London's Time Out Film Guide describes this western from '70-71 as a 'self-conscious western'. Indeed, it is engaging if not compelling and lacks the surreal feel and flair of the Spaghetti genre. Two broke ageing gunslingers, Will Tenneray (Kirk Douglas) and Abe Cross (Johnny Cash) decide to engage in a shoot-out in a winner-takes-all scenario although there is no hatred between the two of them. Some of the traditional plain-spoken phrases and syntax are very interesting - they reveals the sense of 'the Dollar is King' in an American/western context and the barren beige-coloured scrublands of Santa Fe are evocative. The opening score is sung by Cash while Douglas's young blond son, Eric plays his son 'Bud'. There is a squeamish scene showing the killing and slaughter of a black bull during and after a bull-fight. The shoot-out was filmed in a Madrid bull-ring although other scenes were shot in Sante Fe in New Mexico. Douglas would show more flair in his two subsequent films, 'The Light at the Edge of the World' (1971), an adventure film also filmed in Spain and the Euro heist movie, 'The Master Touch' (1972). Producer, Harold Jack Bloom went on to produce the detective series, 'Heck Ramsey'.
Review of A Gunfight
