The speghetti western returns in fine form, with Tuscany standing in convincingly for the old west, in an obvious homage to Sergio Leone. The end-credits' rap/reggae song even incorporates the most famous rift from The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly.
Harvey Keitel is the aging gunslinger who returns home after twenty years of having abandoned his family. He finds that his wife is a decade dead, his son (Leonardo Pieracconi) a pacifist & village doctor married to an Indian woman (Sandrine Holt) & he has a son, Jeremiah (Yudii Mercredi).
The gunslinger's son is perhaps justified in his bitterness & anger, as the returning prodigal father has drawn down upon the village a gang of psychopaths led by David Bowie in the only silly role of the film. Surprisingly restrained, the bulk of the film is about family life in the old west, with the threatening gang not showing up until 45 minutes into the film, & even then the action is minimal compared to Sergio Leone.
It's no award-worthy epic, but Gunslinger's Revenge is a good film with a decent climax. In spite of it being an Italian take on the American west, in spite of its arch romanticism toward Indians & a population of stock characters & standard situations, it's even so a more effective take on the American west than many a fashion-plate western like Young Guns.
copyright © by Paghat the Ratgirl
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