Keoma (1976)
When I first got into spaghetti westerns, I just bought basically everything I could find on DVD. This was one of those I picked up without knowing anything, and it has always stayed with me as the one with the rather hokey - yet mesmerizing - score. It was fun to revisit it again. The main theme forms a love-hate relationship, as it all sounds pretty hokey and strange, but haunting at the same time. The “singing” narration however I could live without though.
This western is unique in that it was released very late in the genres popularity, with the big years being in the late 60s and it had mostly moved on to spoofs in the 70s. Keoma is dark, gritty and not at all funny. Not intentional at least. The story may be well known territory with a showdown against a town’s tyrannical ruler, but the family and heritage element added is less seen, and then everything else just screams 70s. It is more experimental with its cinematography, especially with some slow motion scenes, and a more surreal aura that sets the film as a milestone in the genres evolution over more than 10 years.
Rating: 4