cinema history class: quintana: dead or alive

  

As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL.

Session: Masked Men, Both Good and Evil (week 1)
Movie: Quintana: Dead or Alive (1969)
Directed by Vincenzo Musolino

Plot:
Governor de Leyra loves Virginia. But Virginia loves Don Manuel. So the masked hero, Quintana wants to save Manuel from de Leyra. Spaghetti ensues.

Reaction and Other Folderol:

One thing I love is a compelling antihero. The TV dramas I watched in recent years -- Breaking Bad, Boardwalk Empire, The Americans (and others) -- feature them. And that's one thing I like about Spaghetti Westerns. While American Westerns typically featured good guys and bad guys, the Italian ones featured bad guys and worse guys. Sadly, that was something Quinatana lacked. Quintana is a Zorro-like hero -- a good man waging war against bad people. And I find that boring.

Another boring thing about the character is his brilliance with a gun. I wouldn't try guessing his kill count, but he just keeps shooting them down as they come at him (and they seem to all do pirouettes as the go down). I realize that great gun skills are a hallmark of Western heroes, but Qunitana's seem to go beyond the normal greatness.

Add to that the fact that the plot is pretty basic with nothing in the way of innovative twists, and there's no real character development. I had a hard time finding much to hook into to keep my interest.

There were some things that I liked in the movie, though they were mostly in the realm of the odd. I did find a couple of lines of dialogue amusing for their clunkiness: "The man's no more violent than a watermelon" and " For a long time I've found your love extremely boring" come to mind. And there's a scene in which one of the priests is kneeling and praying in front of a crucifix. The crucifix answers him in a gruff voice, advising that violence can sometimes be helpful. Admittedly, I am not sure if we, the viewers, are supposed to interpret it as God actually answering or if it's just the priest's drunken delusion.

The camera work was odd. Most of the film was shot at a slant -- the way the Batman TV show showed the criminals' lairs. The soundtrack was a mixed bag. The music was great. But the dialogue and sound effects seemed oddly disconnected from the film. And the constant loud clip clop of horse hooves -- even when there were no horses to be seen was offputting.

Ratings

Me: 5.5

Bob-O: 7.5
Christina: 8.2

Dave: 9.3

Ethan: 7

Cats: No cats.