Bullets and the Flesh (1964) Poster

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6/10
Spanish-Italian co-production about an Indian young facing rivalry among families and a tragic love story
ma-cortes15 May 2013
¨Il Piombo e la Carne¨ or ¨El Sendero de Odio¨ is a lot of fun to watch . It's an acceptable story dealing with racial issues, adding a touch of peculiarity, some great characters, an amazing music score and doesn't follows the Sergio Leone wake , but it is proceeded in American models . Chorizo/Spaghetti about a violent feud among two families with an Indian hero named Chata played by Dean Harrison against the McMasters family . The film blends a love story , violence, blood, tension, and it's fast moving and quite entertaining . The Indian starring , Dean Harrison or Bruno Pierginteli falls in love for white woman , Patricia Viterbo (a bit later when shooting a film in Paris , she sadly died at 24 years old by car crash), or Marie Versini as Mabel Masters and they have a lot of problems . Two families , the Masters (formed by the father Nathaniel MacMasters played by veteran Rod Cameron and sons, Ennio Girolami , Manuel Zarzo and Marie Versini) and an Indian family live in eternal facing off . In the beginning of the movie there is a thought-provoking sentence attributed to William Penn . After that, Chata is double-crossed and takes place an ambush . His dog is killed and Chata seeks vendetta . After suffering atrocity , Chata executes a single-handedly revenge , he hits , ravage and kills . The conflict is simple one between an avenger Indian who ultimately takes the law on his own hands and a Baron land with his sons .

It's a Western freely based on famous novel by Shakespeare titled ¨Romeo and Giuletta¨ adding racist touches . An Italian-Spanish co-production full of action , exaggerated characters, gun-play and lots of violence . This is a passable Paella/Spaghetti Western with some moments genuinely entertaining if you can avoid thinking too much . Follows the exploits of a young Indian in SW usual theme, the revenge , in addition the starring attempts to reunite his lover . However , nothing is ever as simple as it seems, and new characters and new layers of complexity begin to emerge until we are enmeshed in a difficult situation among warring family members with the added problem of the original Indian still trying to track down the lady . It's an exciting western with breathtaking showdown between the protagonist Dean Harrison and the enemy ,the Masters family . The picture bears remarkable resemblance to "Man of the Cursed Valley" (1964) by Siro Marcellini , also played by a mixed couple , Ty Hardin , Iran Eory , including the usual racial problems . Dean Harrison is fine, he ravages the screen, he jumps, shoots , hit and run but also receives violent punches . Ennio Girolami , Marino Girolami's son , plays as a cruelly baddie Macmaster ,he is terrific, subsequently he would play similar characters in various oaters and Spaghettis , many of them directed by his brother Enzo G Castellari . Rod Cameron's performance in the movie is a bit wooden for the role of such an interesting character , but the fantastic performance by the always great Piero Lulli acting as a preacher saves the show . Furthermore, appears usual secondary actors from Italian/Spanish Western as Alfredo Mayo ,Julio Peña as a Sheriff , Manuel Zarzo , Ignacio Spalla or Pedro Sanchez , and several others.

The musician Carlo Savina composes a vibrant soundtrack in Morricone style and well conducted . Filmed in Spanish places located on outskirts Madrid and Rome and Poblado Hoyo De Manzanares , replacing Almeria . Hoyo De Manzanares where was built a Western village called 'Golden City' resulted to be the locations in which were shot lots of Western produced and directed by Spanish and Italian and occasionally American people . This motion picture was well photographed by Manuel Berenguer , a good cameraman of super-productions realized in Spain during the 60s and 70s as ¨The thin red line¨ , ¨Krakatoa , East of Java¨ , ¨Savage Pampas¨ , ¨King of kings¨ , ¨A town called Bastard¨ and ¨Son of a gunfighter¨. The film was rightly directed by Marino Girolami , under pseudonym Fred Wilson or Dario Silvestri , he is father of Enzo G. Castellari and Ennio Girolami and brother of Romolo Guerrieri . He was a craftsman working in all kind of genres as Western such as "Badmen of the West" ,"Two Ringos from Texas", "God Was in the West, Too, at One Time" , "God Was in the West, Too, at One Time" and specially , Terror and comedies .
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5/10
Early Eurowestern Melodrama
rmahaney421 June 2009
Warning: Spoilers
Il piomo e la carne is an early, obscure Western alla Italiana closer in look and feel to the German Winnetou films or to pre-Leone westerns like Gunfight At Red Sands (1963). Sergio Leone successfully translated the genre into an Italian sensibility (the Marchent brothers did the same for Spanish westerns). Before Fistful of Dollars (1964), the films were an odd bricolage of earlier American westerns, attempting to recreate the feel of the American genre. The results were a number of odd films that are equally ridiculous, surreal, and enjoyable in their enthusiasm for the genre – enthusiasm for dressing up in cowboy hats and strapping on holsters (or warpaint, the mask of Zorro, and so on). The bright cartoonish colors, a sense of phoniness that removes them from the real world, and crude execution give them something of the feel of comics or of the cover illustrations on dime novels. This is not to say that most of them are good, but they can be enjoyable in their own way.

Il piombo e la carne is a Romeo and Juliet story focusing on the relationship of a Cherokee chief Chata (Piergentili) and the Mabel (Viterbo), the daughter of Nathaniel Masters (Cameron). Chata has been meeting Mabel and playing with her brothers since they were children. Masters, driven by hatred over the infidelity of his ex-wife when he was at war, has slowly been strangling to death the Cherokee, recently stealing their last fields. They are forced to sell trinkets in the streets. Masters and a wealthy backer, Mortimer (Mayo), have a contract to supply timber to the railroad, but his timber holdings are inferior to those of the Cherokee. They burn the forest and blame Chata, justifying their theft of the tribe's forest, which they consider sacred. Chata is sent to prison and forsaken by Mabel. When he returns after one year, he attempts to resist the treatment of his community and violence erupts.

Much of the movie is pretty hokey with Italian or Spanish extras in "red-face" (as Cherokee) or black-face (a "mammy-type" servant). These Cherokee are a strange amalgam of any scavenged gesture or prop signifying "Indian" – totem poles, warbonnets, vaguely African masks hung in wigwams, and so on. In a way this is no less ridiculous than practices in earlier American westerns, but in these early eurowesterns it is brought to the fore and is really surreal; Sergio Corbucci would slyly play off of this in his clever Navajo Joe (Yes, the casting of Burt Reynolds as a Navajo Brave is ludicrous; that's the whole point!). However, there are some interesting aspects: There is a hint of interesting psychological and story-telling subtly in the motivation of Viterbo's character forsaking lover for family; there is the usual eurowestern view that those in power are corrupt and essentially no more than common thieves, something emphasized by the surname of Rod Cameron's character "Masters" (think Day of Anger, Django, Price of Power, Tepepa, The Big Gundown, Sabata, Vengenance Trail, Flying Fists of Shanghai Joe); and there is the recurrent spaghetti western theme of the role of racism which may reflect the view from the Mediterranean of the American civil rights movements of the 1960s (as in many of the already listed movies).

Piergentili is not an inspiring lead. Easily the best performance was provided by Luigi Pistili in one of his rare good-guy roles as a pistol-packing preacher. He is a familiar face to fans of the genre, appearing in 34 other films. Director Marino Girolami directed 77 films in a long career. His son Ennio has a role in this movie. His brother Enzo Castellari is one of the most popular directors in Italian popular cinema, directing the excellent WAI Johnny Hamlet (1968) and Keoma (1976), as well Inglorious Bastards (1978) which was recently remade by Quentin Tarantino.

(I watched a fullscreen print that was somewhat faded.)
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5/10
Romance-themed spaghetti western
Leofwine_draca18 July 2017
Warning: Spoilers
BULLETS AND THE FLESH is an early addition to the spaghetti western genre with a plot that's a bit different from the norm. The story is about a white girl who falls in love with Native American chief Dan Harrison and all the problems it brings, mostly because she belongs to a family of racists, headed by regular star Rod Cameron, who do their best to break up the union. This film is well shot on a low budget and features lots of intense scenes of peril and conflict. It's certainly not the best of its type, and it doesn't feel much like the Leone movies or those that came afterwards and were influenced by them. It's more in line with the glossy look of the German Winnetou movies.
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