Tomas Milian stars in this flawed Mexican set Spaghetti Western from left-wing director Sergio Sollima. Blue Underground R0 USA disc.
The Film
While
the American West was patrolled by the single-named sharp shooting
anti-heros always on the look out for the men who killed their father
or wife, down in Mexico, things were more complex and political.
Mexico,
the revolutionary
years: Cuchillo (Tomas Milian) is an ace knife-thrower, but
only a lowly peasant and is forced to steal to feed himself.
After winning some
money in a bet, he gets arrested and ends up sharing a prision cell
with revolutionary poet Ramirez (José Torres). Ramirez is set to
be released in the morning, but offers Cuchillo $100 to help him
escape. It turns out that Ramirez knows the location of $3 million in
gold intended to fund the revolution, but there are lots of other
groups after it as well. Ramirez is killed by some revolutionaries
trying to get the information out of him and with his last breath tells
Cuchillo to go to Burton City, Texas and keep the gold safe. Cuchillo
heads north to the border persued by revolutionary gangs, two French
mercenaries working for the government, Cassidy (Donald
O'Brien) a sheriff turned bounty hunter, and finally, Cuchillo's
fiancé Dolores. On the way he meets a woman from the Salvation
Army and rides with her into America. At Burton City Cuchillo
teams up with Cassidy and they have to work together to find the gold
and secure its safe passage back to Mexico.
Writer and director
Sergio Sollima was, like many european directors, torn between art,
politics and exploitation, but Sollima was frequently able to make it
work and produce good looking films, in the popular genre of the time,
and with some powerful political themes - Run, Man, Run
was Sollima's third and final Western but doesn't quite work as well as it should. The storyline is typical of the
Mexican revolution Spaghetti Westerns with a lowly peasant
getting caught up in the revolution and learning that he can make a
difference - Sollima writes in dozens of colourful and distinctive
characters all with their own motivations and different outlooks on the
use of violence, the ex-Sheriff Cassidy is nicely enigmatic and
the secret service agents are suitably slimy although not pure-evil.
The pacing is quite slow for a Euro-Western and the film does drag at
points, with some very unnecessary comedy scenes particularly with
the Salvation Army woman. The
ending is particularly poor with a completely pointless duel that seems
to serve no purpose to the plot.
Sollima's
direction is strong, he uses a lot of very wide shots to show-off the
very impressive locations and large casts - the good exteriors give a
very strong Mexican feel to the film throughout and it is hard to
believe it was all shot in Spain. Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicholai
give the film a good orchestral soundtrack with an opening song sung by
Tomas Milian himself and a recurrent theme that his character hums
throughout.
Tomas Milian was fast
becoming an Italian film star thanks to the Spaghetti Westerns and
having appeared in both of Sollima's previous Westerns, had the role of
Cuchillo specifically written for
him. Managing to convey a child-like innocence in some scenes, he is
equally convincing as the hardened knife-thrower and is prepared to
kill to defend himself. The rest of the cast play well, and many of
them will be instantly recognisable to Spaghetti Western fans, Donald O'Brien (Town Sheriff in Four of the Apocalypse (1975) and slimy villian in Mannaja (1977)) plays Cassidy, Gianni Rizzo as Burton City Mayor would play a similar role in all the crazy Sabata
films, while the unfortunate and uncredited Austrian killed in a saloon
by Yul Brynner's Sabata crops up here in a similar role.
Run, Man, Run is thematically very similar to Damiano Damiani's Bullet for the General (1967) and Sergio Corbucci's Companeros (1970) that even has Tomas Milian in an identical role, however it stands as inferior to these other two. Bullet for the General
has some very impressive cinematography, strong pacing and some good stand-out scenes (the
opening on board a train is perfect) as well as a nice turn of plot
towards the end, Companeros is much more light-hearted and a very entertaining and fun film. Run, Man, Run
falls awkwardly, it tries to be serious, with some elements of comedy
but ends up dragging in too many scenes. Certainly not a poor film - with good direction, music and acting - the storyline
is a failed attempt at trying to be too big, something that
Sollima would eventually achieve with the superior Revolver
(1973). I would partially recommend this films to fans of Sollima or
the political/revolutionary Westerns, but its probably not for fans of
the American-style Spaghetti Westerns and Bullet for the General (1967) is a much better starting point.
In brief:
It it a sequel?
The character of Cuchillo was carried over from Sollima's earlier The Big Gundown (1966), and this film has been called The Big Gundown2, but no reference is made to the earlier film.
Anyone famous in it?
Tomas Milian - A big euro-cult star of the 60s and 70s, made his name in the Spaghetti Westerns
Directed by anyone interesting?
Sergio Sollima - a strongly left-wing director who directed films in all the Italian genres from peplum to crime.
Any violence?
Quite a lot of gunfights and knife-throwing, some blood.
Any sex?
None.
Good soundtrack?
Ennio Morricone provides a catchy and memorable main theme, sung by Tomas Milian himself.
Who is it for?
An okay film that tries to be more than it can be, partly recommended to fans of Sollima or political Westerns.
The DVD
Visuals
Original Aspect Ratio - 2.35:1 anamorphic wide-screen. Colour. The
image is good - lots of grain and some scratches and speckles but generally good for its age.
Audio
Italian and English language - Dolby digital mono. Sound fine.
Subtitles
English
Runtime
Main feature runtime: 2hr 00m 36s
Extras
The disc includes:
35 Years of Running - interesting interviews
with Sollima and Milian. (16m 38s)
Westerns Italian Style
- a fascinating genre documentary from 1968 with extensive (and spoiler
filled) behind-the scenes footage of this film and The Great Silence
(1969) among others, includes interviews with directors and actors
including Enzo G. Castellari and Sergio Corbucci, as well as a look at
the influence of the Euro-Westerns on Italian culture. Narrated by
Frank Wolff. English, part subtitled. (37m 59s).
Original Trailer, slightly lower quality than the film. (3m 41s)
Italian title sequence (Italian language credits) (3m 06s)
Poster and Stills gallery, manual scrolling, 26 images.
Talent Bios, onscreen detailed biographies of Milian and Sollima.
Easter Eggs: Trailers for other Blue Underground Spaghetti Westerns DVDs. (8m 22s)
Region
Region 0 (worldwide) - NTSC
Other regions?
German
R2 release with English subtitles and Italian/German audio, includes an
additional interview with Sollima, but no English options.
Cuts?
The film is believed to be fully uncut. Titles and credits are in English.
Summary
A well directed and acted film
that is let down by a poor plot that tries to over-reach. Only for fans
of the political Westerns.
A solid DVD - the print is good
with choice of audio tracks and interesting interviews. The inclusion
of the fascinating contemporary documentary makes this a must-own-disc
for genre fans (it is also available on the German Spara, Gringo, Spara disc).
