Face to Face

God bless, Youtube, where users can post movies broken up into 10-minute segments for fans to watch for free. I stumbled across a Youtube poster who's put up a wide variety of spaghetti westerns and kung fu movies so before somebody catches on and forces him to take them down, I thought I'd give one a shot. Face to Face is considered one of the best non-Leone spaghetti westerns, but it's only available on DVD from other countries, and I'm not plopping down a couple hundred bucks for a region free DVD player.

Directed by the other Sergio, no, not Leone or Corbucci, yes to Sergio Sollima, Face to Face was the director's follow-up to The Big Gundown which is also considered one of the best in the genre. While many spaghettis went for the lowest common denominator, lots of mindless killing, cool musical score, badass anti-hero, Sollima's westerns, like all his movies, try to deliver a message. It's nothing deep or profound, but there's always something there that adds a deeper layer to the story. Of course, it helps to have the killing, music and antihero to help things along.

A history professor at an eastern university, Brad Fletcher (Gian Maria Volonte) is told to head west by his doctors for the better climate to fight off the disease that is quickly killing him. He improves immediately, but one day a stagecoach occupied by three marshals transporting a prisoner pulls into his village. Brad offers to help the prisoner, but ends up in a hostage situation as the bandit kills his escort. Out in the desert, easterner Brad must care for the wounded bandit, Solomon 'Beau' Bennett (Tomas Milian), the leader of a decimated gang known as Bennett's Raiders.

With nothing tying him down to his home, Brad joins Beau as the bandit reassembles his gang who've been scattered all over thinking their leader is dead. He finds them one by one (spaghetti regulars Frank Brana, Jose Torres, Angel del Pozo, and Nello Pazzafini) and they go back to work. At first timid about handling and shooting a gun, Brad develops into a right hand man to Beau and possibly a threat to his leadership. That's not all that Beau must deal with as Pinkerton agent Charlie Siringo (William Berger) is on his trail, looking to bring him to justice.

Unlike a lot of spaghetti westerns where the bad guys are supremely evil and the antiheroes are really only in it for themselves and the money, Sollima's westerns play on the audience's preconceptions about the characters they're watching. From the start, it's figured that Volonte's Brad is the good guy, the one to root for, while Milian's Beau is the prototypical bad guy, a bandit who will get his due in the end. That changes by the halfway mark as both characters transform into someone different. It's great to see a spaghetti really flesh the characters out.

In doing that, it helps to have actors the caliber of Volonte and Milian. Starring in two of Leone's Dollars trilogy, Volonte is becoming one of my favorite actors. He has an intense look about him, and he wastes no time getting into character. Brad is the early favorite for the good guy role, but he undergoes a change over the course of the movie that is believable and never seems forced. The same can be said for Milian who made his fair share of high-quality spaghettis. He had a penchant for over-the-top Mexican bandit characters in the vein of Eli Wallach's Tuco, and even when his character is a little crazy, he's still appealing, likable to the viewer, or at least me for sure.

As for the checklist of must-haves in the Italian western genre, the leads are a given with Berger rounding out the top trio. His Siringo is based on a real historical figure, and Berger makes the most of a part that has him in and out of the story a lot. In the easy on the eyes department, Jolanda Modio, Carole Andre, and Linda Veras play love interests who are given little to do and have very few lines but look great doing it. So much for well-rounded strong female characters here. 'Face' was filmed in Almeria so you'll see a lot of familiar locations, and Ennio Morricone provides a typically reliable if not hugely memorable score. A botched bank robbery highlights the action late in the movie.

As is the case with Sollima's other westerns, Face to Face doesn't settle for the staus quo. It's a whole lot better than the typical spaghetti western and benefits from strong performances of stars Gian Maria Volonte and Tomas Milian. If like me you're not willing to drop a pretty penny on a region-free DVD player, cruise on over to Youtube and give this one a try. If you're new to the spaghetti western, it's also a good place to start right up there with the Leone and Corbucci entries.

Face to Face <----trailer (1967): *** 1/2 /**** Part 1 of 11 on Youtube