You know how it goes: the mysterious stranger rides into town seeking vengeance for some past wrong-doing and takes on the gang that runs the show. But you add a jazzy Riz Ortolani score and an Italian director and you have an entertaining film that has been overshadowed by the giants of the spaghetti western genre.
Since the invention of cinema, one genre has defined American myth-making potentially more than any other: the western. From Edwin S. Porter’s 1903 short The Great Train Robbery, to the studio-made John Wayne features of the 1950s such as Rio Grande, no genre has done more to generate the myths surrounding the history of the United States of America. And the icons of the genre were always so clear: Stetson hats and the Frontier Town; the good guy in white and the bad in black. Simple. That was until the 1960s, and the interference with the genre by Italian directors, led by Sergio Leone. The Spaghetti Western (so-called because of the Italian production) was born, becoming a catalogue of the grittier, more brutal western stories away from the often sick-inducing patriotic romances of Hollywood cowboys, allowing a number of the films to go down in history as some of the most breathtakingly cinematic pieces of film ever created – from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly to Once Upon a Time in the West. However, for fans of the genre, there are some real gems hidden underneath the popular titles. One of those is the 1967 Techniscope-filmed Day of Anger, directed by Tonino Valerii.
It plays out much like many other western films of the era, involving the story of a mysterious man arriving in a dusty frontier town to seek revenge on his past enemies and although the story is at times a little predictable, you can’t help but smile at the beautiful camerawork and countryside shots, the snappy original music score and the performances of the two lead actors. Lee Van Cleef – a veteran of the genre – returned as Frank Talby, playing his almost-typecast role of the narrow-eyed, horse riding loner on a mission, accompanied by Giuliano Gemma’s Scott, a young street-sweeper that is inspired by Talby’s roguish coolness.
Despite the low budget, Valerii really manages to make a completely encapsulating story. The western has, unfortunately, become the accompaniment to the after-Sunday-dinner nap on television but Day of Anger grabs you by the spurs and drives you straight into the action. However the critics, both contemporary and modern, have cited the film as “too long” and “boring”. I can understand where these comments come from, as the dreamy landscape shots are sleep-inducing, but I would argue that it’s never boring. It just maybe isn’t the same calibre as that of For a Few Dollars More.
Van Cleef gives a fantastic performance (again) and is really given the chance to own the screen, something that is difficult to achieve when you’re opposite The Man with No Name himself, Clint Eastwood. But the thin, shady Talby is the ultimate anti-hero: calm, collected and a crack-shot: when he reaches for his six-shooter, you better pray that you have the speed to shoot first. Gemma plays the counterpoint to Talby in the innocent Scott, who remains almost angelic even when committing his crimes.
Behind Talby and Scott, Enzo Serafin’s cinematography is simply, strikingly beautiful. It is very much a piece of cinema from it’s time, but its influence cannot be underestimated – the simple style has inspired the likes of the Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men and despite it’s fifty-year age, is still as beautiful as ever. Paired with Riz Ortolani’s typical score and you have instantly recognisable iconography.
However, this may be the problem as to why it isn’t a more well-known film. It does seem typical, even for a fan of the genre like me. It is by no means a boring movie, but it doesn’t hold the tension as well as, say, Fistful of Dollars. It also doesn’t have the fantastic dialogue that was so well utilised by Sergio Leone. Despite brilliant performances from Van Cleef and Gemma, the townsfolk seem wooden and unfulfilled. For many, sadly, I think it was just another western that instead of being churned out by the Hollywood studios, was churned out by the Italian filmmaking machine at a time when westerns were the biggest draw in Italian cinemas.
It explores all of the same themes as other spaghetti westerns; morality and mortality; independence and courage. Some would argue that there is only so much that can be done with a western. Others, like myself, would argue that there is so much that can and has been done. Just look at McCabe and Mrs Miller or Jeremiah Johnson, telling alternative histories away from the dusty mountains and plains of bounty hunter-territory. Perhaps the genre still needed to mature past the point of shootouts and horse chases to progress. Maybe the spaghetti western peaked – it almost definitely did despite some later works – with The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. I mean, how do you follow that up? Well, you need to be Sergio Leone and be working with Henry Fonda. That’s how.
On the other hand, it is a very entertaining film and one that is easy to follow, despite its ambiguous ending. You can understand why it is loved by fans of the genre in the same way that other films have gained cult notoriety, such as John Carpenter’s The Fog and Paul Bartel’s Death Race 2000. None are ground-breaking pieces of cinema, but sometimes entertainment is all that is necessary.
Whilst I love the film for its style and charm, it has been relegated to history alongside other spaghetti westerns, such as 1966’s Django, as a piece of enjoyable, yet by no means breathtaking, cinema. In a way, it would be the perfect spaghetti western B-movie if there weren’t so many and this is why I love it: it’s pure historical invention, but hell, it looks beautiful and dangerous on the screen all in one hit.
Build the Scene Reviews 