Review of The Big Gundown (1967) by Van R — 18 Dec 2009

The Sergio Sollima-directed Tex/Mex manhunt horse opera THE BIG GUNDOWN qualifies as an above-average Spaghetti western with more elements of irony and social conscienceness than most Italian oaters. The themes of intolerance, racism, and greed are inextricately linked in the literate screenplay by Sergio Donati who contributed to the Sergio Leone pictures FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE and ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST.

Furthermore, Donati and Sollima give the protagonist and the antagonist some engrossing dialogue exchanges that heighens the drama between the two adversaries. Basically, the story concerns the search for a footloose Mexican drifter who has been accused of raping and murdering a 12 old girl.

This happens while the hero, Jonathan Corbett (LEE VAN CLEEF of SABATA), is at the home of a wealthy, influential Texas powerbroker. Brokston (Walter Barnes of RIO BRAVO) admires Corbett and compares him with Davy Crockett.

Brokston wants to run Corbett for the Texas senate so that he can obtain his support for a railroad that Brokston dreams of building between Texas and Mexico. Brokston learns from his ranch hands that a Mexican, Cuchillo (Tomas Milian of COMPANEROS) and his heinous crime.

Corbett promises Brokston that he will bring the rapist back to stand trial. THE BIG GUNDOWN amounts to a hare and the hound western with Corbett catching and then losing Cuchillo in a series of misadventures that take Cuchillo back to his native country.

The Lee Van Cleef hero changes over the course of the action and suspects that something about the crime and the criminal may not add up. Sergio Sollima and Sergio Donati pay tribute to Sergio Leone by dressing their hero that same way that he looks when he played Colonel Mortimer.

Indeed, the showdown at the end of THE BIG GUNDOWN when the son-in-law shoots it out with Cuchillo owes a little to the finale in FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE when the Man with No Name intervened and make a duel more fair.

The slippery Mexican thief Cuchillo is rather thoughtful for a character of his kind. He lives by his wits and has a knack for improvisation. This trait is exemplified when he uses his feet to get a cactus thorn and scrape Corbett in the back and fooling him into believing that a snake bit him.

The last shot looks like a variation on the Ricky Nelson & John Wayne scene from RIO BRAVO when Nelson pitched Wayne his Winchester repeating rifle. Here, Brokston fires away at Corbett from the top of a mountain knowing full well that no hand gun can reach him.

Cuchillo notices this and kicks a Winchester up into the arms of Corbett. He knocks Brokston out of the saddle with one shot. Before they ride away to their different destinations, Cuchillo reminds Corbett that he never caught him.