The Weekend Western: The Big Gundown
When a Mexican peasant is accused of the rape and murder of a 12 year old girl, Brokston, a powerful businessman, sends Jonathan Corbett after him. Corbett is an ex-lawman with political ambitions and Brokston has offered to aid him in becoming senator.
There’s a lot more to Sergio Sollima’s first spaghetti western than the usual revenge and/or greed motivations favoured by the genre. Political corruption and the ability of men of wealth and power to buy the law rather than be governed by it, with social status not evidence deciding who is guilty, all adds depth to this action packed western.
The film stars Lee Van Cleef as Jonathan Corbett, a fictional character who shares the same sort of legendary status as Davy Crockett. Swapping one Sergio for another, Van Cleef gets to show a little more humanity than he does in Leone’s films, with Corbett a more traditional hero type than anyone in Leone’s west.
Tomas Milian makes his first appearance as the Mexican fugitive Cuchillo, a part he would return to two years later in Sollima’s Run, Man, Run. Milian’s highly animated acting style suits the character, whose mouth is almost as quick as his wits. It feels like Sollima had a soft spot for the character and its not surprising that it was Cuchillo he decided to return to for the sequel.
