"Face to Face" (1967), directed by Sergio Sollima, who made only three Spaghetti Westerns, all now considered classic in the genre, the other two being "The Big Gundown" (1966) and "Run Man, Run" (1968), is a great Western, Spaghetti or otherwise, with a trio of great performances from Gian Maria Volonté, Tomas Milian and William Berger.
The plot, an allegory on the rise of Fascism in Europe, concerns a sickly teacher from New England called Brad Fletcher (Volonté), who is kidnapped by by a wounded outlaw, Solomon "Beauregard" Bennet (Milian), and they form a friendship, and eventually Fletcher joins Bennet's gang, which unleashes Fletcher's inner "heart of darkness", while Bennet starts to question his role as a bandit.
With a potent script by Sergio Donati and himself, Sollima loads the screen with great action scenes, gunfights and duels, all the while showcasing Volonté's brilliant performance, as his character completely transforms for the wore, as Milian's role shows him going the exact opposite way. It is a stark tale of contrast, powered by an epic Ennio Morricone score (conducted by a composer of not inconsiderable talent, Bruno Nicolai), grand direction, and photography (by Emilio Foriscot and Rafael Pacheco) and editing (by Eugenio Alabiso), with art direction by Carlo Simi, who worked on Sergio Leone's masterly "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" (1966). A Spaghetti masterpiece, which is one for the Top 10 Western lists.
The plot, an allegory on the rise of Fascism in Europe, concerns a sickly teacher from New England called Brad Fletcher (Volonté), who is kidnapped by by a wounded outlaw, Solomon "Beauregard" Bennet (Milian), and they form a friendship, and eventually Fletcher joins Bennet's gang, which unleashes Fletcher's inner "heart of darkness", while Bennet starts to question his role as a bandit.
With a potent script by Sergio Donati and himself, Sollima loads the screen with great action scenes, gunfights and duels, all the while showcasing Volonté's brilliant performance, as his character completely transforms for the wore, as Milian's role shows him going the exact opposite way. It is a stark tale of contrast, powered by an epic Ennio Morricone score (conducted by a composer of not inconsiderable talent, Bruno Nicolai), grand direction, and photography (by Emilio Foriscot and Rafael Pacheco) and editing (by Eugenio Alabiso), with art direction by Carlo Simi, who worked on Sergio Leone's masterly "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" (1966). A Spaghetti masterpiece, which is one for the Top 10 Western lists.