The Big Gundown

Scarecrow-88

The hunt is on as American lawman chases after a "dog of Juarez" (a Mexican Revolutionary who thought Mexicans deserved to be free from the tyranny of the country's government) accused of raping and murdering a 12-year old girl, following him into his native Mexico. Brokston, an American railroad tycoon, quite wealthy and ruthless, is protecting the true rapist, Shep (when he gets drunk, and spots a teenage girl, he usually accosts them, as we see later when a Mexican servant, carrying a tray of drinks, is nearly raped by him), because the scumbag has precious land (this land will serve as a path for the railroad), who will participate in the hunt with Van Cleef's black-clad officer of the law. Cuchillo, crafty and evasive, uses cunning techniques to escape Van Cleef (such as a supposed snake bite) and prison (a cool scene where an also imprisoned Van Cleef must watch as his quarry, in a separate cell, had already previously devised a plan of escape just in case he was jailed there again), and continues on the run, soon in deep trouble when his position is discovered in cane fields. There's the inclusion of a primpy, flamboyant showboat (Gérard Herter; who puts on a cape and wears a monocle for crying out loud) who talks about reading the eyes of those he draws against, waxing poetic to Van Cleef (Van Cleef, amusingly, just stands still in silence, but we know he thinks this blowhard is full of blarney and will get his just desserts eventually) about his skills.

Before Brokston's overall involvement in the movie, "The Big Gundown", is ultimately about Van Cleef hunting Cuchillo through hot mountains and desert (and we see the dirt and sweat, the lawless frontier of Mexico is certainly established in the second half of the movie when Van Cleef loses Cuchillo and must pursue him in his terrain), each outsmarting the other at times. No new ground, plot-wise, is broken, but there's plenty of action, gun-fights, and stylized violence.

There's really nothing earth-shattering about the movie, though, but as a Van Cleef fan, I just want to see him as the focal point of the action and, true to form, he doesn't disappoint. You never get the impression that he won't come out on top, however, so the western is predictable in that regard, but his opposition is loathsome enough that anyone he knocks off is deserved of his fate. Van Cleef's character approach pretty much remained the same in his "hero" movies, a pillar of resolve and unflinching when facing down gunfighters, he always seems (or, most of the time) to be the smartest character in the scene, but occasionally he was able to spread his wings within the spaghetti western genre. In this one, he's essentially the same character you would see in Death Rides a Horse. For someone like me, that is just fine, while others would probably complain that he is one dimensional. An actor who is as cool and charismatic as Van Cleef can get away with it, I feel, while others bore you to tears…some actors were born with this, some simply were (and are) not.

Tomas Milian (Almost Human/Don't Torture a Duckling) is a treat as Cuchillo and really invests a lot in the role (one scene has a widow's hired hands/gunmen burying him in pig slop!) while Nieves Navarro (Death Walks on High Heels/All the Colors of the Dark) has a small, but memorable, part as a ranch widow who offers Van Cleef a position next to her side (Cuchillo smartly stirs up her knuckle-head brutes into engaging in a gunfight that does not go well for them). Amazingly Ángel del Pozo is uncredited as the slimy son-in-law of Brokston (Walter Barnes), despite his memorable showdown with Cuchillo which involves a knife.

score 7/10

Scarecrow-88 25 March 2012

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2586831/