requiescant

Finding a good spaghetti western has become as difficult as finding good Italian food. There are so many options out there you have spend as much time researching your choices as you do enjoying them…or risk settling for Olive Garden. That’s when it pays to get a good recommendation. And Arrow Films has already presented us with a couple of choice titles (including Day of Anger and Cemetery Without Crosses) that had little name recognition outside of fan circles. Their latest, Requiescant (1967) is, thankfully, more of the same.

A revenge story with overt spiritual and political overtones, the movie begins with the massacre of an entire pueblo of Mexicans who’d parlayed for a truce with ruthless Texas aristocrat George Ferguson (Mark Damon). The lone survivor is a young boy with no memory of the event. But 20 years later, fate find the now young man (nameless but for the Requiescant nickname) butting heads with Ferguson again after his adopted sister becomes a prisoner prostitute for his hired guns.

Despite his religious upbringing, Requiescant (Lou Castel) finds killing comes easy. And his mission to retrieve his sister soon turns into a personal vendetta against Ferguson whose iron fist on the local population seems to be slipping. The time is ripe for a little revolution and some long overdue payback.

As a political western, Requiescant has much more on its mind than showdowns and shootouts. But its anti-capitalists leanings (Ferguson isn’t just greedy, he’s racist, sexist and one arched eyebrow short of the anti-Christ) don’t necessarily get in the way of any escapist enjoyment. Director Carlo Lizzani keeps things light for a while, presenting Requiescant’s miraculous shooting skills as nothing more than an amusing gag. But, in a pair of spectacularly suspenseful set pieces, those skills are put to the test in such a way that it becomes clear our hero might have been chosen by a higher power…and we’re not talking the Governor.

Like A Bullet for the General (which also starred Castel), Lizzani’s film isn’t content to just play cowboy. Characters are arranged like a Shakespearean tragedy, allowing Mark Damon to go for broke in what is easily the defining performance of his acting career (Damon went on to become a successful producer, most recently for Lone Survivor). But even secondary players like Ferruccio Viotti and Pier Paolo Pasolini are cast with an eye for maximum impact. Requiescant may not answer all the messianic questions it raises, but you’ll have a fun time raising your hand all the same.

Arrow’s new 2K restoration offers up an astonishing hi-def picture with the original Italian tracks and subtitles or the dubbed English version. Extras include an interview with Lou Castel, whose comments are a bit scattered, and a second longer piece with Lizzani who covers his whole career, plus the theatrical trailer. The disc itself comes with a collector’s booklet and liner notes plus a reversible sleeve with original artwork.