THE BIG GUNDOWN Starring Lee Van Cleef. Directed by Sergio Sollima. Special Widescreen Edition.

Fans of spaghetti westerns such as THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY and DJANGO will absolutely love this little-seen spaghetti western. Featuring a rare starring role for Lee Van Cleef with plenty of screen time shootin' bad guys and wooin' the ladies (!), THE BIG GUNDOWN should've been re-titled THE BIG FUNDOWN for it's fun sense of entertainment.

This was originally released in the U.S. in 1966 to capitalize upon the Eastwood/Van Cleef pairing in FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE, but it most resembles THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY in terms of cinematic ambition. Though more stately and subdued, THE BIG GUNDOWN nonetheless features vendettas, quests by "bounty killers" for their prey, and a screen/scene-stealing Mexican character (this time played by Tomas Milian instead of Eli Wallach; Milian was an Actor's Studio trained thespian who made a lot of spaghetti westerns in his career), a showdown for a climax, and even a score by Ennio Morricone!

THE BIG GUNDOWN is a strange hybrid, featuring a lot of untranslated Italian dialogue because it was a Spanish/German/Italian co-production with Italian character actors. Still, if you're a spaghetti western fan, you'll definitely want to own this rarity, because it encompasses all the best ingredients of the western pasta genre without its later, often excessive garlic-ly flavors! Especially nice are the widescreen compositions, which this version preserves for cinema purists!

CRITICAL FEEDBACK

“Unbedingt noch zu erwähnen wäre der selbst für die ohnehin hohen Morricone-Maßstäbe hervorragende Score... Tomas Milian ist die perfekte Besetzung für den armen Underdog, der es vorzieht mit dem Messer statt mit der Pistole zu kämpfen, da ihm die Waffe der Armen nun mal vertrauter ist." -- SENSE OF VIEW (GERMANY)

“Even if Van Cleef is a one-dimensional actor, he nevertheless has a tremendous screen presence.” --OZUS' WORLD MOVIE REVIEW

"Sollima serve uma fábula moral mas não se corta na acção, com várias sequência memoráveis, sempre acompanhadas por mais uma brilhante banda sonora de Ennio Morricone, nem nos toques bizarros que se tornaram na imagem de marca do western europeu." -- OZOMBIE (PORTUGUESE)