REQUIESCANT (1967) (Arrow Video Blu-ray Review)

REQUIESCANT (1967) 

Label: Arrow Video
Region Code: A/B, 1/2
Rating: 15 Certificate 
Duration: 107 Minutes 
Audio: LPCM Audio Italian Mono 1.0, LPCM Audio English Mono 1.0 with Optional English Subtitles  
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: Carlo Lizzani
Cast: Lucio Battistrada, Andrew Baxter, Lou Castel, Mark Damon, Franco Citti, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Barbara Frey

Synopsis: Directed by Carlo Lizzani (Wake Up and Kill, The Hills Run Red) and with a superb soundtrack by Riz Ortolani (Day of Anger, Cannibal Holocaust), Requiescant – Latin for ‘Rest in Peace’ – ranks among the finest Spaghetti Westerns. Alex Cox named it the “one film to prove that the Italian Western was not solely Sergio Leone’s”. Lou Castel (Fists in the Pocket, A Bullet for General) plays a young man who was raised to be a pacifist by a travelling preacher after Confederates massacred his family. But when his step-sister runs away, the pursuit reveals a natural talent as a sharp-shooter as well as a bloody and unexpected confrontation with his past.

At the top of the movie a group of Mexicans and US Army meet to a disagreement over land rights, they drink together and enjoy music, but the Mexicans are betrayed and are massacred in a hail of treacherous machine gun fire. Dozens of unarmed men, women and children lay dead on the ground, the lone survivor is a young boy maned Requiescant who has a minor head-wound, and left to wander the desert alone. Luckily the injured boy is found he by a religious man named father Juan (Pier Paolo Pasolini, Salo) who takes him in and raises the boy as his own son, along with his wife and young daughter Princy (Barbara Frey). 

As Requiescant grows into a young man he is played by actor Lou Castell (A Bullet for the General) and like his adopted father is man of the Lord, but one with an unnaturally accurate gun hand. When his sister Princy disappears with a group of chorus girls looking for the finer things in life Requiescant sets out to find her. His search leads him to San Antonio where he finds his ginger-haired sister working as a whore for saloon owner Dean Light (Ferruccio Viotti, Day of Anger), who works for wealthy aristocrat Ferguson (Mark Damon, Black Sabbath), both men turn out to have ties to the massacre that orphaned Requiescant, which leads to Requiescant remembering the traumatic vents. 

Requiescant sets out to free his sister from her slaver, winning her back in a drunken shooting match, but he is betrayed and hanged, left for dead. he manages to survive the noose and aligns himself with a group of Mexican freedom fighters and returns to San Antonio seeking vengeance against the slave-owning aristocrat and his henchman, ending back where it all began, at the site of the massacre in a pretty damn exciting shootout.

Director Carlo Lizzani made some solid Italian Westerns, Requiescant isn't overly epic or grand in the scheme of Italian westerns but it is a tight and entertaining one that has some serious grit to it. Lou Castell as the hero of the movie keeps you plugged-in. He can come across a bit aloof at first, an early shot of him riding off in search of his sister with a cooking pan as a horse prod made me laugh a bit. His persona is modest and unassuming, that is until he quick draws and sends you to your grave. Another nice touch would be his dedication to the Lord, after he guns down rivals he says a prayer over the corpses and insists they receive proper burials, which when observed by passerbys creates a sort of urban legend about the young man. Mark Damon turns in a wonderfully performance as the aristocratic baddie, very charming and charismatic, but a bad man through and through, his pale complexion, easy charm and hypnotic eyes made me wonder if he'd ever been cast as a vampire.  

Audio/Video: Requiescant arrives on Blu-ray from Arrow Video with a brand new 2K

REVERSIBLE ARTWORK

restoration o from the original camera negative, and it looks impressive all the way around. Skin tones look natural, colors are vivid and theres some real nice fine detail in the close-ups, showing off the textures and grit of the fabric and faces. We have the option of both the LPCM Audio Italian Mono 1.0 and LPCM Audio English Mono 1.0 with newly translated English subtitles for the Italian track. The audio is nicely robust for a mono presentation, dialogue, gunfire and the Riz Ortolani (Cannibal Holocaust) score sound just fine, free of any hiss or distortion. 

Onto the extras we have a new fourteen-minute  interview with the star of the movie, Frenchman Lou Castel which is conducted in French with English subtitles. There's also a twenty-eight minute  interview with director Carlo Lizzani in Italian with English subtitles that covers a lot of ground. A three-minute trailer for the movie is also included.The screener disc sent for review dies not include cover art or the booklet, but retail copies have a sleeve or reversible artwork and a booklet with writing on the movie.

Special Features:- An all-new interview with Lou Castel, recorded exclusively for this release (14 Mins) HD 
- Archive interview with director Carlo Lizzani (28 Mins) HD 
- Theatrical Trailer (3 Mins) 
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gilles Vranckx
- Illustrated collector’s booklet containing new writing on the film by Pasquale Iannone

Requiescant (1967) is solid pasta Western with a thoroughly wonderful A/V presentation from Arrow Video. Not every western can be on the grand scale of a Sergio Leonne epic, but Requiescant is quite entertaining with some unique qualities, I think the bible-thumping gunslinger is a nice touch. If you're a fan of the Italian Westerns you're gonna love this one. 

Blu-ray Review: A BULLET FOR THE GENERAL (1967)

A BULLET FOR THE GENERAL (1967)  
2-Disc Special Edition Blu-ray/DVD

Label: Blue Underground 
Region Code: ALL
Rating: Unrated 
Duration: U.S.: 115 Mins. / International: 118 Mins.
Audio: English and Italian DTS-HD Mono
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish, English for Italian Version
Video: 16:9 Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Damiano Damiani (How to Kill a Judge, Amityville II)
Cast: Gian Maria Volonte, Klaus Kinski, Martine Beswick, Lou Castel

Synopsis: At the height of the Mexican revolution, a mysterious young American (Lou Castel of FIST IN HIS POCKET) joins a gang of marauders led by El Chucho (Gian Maria Volonte of A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS) on a series of savage raids to steal guns for a powerful rebel general. But when the Gringo brings his own cold-blooded ideals to the bandits, El Chucho discovers that the real weapons of war belong to no army. In a land ravaged by poverty and violence, can true freedom be bought with a single bullet?


The Film: In director Damiano Damiani's "zapato" spaghetti western A Bullet for the General (1966) encounter a revolutionary bandit named El Chuncho (Gia Maria Volonte, A Fistful of Dollars) during the Mexican Revolution and his group of banditos as they stop rob a military cargo train. Ingeniously they stop the train by crucifying a soldier in the middle of the train tracks, it's quite a sight.  After rather easily eliminating the government soldiers on the train El Chucho encounters a well-dressed American named Bill Tate (Lou Castel, Fists in the Pocket) whom earns the nickname "Nino" for his boyish looks. After he earns the trust of El Chuncho  Nino joins the revolutionary bandits. Chuncho and his bandits blaze a path through Mexico exchanging gunfire with the government forces and raiding military compounds collecting weaponry, including a new machine gun, to aide General Elias's revolutionary forces. El Chuncho is not truly a supporter of the revolution and seems motivated mostly by the notoriety of his conquests and the lucrative spoils of war. However, when it is revealed that Nino may be in fact a counter-revolutionary assassin El Chucho's loyalties are put to the ultimate test.

I think the film goes a bit long but I was sucked right in from the start. It's a sweaty film, it feels dirty and sun-bleached with great shoot-outs and arid desert landscapes, you really feel the enviorment. Volonte as the cigar-chompin' El Chuncho is a great villain... or is he? Definitely a film that tests your loyalties, he's someone profiting from the spoils of war -  chewing up the scenery in every shot in the best possible way. Lou Castel as Nino is a pretty cold character, baby-faced and steely-eyed, always with an air of mystery. After these two amazing performances we have an all too brief appearance by the madman himself Kalus Kinski (Aguirre, the Wrath of God) as El Chuncho's brother El Santo , a holy-bandit praying for his enemies fallen in battle, it's an odd role even for the notorious Kinski, I wanted more from this character and my main beef with the film would be just that. Special mention should also be made of the gorgeous brunette sexpot Martine Beswick (Thunderball) whom appears as Adelita, the lone woman among El Chuncho's gang, a supremely alluring beauty and the cause of some friction among Nino and Chuncho.


The film in my opinion is not as violent as Sergio Corbucci's Django (1966) or as twisted as Giulio Questi's Django Kill... If You Live, Shoot! (1966) but there's definitely no shortage of spaghetti western carnage onscreen here right from the start, the assault on the train is fantastic. The film has a great pedigree too, it was penned by Oscar-nominee Franco Solinas (The Battle of Algiers) and features a great score from Luis Bacalov (Django) and Ennio Morricone (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) and looks fantastic with lensing from Antonio Secchi (The Hills Run Red) so we're in good hands here from the ground up except for maybe the director whom went onto direct Amityville II: The Possession but credit where credit is do this is a great film. 

Blu-ray: Blue Underground's region-FREE Blu-ray release features both the U.S. 
(115 mins) and International Version (118 mins) of the film presented in 16:9 enhanced widescreen (2.35:1) in wonderful 1080p HD. The transfer is sourced from a gorgeous print and there's a fine layer of film grain. The colors are vibrant, flesh tones are accurate and the black levels are strong. The image is crisp and while some scenes seem to have received an aggressive dose of digital noise reduction but overall I have no other complaints, a very pleasant image. The Italian and English-dubbed DTS-HD Mono options both sounds very good with crisp dialogue, piercing gunshots and score.


Special Features:
- A Bullet for the Director - Interview with Director Damiano Damiani (5:01)
- U.S. Trailer (1:52) 16:9
- International Trailer (4:29) 16:9
- Poster and Still Gallery
- Bonus DVD - Gian Maria Volonte: Un Attore Contro (112 Mins.)


Verdict: In years past Blue Underground were synonymous in my mind at least with horror and exploitation cinema and not much else, so it's rather nice to expand my adventures into Spaghetti Westerns with their release of Django Kill... If You Live, Shoot! and A Bullet for the General. This is a riveting watch and comes recommended not just for fans of the spaghetti westerns but of all westerns, it's right up here with A Fistful of Dynamite and The Wild Bunch. 4 Outta 5 

Blu-ray Review: KILLER NUN (1979)

KILLER NUN (1979)

Label: Blue Underground
Region Code: All
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 88 mins
Video: 16:9 Widescreen  (1.85:1)
Audio: English, Italian DTS-HD Mono
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish, English for Italian Version
Director: Giulio Berruti
Cast: Anita Ekberg, Joe Dallesandro, Lou Castel, Alida Valli, Paola Morra


Synopsis: Legendary Swedish sex bomb Anita Ekberg (La Dolce Vita) stars as Sister Gertrude, a cruel nun who discovers depraved pleasure in a frenzy of drug addiction, sexual degradation and sadistic murder. Joe Dallesandro (Flesh for Frankenstein), Lou Castel (A Bullet for the General), Alida Valli (Suspiria) and the luscious Paola Morra (Behind Convent Walls) co-star in this notorious 'Nunsploitation' based on actual events that took place in a Central European country not many years ago!


The Film: Could it be that this is my first entry into the nunsploitation sub-genre? I think it is. Killer Nun is a title I've long heard of and now being able to sit down and watch the damn thing I think it may have been a case of expecting maybe a bit too much. A weird little film starring one-time sex goddess Anita Ekberg as Sister Gertrude - a nun slash nurse at a psychiatric center who is none-too-slowly becoming unhinged from reality as she spirals down a path of morphine addiction, seduction and murder. Director Berruti doesn't seem to really know what kind of film he's looking to make, there's the exploitative elements one would assume with nunsploitation but it's never quite sleazy enough with only hints at lesbianism - I wanted more - I'm a perv what can I say? Ekberg while a bit older here is still a striking woman from the top down if you know what I mean but she just doesn't commit to the full-on sleaziness this role demands, what she does do quite excellently is portray the madness of Sister Gertrude when given the opportunity, she's got some serious problems. I would have liked to see the film be more of a character study such as William Lustig's Maniac but like I say the film tries to be too much at once and yet not enough ever. We get the sleazy but not sleazy enough nunsploitation, a bit of character study and even some Italian-style Giallo murder-mystery but like everything else it's not fine pointed enough to be successful at any of 'em in my opinion.


Don't get me wrong the film is pretty entertaining all around, visually it's attractively shot  and it's difficult to not enjoy Ekberg's performance as an morphine-addicted nun unraveling before your very eyes but it lacks a certain something. The are gruesome, there's some nice atmosphere and thankfully gorgeous co-star Paolo Morra disrobes several times throughout the film much to my delight. The drug-induced hallucinations are fantastic and when Ekberg loses her shit and stomps a patients dentures into oblivion I laughed my ass off, that was a bit over-the-top but you gotta love it. 


Blu-ray: Blue Underground presents the film newly remastered from the original negative fully restored in high definition. It's a very nice transfer from a near flawless print. The natural grain is lovingly intact and the image has some nice depth to it at times. Black levels are decent and the 1080p is pleasingly crisp and detailed. Likewise the DTS-HD MA Italian and English audio tracks are crisp and clear if not particularly dynamic, a very nice presentation from Blue Underground.


Special features include a poster and still gallery, theatrical trailer and a fourteen minute interview with director Giulio Berruti conducted in Italian with English subtitles. It's a great watch as he recounts working with Ekberg and filming in an actual monastery while trying to hide the true nature of the film from the priests, fun stuff.


Special Features:
From the Secret Files of the Vatican (13:41) 16:9
Theatrical Trailer (2:56) 16:9
Poster and Still Gallery


Verdict: As an exploitation film I don't think Killer Nun (1979) quite lives up to it's legend, it's a bit middle of the road and doesn't define itself enough for my taste. If it had gone more in the direction of out n' out sleazy nunspoitation I would be ecstatic or if it had gone the way of a full tilt character study of a drug-addicted nun spiraling out of control but as it stands its still a nice slice of sleazy exploitation with some nice kills, depraved visuals, sexy women and some arty leanings but its just a bit too tame for my tastes. Not a great film, it's a renter and maybe a buy for the more determined Italian exploitation nut.  
3.5 outta 5