The Ruthless Four (Ognuno per sé) Review: Difference between revisions

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[[Image:Cooper1.jpg|right]]< [[Ognuno per se]]
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* 1967
* 1967

Revision as of 22:35, 16 March 2011

OgnunoPerSe DatabasePage.jpg

< Ognuno per se

  • 1967
  • Dir: Giorgio Capitani
  • Cast: Van Heflin, George Hilton, Gilbert Roland, Klaus Kinski, Sonia Romanoff, Federico Boido, Sergio Doria, Ivan Scratuglia
  • Music: Carlo Rustichelli


Poor Sam Cooper, after years of fruitless efforts he finally hits a vein of gold and then he's double-crossed by his contemporary partner. He survives the vile assault but his worries are far from over. Finding gold is one thing, to retrieve it and transport it to civilization is far more difficult, especially when you've found it in the middle of a desert: you can't do this all by yourself, you need horses, men, tools ... Sam calls for the only person he thinks he can trust, Manolo, the son of an old flame, whom he has raised as his own child. But Manolo is soon joined by Brent, a fake priest who has a strong hold over him. Sam is warned by a prostitute that there's something wrong with the boy and his friend, so he asks an old acquaintance, Mason, to join the group. But their preparations for the journey have attracted the attention of the vermin hanging about in the prospectors town ...


With the first elaborate action scene only after 45 minutes, this is not your typical spaghetti western. Co-written by Ferdinando Di Leo, and modeled after The Treasure of the Sierra Madre,the film successfully explores a middle ground between American and Italian sensitivities. It is more plot-heavy and character-driven than most spaghetti westerns, but characterizations as well as the overall atmosphere of doom and moral decay are primarily Italian. Still, occasionally Peckinpah's Ride the High Country is brought to mind too by the aging stars Heflin and Roland with their physical inconveniences . Very soon after their departure, all four men are looking over their shoulder, resulting in a tension filled story about paranoia and greed that will hold your attention till the very end. What makes the film really work, are the wonderful characters and the first rate actors who breathe life into them. Good old Van Heflin, sunburned and with a toupee, really looks like a down and out prospector; he stumbles through the movie - maybe due to his drinking problems - and it's hard not to feel sorry for the poor man. George Hilton, cast against type, gives a remarkably effective performance as the weak-willed foster-son who might be, or might not be gay. The ever trustworthy Gilbert Roland is a delight as Heflin's former partner, who thinks Heflin once snitched on him to avoid an arrest, while Roland was sent to a working camp where he caught malaria. And Klaus Kinski himself is near to his very best as the sadistic fake priest who wears sunglasses, and might be, or might not be Hilton's lover. There's a very funny scene early on in the movie, in which Kinkski seems quite surprised when a women calls him 'father'. Apparently one of those scenes that were not in the script, but the improvised joke turned out to be too good to throw away. Incidentally, it was one of Kinski's first leading roles in an Italian western after his cameos in For a few Dollars more (Per qualche dollaro in più) and A Bullet for the General (Quién Sabe?) and allegedly he behaved well on the set.


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The first choice for director was Lucio Fulci, but producers Pugliese and Ercoli fell out with him during the preparations of the movie. Di Leo, who had written the film with Fulci in mind, then wanted to direct it himself, but the Pugliese and Ercoli chose for Giorgio Capitani, who had no previous experiences with the genre. Di Leo wasn't happy with Capitani's psycho-analytic approach to the movie, but most others have concluded that there was very little wrong his direction. His style is rather reserved, all but obtrusive, giving headroom to his splendid cast, worthy of a major production, and his director of cinematography Sergio D'Offizi, who's lingering camera makes the most of the beautiful locations, the sopping western town, the bone dry desert, the dusty mine-galleries ... There's one scene, in which the four dried-up and shriveled persons are surprised by a sudden shower of rain, that would do very well on National Geographic.


As already mentioned, the film doesn't offer the usual amount of fistfights and shootouts; the action comes in small doses, but when it comes, it's great: the ambush at the deserted mission post halfway the movie, is excellently staged and the series of violent conflicts near the end (followed by one more ambush at the mission post) are dramatic and compelling. Carlo Rustichelli's score is quite unusual; at first it seems more appropriate to a fifties peplum movie, type Spartacus or El Cid, but it certainly does suck you into the movie, so I suppose it is fitting after all. The film was pretty long in the making: the first scenes were shot in '66 in the Spanish Balcazar studios, the bulk of the movie in the course of the next year in Almeria, Guadix, Granada and the Sierra Nevada. It was only released in '68. The film's working title was Ognuno per sé (E Dio per nessuno), literally Every man for himself (And God for nobody at all), but the part between brackets was dropped.


Contemporary reviews were remarkably positive; in Il Messagero, one of Italy's most important newspapers, D'Offizi's cinematography was hailed and even the Vatican, by means of the CCC (Centro Cattolico Cinematographico) praised Capitani's direction and the narrative (they probably missed the homosexual allusions). Nevertheless the film didn't do well at the box-office and was soon buried in oblivion. It's one of those nearly forgotten gems that deserves our full attention. It's slightly reminiscent of Find a Place to Die (Joe... cercati un posto per morire!), in which a person who has found gold, is forced to hire a group of men to bring it into town, but this is a much stronger film. It is a bit slow-paced, but the characterizations give the film an emotional depth most spaghetti westerns lack, and that uneasy relationship between an older man and his weak-willed foster son is quite unique within the genre. Unfortunately there seems to be no decent DVD release. I watched on German TV a pretty good widescreen print with a ratio of about 1,88:1, so a little cropped left and right (the OAR is 2,35:1), but this was only a (minor) problem during the opening credits and one or two scenes in which people were cut in half at the extremities of the image. Even the German dub was okay, free from the Klamauk and Quatsch that sometimes spoils German dubs. A notorious scene in which Kinski burnt Hilton's hand with a cigarette, that was cut from the initial release, had not been restored (probably it is lost forever).


By-- Scherpschutter

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