I quattro dell'apocalisse (1975)

Réalisateur:

Lucio Fulci

Scénaristes:

Ennio De Concini (writer)
Bret Harte (story)

Date de sortie:

12 août 1975 (Italy)

Genre:

Drame | Western

Intrigue:

Four petty criminals, three men and a woman, wander through the trackless terrain of the Wild West Utah and are hounded by a sadistic bandit.

Plot Keywords:

Revenge | Gambler | Prostitute | Female Nudity | Straight Razor

Avis des utilisateurs:

Visceral and Symbolic

Ensemble

Fabio Testi	...	Stubby Preston
Lynne Frederick	...	Emanuelle 'Bunny' O'Neill
Michael J. Pollard	...	Clem
Harry Baird	...	Bud
Adolfo Lastretti	...	Rev. Sullivan
Bruno Corazzari	...	Lemmy
Giorgio Trestini	...	Saul
Donald O'Brien	...	Sheriff of Salt Flat
Tomas Milian	...	Chaco

Autre(s) titre(s):

Four Gunmen of the Apocalypse
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Four of the Apocalypse
The Four of the Apocalypse... (USA) (DVD title)

Durée:

Italy:104 min (uncut version) | USA:87 min | France:80 min

Pays:

Italy

Langue:

Italien

Couleur:

Couleur (Technospes)

Rapport de forme:

1,85 : 1

Son:

Mono

Classification:

West Germany:16 | Canada:16+ (Quebec) | Italy:VM18 | Norway:16 (cut)

Lieux de tournage:

Austria

Société:

Coralta Cinematografica

Goofs:

Continuité: While wandering through the cemetery, Bud reads a tombstone aloud: "Mary Donahue, died in childbirth, February 1884." However, the tombstone he is looking at clearly reads "Mrs. J. Camarray".

Guillemet:

Chaco: Chaco is the name my friend, and I would be very happy to join your group.
Stubby Preston: Nobody invited you.
Chaco: But I did. I'm a damn good hunter you know. Wherever you go you'll have a piece of meat every day.

Connexions De Film:

Edité en Fulci of the Apocalypse (2001) (V)

Visceral and Symbolic

Although by standard genre conventions, I Quattro dell'apocalisse (Four of the Apocalypse) is definitely a (spaghetti) western, in many ways it is just as terrifying as any of director Lucio Fulci's more famous horror flicks.

The story centers on four people who end up together by happenstance--they are all jailed in a small Utah town. After most of the town is massacred, the four are set free and try to make their way together to a city 200 miles distant. Although adapted from two Bret Harte stories, "The Luck of Roaring Camp" and "The Outcasts of Poker Flat", Fulci and screenwriter Ennio De Concini amped up the violence, added a character, Chaco (Tomas Milian) probably influenced by Charles Manson (and prescient of Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow portrayal in a way that must be more than happenstance), and embedded the Biblical "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" connection.

In the Bible, the four horsemen represent the destructive phenomena of pestilence, famine, war and death. Here, there's more of a "seven deadly sins" flavor, as the four main characters represent greed/gambling, prostitution, alcoholism and insanity. Adding Chaco to the mix flips traditional morality on its head, as the four protagonists must bond as they try to help each other survive.

The penultimate act is subtly mystical--it's almost as if the remaining protagonists have been temporarily transported to heaven, although the greatest tragedy occurs in this setting, too. Fulci slyly transforms the environment during this section, a change that actually begins to occur during the previous act, with a heavily symbolic downpour.