Pull out the plates for some spaghetti goodness coming up this afternoon:
[youtube][/youtube]
Re: The Mercenary AKA A Professional Gun (1968)
Posted: October 2nd, 2013, 10:38 am
by movieman1957
There's no place Nero won't strike a match.
Re: The Mercenary AKA A Professional Gun (1968)
Posted: October 5th, 2013, 9:01 am
by moira finnie
I saw the last half hour of this one, and was quite caught up in the action, tongue-in-cheek dialogue, and hey! wasn't that Jack Palance with a perm? It was really good to hear Ennio Morricone's wonderful score highlighted by Zamfir's pan pipes as well.
Re: The Mercenary AKA A Professional Gun (1968)
Posted: October 5th, 2013, 9:47 pm
by Mr. Arkadin
Palance is also great in the shootout, where he seems to have won and then his carnation begins to turn red and he dies before he can "cross" himself. Incidentally, it's no coincidence that his character in City Slickers (1991) is named "Curly" in reference to this film.
[youtube][/youtube]
If this scene looks similar to the gunfight in For a Few Dollars More (1965), it's because the same man wrote the screenplay for both films. Leone has the biggest notches on his belt in the spaghetti west, but Corbucci's work, most notably Django (1966), The Hellbenders (1967), A Professional Gun, and The Great Silence (both 1968) is rawer, and more visceral. Many rate The Great Silence the best Italian western ever made and I definitely agree with that sentiment.