Faccia a faccia (1967)
Face to Face (1967)
DVD9 | VIDEO_TS | PAL 16:9 (720x576) | 01:46:46 | 8,14 Gb
Audio: Italian, French - AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps (each) | Subs: English
Genre: Adventure, Western | Spain, Italy
DVD9 | VIDEO_TS | PAL 16:9 (720x576) | 01:46:46 | 8,14 Gb
Audio: Italian, French - AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps (each) | Subs: English
Genre: Adventure, Western | Spain, Italy
This Italian western contains subtle political undertones as it chronicles the exploits of a tubercular history professor who journeys to the American Southwest to recuperate. There he becomes fascinated by an outlaw who befriends him. The intelligent prof uses his brains to assist the outlaw. Violence ensues until the prof kills the outlaw who has been oppressing and taking advantage of him.
IMDB
Often ranked among the top spaghetti westerns, Sergio Sollima's second attempt at the genre is a character-driven and action-packed reflection on the mutuality of influence and the ironic ways in which seemingly diametrically opposed personalities change each other. Boasting superior production values and location photography and the ultimate mark of quality – an Ennio Morricone score, Faccia a faccia pits two already-proven spaghetti stars against each other: Gian Maria Volonte (Sergio Leone's "Dollars" films) and Tomas Milian (The Bounty Killer, Sollima's Big Gundown). Volonte is Brad Fletcher, a New England college professor ordered west by his doctor for health reasons. Milian is Beauregard Bennett, a notorious and newly-captured bandit who becomes the object of Fletcher's compassion. In short order, Fletcher becomes Bennett's hostage and human shield during a daring escape. The intellectual talks Bennett out of killing him, but proves too squeamish to help the outlaw remove a bullet he took in flight. The two men find each other almost equally intriguing, though this is no bromance by any means.
Faccia a faccia (1967)
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Instead, Face to Face is reminiscent partly of Lawrence of Arabia, and partly of Delmer Daves's Cowboy. The Lawrence influence is obvious in Sollima's desert locations and the basic storyline of an intellectual outsider who teaches the natives – outlaws, not Indians – to be more effective fighters. As Fletcher grows more impressed with Bennett's courage and strength, he begins to see the outlaw life as a form of virile self-realization, and he makes himself into a criminal mastermind. The Cowboy influence will be less apparent because Daves's film is less well known. In short, Jack Lemmon's hotel clerk falls under the spell of Glenn Ford's trail boss and joins Ford on a cattle drive, during which he becomes disillusioned when Ford fails to live up to his romantic ideas of cowboy life, and eventually becomes a pitiless hardcase in embittered emulation of his role model. In both Cowboy and Lawrence, the outsider becomes hardened and even brutalized by experience to an extent that alarms the experienced natives. Just as, in Cowboy, the Ford character recognizes his own faults in Lemmon's exaggerated form, so Milian's bandit experiences a kind of intellectual awakening when exposed to the professor's learning and initial scruples, followed by a moral awakening as he sees the extent of Fletcher's corruption and ruthlessness, and its consequences for his friends.
Faccia a faccia (1967)
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Unlike in Lawrence, the outsider brings unmitigated disaster to his new friends, and unlike in Cowboy, reconciliation between the protagonists becomes impossible. Fletcher and Bennett hole up in the almost utopian multicultural community of Puerta del Fuego, which becomes a base for their banditry. When Fletcher plots a major bank robbery that turns into a bloodbath in part because Bennett finds himself unwilling to kill a child who recognizes him as an outlaw, a posse forms to destroy Puerta del Fuego and drive its people into the desert. Complicating things further is a righteous traitor in their midst: Charlie Siringo (William Berger) – a rare spaghetti character based on a real person – who plays a bandit but is actually a Pinkerton detective. He completes the classic spaghetti triangle, and the film climaxes with a threeway confrontation after a battle with the posse. Should a helpless Siringo be killed? If not, what does Siringo owe to his savior, and what does he owe to the law?
Faccia a faccia (1967)
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I'm inclined to agree with the high ranking generally given Face to Face after one viewing because, in its focus on character development and moral choices, it's more like an American western from the classic period of the 1950s, the high point of the genre overall, than the often cartoonishly amoral generality of spaghetti westerns. At the same time, Sollima and his cinematographers invest the picture with all the visual dynamism and violent energy that Italy contributed to the western genre, while his cast of spaghetti stalwarts, including Berger, all seem near the top of their game. There's a certain universality to the story that transcends the American period setting and the Italian aesthetic preoccupations, so that people who aren't keen on spaghettis in general should find this one easy to appreciate. Face to Face deserves better, but for now that will do.
Faccia a faccia (1967)
This is a great western, one of the finest of the spaghetti-genre which has some political overtones. Everyone knows about the Eastwood/Leone movies but this is just the tip of the iceberg, there were hundreds of spaghetti westerns made & this is one of the best. Through a combination of illness & circumstance a mild mannered teacher is introduced to the world of bandit Solomon Beauregard Bennet. Gradually the two men begin to influence each other - for better & for worse - with the teacher becoming more vicious an outlaw than Solomon ever was. Solomon on the other hand begins to see another way of life & the folly of his criminal past.The transformation between the two characters is really interesting & believable, this coupled with some great western scenes, a score by Ennio Morricone, some familiar spaghetti western actors (including the excellent Tomas Milian) & an explosive finale make this a western to rival anything that the more well known Leone offered.IMDB Reviewer
Faccia a faccia (1967)
Special Features:
- "Dear Hunter" - short film (in French - 31 min)
- "Sollima et le western spaghetti" - featurette (interview with journalist Alain Petit - 16 min)
- "Une prière de plus pour Remington" - short film (in Spanish, with French subtitles - 11 min)
- Theatrical Trailer
- Bonus trailers
Faccia a faccia (1967)
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