cinema history class: the four of the apocalypse

Session: Spaghetti Nightmares, Week 3
Movie: The Four of the Apocalypse (1975)
Directed by Lucio Fulci

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

Plot:
Four outcasts are traveling together, just trying to survive, when they run into a hired gun. At first, all looks good, but then they take a turn for the worse. Hilarity ensues.

Reaction:
My line about Spaghetti Westerns has been:

The difference between American Westerns and Spaghetti Westerns is that American Westerns have good guys and bad guys while Spaghetti Westerns have bad guys and worse guys.

After Four of the Apocalypse I kind of have to revisit that observation, because the four protagonists here really are good guys. They may be flawed, but they all have good hearts -- they're not dark troubled heroes like Blondie (Eastwood in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly), Django (Nero in Django) or Harmonica (Bronson in Once Upon a Time in the West. Their problem is that they ran into the psychotically sadistic Chaco who's bad enough to make up for all of them.

At times, this was a very slow-moving film, as a lot of the trail sequences seemed to go on for too long. But, as it progresses it does seem to pick up steam. I think part of that has to do with the fact that the characters get fleshed out and become interesting.

Lucio Fulci, for his part, can't seem to make a movie that isn't a horror film. Despite this being a Spaghetti Western, we have the crazy guy seeing dead people, we have the cannibalism and we have the torture (including a graphic skinning scene.

The biggest flaw in this movie is the soundtrack. I've come to expect certain things in Spaghetti Western soundtracks, and early 1970's pop rock ain't it. I kept thinking they were playing albums by America of Cat Stevens. The music itself wasn't bad, but it didn't fit the film.

I was also kind of annoyed by an unimportant inconsistency. The opening narration sets the movie in 1873, but later on when Bud is looking through a graveyard, he puts dates of death as much later -- in the 1880s and 1890s. It may not be important, but it annoyed the hell out of me.

On the other hand, the cinematography was superb. There were some really well-done visuals. My favorite was near the opening -- an aerial shot of the four making their way through a more-or-less dry river bed.

At first I gave this an 8.5 which, in the context of this class, is not a great rating. But I spent enough time thinking about this movie that I think I need to upgrade it to a 9.

Ratings:

Me: 9 (in class, I gave it an 8.5, but have since rethought that).

Dave: 9.2

Ethan: 9

Joe: 9.5