Four of the Apocalypse (1975)
A mid 70s Italian western that is very different from what one usually gets from the genre. The look alone sets it apart, with a much brighter lighting and the iconic muted 70s color space. The atmosphere is closer to the American revisionist westerns like McCabe & Mrs. Miller. The beginning fools you, as we are introduced to our main character played by Fabio Testi as the confident cheating gambler. However, he gets arrested within the first few minutes and thrown in jail with a group of marginalized people, which changes his character quite a bit. What follows is almost a psychedelic road movie, where everything gets worse and worse. In may be one of the most cruel and depressive Italian westerns, but it is also heavily contrasted by a hopeful uplifting ending. There are some truly beautiful scenes when a whole mining town celebrates over a child birth, that is unlike anything I have seen. It is a bit difficult to process as it was quite different from what I normally seek from Italian western, but it is an intriguing reversal of character types and shows that the genre still could go new ways after its big peak in the 60s.
Rating: 4