once upon a time in italy

Even if a big-screen Western comeback never reaches fruition, the DVD format has seen some true classics of the genre finally get their due. None more so than “Spaghetti Western,” the misbegotten children of Hollywood mythmakers like John Ford filtered through that peculiarly Italian sensibility. But the sub-genre goes much deeper than the seminal work of Eastwood and Leone’s “Dollars” trilogy. Both the good and the bad, the visceral and the political, come to a head in Anchor Bay’s “Once Upon A Time In Italy Collection,” gathering five impressive previously released films into one sweet looking box set. Taking them on alphabetically, “A Bullet For the General” (AKA “Quien Sabe” or “Who Knows?”) is a subtly powerful political statement from director Damiano Damiani disguised as a buddy picture. Chuncho, a bandit/revolutionary with an unquenchable lust for life, befriends a mysterious American he nicknames “Nino.” With the gringo’s help, Chuncho and his gang sweep through Mexico gathering arms to sell to their head honcho, Elias...funding the revolution and the own petty existence. Nino, though, has his own agenda, which includes knocking off Elias with a single golden bullet. And Chuncho gets so caught in his new pal’s upwardly mobile ambitions that once he reaches the top, he begins to question the methods he used to get there. Never so highbrow as to lose its core appeal of fast guns and over-the-top violence, “A Bullet For The General” entertains with an edge of intelligence present in the best of Spaghetti Westerns. Its brutality is tempered with moments of smart humor (the character of Chuncho bears more than a passing resemblance to Tuco in “The G,B, & Ugly”) and Damiani’s theme of gleeful anti-capitalism. “Companeros” is an even more blatant buddy picture, with Spaghetti Western superstars Tomas Milian and Franco Nero as pair of odd couple arms dealers teaming up to bust Professor Xantos, another figurehead of the revolution, out of captivity to further fund their careers. Xantos alone has the combination to a safe supposedly loaded with cash. Standing in their way is a one-armed madman (played to pot-smoking perfection by Jack Palance) with a pet eagle and a sidekick with a telephone receiver for an ear. Taking itself less seriously than director Sergio Corbucci’s early work (“Django”), the film relies on the finely nuanced performances of its actors – and Milian in particular – to walk the line between farce and straight-up action flick. Featuring some incredible stunts (it looks like a couple horses were injured during one particular bridge explosion) and a knee-slapping score from Ennio Morricone, “Companeros” isn’t exactly essential viewing, but you’ll have a damn fun time all the same. “Four of the Apocalypse” can’t help but suffer by comparison. Lucio Fulci, best known for his excessive splatter films, doesn’t add much to the genre with a disconnected story about four outcasts running from their pasts. The unlikely caravan is made up of a card shark, a drunk, a madman, and a pregnant prostitute on their way West to fortune and glory. But the path is fraught with trouble, like Tomas Milian as a sadistic Indian who drugs, rapes and robs them blind. It’s only when the group (now down to two) reaches an all-male mining camp that Fulci finds a moment memorable enough to hang his hat on. Indeed, the miner’s out-of-character “mothering” instincts brought on by the birth of an orphaned child is Fulci at his most humanistic and endearing. But it’s not enough to make “Four of the Apocalypse” anything more than a footnote in the box set. Simplistic and scattered to a fault, the film makes an impression for all the wrong reasons. You’ll be humming the soft-rock ballads that accompany each montage for days. Damn you, Fulci! The bad soundtrack continues (warbly crooners were all the rage for these sort of films in the late 60’s/early 70’s) in “Keoma,” again starring Franco Nero as a half-breed badass with a score to settle. After he stands up for a pregnant plague victim kicked out of his hometown, Keoma must take on the local boss hog and his own half-brothers to reclaim his family honor. With some of the best visuals next to a Leone film, director Enzo G. Castellari creates an off-kilter atmosphere and disjointed storytelling style full of painful flashbacks and symbolic metaphors. The dialogue is a little too poetic (“I must go along...because I am alone”), but Nero’s cold blue eyes are used to terrific effect. His blend of Eastwood looks and Bronsan attitude make for an interesting character. “Texas, Adios” also finds some skeletons in the family closet – and Nero is at the heart of it all, once again. A mono-syllabic Sheriff on a quest to avenge the murder of his father, Burt Sullivan (Nero) and his kid brother shoot up the countryside searching for the right man – mixing it up with Mexican revolutionaries – only to find that blood is thicker than water. The film closest in the set to the straightforward Eastwood/Leone films, the fistfights, gunfights and verbal sparring are all dependably entertaining. Nero has the tough-guy characterizations down to a tee and uses all the charisma his five o’clock shadow will allow. By now, it’s the expectation of the bloody retribution that is most enjoyable, rather than the final act itself. THE FEATURES: “A Bullet for the General” is the only film in the five disc set that would be considered bare bones – and even that includes several trailers. The others all includes interviews with the actors (like Tomas Milian, who couldn’t be boring if he was bound and gagged) and even a commentary on “Keoma.” And lest we forget that these films are premiering in their most complete, uncut versions. (Every once in a while, Italian subtitles will pop up...a sure sign of a scene that was cut from American prints.) The transfers themselves are by and large beautiful for films of this age and type. There’s a fair amount of scratches and wear, but nothing irredeemably distracting. All are widescreen and 16 X 9 enhanced. The audio tracks give you a few mono options – English dubbed or Italian – but since none of these films recorded dialogue on the set anyway, the English tracks are the way to go. FINAL SCORE: Even though you could probably still track these down separately, Anchor Bay has done us a favor by creating the Spaghetti Western Collection. For true fans of the genre (or even newcomers, for that matter), it’s almost like staging a little film festival in your home theater – sampling some of the best the genre has to offer. There’s no better way experience one of the most interesting movements in film history.