The Price of Power

When I purchased a set of 44 spaghetti westerns for the low, low price of less than $15, I was psyched, but some selections from the group jumped out more than others. Some I'd never heard of, some I knew would be lousy, but judging from certain reviews I'd read, I was most looking forward to 1969's The Price of Power. Unfortunately, the final product just didn't live up to expectations.

A gunfighter with a reputation that hangs over him because of a 4-year jail sentence, Bill Willer (Giuliano Gemma) is in trouble. He's rumored to be a part of an assassination attempt on President James Garfield (Van Johnson), who is touring Texas with his wife. Willer's father (Antonio Casas) is gunned down investigating the matters when he stumbles upon the actual plot. Now, Bill is looking to not only clear his name but also to bring the real killers to justice while also saving the life of the President. Just all in a day's work for this anti-hero, right?

Spaghetti westerns are inherently weird, eccentric, off-the-wall and generally pretty odd. I've seen a ton of them so take anything I'm about to say with a grain of salt. From director Tonino Valerii, 'Power' is an oddity among oddities. At different points, it has conspiracy theories, long-winded speeches about politics, a not-so-subtle allusion to the JFK assassination, racist sub-plots, and is light on action compared to most. All those ingredients just didn't mix for me. On the positive, the music from composer Luis Bacalov is delightfully weird -- different from most Ennio Morricone knock-offs -- and any Sergio Leone fans will no doubt recognize countless locations from his 1968 classic, Once Upon a Time in the West. That's never a bad thing.

It's rare that a spaghetti western story has too much going on to this point. Well, that's not completely true. Usually when too much is going on, it means endless betrayals and back-stabbing, gunfights galore. That ain't the case here. There is very little gunplay at all. The Garfield addition to the story plays fast and loose with the facts -- killing him in Texas as opposed to Washington D.C. -- while also portraying it in ridiculously close fashion to the JFK assassination in Dallas. We're talking right down to the angle of the shot, and the reaction from Garfield's wife (Maria Cuadra). More than any of that, far too much time is spent in smoky backrooms as the assassination plot comes together. Head of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, Allan Pinkerton (Fernando Rey) is even involved in the plot!  It's just all too much.

The casting ranges from acceptable to lousy to odd and out of left field. I've liked Gemma in several other spaghettis I've seen, but his performance here is fairly vanilla. A revenge-seeking gunfighter is nothing new to the western, but it's dull here. The best part of the character is his friendship with Jack (Ray Saunders), a black man who fought with Bill in the Civil War. Warren Vanders is the slick aide to Garfield, McDonald, always up to something for the good of the country. It's also pretty cool and worth pointing out that Benito Stefanelli -- usually a background player; a bandit or gunman in Leone's westerns -- gets a prominent role as the treacherous Sheriff Jefferson. An uncredited/unlisted Michael Harvey plays Wallace, the obsessed leader of the assassination plot. Plenty of other characters are cycled in and out in a revolving door, none making an impression. A badly dubbed Johnson is surprisingly good as President Garfield.

I thought there was certainly potential here as the story developed, incorporating the racial overtones of a long dead Confederate movement trying to revive the Civil War. Throwing Bill's black friend, Jack, into the mix, adds quite an interesting element into the story, especially when he's believed to be the assassin. It never clicks into place though. Just far too many elements working against each other for any of those separate elements to be truly effective. A disappointing, mediocre final product. You can watch the entire movie HERE at Youtube.

The Price of Power <---trailer (1969): **/****

The Desert of the Tartars

I'd like to think I'm not a movie snob. I try to be open with all movies, but as I've discovered the thousands and thousands of films out there, some are just more challenging than others. We're not supposed to like or enjoy them, or even hate them for that matter. You're just supposed to watch the film and experience it. You challenge yourself sometimes with movies like these, like 1976's The Desert of the Tartars.

Completing his three years at the military academy, young Lt. Drogo (Jacques Perrin) has received his orders, riding to his post with dreams and hopes of adventure and heroism. He has been assigned to Fort Bastiano, a lonely, isolated posting along the country's border. He finds that nothing is as he thought it would. The fort looks out over the desert and a horizon that hasn't seen the enemy -- the Tartars -- in years. Are they even out there somewhere across the desert? Days turns to weeks, weeks to months and months to years here at the fort. The officers and garrison watch time move past them at a glacial pace, questioning what they're doing at this post. Will the Tartars ever come back? Will they attack?

How do you describe a movie like this? It is based off a controversial novel by Dino Buzzati that for years defied a novel-to-film adaptation. At different points, 'Tartars' is surreal, symbolic, other-worldly, philosophical, existential and so much more. It is a movie about waiting and what if? What is coming? What do you do with yourself as you wait? It is an incredibly striking film -- both good and bad -- that I have little to no idea how to interpret. I found myself wondering if the setting was a variation on Purgatory, not Heaven and not quite Hell but clearly not normal life either. I can't say I liked the movie, but it has to be seen to be believed in its weirdness, eccentricity and existentialism.

My thoughts on the Purgatory-like setting come from the visual look of the movie. Italian director Valerio Zurlini turns out one of the most visually imposing movies I've ever seen, an almost apocalyptic setting that looks like it could be the edge of the known world. Zurlini and cinematographer Luciano Tovoli create a world, this isolated fortress completely removed from the real world, miles away from civilization and all it offers. 'Tartars' was filmed in Bam, Iran, the immensely spacious but sparsely occupied fortress becoming another character in the story. Spacious is a good way to describe the movie. It is an immense movie. The desert all around is bigger than it seems because of what it represents, fear, intimidation, and in a weird way...hope. What's out there? These men are driven to the point they welcome an enemy sighting. One of the most beautifully simple visual movies I've ever seen, aided by Ennio Morricone's haunting, almost classical score.

In a story where basically nothing happens for the 146-minute running time, your enjoyment -- or hatred -- of this movie will no doubt come from the characters and their development, their own personal handling of this bizarre posting. Zurlini and star Perrin worked hand in hand to get this movie done, Perrin even contributing much of his own money to help complete the movie while serving as one of the film's producers. He does an incredible job as the young idealistic Lt. Drogo, the inexperienced but very capable soldier who both resents and welcomes his posting to Fort Bastiano. Where this performance works, where all the performances work really, is that the actors bring these individuals to life without much in the way of dialogue. They say a lot with their faces, looks saying more than words ever could. Perrin is great at it especially, and the physical transformation Drogo goes through is remarkable. A very strong lead, one that trickles down to the rest of the cast.

Assembling an international who's who cast, Zurlini has a truly impressive cast here. Max von Sydow plays Captain Hortiz, posted at Bastiano the last 19 years and supposedly the last man at the post to see a Tartar on the horizon. Giuliano Gemma is Major Mattis, the obsessed, career-driven officer with little in the way of personal interaction. Jean-Louis Trintignant has a small part but a good one as Rivone, the post's doctor who sees the men disintegrating around him. Fernando Rey's Nathanson is the one officer who's seen combat but is a shell of himself after suffering a horrific combat wound. Vittorio Gassman plays Fillmore, the beleaguered commandant in a no-win situation. Helmut Griem is Simeon, Drogo's fellow officer and best friend at the post, the two men almost willing a Tartar enemy to show up. These are not showy performances, none of them calling attention to themselves, but that doesn't mean they don't make an impression.

Now this far into the review, you're probably thinking 'Hey, this is pretty positive.' And it is. I intended it that way. What works well here is a home run. What doesn't work is awful. I'm not exaggerating when I say that in 146 minutes almost nothing happens. Visual and beautiful to look at is one thing, impressive performances another, but NOTHING happens. Zurlini wants to put you to sleep, just like the characters on-screen. He wants to lull you into this uncomfortable silence, this possibly impending doom. Even a surprise in the final moments is so underplayed that it doesn't make the impact it could have.  The final 30 minutes do pick up the pace -- thankfully and mercifully -- to the point where the ending is effective in that sense of doom.

So where does it fall in the end? The deliberately slow pacing no matter how much I try to push aside as a minor complaint just isn't. This was a difficult movie for me to get through especially considering the two-plus hour run-time. I'd like to believe the performances from the very deep cast and the incredible look of the movie are enough to recommend the movie, but even there I'm struggling. It is a movie that defies ratings in a way, but the positives are that good. Barely....just barely, I'll go positive here.

The Desert of the Tartars <---trailer (1976): ** 1/2 /****

Arizona Colt

With a sub-genre like spaghetti westerns that produced around 600 movies in a span of just over 10 years, you're going to see familiar faces popping up over and over again. But with the spaghettis and as many stars as the genre produced, no one was in more Italian westerns than Spanish actor Fernando Sancho. This new wave of westerns had all sorts of vicious bad guys, and Sancho specialized in just those roles, typically playing a variation on a Mexican bandit chief, like in 1966's Arizona Colt.

Leading his ruthless band of outlaws -- the Sidewinders -- bandit chief Gordo Watch (Sancho) busts out a large group of prisoners from a poorly guarded prison. He's looking to fill out the ranks of his gang, offering the released prisoners a simple offer...join or die. All except the offer except one, a gunfighter by the name of Arizona Colt (Giuliano Gemma), who escapes before he can be shot down. Arizona taunts Gordo, betting he can't exact his revenge. Gordo and his gang are planning a robbery in the nearby desert town of Blackstone Hills, but Arizona seems to have other ideas. Even when the town turns on him for being just like the bandits, he must now decide to help the town or turn his back on them.

As was pretty typical of Sancho's parts in spaghetti westerns, he plays the stereotypical over-the-top bandit chieftain. He's outfitted in a ridiculous-looking, bright red general's outfit, bandoleers strapped across his chest, and that permanent squinty eyed glare. His Gordo has his band of equally menacing bandits, always laughing at their leader's actions. He's got a bit of that maniacally evil bandit that's so familiar in spaghetti westerns, but he's never intimidating here, more comedically funny than I'd like in my villain. Gordo throws bad one-liner after another, randomly shoots his victims out of the blue, and in general is pretty nutty. It doesn't quite work though.

Those problems go more toward the movie as a whole, not just Sancho as the villain. 'Arizona' doesn't know what it is in terms of a spaghetti western. It's too light and fluffy to be truly dark and cynical, and when it does try to be darker, it's too late. Gemma's Arizona backflips out of a tree to dispatch some bad guys, and for a second I thought I was watching an acrobatic gymnastic western like Sabata (which I actually like). As for the kill count, it's significant. Watch every Gemma kill in the movie HERE with obvious spoilers of course. This movie has some of the most ridiculous-looking deaths ever, gunshot victims spinning around like crazy before falling to the ground, loud, pained screams to boot. At one point, a wave of bandits just runs without actually shooting at Arizona, almost inviting him to kill them. He obliges if you were curious.

This is the second spaghetti western I've seen starring Gemma (that I can remember at least) after Day of Anger.  Where other spaghetti stars like Eastwood, Van Cleef, even Franco Nero, had that rugged anti-hero look, Gemma leans more toward the pretty boy. I didn't dislike his Arizona Colt, but I wasn't a huge fan of his either. There are some interesting elements to the story and character -- he cheats at cards for one -- but he's too fun-loving and at times gullible. Spaghetti western anti-heroes are at their best when they're mean. Arizona might be more at home in a comedic western -- like the Trinity movies -- but in this entry that bounces back and forth between comedy and dark, he feels out of place.

What else? With 600 movies, just like recurring roles for actors, you're going to see some similar storylines popping up, but this stretches it a little bit.  'Arizona' was released in 1966, just two years removed from Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars.  Did director Michele Lupo think viewers would forget that movie? Part of the final showdown between Arizona and Gordo is a blatant rip-off of Leone's much-better movie, from the explosive, dynamite opening to Arizona's "trick" once the shooting actually starts. It was a lazy effort, only partially saved by the shootout between Arizona and Gordo in a darkened barn full of empty coffins.

There were some positives to take away. Composer Francesco De Masi's score is used a little too much with virtually no quiet moments, but at least the score is a memorable one. It switches from soft, soothing Mexican-themed samples to bigger and louder as needed. The theme song (listen HERE) is pretty awful too, so bad it is memorably good. In the supporting cast, Corinne Marchand is Jane, the saloon owner's daughter, Nello Pazzafini is Kay, Gordo's right hand man, and Roberto Camardiel is Whiskey, a dynamite-toting, whiskey-guzzling bandit who can "smell" money. Not a strong effort in the spaghetti western department, but I've seen worse. You can watch the full movie HERE at Youtube.

Arizona Colt <---trailer (1966): **/****