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BULLET FOR THE GENERAL (1967)Director: Damiano Damiani
Anchor Bay Entertainment
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BULLET FOR THE GENERAL (1967)
Anchor Bay Entertainment must be applauded for bringing this gorgeous transfer
of Damiani's masterful Western, A BULLET FOR THE GENERAL, long regarded by fans
of spaghetti Westerns as one of the greatest of the period. It ranks alongside
Leone's ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST and Peckinpah's THE WILD BUNCH.
Shot in Spain in the same locales as LAWRENCE OF ARABIA and ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, the film has an epic quality that does not deter from the character study of Lou Castell's Nino and Gian Maria Volonte's El Chucho. This film can be read as a political satire, a camp yet shrewd observation on American intervention in countries like Mexico. The authors, Salvatore Laurani and Franco Solinas, also wrote BATTLE FOR ALGIERS (1965) and BURN! (1970).
Clocking in at 118 minutes of a possible 135 minutes (its original running time), the plot is utterly zany and mad yet strangely poetic and sad. It concerns a band of Mexican mercenaries with a wildly imaginative casting of German Klaus Kinski, Jamaican Martine Beswick and Columbia's Lou Castell for the sparks to fly.
The film does not boast a dominating Kinski performance as one would expect but makes way for the utterly unorthodox gay subtext of Volonte's attraction to Lou Castell. After a sergeant is crucified on the tracks of a held-up train, mercenary Castell poses as a wanted man to gain the confidence of Volonte's character. He becomes a wanted man in more ways than one! Martine Beswick makes the observation early on in the film that Castell is not really attracted to women and is ultimately rejected, fueling the homoerotic bond between the two men that becomes obvious during Castell's illness on the way to delivering the arms stolen from the train to the General.
Since this is an Italian production, it is operatic in its gunfights and scenes of fiesta. There is a cameo by Italian character actor Andrea Checchi (who portrayed Dr. Kruvajan in Mario Bava's MASK OF THE DEMON). He plays the weak-willed Don Felipe in the same manner as the doctor in Bava's masterpiece.
Martine Beswick, in an interview with film historian David Del Valle, recalled the shoot as being like a party "On BULLET FOR THE GENERAL I play this Mexican spitfire who is not too far in temperament from the gypsy I played in FROM RUSIA WITH LOVE. I remember Kinski fighting every single day with director Damiani. He would get up on a tower and refuse to come down until someone did something about the dialogue or where the camera was positioned. He had to be the center of attention and it was exasperating for the director and ultimately the rest of us. Early on, Klaus made the usual advances and believe me, I was tempted. But he was not really my type. And let's face it, Klaus Kinski was a madman. Completely certifiable. But this was his genius as an actor. When he is on camera you don't look at anybody else. I loved making this film and I regret that I didn't make myself available to do more because Italy was in love with American Westerns. And oddly enough did them better than they were being done in the U.S. at the time."
Damiano Damiani has a prodigious output of work in every genre. He is perhaps best known for his cult films like THE WITCH IN LOVE (1966), THE TEMPTER (1975), EMPTY CANVAS (1964) and ARTURO'S ISLAND (1962) an even AMITYVILLE II: THE POSSESSION (1982). Damiani has a strong sense of style and his humor has definite aspects of camp. His foray into the spaghetti Western is unlike any other. For years A BULLET FOR THE GENERAL has been unavailable for review and the odd pan-and-scan copies of various running times were all one had to go by. That makes this presentation all the more timely and important.
The transfer and audio quality are impeccable.The film is presented in the widescreen 2.35:1 aspect ratio, and it's 16x9 enhanced. Also included are the American and International theatrical trailers. The liner notes by Steven Paul Davies are intelligent and to the point and should be read before viewing the film if one is completely unfamiliar with this material. This reviewer's only complaint is in the dubbing. Kinski and Beswick have such distinctive, recognizable voices that it distracts from their characters to be looped in generic voices. Otherwise this is a beautiful way to experience one of the nearly lost examples of the spaghetti Western at its zenith. (Christopher Dietrich)