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Keoma (1976)

post #1 of 35
10/3/09 at 9:43am
Thread Starter 
Some people call it the last great spaghetti Western; it sure acts like it is. Clever flashbacks, beautiful slo-mo, Franco Nero's bluer than blue eyes peering out from a bearded, dust-coated face, melodramatic plot about the half-breed confronting his hateful older half-brothers, Woody Strode - this one has it all.

Enzo Castellari has never impressed me as a director; The Inglorious Bastards (made only a year after this one) and the pair of Bronx Warriors films have a fun, junk value to them, but none of them feel as handcrafted as this one. Some really beautiful camerawork (that he's lifting from a variety of influences, but still) that moves beyond the cheap and harried Corbucci-style sloppy zoom and instead goes for fluid dollies and long lenses that capture some gorgeous close-ups.

I used to give Paul Schrader shit for how the over-the-top lyrics from the songs in Light Sleeper were too on the nose in the way they narrated the film; I should apologize in light of this film. The shrill woman and Leonard Cohen soundalike shrieking and croaking, respectively, the internal monologues via song is...somethin. Unsubtle in the best possible way.

Woody Strode knows how to give you a death scene. And Castellari knows how to give you a climax that says FUCK HORSES.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Logan
The script for Keoma was thrown away three days before filming so they just made the story up as they went along and ended up making a film that was fucking brilliant.

Hidden Rule: No spaghetti western is complete without a flashback. No flashback, no good.

They also have the best looking broads out of any genre.
All true. The sick woman with the green eyes is goddamn gorgeous.
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post #2 of 35
10/3/09 at 9:50am
Welp, guess it's time to track this down. You guys sold me.
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post #3 of 35
10/3/09 at 10:05am
Phil, this one blew me out of the water when I first saw it. Jake, get a hold of this fucker ASAP. Casterllri (spelling?) works really well with Nero.

I'll take issue with you here, Phil. Street Law and the Big Racket are personal favorites. I always wished Peckinpah made more films in th Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia/Killer Elite/The Getaway style. Enzo did those movies IMO. And if you have not seen New Barbarians with Fred Williamson you really should. It's not just another pretty face.

That Light Sleeper reference is spot on. Why do I love movies whose soundtracks reference onscreen action? Well, because I'm a dick.
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post #4 of 35
10/3/09 at 10:15am
Thread Starter 
The Castellari films I listed are the only ones I've seen. He apparently did another Western (Jonathan of the Bears) with Nero in 1993 that I'm curious to check out.

The Keoma commentary track is Castellari being interviewed by, according to the DVD, a journalist named "Waylon Wahl". WTF?

I also like that the half-white, half-Indian Keoma is the only person in the film with an Italian accent.
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post #5 of 35
10/3/09 at 10:20am
Ok. Castellari's crime films are where he really shines. The Heroin Busters is fun but go for Street Law if you want to delve into why the guy has a following. Inglourious Bastards (AKA That Damn Train) kind of let me down. For all Castellari's emulation of Peckinpah he missed that Cross of Iron meets the Dirty Dozen vibe I hoped for.

And thanks for bringing up Keoma, Phil. This number has a lot going for it. If anyone likes the Dark Tower series by Stephen King, this is what it should look like on screen.
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post #6 of 35
10/3/09 at 10:54am
You'll like STREET LAW. It has similar internal monologue music by the DeAngelis Brothers and that very same croaking, hideously off-key vocalist (who I thought for a time was actually Nero). The theme song, "Driving All Around," is played ad nauseum.
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post #7 of 35
10/3/09 at 10:57am
That scream from Strode...
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post #8 of 35
12/16/09 at 1:55am
Thread Starter 
Watched Mannaja (aka A Man Called Blade). For a movie that came out only a year after Keoma, it sure as shit plays like a less-than-inspired rip-off of it. Stars a Franco Nero Lookalike, has a similar mud-and-fog setting, ample flashbacks, and scored by the same absurd, "explain the plot" froggy-voiced singer, who the director claims "sounds like Barry White" (he doesn't).

Some great sequences and imagery interspersed with scenes shot and staged like an episode of Little House on the Prairie. The final showdown is in a cave and is very hatchet-laden. Ultimately happy to have Netflixed it instead of blind bought.
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post #9 of 35
12/16/09 at 2:32am
Just added Keoma to my Netflix queue after the talk here.
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post #10 of 35
12/17/09 at 1:05am
I gotta check it too, but I want to vociferously agree with Spaghetti Westerns having the best looking broads. Absolutely true.
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post #11 of 35
12/18/09 at 12:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil View Post
Watched Mannaja (aka A Man Called Blade). For a movie that came out only a year after Keoma, it sure as shit plays like a less-than-inspired rip-off of it. Stars a Franco Nero Lookalike,
Maurizio Merli was the go-to guy when Nero couldn't make it or wanted too much $$. He appeared in the WHITE FANG sequel and about 90% of Umberto Lenzi's crime thrillers. He was the Michael Dudikoff to Nero's Chuck Norris.
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post #12 of 35
5/31/10 at 10:55am
Ok, i'll do it.

Give me a few days.

Phil, i keep waiting for the day you watch a film i tell you to!
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post #13 of 35
5/31/10 at 5:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil View Post
Watched Mannaja (aka A Man Called Blade). For a movie that came out only a year after Keoma, it sure as shit plays like a less-than-inspired rip-off of it. Stars a Franco Nero Lookalike, has a similar mud-and-fog setting, ample flashbacks, and scored by the same absurd, "explain the plot" froggy-voiced singer, who the director claims "sounds like Barry White" (he doesn't).

Some great sequences and imagery interspersed with scenes shot and staged like an episode of Little House on the Prairie. The final showdown is in a cave and is very hatchet-laden. Ultimately happy to have Netflixed it instead of blind bought.
Totally spot on analysis. I only keep this one out of loyalty to the genre. There aren't many really great looking US DVD releases to go around. So far Blue Underground has no more of the Spaghetti Westerns it owns on its Blu-ray plate, and the announcements go through the year from what I can tell. And now that Starz owns Anchor Bay I don't see any way they start releasing Blu-ray clean ups. I'm not sure which studio owns Keoma.

Also:


Because it took me all night last night.
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post #14 of 35
5/31/10 at 5:49pm
How weird is it that the great melancholic End Of The Genre spaghetti western would come from Enzo G. Castellari? I like the dude a lot but all the stuff I've seen by him is big dumb action fun. Almost always with a few hooks that stay with you (the language-as-survival thing in Inglorious Bastards, Nero kinda bringing stuff onto himself in Street Law), but y'know, dude did Shark Hunter!
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post #15 of 35
5/31/10 at 7:11pm
Johnny Hamlet is pretty fucking experimental visually speaking. You can actually see Castellari prepping some of the better images from Keoma. Not a great movie, but interesting in how different it is from the rest of the director's work.
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post #16 of 35
5/31/10 at 9:15pm
Oh yeah, Johnny Hamlet! I keep forgetting about that one. It is artsy as fuck. On a tangent, I bought that movie in Germany, under the title Django - The Undertaker's Already Waiting*; I think I actually thought it was, y'know, *the* Django at the time.

* German titles for italian movies are the fucking best. Confessions Of A Police Comissioner = The Gang That Immures Its Victims Alive, to give another example.
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post #17 of 35
6/1/10 at 12:18am
I just had my mind blown by this. So much entertainment in one single movie.

It really has a little of everything for everyone. The bad ass lead, the surprisingly great story (half indian vs his half brothers), great kills and slow mo deaths, amazing stunts, and a black arrow shooting sidekick.
And the narrating songs, oh my god. Couldn't stop bursting into laughter by them. In all the good ways.

The english dub was also surprisingly good. Except for George's death. He emits a primal baby scream while dying that just had me rolling on the floor.

A great movie. Really fun.
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post #18 of 35
6/1/10 at 12:28am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tati View Post
The english dub was also surprisingly good. Except for George's death. He emits a primal baby scream while dying that just had me rolling on the floor.
I think Nero did his own dub.

I remembered just now that this was actually one of the first Spaghetti Westerns I ever saw, when I was like 19 or something, and I really didn't appreciate it at the time. I'm so glad I revisited it as a grown-up who had bathed in the genre for a decade.

I also just remembered I had that German Johnny Hamlet release and sold it on Amazon out of money desperation, and now I'm sad.
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post #19 of 35
6/1/10 at 1:05am
Thread Starter 
I rather like how the opening shot of Keoma is a sort of perversion of the closing shot of The Searchers: our hero framed in a doorway, but a doorway that's off to the side, with a door swinging open and shut, and instead of departing a serene family scene, he's returning toward some sort of desolate, bleak aftermath.

Edit: I'd buy the hell out of this on Blu, but Anchor Bay's anamorphic DVD looks great on my HDTV.
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post #20 of 35
6/1/10 at 1:09am
Yeah that's definitely Nero's voice. He always tried to do his own english dub.
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post #21 of 35
6/1/10 at 12:39pm
Also great, his knife throwing abilities. The kills were really great.

I was expecting more from the women based on some comments. The pregnant woman was beautiful, yes. But nothing can touch the female lead on Once Upon a Time in The West yet. Well, maybe Frank.
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post #22 of 35
6/2/10 at 3:26am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tati View Post
Also great, his knife throwing abilities. The kills were really great.

I was expecting more from the women based on some comments. The pregnant woman was beautiful, yes. But nothing can touch the female lead on Once Upon a Time in The West yet. Well, maybe Frank.
If you like knife throwing look for The Big Gundown and Run Man Run, where Thomas Milian plays a knife throwing bandit.

Also there isn't a single female lead that comes anywhere near Claudia Cardinal in OuaTitW in any spaghetti western I've ever seen. The closest I can think is Great Silence. And both films are somewhat revisionist. Not really a great genre for the ladies.
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post #23 of 35
6/3/10 at 2:37am
Just bought this on the cheap via the $5.99 Vigilante Western Collection at Borders. Not sure if it is "standard" at every Borders location, but it was placed near the checkout with similar bargain DVDs.

Keoma appears to be anamorphic widescreen and the best-looking of the bundled films (although that's probably not saying much. The films include The Four Of The Apocalypse, And God Said To Cain, The Fighting Fist Of Shanghai Joe, and White Comanche. Those films look like shit, so don't delude yourself (like I did) that you're gonna get top quality product for bargain basement prices. Still, I'm not too terribly disappointed with my purchase. And, on the bright side, And God Said to Cain -- even if it looks like bad VHS -- is widescreen. Guess I'll have to go the Cultcine route.

If I'm not bogged down with grading and dissertation research, I'll watch it this weekend.

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post #24 of 35
6/3/10 at 10:51am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marlowe's Cat View Post
The Four Of The Apocalypse
Ripped from the Anchor Bay disc. Looks great.

You're right about AND GOD SAID TO CAIN -- really poor copy. Probably the only way to see it wide, though.
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post #25 of 35
6/3/10 at 3:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Malmordo View Post
Ripped from the Anchor Bay disc. Looks great.

You're right about AND GOD SAID TO CAIN -- really poor copy. Probably the only way to see it wide, though.
Yeah, you're right about Four of the Apocalypse. Sadly, Shanghai Joe (which I'm really interested to see, after recently viewing The Stranger and the Gunfighter) and White Comanche (with SHATNER!) are both full screen. This is the only place I've seen where you can get a good version of And God Said to Cain. (Sorry for the derail, Keoma fans)
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post #26 of 35
6/3/10 at 5:09pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Malmordo View Post
Ripped from the Anchor Bay disc. Looks great.
How is that legal? Blue Underground actually re-released it pretty recently too.
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post #27 of 35
6/10/10 at 8:38pm
Watched the movie last night. Glad you started this thread, Phil.

It's such a weird, cool movie.

Keoma has a really strong, iconic opening sequence. But it's really all over the place after that. I mean, the presence of Franco Nero and Woody Strode, the framing of characters in specific shots, the extreme close-ups, the slo-mo, and the really novel (sometimes in-scene) flashbacks -- make the movie seem so epic. And yet, the movie will intermittently sort of dwindle off into this middling, low-rent affair for a reel or so, and then suddenly become the most awesome Spaghetti Western you've ever seen. It's an intriguing back-and-forth.

The soundtrack ain't exactly Ennio Morricone, but it IS memorable. I cannot get that shrieking "KEOMA! KEOMAA!!!!" theme out of my head. After overhearing it, my girlfriend had to come into the living room and find out just what the hell I was watching. She does a note-perfect impression of the song though.

BTW: I also love it when Keoma breaks free and runs in slo-mo towards the evil white landowner at the end of the movie. It is both hilariously cheesy and legitimately awesome.
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post #28 of 35
6/10/10 at 8:55pm
Yeah, this might not be great, but it's so much fun.
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post #29 of 35
6/10/10 at 11:34pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marlowe's Cat View Post
I cannot get that shrieking "KEOMA! KEOMAA!!!!" theme out of my head. After overhearing it, my girlfriend had to come into the living room and find out just what the hell I was watching. She does a note-perfect impression of the song though.
I'm sorry.

And yeah, Nero running in slo-mo is apparently a big Castellari thing.
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post #30 of 35
10/14/10 at 1:52pm
Pretty damn fantastic film. But my God, the songs. Such wonderfully subtle lyrics.

I love how Butch looks like Tom Selleck and Titus Welliver got in the BrundlePod together.
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post #31 of 35
10/15/10 at 12:15pm
It pleases me to no end when films like this get exposure due to forums chat. THIS is why CHUD works.

Also: I fucking love this movie. As if that's not obvious at this point.
Also, also: Fuck those hacks for ripping off Anchor Bay/Blue Underground trasfers. I've seen those DVDs around and I've always scratched my head at their legality. Granted you can't get a couple of their crime dramas elsewhere so I'll probably end up throwing money at them. I hate myself.
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post #32 of 35
1/16/11 at 12:31pm

I just bought this original print.

 

I think i'm in love.Keoma.jpg

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post #33 of 35
8/22/11 at 9:35pm

I fucking love this movie!

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post #34 of 35
9/13/11 at 9:41am

I think the moment I fell in love with the movie is when Keoma, after his initially tussle with his brothers, looks down the street and sees his father and the greek chorus soundtrack just croons

 

"There's my father.."

 

It's so over the top that it really shouldn't work, but those overstated songs are part of the films overall charm. It's just hilarious having faux-Nico and Leonard Cohen literally narrating the films at certain points. I actually ended up watching his in a double bill with the original Djanjo and the two films, despite their different directors, nicely compliment each other. With Django as a kind of an example of Spaghetti Westerns in their prime and this is sort of a melancholic caper to the genre.

 

I just love the style and scope of the film, it's really panoramic view of rolling hills and valleys and characters just marching through endless plains whilst having a conversation. It's odd because the other movies I've seen by Castellari aren't particularly artistic whereas at times this feels like something you'd see in an arthouse theatre, it's just full of so many amazing, wistful moments. Love Keoma just leaning on a post and watching his flashback just run past him.

 

I also love how the male singer kind of sounds a bit like Henry Kissinger towards the end when Keoma goes nuts and does his sprint.


Edited by Spike Marshall - 9/13/11 at 9:55am
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post #35 of 35
12/1/11 at 2:29am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gabe Powers View Post
:


Because it took me all night last night.


Who wants to place bets on Tarantino doing a similar shot somewhere in Django Unchained?

 

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