And God Said to Cain is a 1970 movie directed by Antonio Margheriti.
WHAT HAPPENS?
A recently freed man enacts revenge on the family that framed him for a crime.
ONE LINE REVIEW
And God Said to Cain is an incredibly original and enjoyable, moody, Gothic Western.
THE ACTORS
Klaus Kinski stars as Gary Hamilton, a man framed for a crime and sentenced to hard labor. After being pardoned, he methodically gains revenge on the family that turned on him. Kinski shows atypical restraint throughout the movie, delivering a quiet but remarkably expressive performance. In some respects, the movie doesn’t exactly require Kinski – although his signature intense eyes helps to convey the story’s murky, Gothic feel.
The rest of the supporting cast aren’t noteworthy – Peter Carsten’s Acombar – the character Kinski’s Hamilton is pursuing – overacts and doesn’t feel like a true antagonist. However, his goofy facial expressions match well with the movie’s melodramatic feel. Marcella Michelangeli steals scenes as the tormented Maria. Her melancholic glances and moody piano playing convey a Giallo sensibility amidst the occurring violence.
Cobra Verde is a 1987 movie directed by Werner Herzog.
WHAT HAPPENS?
A bandit is sent to West Africa to convince a deranged King to resume slave trading with Brazil.
ONE LINE REVIEW
Cobra Verde is a vibrant Werner Herzog movie that features a classic Klaus Kinski performance.
THE ACTORS
In some respects, Cobra Verde is Kinski’s final powerful performance – or at least it’s his swan song with longtime collaborator Herzog. Kinski plays the bandit Cobra Verde with intriguing passive-aggressive tendencies – similar to the actor’s natural personality. For long stretches, Kinski is sullen – acting nearly entirely with his expressive eyes. As the movie progresses, Kinski seethes with contempt – erupting against the cast of countless native extras. Yet at times, the performance feels empty – an aging actor is prodded into rage.
THE DIRECTOR
Herzog’s setting is again brutally natural – we see the human and physical decay of an abandoned settlement, along with the casual degradation of chained slaves. There is no social statement to be made here – Herzog is again creating masterful realism. The scope of extras employed are extraordinary – his cameras continue to pull back revealing endless natives. In more narrative scenes, the brilliant colors, emotions and language of the locals creates a vibrancy not found in most movies.
A Bullet for the General is a 1967 movie directed by Damiano Damiani.
A Bullet for the General tells the story of the bandit Chucho, who tries to secure weapons for a rebel General. He is joined in his pursuit by the enigmatic Bill Tate, a Gringo whose motives are vague.
Readers of this site know my criteria for an enjoyable European Western: I’m looking for style, great music, fun bad guys and some violence. Throw in some weirdness and I’m hooked. A Bullet for the General covers all these bases and while it’s not outright strange, the movie boasts a bold, defined style.
The two leads create a fun dichotomy. Gian Maria Volonte and Lou Castel are perfect strangers – actors who can only come co-exist in a Spaghetti Western universe.
Volonte’s Chucho initially appears cartoonish. He’s the brash, sometimes oafish Mexican bandit who dominates the screen. Yet, a softness and depth emerges as the movie unfolds. The hardened bandit transforms into a man of the people, then undergoes a reckoning as returns to his previous life.
Perhaps Volonte’s graying mane and sad face contribute to the effect, but he easily absorbs the audience’s empathy. A few scenes after viciously killing a fellow bandit, he wrestles with his conscience. He implores the cynical Tate to look into the eyes of a poor farmer: “He’s a man like me and you – do you understand?”
His Name Was King is a 1971 movie directed by Giancarlo Romitelli.
His Name Was King tells the story of King, a bounty hunter who seeks revenge on the brutal gang who murdered his brother.
Here’s a quick description of this movie: it may contain the greatest Spaghetti Western theme song ever, the action scenes are well done and the Benson Brothers are classic villains.
What more do you need?
The Luis Bacalov-penned theme song is spectacular and represents everything special about the genre. It’s a song that creates a soulful, legendary aura for its main character – basically before we even meet him. However, in the true spirit of the genre, the character can’t match the soaring expectations of the song.
Veteran actor Richard Harrison plays King – aka John Marley – who is an expert tracker and bounty hunter. He looks the part and appears skilled with weapons and riding horses – prerequisites for any Western lead. He boasts a Marlboro Man, early Tom Selleck vibe but ultimately proves a bit wooden.
Harrison comes to life during the movie’s climatic final shootout. His character battered, he finally displays some much lacking emotion. Yet, he’s easily overshadowed by the dynamic Klaus Kinski who sleepwalks through his limited scenes.
Woyzeck is a 1979 movie directed by Werner Herzog.
Woyzeck tells the story of a disoriented soldier who is victimized by those in his life: his young wife cheats on him, his Captain mocks him and he’s the subject of demeaning experiments. He’s often bullied until the voices only he can hear lead him to madness.
This may be the leanest Herzog-Kinski offering – it almost resembles a Fassbinder movie in its efficiency and sparse setting. Yet, the hallmark Herzog traits – the crippling futility in the face of a hostile world, gorgeous, terrifying music and the scene chewing prowess of Klaus Kinski are present.
Woyzeck is Kinski’s movie. He inhabits a character who is eternally consumed with the extra-sensory phenomena occurring around him. He hears voices emerging in the ground, through the wind and rustling in leaves. Kinski’s face is plastered with a permanent thousand-yard stare – he’s searching into an unknown that begins to torment him.
Aguirre, the Wrath of God is a 1972 movie directed by Werner Herzog and starring Klaus Kinski.
Aguirre, the Wrath of God tells the story of Spanish conquistadores searching for the mythical El Dorado in Peru. Crossing the Amazon, the expedition struggles to survive against brutal conditions and hostile natives. Klaus Kinski plays Don Lope de Aguirre, who seizes control of the expedition and leads the group into chaos.
There’s a great chance Kinski is completely miscast as a 16th century Spanish conquistador. He’s slight, wobbly kneed and his kettle helmet barely conceals cascading dirty blonde hair. He’s an art school German out of place in the jungle playing a Spaniard.
Yet, in a Werner Herzog production – one that cannot help blurring the line between fiction and documentary – Kinski is the perfect choice to play Aguirre, a man bent on capturing the illusion of greatness regardless of the human cost.
Further, it takes a performance as outlandish as Kinski gives to honor the spectacle of Herzog’s vision.
The opening scene is majestic. Drifting clouds settle to reveal the enormity of the Andes Mountains before tiny specks come into surface. Herzog’s troupe are trekking down a dangerous slope into the Amazon jungle, hauling along a horse, pigs, chickens, and a cannon. Struggle marks the actors’ eyes as they have become fully immersed outsiders – even the natives are hesitant to find their footing in the treacherous terrain.
Herzog’s crew are essentially conquistadors. We have scripted dialogue to remind us otherwise, but the first portion of the movie feels more like a documentary. A basket of chickens tumbles from a cliff, a rider almost gets hung up on a crooked branch, actors swat away bugs. It’s a dangerous and brutally unfair journey.
The plot develops around the expedition’s leader Pizarro deciding to divide the group and find resources before going further into the unknown. He leaves the nobleman Ursua as his second in command. One of the rafts gets stuck in the eddy and the men are ambushed. Suddenly, the ranks are thin and plotting begins. It doesn’t take long for Aguirre to overthrow the rule of Ursua.
As Aguirre becomes the defacto fictional leader of the expedition, Kinski begins to personify the character. He’s going to battle with his cast mates. As the natives struggle to steady the sedan carrying Ursua’s mistress and Aguirre’s daughter, Kinski manhandles them, grabbing and prodding – berating them for their stumbles. Moments before Ursua is overthrown, Aguirre winds among the soldiers, clutching and pulling them into him – urging them to join his treason.
The goal of this Tarantino project is to explore the movies that inspired the director. What I quickly realized is that this project could be infinite – given that thousands of movie references color Tarantino’s works. I’m stopping at 15 direct influences – fully knowing that these movies may not even be the best representations. Kill Bill alone likely features over 30 kung fu movie influences.
I think at the least, I represented enough different genres to make the project meaningful.
More importantly, I’m excited that these movies will naturally lead to further discoveries. For instance, I was not a huge fan of Branded to Kill – but I do want to explore more Japanese New Wave movies. Likewise, after watching The Great Silence and Django, I’m fully invested in Spaghetti Westerns. The next phase of this project will ultimately lead to a new writer/director, but for now I want to chase down the movies, directors, actors and genres that stem from this original group.
As for this collection of movies, here are my ratings – which again are based on my own preferences and personal enjoyment. I take into account technical aspects but I am unqualified to judge such things. But I also know that Kowalski is the most boring anti-hero in movie history and the Ecstasy of Gold scene is exhilarating. All fifteen of these movies offer something exceptional and likely shaped some small part of a Tarantino movie.
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly – 4.5/5
Band of Outsiders – 4.5/5
These are two movies that essentially changed movies. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly was the best of a classic Sergio Leone series that proved the traditional American Western could be revitalized under a European lens. Yet in doing so, the movie created an American icon in Clint Eastwood and probably the most copied movie of its genre and time. Leone creates a beautiful, expansive atmosphere to drop his classic, archetypal characters into and they represent a struggle for morality that is brilliant and layered.
Band of Outsiders continues the guerrilla, self-referential ethos Jean-Luc Godard established with 1960’s Breathless. Godard’s story of would be teenage robbers is both an inventive homage to American crime movies and photograph of the existential confusion of youth. It’s a tongue in cheek critique of the narrative form, which gives us beautifully odd sequences such as the dance scene, moment of silence and running through the Louvre.
The Great Silence is a 1968 Western directed by Sergio Corbucci. Considered to be his finest work, the movie appears to have influenced Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight and Django Unchained.
The uniqueness of a Western in a snowstorm is striking – the movie’s opening is an expansive shot of a snowy trek, which illustrates the struggle of all involved. The horse can’t find its footing and both animal and rider are defeated by the conditions. It’s a gorgeous opening not in a majestic way but rather because it signals a gritty, unpolished tone to follow. There is both a bleakness and beauty in the landscape – something that Tarantino emulates in The Hateful Eight and Django Unchained.
For a movie that’s ultimately defined by its viciousness, the opening is campy. A newly hired sheriff encounters a group of hungry bandits that have been pushed into the wilderness. The sheriff appears hopeless from the start – first in an odd one-off scene with the Governor of Utah and then as the bandit crew spares the sheriff’s life in exchange for his horse – which they solely want to eat. The bumbling, freezing sheriff is then picked up by a carriage, which carries the movie’s protagonists in Silence and Loco.
The plot’s origins are a bit convoluted as Loco and the town’s Justice of the Peace are engaged in a shady murder for bounty scheme. Silence arrives in town due to a letter sent to him by a young widow who wants to exact vengeance for her husband’s death at the hands of Loco. It’s a bit comical to see the protagonists in such close proximity and makes the movie’s first 30 minutes far-fetched. However, we know we’re headed for a showdown between the two leads.
