Phonearl
Good start, but then it gets ruined
Sanjeev Waters
A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.
Catherina
If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.
Topher
Maybe it was just the copy I got but I had trouble understanding anything said, the sound was just terrible. Despite that, I plodded through it hoping something would happen to make it worth the time. Unfortunately, it just didn't grab my attention at all. The characters were uninteresting, their motivation confusing, and I found myself wondering how much time was left long before it was done.The intended love connection was contrived and seriously under-developed. I've heard of love at first sight but when a married woman and the man intending to kill her husband are supposed to 'feel the burn', a little indication beyond eye contact is required to convince this viewer.I probably shouldn't complain because I did only spend 38 cents but being free wouldn't be enough to help raise the rating on this one. I give it a 4 because it had some potential and I have seen worse but it's more of a 3.5 rounded up...But that's just my 2 scents. ;)
mgtbltp
This is a Western that, as another poster mentioned, has sex as its driving force.Spoilers It's basic Western cliché story line is hired gun Clayton Jones (Fabio Testi) is about to hang for some offense in the town of China, Texas. We see him in a jail cell and out in the town square we see a hanging platform with three nooses, a Chinaman and a China woman are bound and lined up below it we cut back to Clayton who is removed from his cell apparently to join the condemned. We cut to Clayton in the offices of a railroad company where some officials hand him a pardon with the stipulation that he is to go kill Matthew Sebanek, who won't sell out his land at the cheap price offered to the RR. He has become a small obstacle to the tracks. We see two corpses hanging from the gallows as Clayton rides out of town.Matthew Sebenek (Warren Oates) is sort of a hardscrabble squatter/homesteader, he is sitting upon land that has oil beneath it and knows it, oldest of the Sebenek brothers he looks to be between 45-55 years old, his comparatively child bride wife Catherine (Jenny Agutter) looks between 20-25, Matthew treats Catherine more like a slave than a partner, she is unhappy and shows it. There are no children present that, in most Hollywood Westerns, that depicted these types of May-December relationships would cement the couple together with a common cause.Into this situation rides reluctant hired gun Clayton Jones and he gets his first eyeful of Catherine as she is bathing in the stream near the road to the homestead, she doesn't hear him coming while she reclines in the water and is surprised when Clayton's voice asks which way to the Sebenek's but not embarrassed and she does not try to cover up in any way. In subsequent scenes we learn that Matthew who was a former hired gun of the railroad has Clayton pretty much pegged for what he truly is, but that sort of binds him into a wary friendship with him that blossoms. We also see that love starved Catherine is attracted to Clayton by her demeanor and it is she who makes the first move to consummate an affair. Clayton who has come to like Matthew decides not to kill him and that he best get away from the dicey situation but Catherine gives it away on the day Clayton leaves and she and Matthew come to blows in the kitchen and she stabs Matthew and leaves him for dead.Catherine rides away to follow Clayton, and Matthew and his brothers take off after them.Now this is an adult treatment of situations that are real, I've know real life stories that have played out exactly so and have had similar ends. It's refreshing to see a Western with more mature themes that still has enough Western elements to keep it in Genre and interesting enough to keep you watching.There are some nice stylistic camera shot touches in a later whorehouse confrontation. If I have any complaint about the film it would be the overly intrusive soundtrack that in some scenes plays annoyingly over the dialog, it doesn't help that it has a 70's sound to it. Other music is provided by the actors themselves and gratefully its recorded live (not sound studio looping) and sounds very realistic.Sam Peckinpah has a nice cameo as a seedy pulp novelist.Check it out if you can find it. The version I saw was almost full wide screen though it still had some side cropping where you could tell so when the credits were rolling. For the most part you wouldn't notice it however there is one scene where when Catherine is coming on to Clayton, she stands in a open doorway in a nightgown back lit by a kerosene lantern and you can see she is plainly naked, she is half cut off by the cropping which makes me suspect that there may be a few more scenes where we are not seeing the full potential of the cinematography.
dbuskirk1
One of the few (only?) westerns where sex is the main motivator, a wonderful spaghetti western with Fabio Testi and Jenny Agutter, with Warren Oates and a rare performance by Sam Peckingpaugh. An important film in the ouvre of Monte Hellman, quintessential 70's cult director; a man who has made more great films than Coppola yet remains mostly unknown in his home country. See "Two-Lane Blacktop," "Cockfighter," and "The Shooting."
helpless_dancer
A rancher standing in the way of the railroad getting his property is slated for killing by a convict who will escape the hangman's noose if he does the job. Instead of doing the hit, the con takes off with the rancher's wife, creating a big manhunt and many deaths. There was a big shoot-out at the end of the picture and a few high points along the way, but overall this film was a loser. Too many pointless sex and nudity scenes, not enough action. Slow and dull.
