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| A 60s-stylish, colorful poster for Giulio Petroni's Death Rides a Horse that cries excitement and carnality |
QUICK REVIEW:
As a boy, Bill Meceita witnesses his family get murdered, and 15 years later, he meets the man who will kick-start his quest for vengeance.
He is John Phillip Law (Thunder III (1988)) with the beautiful, cool, Mediterranean-blue eyes, and his gunslinger tutor is the always good Lee Van Cleef (For a Few Dollars More (1965)). Together the two blast through more than a few prickly situations here in Giulio Petroni's (Tepepa (1969)) keen revenge spaghetti western, written by Luciano Vincenzoni (Orca (1977)).
Death Rides a Horse is comparable to spaghetti western master filmmaker Sergio Leone's (Once Upon a Time in the West/C'era una Volta il West (1968)) films in quality, and the West is certainly as gritty and dirty here as in any of Leone's movies.
Quentin Tarantino (Jackie Brown (1997)) lifted quite a bit of inspiration from the classical vendetta story and style of Horse for his Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2003; 04).
The last half of the film, which runs 114 minutes in the US cut and 120 in the Italian cut, drags on a bit, but Death Rides a Horse is still a solid, well-photographed (by Carlo Carlini (Black Emmanuelle (1975))) and -scored (by Ennio Morricone (Duck, You Sucker/Giù la Testa (1971))) Euro-western.
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| Lee Van Cleef came up with the Italian title for the film, (which translates to 'as man to man'), since he disliked the original choice, which translated to Duel in the Wind |
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| Lee Van Cleef, chewing tobacco in Giulio Petroni's Death Rides a Horse |
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| John Phillip Law in one of the less enviable situations he finds himself in in Giulio Petroni's Death Rides a Horse |
Watch the original US trailer for the film here, which shows how it is both a hokey, stylish, cool and funny film to watch, - that also has a really cool tag-line: 'When you've waited 15 years to find a man... It's a shame you can only kill him once!'
Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
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[Spaghetti western fans embrace and love Death Rides a Horse, - critics in general are more lukewarm: The film only has a 5.2 rating on Rotten Tomatoes (though based on just 5 reviews), but a 7.2 user average on IMDb. The late film critic legend Roger Ebert was hard on the film back in 1969, dishing it a snooty, mere 1-star review.]
What do you think of Death Rides a Horse?
Seen other films by Giulio Petroni?
If so, how was/were it/they?
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