Face to Face (1967)
Sollima’s followup to The Big Gundown is more political and bleaker. The basic story with two very different men that influence each other in such a way that by the end of the film, they have both more or less turned their personality into something completely opposite. Gian Maria Volonté as the nervous professor with a terminal illness, who gets taken hostage by an outlaw played Tomas Milian. They form a weird sort of bond and the professor gets a taste for guns and the bandit lifestyle. Suffice to say, it gets the better of him and he gradually turns into a tyrant. Milian’s character doesn’t go through such a radical change, but he starts to reflect and think more as a contrast to how he just acts on impulse. There are many ways to look at this as analogy for rise of fascism, but even without much historical contextual knowledge, it is by itself still a very interesting character study that is quite unique in the genre. There are no heroes, no one to really root for and it is all rather bleak. Morricone’s score is as always perfectly fitting. This spaghetti western deserves a wider audience outside fans of the genre, as a great example that the genre can have depth beyond just well executed style.
Rating: 4