Strode who came up with the title of the movie: he had read it on the front page of a book he once read. He couldn't remember what the book was about, but had always liked the title. It turned out to be an autobiography of a prostitute, but Castellari didn't mind: he liked the title too.


References:

  • Marco Giusti, Dizionario del western all’italiana
  • Mark R. Hasan, Keoma, on: KQEK, A different kind of media site
  • Interview with Enzo G. Castellari, added as an extra to the Danish DVD


--By Scherpschutter

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