3 Bullets for Ringo DVD Review (Koch)
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Released by Koch Media as Drei Kugeln für Ringo (aka 3 Colpi Di Winchester per Ringo), on 5. Dezember 2009 as number 20 of their Italowestern 'Rainbow' Collection.
- 3 Bullets for Ringo
- Buy now: From Amazon.de
The Film
Ringo (Mickey Hargitay) and his partner Frank ‘The Texan’ Sanders (Gordon Mitchell are guns for hire and living well but they fall out over a woman (Milla Sannoner) and part company. Ringo marries the girl, has a son, reconciles with his mother and becomes the town sheriff, settling down during the civil war years to live a happy domestic life while keeping the peace in Stone City. When the war ends however things take a turn for the worse for Ringo. While saving a young boy’s life during a raid by a band of Confederate renegades led by his old pal The Texan he takes a blow to his head and becomes blinded. The Texan takes on the sheriff’s badge and works for local bad guy banker Daniels (Ivan Staccioli) as he attempts to grab the land of Ringo’s mother to get access to gold deposits she is sitting on. With Ringo blinded it seems Daniels and The Texan have a free hand but things take another turn when our hero takes another blow to the skull and a bloody showdown becomes inevitable.
Commentary
Director Emimmo Salvi is better known for his work in the Peplum genre and his attempt here at a western suggests he was more at home in the former genre. Former Peplum stars Hargitay and Mitchell were terminal over actors prone to maniacal laughter and muscle flexing and there place at centre stage of this movie always restricts it from shaking off its shackles of mediocrity. Things start off poorly but, against all odds, the story actually improves at the point where Ringo becomes blind and with a stronger lead and a better director this could have turned into an interesting Spaghetti of the lower budget variety. Unfortunately, its poorly executed action scenes and stunted performances from the two main protagonists keep this one from rising above the lower reaches of the genre and we are left with disappointing end product all round.
The DVD
This may be a disappointing film but the DVD release is far from bottom drawer. The picture and sound quality are much crisper and cleaner than in the previous release from Wild East and the lighter image improves many scenes, especially the early ones which, in the Wild East version are very dark and in this one are bright and clear. The cooler colours in particular heighten the Bavaesque lighting in some of the studio bound scenes such as the cave shootouts which are some of the most interesting looking scenes of the film. In other parts though, this gives the image a certain lack of warmth which the inferior Wild East disc manages to maintain. In truth we can’t have it both ways and when weighing up the pros and cons of both discs the Koch release easily wins out overall. So thumbs up for Koch on the quality of their work. It’s just a pity they didn’t choose a better subject to treat so well. --Phil H 17:25, 30 April 2010 (UTC)
