The day before yesterday I saw A Pistol For Ringo. I disliked it for many reasons and I wondered why that movie is such a miss. Luckily, the crew must have thought the same thing when they began with this movie and came to the same conclusions as I did.
The Return of Ringo is not really a sequel. It are the same actors and the scar is the same on Ringo's face, but that is about it.
The difference is huge. The crew is identical, but both the cinematographer and the editor now delivered a great job! The are great shots, at many angles. There are lots of symbols in this movie, great use of reflections and yes, great use of colors. This movie shares most of the bleak Almeria landscape that we know, but flowers are completely acceptable in this movie as a way to give the look color. The closeups are great and camera movements go beyond the Totals that pan a little we know from the first Ringo movie. The editing is razor sharp, obviously cut to the music.
The acting might be almost the same to the first movie, which is good enough, only now we can actually see them act, instead of watching it from a distance. The cast is almost the same, with some characters playing roles that are very similar.
The sets are great, and now finally there seems to be time or budget for decent light for the indoor scenes. The costumes are a lot better; what the people wear seems to be more fitting for their parts and the heroes of this movie aren't to clean. Gemma no longer walks around in costumes that looks like they come from a comedy, and not only because the story requires it.
In every Morricone scored movie, you just cannot say "the music seems fitting", since the maestro always adds something special to a movie. In this film, he hits the mark. Although the score tends to sound more like a Tiomkin/Steiner Hollywood western than something from the Dollar trilogy, it is a pure Morricone. Quite unusual on some scenes (they even used a piece that is believed to be originally composed for John Huston's 'Bible, in the Beginning' in a great scene where the protagonist meets his daughter), but effective nonetheless.
Not all scenes are perfect, but that is compensated. Like a (minor spoiler) great scene with a wedding between coffins, or the scene with the daughter mentioned above...these give this western something that makes it stand out among others.
And cheers for the director, since he is the man that was most involved of all.
I had my doubts before watching this movie, purely based on the first Ringo film, but don't let one Ringo title bring down the other!
The Return of Ringo is not really a sequel. It are the same actors and the scar is the same on Ringo's face, but that is about it.
The difference is huge. The crew is identical, but both the cinematographer and the editor now delivered a great job! The are great shots, at many angles. There are lots of symbols in this movie, great use of reflections and yes, great use of colors. This movie shares most of the bleak Almeria landscape that we know, but flowers are completely acceptable in this movie as a way to give the look color. The closeups are great and camera movements go beyond the Totals that pan a little we know from the first Ringo movie. The editing is razor sharp, obviously cut to the music.
The acting might be almost the same to the first movie, which is good enough, only now we can actually see them act, instead of watching it from a distance. The cast is almost the same, with some characters playing roles that are very similar.
The sets are great, and now finally there seems to be time or budget for decent light for the indoor scenes. The costumes are a lot better; what the people wear seems to be more fitting for their parts and the heroes of this movie aren't to clean. Gemma no longer walks around in costumes that looks like they come from a comedy, and not only because the story requires it.
In every Morricone scored movie, you just cannot say "the music seems fitting", since the maestro always adds something special to a movie. In this film, he hits the mark. Although the score tends to sound more like a Tiomkin/Steiner Hollywood western than something from the Dollar trilogy, it is a pure Morricone. Quite unusual on some scenes (they even used a piece that is believed to be originally composed for John Huston's 'Bible, in the Beginning' in a great scene where the protagonist meets his daughter), but effective nonetheless.
Not all scenes are perfect, but that is compensated. Like a (minor spoiler) great scene with a wedding between coffins, or the scene with the daughter mentioned above...these give this western something that makes it stand out among others.
And cheers for the director, since he is the man that was most involved of all.
I had my doubts before watching this movie, purely based on the first Ringo film, but don't let one Ringo title bring down the other!