An amazing film, totally out of the ordinary, almost unknown today, deserves refreshing, very much reminding of the classic silent "Greed" by Erich von Stroheim - it's the same atmosphere, the same desperate passion, the same hopelessness, the same drama intensity in a totally outcast state as far from reality and civilization as possible, only, this is in colour, this is exotic, this is flesh and meat, and here is Sophia Loren.
She actually makes the film. From her first scene you catch yourself watching only her, and her character is the most complex and fascinating. John Wayne is as he always has been, he could only play himself, while Rossano Brazzi more credibly matches Sophia. His tragedy touches on the absurd, but on closer scrutiny his development into psychosis is perfectly logical. The script (Ben Hecht screwing it up as always) is perfectly watertight in its complex turnings and sudden surprises in the winding labyrinths of the relationships, constantly taking the audience aback, and to this comes the fascinating story of the quest for a lost city in the middle of the Sahara - this also brings "The English Patient" into mind.
But above all it's a passion play, three is never good company if one of them is a woman and she is beautiful and irresistible at that for both the men, and the passion is played out efficiently in the ruins of the failed archaeological enterprise with the ecstasy and agony of Rossano Brazzi as the heart of the matter at the mercy of hopeless love and delusion. No matter how much he falls out you tend to like him better than John Wayne, who is so hopelessly crude in his simplicity.
There are even some hints at "Mackenna's Gold" in this in part even rather mystical drama, as the omens of the skeletons add an extra touch of marvel.
She actually makes the film. From her first scene you catch yourself watching only her, and her character is the most complex and fascinating. John Wayne is as he always has been, he could only play himself, while Rossano Brazzi more credibly matches Sophia. His tragedy touches on the absurd, but on closer scrutiny his development into psychosis is perfectly logical. The script (Ben Hecht screwing it up as always) is perfectly watertight in its complex turnings and sudden surprises in the winding labyrinths of the relationships, constantly taking the audience aback, and to this comes the fascinating story of the quest for a lost city in the middle of the Sahara - this also brings "The English Patient" into mind.
But above all it's a passion play, three is never good company if one of them is a woman and she is beautiful and irresistible at that for both the men, and the passion is played out efficiently in the ruins of the failed archaeological enterprise with the ecstasy and agony of Rossano Brazzi as the heart of the matter at the mercy of hopeless love and delusion. No matter how much he falls out you tend to like him better than John Wayne, who is so hopelessly crude in his simplicity.
There are even some hints at "Mackenna's Gold" in this in part even rather mystical drama, as the omens of the skeletons add an extra touch of marvel.