Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

Orla Zuniga It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

rdoyle29 Lee Van Cleef stars as John Corbett, an amateur lawman who has a reputation for being able to hunt down any fugitive. He has his eye on a senate seat, so when a wealthy railroad tycoon offers to back his election campaign in exchange for tracking down "Cuchillo" Sanchez (Tomas Milian), a Mexican peasant accused of raping and murdering a 12 year old girl, Corbett accepts. This kicks off a long series of near misses where Van Cleef gets close, only to see Milian get away. As the chase heats up and the two men get to know each other, Van Cleef starts to suspect that Milian has been set up as a fall guy. This is a top tier spaghetti western, very reminiscent of Leone in the way the character dynamics work, and accompanied by a fantastic Ennio Morricone score. It lacks Leone's operatic tone and stylistic excesses, but is a solid western ... kind ofa sleek, working man's Leone.

Spikeopath La resa dei conti (The Big Gundown) is directed by Sergio Sollima and written by Sollima and Sergio Donati. It stars Lee Van Cleef, Tomas Milian, Walter Barnes and Gerard Herter. Music is by Ennio Morricone and cinematography by Carlo Calini.Superior Spaghetti Western with shades of Zapata for good measure, The Big Gundown finds Van Cleef as bounty hunter - cum - unofficial lawman Jonathan Corbett, whose reputation for bringing in the criminals, dead or alive, has caught the attention of business baron Brockston (Barnes). With an interest in getting into politics, Corbett is sold on Brockston's offer of political help if he will do a job for him. The job is to hunt down a Mexican rogue by the name of Cuchillo (Milian) who is alleged to have raped and murdered a 12 year old girl. Tracking Cuchillo across the land, the Mexican proves to be a slippery customer, and more importantly, Corbett begins to doubt the veracity of the charges against him.Adios Amigo.What do you need for a great Italo Western? A leading man with screen presence supreme? Check! Rogue antagonist able to overact opposite the leading man whilst still exuding charm personified? Check! Scorching vistas? Check! A musical score so in tune with the story it's a character all by itself? Check! And violence? Check! Sollima's movie has it all.Much of the film is about the manhunt and how the two men involved develop a relationship. Cuchillo claims he's being set up and seems to have friends in every town featured in the play. Corbett is a dandy with a gun, but he's not perfect, he can be outsmarted and get caught cold. There's good thought gone into the screenplay in this respect, not putting the anti-hero up as an infallible superman.Then there's the side-bar narrative strands that show Sollima's political bent, even though this is hardly a heavily politico piece. From class struggles and racism, to asides on the justice system and the fat cats who operate around the system, Sollima does enjoy dangling such carrots. With zippy set pieces fuelled by brooding machismo that is in turn enhanced by the top work from Carlini and Morricone (it's one of Moricone's best scores, real dynamite), this is grade "A" Spaghetti and well worth feasting on. 9/10

classicsoncall One of the things I like about the IMDb is reading the reviews of serious fans who often offer even more perspective than the film itself. For this picture, I would direct you to the reviews of FilmFlaneur and MARIO GAUCI, who almost make me envious with their obvious passion and insight for the spaghetti genre. As for myself, the best I can muster is that I liked the picture, particularly as a vehicle for one of my favorites, Lee Van Cleef. By now I've seen him in so many variations of the Western genre, that his presence is almost expected. That would include a guest appearance in just about every classic TV Western series at least once.So even though this is one of the better Italian Westerns I've seen, I had to scratch my head over the treatment the script gave to hero Corbett (Van Cleef). Not only was he bushwhacked from behind by a thirteen year old girl, but he was also bamboozled by a phony snake bite gimmick engineered by the nominal villain Cuchillo (Tomas Milian). That bothered me, because even as a layman, I could tell that wasn't a poisonous snake, so a desert traveler like Corbett should have known it too. That was a little weak.As for Cuchillo himself, I thought it pretty odd that he would play into the story planted about his being a child rapist and murderer. Always on the run and barely eluding Corbett a number of times, his actions did more to convey guilt than the final resolution would ultimately suggest. However the big gundown of the finale is worth the wait, and aptly involves not one, not two, but three showdowns that bring together the film's principals, somewhat in the manner of "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly". If you think about it, this one had the three of those as well.

Witchfinder General 666 As a big fan of Spaghetti Westerns, two of my all-time favorite directors are Sergio Leone and Sergio Corbucci. Out of all Spaghetti Westerns directed by neither Leone, nor Corbucci, Segio Sollima's "La Resa Dei Conti" aka. "The Big Gundown" is my personal favorite, and doubtlessly one of the greatest films the genre has ever brought forth. An exciting and extremely stylish film with brilliantly drawn characters, "The Big Gundown" is a masterly Spaghetti Western with a political message.Jonathan Corbett (Lee Van Cleef), a famous gunman and bounty hunter, is sent to hunt down a Mexican small-time crook named Cuchillo Sanchez (Tomas Milian), who is accused of the rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl. Corbett is an experienced and successful lawman, but Cuchillo is very clever too. On the his long hunt Corbett gets to know Cuchillo, whose guilt he finds more and more doubtful. Although this is a very serious Spaghetti Western in most of its parts, there are some very funny characters, like the almost cartoonish aristocratic Austrian gunman Baron Von Schulenberg (Gérard Herter), a cold-blooded but extremely arrogant and almost Nazi-ish killer wearing a monocle and always looking neat as a pin.Sergio Sollima's directing is truly outstanding. The acting is also great, especially the brilliant performances of Tomas Milian and Lee Van Cleef, two of my personal favorite actors. The score by Ennio Morricone is one of a kind, outstanding, even compared to most of the other Morricone soundtracks. In one ingenious part of the movie, for example, Morricone mixes Ludwig Van Beethoven's "Für Elise" with a Mexican guitar and his typical dynamic Spaghetti Western drums. The cinematography and settings are overwhelming in a manner that is en par with Leone. In short: "The Big Gundown" is a formidable gem that even Leone would be proud of, and an Italian Western highlight that no lover of the genre could possibly afford to miss! 10/10