{"id":9246,"date":"2014-07-23T01:35:28","date_gmt":"2014-07-23T05:35:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=9246"},"modified":"2014-07-23T01:35:59","modified_gmt":"2014-07-23T05:35:59","slug":"dvd-run-man-run-1968","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=9246","title":{"rendered":"DVD: Run, Man, Run (1968)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\"RunManRun\"<\/a>Film<\/strong>: Very Good<\/p>\n

Transfer<\/strong>: Very Good \/ Extras<\/strong>: \u00a0n\/a<\/p>\n

Label:\u00a0<\/strong>Blue Underground<\/a><\/p>\n

Region:<\/strong> 1 (NTSC)<\/p>\n

Released:<\/strong> \u00a0May 4, 2004<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong> \u00a0Spaghetti Western<\/p>\n

Synopsis:<\/strong> The Big Gundown<\/strong>‘s knife-wielding bandit Cuchillo returns in this lengthy yet boisterous tale of gold, swaying loyalties, and one jealous finacee.<\/p>\n

Special Features:<\/strong>\u00a0 n\/a<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Review:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sergio Sollima\u2019s sequel to his bonafide spaghetti western classic <\/span>The Big Gundown<\/strong><\/a> (1967) is a very different animal, following thief \/ knife maestro Cuchillo (Tomas Milian) several months after he and Corbett (Lee Van Cleef) split directions, heading off to their respective home and native lands.<\/span><\/p>\n

Back in Mexico, Cuchillo becomes involved in a quest for stashed Mexican gold, hidden somewhere in a small town by a rebellious poet (they exist!) to ensure scoundrels didn\u2019t make off with the People\u2019s Treasure.<\/p>\n

Sollima\u2019s film (written by the director and one-timer Pompeo De Angelis) is exactly what Gundown<\/strong> scribe Sergio Donati tried to avoid in the pair\u2019s two collaborations \u2013 it\u2019s overlong, overtly political, and scenes often slow down due to longer didactic exchanges meant to frame the story\u2019s setting which occurs somewhere between Juarez\u2019 return to exile as the invading French attempt to usurp the country with their puppet Emperor.<\/p>\n

The dialogue is also less sharp and concise, and the story becomes ridiculously convoluted before the finale in which Cuchillo and apolitical gunslinger Cassidy ride off for another adventure that was never filmed.<\/p>\n

Milian is much less broad in Run<\/strong>, dropping the simian mannerisms and going more for a permanent state of \u201cHuh?\u2019 and Sollima\u2019s tossed in several more characters who regularly bump into each other in classic moments of cause-and-effect: Cuchillo’s girlfriend Dolores (recast with fiery Cuban-born actress Chelo Alonso), intent on bruising yet marrying her irascible love; former gunslinger Cassidy (Donald O\u2019Brien) who repeatedly saves Cuchillo\u2019s life after the former prevented a sneaky attack in a barroom duel; rebel leader Santillana (John Ireland! As a Mexican! In 3 Scenes!); and Salvation Army soldierette Penny (ravishing<\/em> Linda Veras) who tries to get in on the $3 million in hidden gold. Also after the loot are two French pinheads in Mexico on \u2018official business,\u2019 and a troupe of thugs who have little allegiance to anything or anyone.<\/p>\n

On one level, Run<\/strong> feels highly contemporary \u2013 the buddy storyline, ample chases, wacky hijinks, and recurring characters are standard in action comedies \u2013 and there are moments when fidelity to the era isn\u2019t wholly necessary (as when Veras unties her blonde mane and looks like a model from a motorcycle action flick), but it mostly works, and often makes up for the wordy exchanges. There\u2019s also some clever use of props, physical comedy, and no-nonsense scene transitions which prove Sollima wasn\u2019t out to make a fully subversive political film. Run<\/strong> is fun, but it has a few other major flaws.<\/p>\n

The biggie is Bruno Nicolai\u2019s score which does a fine job in evoking Ennio Morricone\u2019s Gundown<\/strong> score with similar instrumentation, but errs in beating audiences over and over again with its corkscrew theme. Milian sings (in full character) the facile lyrics in the Main Titles, he hums its melody and sings it a few times in the film, and Nicolai (or Sollima) repeats music cues that restate rather than offer dramatically effective variations. It gets brutal at times, being short theme without any resolution, but to Nicolai\u2019s credit, the damned thing is catchy and well orchestrated.<\/p>\n

Veteran spaghetti western cinematographer Guglielmo Mancori delivers some striking widescreen compositions, but unlike Carlo Carlini\u2019s impeccable images in Gundown<\/strong>, there\u2019s a lot of zoom-happy shots with occasionally clumsy reframing.<\/p>\n

At two hours, Run<\/strong> goes on much longer than necessary, but there are some genuinely amusing sequences, and Milian has more material to set up Cuchillo\u2019s gradual shift from a smiling, wily bandit to a man of some conscience \u00a0– determined to do good, and save future lives.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2014 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

External References:<\/strong>
\nEditor’s Blog<\/a> — IMDB<\/a> \u00a0— \u00a0Soundtrack Album<\/a>\u00a0 —\u00a0Composer Filmography<\/a>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nVendor Search Links:<\/strong>
\nAmazon.ca<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sergio Sollima\u2019s sequel to his bonafide spaghetti western classic The Big Gundown (1967) is a very different animal, following thief \/ knife maestro Cuchillo (Tomas Milian) several months after he and Corbett (Lee Van Cleef) split directions, heading off to their respective home and native lands…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[2893,2896,2894,2897,2895],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-2p8","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9246"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9246"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9262,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9246\/revisions\/9262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}