Review of Run, Man, Run (1968) by Alex N — 01 May 2008

In the past few weeks, I've seen more spaghetti westerns than it is healthy to see in the course of a few weeks. Of all of the spaghetti westerns I saw, only one managed to match Sergio Leone's classic trio with Clint Eastwood as far as film-making technique goes, and that was Run Man Run. Never does the camera work become sloppy, like it inevitably does in a Corbucci movie. Never does the action slow things down too much, like in A Bullet for the General. Never did the plot suffer from the film's low budget, like in Django Kill. The whole movie was very well made, and the story was perfectly told. The actors were all good, and I found Milian's Cuchillo character to be a nice change of pace from all the suave, self-assured gunslingers that populate the average spaghetti western. The director, Sergio Sollima, is as technically competent as Sergio Leone, but he avoids the flashy editing tricks and the sudden close-ups that Leone uses. Sollima's style is more natural, but no less effective.

The only thing keeping this movie below the likes of The Great Silence or the Leone classics is the ending. Instead of actually finishing the story, Sollima ended the movie with a classic duel, and a chase. The movie's ending doesn't match the brilliance of the endings of For a Few Dollars More or The Great Silence, but it is satisfying, even though it doesn't resolve the plot.

If you have friends who have never seen a spaghetti western, the best place to start them would be a Clint Eastwood-Sergio Leone movie. But after that, Run Man Run would not be a bad follow-up. Sergio Sollima is a very good director, and I am looking forward to seeing his other spaghetti westerns as soon as they are released on DVD in this country.