In Damiano Damiani's first stab at the spaghetti western
Gian Maria Volonte (veteran of Sergio Leone films) plays Chuncho, leader of a Mexican Bandit gang who sell arms to the revolutionaries. Lou Castel is a calm, smooth American, who tags along with the bandits, eventually exerting an influence on them. There is also a strong performance by another spaghetti western regular, Klaus Kinski, as a slightly crazed Christian revolutionary. As time goes by the relationships between them change and become more complex, revealing the characters' true colours. Along the way there is plenty of Mexican Bandit action - train holdups, raids on forts, peasant liberation - to keep up the pace of the film.
To be fair, the first hour or so was pretty average - there were a few good moments (such as an attack on a landowner's mansion), but nothing really exceptional. However, as the plot begins to come to a head things really start to pick up, with issues of betrayal, trust and ideology coming to the fore. The final scene really makes an impact, as Chuncho is forced to choose between a wealthy and comfortable future in the states and his loyalty to the revolutionary cause. Needless to say he makes the right choice, and he makes it in style, resulting an ending which manages to be at the same time funny, exciting and emotional.
One of the cleverest things about this film is that in many ways it is a role reversal of the typical spaghetti western. We see the cool, collected Yankee stranger as the villain and the scruffy Mexican bandit as the hero, as far as those concepts exist in the genre. The casting of Volonte here is particularly apt, since in Leone's films he WAS that Mexican bandit villain.
Overall, £Quien Sabe? is well above average, combining action, politics and a good storyline into one excellent movie.
Gian Maria Volonte (veteran of Sergio Leone films) plays Chuncho, leader of a Mexican Bandit gang who sell arms to the revolutionaries. Lou Castel is a calm, smooth American, who tags along with the bandits, eventually exerting an influence on them. There is also a strong performance by another spaghetti western regular, Klaus Kinski, as a slightly crazed Christian revolutionary. As time goes by the relationships between them change and become more complex, revealing the characters' true colours. Along the way there is plenty of Mexican Bandit action - train holdups, raids on forts, peasant liberation - to keep up the pace of the film.
To be fair, the first hour or so was pretty average - there were a few good moments (such as an attack on a landowner's mansion), but nothing really exceptional. However, as the plot begins to come to a head things really start to pick up, with issues of betrayal, trust and ideology coming to the fore. The final scene really makes an impact, as Chuncho is forced to choose between a wealthy and comfortable future in the states and his loyalty to the revolutionary cause. Needless to say he makes the right choice, and he makes it in style, resulting an ending which manages to be at the same time funny, exciting and emotional.
One of the cleverest things about this film is that in many ways it is a role reversal of the typical spaghetti western. We see the cool, collected Yankee stranger as the villain and the scruffy Mexican bandit as the hero, as far as those concepts exist in the genre. The casting of Volonte here is particularly apt, since in Leone's films he WAS that Mexican bandit villain.
Overall, £Quien Sabe? is well above average, combining action, politics and a good storyline into one excellent movie.