SpunkySelfTwitter
It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.
Kien Navarro
Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
Guillelmina
The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
Scott LeBrun
This Italian Western - which just so happens to be set at Christmastime - made a star out of the charismatic former stuntman Giuliano Gemma. Using his Anglicized pseudonym Montgomery Wood, he stars as title character Ringo, an amiable outlaw. Ringo is in jail for murder (which he says was done in self defense) when the town bank is robbed of a substantial amount by bandits. They hole up in a remote community, and take hostages. The law enforcement types come up with the idea to have Ringo infiltrate the criminal gang, which he does in his own inimitable style."A Pistol for Ringo" is a solid and engaging example of the Spaghetti Western. It may not be as well known, or well regarded, as the most famous films in the genre, but it offers ample entertainment. A large part of the appeal is Gemma himself. Handsome, charming, and sly, he does a fine job at portraying a man who doesn't seem to have any real loyalty to anything other than money. He actually offers his services to the bandits if they will promise him a larger percentage of the take than the law. We're never quite sure what to make of him, but we do know that he's fun to watch.The exceptional composer Ennio Morricone, who's done hundreds (!) of scores during his life and career, gives this film a typically atmospheric soundtrack. The widescreen photography is first rate, and Gemma has a fine supporting cast to work with. The prolific, corpulent, robust character actor Fernando Sancho has a field day as bandit leader Sancho. Lorella De Luca as Miss Ruby and Nieves Navarro as Dolores are simply beautiful. Antonio Casas is excellent as the hospitable Major Clyde, as is George Martin as Sheriff Ben, who is in love with Ruby (you can't blame the guy).Exciting action scenes and a healthy dose of humour also make this quite pleasing to watch.Seven out of 10.
D_vd_B
Based on the dubbed Koch media version.If we would take one genre and analyze it, the western is the most obvious. Themes appear and come back because they work. Style means everything, the story comes in second. Acting is not really required; (most characters are sociopaths anyway) as long as the stars of the film have the right face. Spaghetti westerns have style.The greatest weakness of this movie is exposed in the opening shot; the lack of style. Sure, there is a form of style, but its not the style a western need. The spaghetti western is a pretty vulnerable subgenre since the lack of budget requires for real talent. Choices must be made and especially in Italian westerns, these choices push the film towards greatness or towards weakness. The first shot says a lot. The camera work is completely uninspired. We see all characters from a strange distance most of the time (I saw the widescreen version), almost like a stageplay filmed from the audience! Most scenes are played out in one shot, leading to an enormous lack of intensity in almost every scene! The characters seem to be dressed by the wardrobe department of a western TV series for children (clean shaven, way too much color, clothes in excellent condition and stupid looking hats).A western seems to profit from being unrealistic, creating a myth of some sorts, but this movie does none of the above. That not every director is Sergio Leone or John Ford for that matter, seems obvious, but some link is needed to feel for the story. The story itself is good. In the hands of a more skilled director, it might even be a real classic! It doesn't matter it's over the top sometimes, but it does matter if the things that ARE over the top are not filmed that way. Someone being smashes through a wall seems very silly if filmed like a dialog without any notable emotions. It's just the action we see, nothing more.The locations are good. The exteriors are superb, the interiors are weaker. Not that the locations are not good, but the light is completely uninspired! The interiors look like the are filmed under the light of TL light. It looks like a modern office! The cast itself is good; they do what they should. Only two of the main characters (Ringo and the Sheriff) seem schoolboys playing cowboy. Fernando Sancho as Sancho is a great villain, but the camera doesn't seem to appreciate him. Only beauty Nieves Navarro seems to be aprreciated by the camera. Maybe the director or the DOP fell in love with her and only concentrated on the shots with her in the center. The sound quality of the English track is a bit muddy sometimes, but understandable.The music is good. I say good, while it could have been great. Morricone composed yet another great score. The tracks itself are good. Some honky tonky music is present, but the real western themes are great. From a main theme that sometimes seems to be bordering lounge music, to a soaring trumpet theme; Maestro Morricone is really the absolute best in his line of work! It's a shame that the editing is never really done to the pace of the music. The music works, but could have carried the movie if only it was not used as ambient.There is many more to tell about this movie, but it comes down to one thing. There is a lot to see in this one, but when it's simply not filmed or filmed incorrectly, there is not much left to admire. Maybe it's due to lack of budget, but if they somehow could make this movie really work, it might become a classic.
zardoz-13
Writer & director Duccio Tessari, who co-scripted Sergio Leone's "A Fistful of Dollars," helmed this entertaining, above-average Spaghetti western, "A Pistol for Ringo," starring Roman-born actor Giuliano Gemma--billed here as Montgomery Wood-as the eponymous hero with perennial villain Fernando Sancho as his treacherous adversary. For the record, the profligate Sancho appeared in over 230 movies and basically played the same slimy Mexican outlaw in 35 westerns. Tessari penned a number of other Italian oaters including "Seven Guns for the MacGregors," "Return of Ringo" and "A Train for Durango." Tessari also worked on the Italian peplum--muscle man movies--before he embarked on these trigger happy westerns, most notably co-writing Sergio Leone's "The Colossus of Rhodes." In "A Pistol for Ringo," Tessari imitates American westerns more than his native variety. Gemma is a clean-cut, good-looking, well-dressed gunfighter who is too fast on the draw for his own good. At least twice in this lively horse opera, he guns down opponents in self-defense. The way that Ringo handles a six-gun, however, comes pretty close to murder. Moreover, Ringo is a wise-cracking gringo with a comeback line for everything. Indeed, the dialogue by Tessari and co-scenarist Alfonso Balcázar, who also knew his way around continental westerns with writing credits on "Nevada Clint," "Five Giants from Texas," and "$100-Thousand Dollars for Ringo," crackles with humor and imagination. Simply said, nothing about this hostage crisis western set in the arid Southwest that co-stars George Eastman, another Italian who made his share of Spaghettis, is half-baked. Ennio Morricone composed the beautiful orchestral score and Morricone's magical music is far above what this violent western could have hoped for, especially the lyrical title tune about the wily protagonist.The first time that we lay eyes on our hero, Ringo (Giuliano Gemma of "Day of Anger"), he is playing hop-scotch with a bunch of children in a village. Word has arrived that Ringo has been cleared of murder charges in the shooting death of another gunman, but the Benson brothers decide to make him pay for their brother's death. No sooner have they challenged Ringo-who is also known as 'Angel Face'-than he whips his six-shooter out of his waistband and blows all four of them away without wasting a shot. Indeed, like Clint Eastwood in "A Fistful of Dollars," Ringo doesn't wait for them to draw and only one of the Benson's clears leather with his revolver before he is shot dead. The sheriff (George Eastman of "Ben and Charlie") arrests Ringo and puts him in jail where our hero demands a glass of milk. Later, Ringo pours out liquor on the floor when he doesn't get his trademark glass of milk.Meanwhile, Sancho (Fernando Sancho of "Mission Phantom") rides across the border alone only to be confronted by a couple of U.S. Cavalrymen who tell him to turn around and ride back across the Rio Grande. Sancho feigns ignorance and removes his sombrero in humility while the soldiers chew him out. Little to the troopers know that Sancho has taken his large hat off to hid his hand pulling his pistol out. He guns them down and his gang joins him in the border town where they shoot it up and rob the bank. During the hold-up, Sancho catches a bullet in the shoulder. The sheriff forms a posse to follow them and the villains hightail it out of town and ride to a sprawling ranch near the border. They take the owner, Major Clyde (Antonio Casas of "The Texican"), his pretty daughter Ruby (Lorella De Luca of "The Swindle"), and their servants and ranch hands hostage.After the posse lays siege to them at the ranch, one character points out how impregnable the ranch is. "The walls are high and thick. You'd need a company of cavalry to attack it. Half of the soldiers would be killed in the charge." Nevertheless, the stalwart sheriff informs Sancho that his men and he are cornered in the ranch and there is no escape for them. The murderous Sancho responds, "Meanwhile, in case it takes you a while to make up your mind, we'll send out two dead men a day, one at dawn and one at sunset, first the ranch hands and last of all, the girl and her father." At the same time, the townspeople send for the U.S. Cavalry. They know Sancho by his reputation: "His favorite sport is shooting unarmed men, preferably in the back." Another posse man observes, "The only sure method to handling them is to slaughter them like cattle." The sheriff is bothered by Sancho's ultimatum. Particularly, the sheriff worries because Ruby is the love of his life and he doesn't want anything that might jeopardize her life. "If we could get a man inside the ranch," he opines, "we could help them to escape." Reluctantly, he approaches free-wheeling Ringo with a scheme that would see Ringo turned loose. Initially, Ringo is reluctant to help them. "Don't look for trouble," he points out, "It'll come by itself." Nevertheless, after the sheriff clears Ringo of the shooting death of the Benson brothers and the citizens grudgingly agree to 30 per cent as a reward for our hero, he agrees to help them. However, to establish his credentials as a villain, he has the sheriff and his posse pepper the air with bullets as he rides hell-bent-for-leather to the ranch. Once Ringo shows up, he operates on Sancho and removes the bullet. Ringo tells them about his predicament as well as their predicament and demands 40 per cent of the loot in exchange for getting them out of the ranch."A Pistol for Ringo" is head and hands above most generic Spaghetti westerns. Director Duccio Tessari keeps things popping. Gemma is perfectly cast as the agile Ringo. The rugged Spanish scenery is gorgeous and the formulaic plot provides a couple of surprises.
marc-366
"Merry Christmas".It is with this customary exchange that "A Pistol for Ringo" opens. Christmas is only two days away, but the towns-folks festive celebrations are about to come to an abrupt halt, when a band of mexicans, led by Sancho (played, quite aptly, by Fernando Sancho), take a ranch and its inhabitants hostage following a failed escape from a bank-robbery. The local sheriff, Ben, (played in true Hollywood style by Jorge Martin) has the ranch surrounded, but cannot attack for fear of the hostages being massacred. A particular concern in view of the fact that his love interest is amongst the hostages. Ringo (Gemma) is spending time in jail for the killing (albeit in "self defence") of a local gang. But when Sancho threatens to kill two hostages a day unless he and his gang are freed, the Sheriff has no option but to send in Ringo.This is a really enjoyable movie, that sits somewhere in-between the dirt and grittiness of Leone and his Italian counterparts, and the classic American western. Even Morricone's soundtrack leans towards 50/60's Hollywood, with its crooned (and toe-tappingly catchy) theme tune.The leading roles played by Gemma and Sancho are very convincing, and the dialogue is entertaining and full of classic quotes throughout: "God created men equal. It was the six gun that made them different". Ringo is far cleaner than Eastwood's Man With No Name (thus his name Angel Face), and cares not for alcohol, much preferring milk. But he shares the same ability and ruthlessness with a gun. Sancho meanwhile is gruff and merciless, revelling in carrying out his threat to kill one hostage at sunrise and one at sunset daily. Didn't anyone tell him it was the season of goodwill to all men???? Although not quite as strong as Director Tessari's follow up "Return of Ringo", this is one of the best of the early Spaghettis, and definitely a must view.
