Keoma (1976)

[cigar joe]

Well, finally saw this little gem of a SW, I got a replacement copy from Anchor Bay finnaly.

I liked it a lot, its good, its very good, its innovative, different and yet familiar and homages Peckinpaw style also. Franco Nero's and Castellari's masterpiece western.

Ok, it takes place post Civil War in a high elevation mining town Skidoo City struck by the palgue and taken over by a ruthless town boss who carts the sick off to die. Keoma a half breed returns to his home town and disrupts the status quo with violent results.

Keoma is kick ass, Woody Strode plays his cildhood mentor now town drunk who helps in the final clean up. The action sequences are well done, slow mo references the "Wild Bunch" ballet of death shots the innovative flash backs are done well. The special effects are great. It will be familiar to Leone fans because it has a Leone look compliments of the very realistic sets of Giancarlo Simi. It looks exactly like a lot of the old western mining ghost towns that I've been too with deleterious mining equipment strewn all over the place. Its all very believeable. It will remind Eastwood fans of Unforgiven.

Now the music, its not Morricone, but its not as bad as some have described it, I was expecting nails scratching against a blackboard, its female and male vocals accompanied by folky sounding music in fact the female reminded me of Joni Mitchell's style of singing (dating myself here, lol) and the male is Leonard Cohen sounding,

This should be part of any SW collection.

[leonefan]

I saw it a couple of weeks ago, thank god for the fastforward button on my remote.  Total trash.  Gotta love the lame dialogue like when Keoma calls his so called "childhood idol" (Woody Strode) the N-word then appologizes.  It tries to be so artistic yet falls flat on its face.  Don't even get me started on the music, if you can call it that.  

[cigar joe]

I'm sorry my friend but I beg to disagree, I'm a pretty hard to please critic of all westerns, there are 100's of worse SW's out there, this one was different and passed my test.

Basically if its not Leone, I'm looking for a believeable story, and this story has to fit within the mythologic west that Leone created, which it does, believable sets, good camera work, good action  & actors and the dubbing well syncronized.

Its artistic but in a different way than Leone its a beautiful print, I say rent it if you can find it buy it if you can.

[spag fan]

I guess if you can stand the soundtrack determines whether you like Keoma or not. I hated it. I wanted to like it, but that soundtrack....  

[cigar joe]

Well I guess you just had to be living about that time, a lot of popular counter culture folky music sounded exactly like that.  For me its a time travel way back machine to a different time late 60's to mid 70's. Probably what Rap soundtracks are gonna sound like 30 years from now.

Lol, I was thinking to myself who the female voice sounded like the most and I think I settled on a tie between Joni Mitchell and Tiny Tim!

Artists, groups, and performers the likes of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Phill Ochs, Dave Van Ronk, The Band, sounded very much like this sound track.

There was a pop song by Lee Hazelwood & Nancy Sinatra called "Some Velvet Morning" that had answering male /female vocals very similar to Keoma's soundtrack.

[spag fan]

Tiny Tim! You nailed it CJ!

Actually, I'm a big fan of 60's and 70's music, but never really cared for the voices of Leonard Cohen or Bob Dylan, or for that matter, Janis Joplin. It's the particular quality of shrillness and the overuse of the female voice in Keoma that ruins it for me. When the male voice comes in, it sounds downright cartoonish to me, but at least it's a break from her!

After seeing Keoma, I bought "Mannaja: A Man Called Blade" not realizing it had a vocal soundtrack by the same composers as Keoma. When I found out, I was really bummed, but as it turned out, I actually liked it and preferred it to Keoma. Maybe Keoma primed me for it! That, and it didn't have the female voice at least!

Vocal soundtracks are a tricky thing. Music is very subjective and with the addition of vocals only becomes more subjective. For example, lot's of people complain about the soundtrack for "Four of The Apocalypse". I liked that one quite a bit myself as it sounded a bit like Bread meats Pink Floyd meats Simon & Garfunkel, which is more my speed!

I myself am a musician, and I really focus on music no matter where I am. If I'm in a restaurant that's playing music I don't like, I can't ignore it and enjoy the dining experience like many of my non-musician friends. It's kind of a curse really! Otherwise, I may have really enjoyed Keoma.

[grandpa_chum]

i agree completely CJ... i think it's one of the very best SW's out there... and personally i don't mind the music... it gives it a different feel than anything i've seen before and it's a very different story... not the usual adventure then a big shootout at the end like so many other SW's.

[redyred]

I think Keoma does overdo the cinematic techniques a bit. I mean, the 20th time you've seen a guy die in slow motion its lost all impact.

As far as the music goes, I thought the lyrics were probably the worst thing, especially when the male voice first comes in when Keoma confronts his brothers and it's all "oh papa why do they hate me so?".

[DJIMBO]

sounds like this is one of those love-hate films like Django - which some people are obsessed by but i think is utter shite. Heard some good and bad things about Keoma.

[redyred]

I loved it the first time I saw it, the second time I thought it was ok but it pissed me off in quite a few places

[grandpa_chum]

i think djimbo is right... i've heard great things about django but i still hate it... and i've heard some bad things about keoma but i still love it

[Nobody]

Keoma is easily one of my favourite non-Leone SW. But then again, I didn't have any problem with the soundtrack. Spag Fan's theory may be correct.

[rddesq]

Keoma is in my opinion one of the top 5 non-leone Spag. Westerns.  Django and Django Kill don't even belong in the top 15.   I really like Keoma and not counting Leone's movies it is the Spag. Western I have watched more than any other.  I found the music haunting particularly the female vocale singing "keoma".  

[Two Kinds of ...]

I have it but have only watched it once.  It didn't make a hug impression.

[grandpa_chum]

I have it but have only watched it once.  It didn't make a hug impression.

then i suggest you watch it again... truly a masterpiece.