Keoma
Keoma
R | 27 January 1977 (USA)
Keoma Trailers

Half-breed Keoma returns to his border hometown after service in the Civil War and finds it under the control of Caldwell, an ex-Confederate raider, and his vicious gang of thugs. To make matters worse, Keoma's three half-brothers have joined forces with Caldwell, and make it painfully clear that his return is an unwelcome one. Determined to break Caldwell and his brothers' grip on the town, Keoma partners with his father's former ranch hand to exact violent revenge.

Reviews
IslandGuru Who payed the critics
Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.
Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin The movie really just wants to entertain people.
mgtbltp Films like great paintings, are there for us to view, experience, and interpret.  This go round, watching I think it finally all clicked. This is my interpretation.  A truly Mythic Western, an amalgamation of American Western Legend and Myth, Greco-Roman Mythology, and a touch of Catholic theology. Darkness, we enter the Dreamscape from darkness, the roar of time floods your ears and you see a sliver of a crack in the continuum of the universe. Through it we see a horseman punctuated with now the sounds and sights other human artifacts, we cut to frantic hands combing through the debris of humanity. The rider is in a Dream/Ghost town or perhaps Limbus. The hands belong to a Witch/Medicine Woman/Fate and she clutches discarded treasures that she loads on her barrow. She spots the rider and hides. As he passes she calls out a question "Why did you come back? Why did you come back?" So begins KeomaThe De Angelis brothers' weird soundtrack, especially the female voice now suggests an eerie Native American chant and whole film has a dreamworld atmosphere constantly enhanced by the incredible cinematography reinforcing the tone of this last of the great operatic Spaghetti Westerns. A good companion piece to Jodorowsky's El Topo.
Peter-174 Castellari made a couple of decent movies, a few really good ones and quite a bit of god awful ones. This is his best. Saw the movie for the first time when I was about 14 on VHS in the 80's and though I thought it was very weird, I liked it. A few years later I saw it again, when I was around 21 and liked it a bit more. Showed it to some other people I knew and saw it again. Then, DVD came. I'm from Europe, but I ordered it from the States. I loved it. Now I saw it recently for the first time on the big screen. I have forgiven it some of the voice-actors and accepted the odd soundtrack. Hell, I even like it at parts. Now I finally see the truth. Keoma is a masterpiece.
GodzillaVSJaws This is my fifth review. After watching this movie, i can honestly say that i have never seen anything like it. It pretty much takes the coolest genre (westerns) and just keeps that cool through the whole movie. If someone said that there is no such thing as cool personified, then i would show them this movie and they would slap themselves in the face. The director, Enzo G. Castaleri, takes risks with techniques and camera angles that most contemporary directors wouldn't take (not to mention the music). Its true, a lot of people are put off by the music, but i think it captures the tone and emotion of the film perfectly, and therefore it is good music. And just like the ending to Dead Man's Chest i will leave you in suspense.....never mind.
spider89119 This is one of the great spaghetti westerns. Franco Nero puts in what is perhaps his best performance ever, and it's great to see that his voice is not dubbed by someone else here. This is an action packed, gut wrenching, on the edge of your seat western from start to finish. It also has all the style, symbolism, and violence one could ask for from a spaghetti western, and then some.This film has been criticized for a few different reasons, and I feel compelled to address a couple of those comments. The number one topic for discussion seems to be the soundtrack. Yes the soundtrack is a bit strange, but so is the movie, so in a way it's fitting. Personally, I think it's kind of hit and miss, but it works for the most part. I really like the female vocals. Her voice has a creepy, melancholy, and otherworldly quality to it that matches the film perfectly. The male vocals, on the other hand, sounded like an Italian muppet to me at first. Perhaps the cookie monster. I do have to say though that I just watched the film for the third time and the guy doesn't sound nearly as bad to me as he did the first time. This is a damn good movie anyway, regardless of whether or not one likes the soundtrack.Another criticism I've heard is that Franco Nero plays an Indian with an Italian accent. First of all, this kind of thing is very common in films. Think of all the Romans, Greeks, Martians, etc. that have had English or American accents in the movies. This is no different except that in this movie it actually adds to the characterization of Keoma. He is an outsider, and the fact that his accent is so unique to the setting just adds to the effect.Keoma's flashbacks to his boyhood are extremely well done, and the children they picked to play him and his half-brothers are very realistically matched to their adult counterparts. There are some cool slow-motion action scenes, and the action scenes in general are top-notch. I also like the character of the old woman who seems to have some kind of supernatural link to Keoma. We're never quite sure what her relationship is to him, or even whether she is real or not. The acting from all of the main players is also very well done, and the cinematography is beautiful.This is one of those spaghetti westerns that stands out from the crowd. It's a must-see if you are at all interested in the genre. I would recommend it to anyone who likes westerns, action flicks, or movies that are not made with a cookie-cutter.