SOUNDTRACK SUPPLEMENT EXTRA.

The score for War Trap is one of  the latest releases from Plaza Mayor and is available on digital platforms. The music is by composer DavidAboucayawho also wrote and directed the moviehas fashioned a score that is a fusion of both electronic and symphonic as in conventional instrumentation. It’s a brooding work in places with small chinks of light and melody scattered throughout. The music relaying many emotions that include apprehension and fear plus it manages to purvey a feeling that can only be described as claustrophobic.

Set during the Second World War, War Trap takes place after an ambush that has been carried out in a fort by German troops. Eugen, a French soldier, finds himself trapped underground and fighting for his survival. His destiny is charted alongside that of another survivor, with both having to find the energy to disentangle themselves from certain death, whilst remaining unaware of the terrible battle that awaits them on the outside.

The music which is varied and superbly placed successfully underlines and enhances the storyline as it is conveyed on screen. The composer never overpowering or swamping the narrative but adding depth, atmosphere, and emotion to the proceedings. Well worth a listen.  

As is the music from the movie Superposition, which sees a creative couple Stine and Teit and their young son Nemo leave their urban life in Copenhagen behind in favour of an isolated forest in Sweden. Their aim is to find themselves as individuals while documenting their new lifestyle in an ongoing podcast series. Regretfully, they realise there’s another couple across the lake, which are very similar to them. Soon, old resentments and selfish thoughts begin to take over, forcing them to confront their own egos. This well-done psychological thriller deals with the fundamental split between self-realisation and being present in life. Most people have mammoth ambitions for our lives and self-expression, as well as for our happiness and our partner.

Superposition illuminates the modern day relationship and explores whether we are in fact too self-absorbed to be together.

The impressive score is by Pessi Levanto, the music is quite low key but affecting in many ways working on so many levels and underlining a plethora of issues that are raised within the movie. The music also takes on a more delicate persona with solo piano purveying fragile sounding tones. It’s a score that I think is worth checking out and is available on digital platforms via Swedish specialist label Movie Score Media.

The Night Logan Woke Up, is an adaptation of the popular stage play, La nuit ou Laurier Gaudreault s’est reveille from the pen of playwright Michel Marc Bouchard.

The series, which mixes horror, humour, and drama, takes place in the early 1990s and follows Mimi and her brother Jules, who are best friends with Logan. The music which is by Hans Zimmer and David Fleming has to it a Herrman-esque/John Williams sound and style about it, the score remaining subdued for most of the time but always richly theme driven. In fact, it is in my humble opinion one of Zimmer’s better scores in recent years, as it contains music and thematic material rather than layers of synths and drone like textures.

But then we have to ask ourselves who wrote most of the music Zimmer or Fleming? There is a melodic and attractive air about the score that is alluring and almost hypnotic. The work draws the listener in and supports and embellishes the narrative of the series. I found that it transported one off to another place, as it is not only well structured but has to it a relaxing and comforting persona,  Recommended.  

Frederick Wiedmann has produced a very entertaining and robust score for the German TV movie Miss Merkel. After resigning from office, the chancellor moves to a small town in the Uckermark with her husband and dog. The Uckermark isa historical region in north-east Germany, which currently straddles the Uckermark District of Brandenburg and the Vorpommern-Greifswald District of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. She fully intends to take it easy but finds it difficult to do so and after a short time has problems with leaving the hectic city life and politics behind. But then there is a death, and the ex-Chancellor leaps into investigative mode realising that she has a job again.

Wiedmann’s score is superbly supportive and adds touches of comedy and creates an air of mystery throughout, as well as this it’s integral to the plot and becomes an important part of the various situations and scenarios. And I have to say is probably one of the most entertaining soundtracks released so far this year. Symphonic for the most part with the composer fashioning humorous and precise punctuating flourishes as well as easy on the ear themes and nuances, again its one for your collection, I really like it.  

In the movie Unruly Maren, is a strong-minded young woman, and is seen to be ill-mannered and promiscuous by the authorities. Who become concerned about her her unruly behaviour, thinking it could incite others to behave in a similar fashion. They decide that she must be sent away and is packed off to a women’s institution on an island called Sprogø. They think that she should learn how to behave as a proper young woman. She must share a room with Sørine who has already internalized the story about herself and has learned to behave properly or at least as she has been told too.

Sørine is to help Maren settle in Sprogø and help her change her behaviour and attitude, but Maren’s continued refusal to comply with the system leads to terrible consequences for both women. The film Unruly is inspired by actual events of the women’s institution of Sprogø in Denmark in the 1930’s. The effective score is by Lisa Montan, who’s film music career has thus far been outstanding. Lisa is the only female to have received a Swedish Guldbagge Award (the Swedish Oscar equivalent), for her haunting 2015 score for the film Flocken.

It was her first feature film and for the same film, she was also awarded Best Score at Festival International du film d’Aubagne, as well as the Doris Filmgenipris.  The music for Unruly is haunting, experimental, interesting, at times complex but also possesses a melodic quality that is innovative and attractive. Check it out, its on the likes of Spotify.

Heading back a few years now and to the movie A Midsummer Night’s Dream which has a score by Simon Boswell. Boswell created a fully symphonic score for this 1999 movie that is filled with absorbing and lilting tone poems, the soundtrack mixes Boswell’s original score with pieces of opera.

SIMON BOSWELL.

And as a listening experience it is I have to say a rewarding one. The original score is a tantalising and romantically laced affair which does have more dramatic moments scattered throughout, the composer penning beautiful and touching themes that are overflowing with a magical and impish air. Originally released on CD by Decca records the music is available on digital platforms. I sometimes feel that Boswell is overlooked as a film music composer, he has created so many scores that all employ differing styles and purvey sounds that are in no way standard.  His music for Santa Sangre being one of my favourites with Tin Man following on very closely. He is a talented composer who utilises both symphonic and electronic effectively, take a listen to Demons 2, to verify this. It is worth checking his music out. Boswell has scored films by some of independent cinema’s incredible mavericks such as Danny Boyle’s Shallow Grave, Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Santa Sangre, Dario Argento’s ‘Phenomena, and Richard Stanley’s Hardware and Dust Devil.

He has thus far in his career received many international awards and nominations, including two BAFTAs and a Classical Brit Award. After spending his younger years playing in various bands  such as Advertising and Live Wire, he became a highly successful record producer and remixer. In the early 1980’s, his production of Italian superstar, Renato Zero, became one of the biggest selling Italian albums of all time, selling a staggering six million copies. In later years his work with 23 Skidoo on ‘Coup’ evolved into the Chemical Brothers’ ‘Block Rockin Beats’. He has also produced, amongst many others, Elton John, Dolly Parton, Marianne Faithful, Andrea Bocelli and Orbital. As a composer he is well known for fusing electronic elements with orchestral instrumentation and his musical range is staggering.

His work for horror and fantasy cinema has always been outstanding and  well received and has inspired many other composers and artists, he especially exceeds in Italian giallo movies creating uneasy and effective sounds and music, but at the same time introducing themes and little nuances that act as a hook for any listener. Plus movies such as Clive Barker’s detective horror Lord of Illusions have benefitted from Boswell’s atmospheric scoring. He is also involved heavily in the hybrid, cyberpunk style as employed in Hackers and Hardware, where he combined acoustic, slide guitar with resonant, pessimistic sounding synths to create a hugely popular, apocalyptic sounding score for which he was nominated for BAFTA’s Anthony Asquith Award. The composer has also composed numerous orchestral scores both melodic and experimental, including Photographing Fairies, War Zone, Tin Man, and the re-imagining of Jason and the Argonauts.

Brian Tyler has released a soundtrack album for the immersive live show Awakening. The album features the film/TV/game composer’s original music from the Wynn production and is available now on digital platforms. Awakening is produced by Baz Halpin, Bernie Yuman & Michael Curry, narrated by Anthony Hopkins and tells the story of a beautiful heroine and her two fellow travellers as they seek to restore beauty and love to the world. 

The show, which combines dramatic choreography, technology, fantastic creatures, and a custom sound system designed to showcase Tyler’s score, is currently playing at Wynn Las Vegas. Tyler’s music is grand, imposing, powerful, majestic, and epic sounding, the composer utilising choral support to create a varied, ethereal, and sweeping soundtrack that also employs electronica to convey the many moods required. Also look out for the composers score for the new Super Mario movie.

Music for British TV in particular the drama that is produced in the UK has always been superbly written and performed, and in recent years the composers involved on various drama series have fashioned intelligent and sensitive works to support these. As the series Endeavour ended just last week in the UK, Redrocca have released a new soundtrack album for the ITV drama. The album features newly recorded variations written by the show’s composer Matthew Slater and performed by the London Metropolitan Orchestra. Also included is the much-missed composer Barrington Pheloung’s award winning theme from Inspector Morse.  

Endeavour Variations is now available to stream/download on all major digital music services. A physical release is also expected. Slater provided the series with some beautifully crafted compositions, that enhanced and complimented plus were attractive and haunting away from the images and storylines.

He has also become the composer in residence on the ITV detective series Grace, again writing effective and appealing music. At the moment there does not seem to be a soundtrack recording available from this but hopefully in the near future it will materialise. Endeavour Variations is a brilliant recording that contains so many wonderfully affecting themes and powerful compositions. Whilst checking out Endeavour also take a listen to the composers scores for Deleted from 2021 and his music for Forget me Not from 2020. Highly recommended.

THE VALACHI PAPERS.

If The Valachi Papers had been released before 1972, I am convinced it would have been a huge success at the box office, and today would have been thought of in much higher regard than it is. Sadly, for this Charles Bronson movie The Godfather hit the cinemas in the same year, and because there are a few similarities between the two stories ie mafia, etc, The Valachi Papers floundered slightly because many saw it as an attempt by the filmmakers to cash on the success of The Godfather.

The significant difference between the two movies was that The Godfather was based upon fictionalized characters created by Mario Puzo and possessed true elegance. The Valachi Papers was in contrast a more straight to the point and matter of fact affair, which took its storyline from factual material about real life mobsters.   This is highlighted on the posters for the movie, which state Fact not Fiction. The film opens in the early part of the 1960’s with one of the mob Joseph Valachi  (Charles Bronson) behind bars in state prison where many attempts on his life have been made. It transpires that someone in the organization has talked, and the bosses of the organisation want revenge.

One of the top brass of the mob Genovese (Lino Ventura) seems to think that it is  Valachi. And, as in the time tradition of the mafia a contract has been placed on Valachi’s head. This has the consequence of forcing Valachi to go to the authorities. After this opening the remainder of the movie spends a lot of its time showing Valachi spilling the beans on almost everything and giving his story to the government agents. What follows is a long story about Valachi’s earliest days in the mob (shades of The Godfather ll) which was in the 1930’s, right up to the point where he is arrested and eventually taken to prison.

The movies storyline is given even greater weight and is allowed to unfold because the film is quite long in duration, so the story is explained fully as it were, the movie runs for just over two hours, but its not a film that drags or ever becomes uninteresting it also helps that Charles Bronson is given some excellent support within the movie.  Lino Ventura, for example as the mafia boss, normally the actor being associated with French cinema.

MAIN TITLE.

There was nothing that I would call negative about the film other than a few very minor things. Bronson for example was I think to old looking for the movie as the character was supposedly just under thirty years of age. Bronson looks a lot older. Also, a few things on the sets were out of place such as cars that were not from the period in which the movie was set, and the biggest mistake was in a scene where the two towers can clearly be seen under construction., maybe this is all very minor and certainly did not spoil the entertainment value of the picture, but could have been handled a little better.  The movie was to the surprise of many given a PG rating in the States on its release, I say surprising because there is a fair amount of bloody violence in the movie and nudity that includes a lesbian scene.

The rating was changed later to an R.  But the film struggled to receive an ‘X’ certificate in the UK , with the censors imposing heavy cuts on the movie before allowing it to be shown in cinema’s. These included the castration scene, bloody shootings, and the meat hook killing. With the later video and DVD releases restoring the cuts. This would be the third European film that was a collaboration between actor Charles Bronson and director Terence Young the others being Cold Sweat (1970) and the Samurai/Western movie Red Sun (1971). The plot was adapted from the Peter Maas’ novel of the same name that covers the true account of the mafia underworld and organised crime, and included a good solid cast Joseph Wiseman, Walter Chiari, Gerald S. O’Loughlin, Angelo Infanti and Amedeo Nazzari, with Jill Ireland playing Valachi’s wife.

 Music was by seasoned Italian Maestro Riz Ortolani, who penned a lyrical sounding theme for the movie and provided it with traditional sounding Sicilian pieces and highly dramatic and driving compositions to underline and enhance the action of screen. Ortolani was like his fellow Italian composers Mario Nascimbene, and Nino Rota popular in both Italy and the USA. Ortolani providing music for films such as Seventh Dawn, The Glory Guys, and The Yellow Rolls Royce. The soundtrack for The Valachi Papers was originally released on the Phillips record label in 1972 but has sadly never seen a compact disc or digital release. It is probably one of Ortolani’s best scores from the 1970’s. And when you consider that the composer was already a popular figure and the movie starred Bronson it is again something of a surprise that the score has never been re-issued.

Ortolani.

A Generous Girl

The score is a varied one with the composer writing jazz orientated themes such as A Generous Girl alongside more romantic pieces, such as the movies lush sounding Valachi theme and the music for The Engagement of Joe and Maria, which utilised elements of the Valachi.

POWER AND VIOLENCE.

The score also including dark and apprehensive cues as in Murder in the Streets and Awaiting, that perfectly underlined the tension of the storyline.

THE TARANTELLA PARTY.

Plus there is the Sicilian flourishes and influences that are present in The Tarantella Party, and the strident and slightly martial sounding Power and Violence which is very much in the style of Morricone. Then we have the haunting and addictive sounding I Te Vurria Vasa performed on solo trumpet in the style of Michele Lacerenza and Nini Rosso. This is a superb score and one that deserves to see the light of day on CD or digital platforms for younger collectors of film music to savour, maybe someday soon it will happen, and we also might see the soundtracks for The Hunting Party and Ciakmull also by Ortolani released?

I Te Vurria Vasa

SUPERCELL.

New film music composers come onto the scene more or less every day, but there are only a few that make an impression straight away. One of the more recent composers to emerge is Corey Wallace who has written a wonderfully sweeping and commanding score for the 2023 movie Supercell. Which sees a teenage boy runs away to follow his father’s footsteps, legendary storm chaser Bill Brody.

COREY WALLACE

The film is said to have impressed Steven Spielberg and made him think about maybe making a sequel to Twister. The music is in a word superb, it’s a score that is obviously inspired by the greats of Hollywood film scoring, with the styles of Williams, Horner and Goldsmith having the upper hand. It’s about time that the true sound of Hollywood returned to the big screen and composer Corey Wallace has created a soundtrack that commands that you listen and has to it a powerful and dominant presence.  

This is a work that I hope will galvanise other composers into returning to the lush, lavish, and expressive style and sound that we all as film music collectors know and adore.

This is a sweeping descriptive and affecting work, laden with rich and tantalising thematic material, overflowing with emotion,  filled with driving action cues and dripping in romantically laced themes and sensitive tone poems., such as Mother and Son which is a beautiful and affecting piece, evoking the glorious thematic presence of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and has shades of Cocoon within it.  

As well as the homage to John Williams which is overwhelmingly evident, there is also a unique and inventive style present, it’s a score you should own and already its on the list for the awards season next year. Corey Wallace has produced a soundtrack that salutes both the golden and silver age of movie music. Recommended and available on digital platforms.

THE INNSMOUTH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS.

The Innsmouth School for Girls is I think a fair adaptation of HP Lovecraft’s The Shadow over Innsmouth. Hilda Sofia Bautista, gets the introducing credit, in this her debut movie in the role of Roberta Olmstead who decides to stay at the school.  When she arrives she very quickly realizes that there is something odd with the staff at the school and also with the people who live in Innsmouth. Her fellow students also begin to notice a number of oddities and certain indiscretions. Writer/director Joshua Kennedy serves up a surprisingly entertaining and absorbing storyline and has more than just a passing understanding of the source material that his story is based upon.  With the main protagonist in the movie being named Roberto Olmstead, which is a homage to Lovecraft as his narrator was named Robert Olmstead,  for a low budget affair this is a pretty solid movie, with all the actors giving good and credible performances, which is in some part due to the way they are directed, as the majority of them are new to movies. 

The musical score is by composer Reber Clark, who once again steps up to the plate and delivers a soundtrack that is superbly thematic and wonderfully inventive. This is a haunting and driving soundtrack, with the composer interweaving uncanny sounds that could be straight out of 1950’s B movies into the fabric of what is for the most part a powerful and commanding work.  There are gentle nods to the style of Bernard Herrmann as well as little interludes that sound as if they are inspired by the likes of Jerry Goldsmith and Christopher Young.  Reber, has written several scores for low budget movies and every single one of them has been a delight to listen to and appreciate, his music has the ability to not just accompany the action on screen but also to become an entertainment in its own right away from any storyline or images.  

He is a talented and versatile composer, and this his most recent assignment is no exception.  The score is a pulsating and effective fusion of darkness and light with virulent passages of chilling and sinister sounds being mixed with lighter and less apprehensive moments, the composer getting the balance just right,  as he successfully adds a sense of the foreboding to the proceedings which from time to time is slightly diluted with music that is filled with melody and colour. I long for the day when Reber Clark is given a big movie, then stand back and prepare to be astounded. Available on Bandcamp, go check it out an awesome score that you should own ASAP.

BRAZILIAN WESTERNS.

Yes, that’s right Brazilian westerns, was there such a thing as a Brazilian western genre, well yes there was, and apparently films are still being made in the country that have to them something of a leaning towards the flavour and appearance of a western. Ok they are nothing like the westerns that we are used to from America or Europe but from what I have seen over the past few weeks they are certainly gritty, down to earth, and filled with great villains and just as many heroes and anti-heroes. Some are action movies, others have a more romantic storyline, but mostly they are about the poor people of the countryside who are doing battle with the rich or the authorities. In a way they are very much like the Zapata western sub-genre of movies within the Italian western collective of films. Downtrodden peasants or individual characters being bullied and abused by corrupt overlords who in most cases do get their just deserts. And of course, cruel bandits that also prey on innocent people. I thought I would take a look at an example or two from the genre, as well as when possible briefly discuss the films distinct musical flavours within the scores and the composers who worked upon them. I say just a few examples because the info is quite sketchy at times, but I will do my best to bring to your attention another genre that can be categorised as obscure.

In 1950, filmmaker Lima Barreto joined the film studio Companhia Cinematográfica Vera Cruz, he had been invited by its then president Alberto Cavalcanti who had been impressed with the way he told stories in film.  After releasing two documentaries that were  successful for the studio, entitled Painel and Santuário. Barreto was given the opportunity to helm a feature film. The director always had in mind a project and this was to make a movie about Captain Virgulino Ferreira da Silva or Lampião as he was known.  It was an idea that he had been formulating since the early 1940’s, but his plans and thoughts were not translated into production mode until 1952, with the movie going ahead despite the reluctance by Franco Zampari, Vera Cruz’s founder. Although  Barreto initially went to Bahia which is a state situated in the Zona da Mata in the Northeast region of Brazil, and did research for the project, he in the end shot the film in Vargem Grande do Sul, São Paulo, the production dragged on for some nine months after it experienced numerous problems.

With the movie O Cangaceiro, or The Brigand/The Bandit, finally being released in 1953, and although it is essentially a western, is placed in the category of being an action/adventure. Set in the time of the Cangaceiros in the backcountry which is in the North and Northeastern areas of Brazil, the sadistic Capitão Galdino Ferreira (Milton Ribeiro) and his band of cutthroats abduct the schoolteacher Olívia played by Marisa Prado, the bandits think that they will be able to demand a huge ransom for her return.

However, one of the bandits, Teodoro (Alberto Ruschel) falls in love with the woman and escapes with her to the barren backcountry and is subsequently pursued by his once partners in crime.  As the pair make their way through the arid landscape Olivia too falls in love with Teodoro and tries to convince him to leave the countryside and move into the city. But Teodoro tells her that he could never leave his land and has made up his mind that he will die in his beloved backcountry where he was born. “O Cangaceiro” is one of the best films that has been produced by Brazilian Cinema and certainly the most superior movie released by Companhia Cinematográfica Vera Cruz.  

The cinematography which is in in black and white gives us a stunning introduction with backlight on the marauders as they ride in single file on the horizon. The film was distributed by Columbia Pictures and was sold to eighty countries in total becoming so popular in France that it remained in cinemas for five years.

The term Cangaceiro was already used to refer to groups of poor peasants who inhabited the North-Eastern deserts, wearing leather clothing and hats, carrying carbines, revolvers, shotguns, and the long narrow knife known as the Peixeira. After it was finally released it soon became a national and international success, winning several awards, including the Adventure Film Award at the 6th Cannes Film Festival 1953. But it was poorly received in retrospect despite being praised at the time of its release and still managed to successfully establish a popular subgenre in Brazilian cinema. This genre is often referred to as Nordestern which combines the words “Nordeste” (Northeast) and “Western”. 

This first foray into this territory was followed by a number films such as Carlos Coimbra‘s A Morte Comanda o Cangaço (1960), Lampião, o Rei do Cangaço (1964)  Corisco, o Diabo Louro (1969), and Aurélio Teixeira‘s Os Três Cabras de Lampião. 

It also established Cangaço as a subgenre in Brazilian cinema; subsequently, Cangaço would be featured as a theme for comedy in such examples as Os Três Cangaceiro  and A Ilha das Cangaceiras Virgens.

The musical score for O Cangaceiro was by Gabriel Migliori, who was born on November 9th, 1909 in São Paulo, SP, Brazil. He was a composer, known for writing music for both concert hall performance and also for motion pictures, his well-known film scores include  The Bandit (1953), The Given Word (1962) and Lampiao, King of the Badlands (1964). He died on January 12th, 1975.

The soundtrack featured “Olê Muié Rendeira“, which was performed by popular vocalist Vanja Orico and was also presented in an instrumental variation, within the movie. The somewhat raw, crude, and natural appearance of the film and its characters attracts and fascinates, making this a piece of cinema that can certainly hold its own against many classic westerns or action adventures that were around at the same time or came afterwards, and surpasses many of those in its content and the way in which it was acted, directed and photographed.

The story was re-made in Italy in 1969 as Viva Cangaceiro, which starred popular actor Tomas Milian in the central role, and had a score by Riz Ortolani. The plot deviated a little from the original concept, but the story was essentially the same. This remake most definitely being a western.

Then in 1997 another remake from Brazil this time, Just as its same name predecessor was, this film is a fictional version of the story of the “cangaceiros.” These were bandits who sacked towns and spread terror throughout Northeastern Brazil in the 1930s. This group of outlaws is led by Captain Galdino (played by Paulo Orgulho) and his wife Maria Bonita (Luiza Tome).

Bacurau is a 2019 Brazilian-French offbeat western film, written and directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles.  It stars Sônia Braga, Udo Kier, Bárbara Colen, Thomas Aquino, Silvero Pereira, and Karine Teles. The film which is a co-production between Braziian and French studios has a storyline that revolves around Bacurau, a fictional small village in the Brazilian sertão that is beset by strange happenings following the death of its matriarch, Carmelita (Lia de Itamaracá), at the age of 94. The film was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival,  and won the Jury Prize.

Around mid-way through the movie there is a scene that might be a familiar scenario for western fans and could be from any number of American/Hollywood produced sage brush sagas. We see a herd of horses from a neighbouring farm come stampeding through the village of Bacurua, after deciding that something is wrong two villagers ride out to investigate, on their arrival at the farm they find everyone that lived there has been brutally murdered. In any other western movie whether it be American, German or in certain circumstances Italian this would be an indicator that their own village could be in danger. Maybe this is the work of renegades on the warpath?  But this is a movie set in contemporary times, so that does not it seem come into the equation. Before this event the films plot reveals that there is an ongoing dispute over water rights from the local river, with water being stopped from flowing upstream in a corruption scheme which the wealthy mayor of Serra Verde, Tony Junior (Thardelly Lima), is the major driving force behind.

He visits Bacurau to gain its residents’ sympathy and secure their votes for an upcoming election attempting to gain favour with them by plying them with with old food and run down books but no water, but the townspeople all hide and avoid him. A tanker truck of water finally arrives for the town, but it has been riddled with bullets. As the two villagers attempt to leave the scene of carnage at the farm, they are shot dead by a couple on motorbikes. This couple then meet up with a group of mainly Americans, who are led by Michael played by Udo Keir, who becomes angry with the couple who despatched the villagers as killing two people will deprive the group of two chances to score “points.”

After being given instructions through earpieces, the remainder of the group then turn their attention to the couple and execute them, but after this begin to squabble about which of them delivered the fatal shot and who is entitled to the points. This evoked memories of the Wild Bunch for me when two of the bounty hunters argue about which of them shot one of the Bunch in the street at beginning of that movie. The group of motorcyclists  then start to hunt down the villagers, but one of the villagers, Pacote played by Thomas Aquino, seeks out Lunga a revolutionary portrayed by Silvero Pereira who is being hidden by the villagers. Pacote convinces Lunga to join his efforts in fighting back against these murderous foreigners, the townspeople then arm themselves and decide to fight back.  

The foreigners then go too far an kill a nine-year-old boy and cut off electricity to the village. The next day, the foreigners who think that they have beaten the villagers re-start their hunting but are overpowered and killed by the locals, with the exception of their leader who they hold as a prisoner.  Tony Junior shows up to collect the foreigners in a luxury minibus. But when he sees that the villagers have killed them all he attempts to deny all knowledge of the group, until Michael calls out to him for help. The mayor is held and then is sent away to die in the desert, half-naked and tied up to a donkey, while Michael is buried alive in an underground cell shouting “This is only the beginning“. It’s an interesting if not somewhat off the wall movie, that even has a UFO in the story, which in some respects can be compared with Italian, German and American made westerns and even El Topo came to mind when I was watching it.  

Music is by Mateus Alves and Tomas Alves Souza, who provided the film with an eclectic mix of styles and a fusion of sounds, that range from thematic interludes to more rock orientated cues, and a handful of electronic pieces. It’s a score that features a number of artists, but is one that is worth a listen and available now on digital platforms via Plaza Major.

Brazilian Western original title Faroeste Caboclo (2013) is an adaptation of the eponymous song by Renato Russo who is a famous Brazilian singer and composer who purveys his lyrics and music in a very similar way to that of Bob Dylan, he is essentially a storyteller with his tales being set to music. The adaptation is both a social and romantic drama that has a Shakespearean tragic conclusion.  It centres upon the story of the love that the bandit Joao do Santo Cristo has for the Architecture major student Maria Lucia, the film is set in Brazil in the early 80s. In a conflict of interest, drug dealers and the police fight with one another while the end of the military dictatorship in the Capital of Brazil, is taking place. With the wanderings and boredom of a young rocker, who lived in a city still being built, are the backdrop for this story.

Another good example of this genre of film, directed by Rene Sampaio, the film was met with mixed reviews but overall many who went to see it enjoyed it, it’s a gritty, down to earth and stylish gangster story, but purveyed also in the style of a western. Brazilian Western will surprise you leave you craving more. The visual style and the presentation in this movie is exceptionally well done and it’s a film that you will enjoy if you are trying to avoid the main stream of Hollywood. Music is by Fabiano Krieger and Lucas Marcier. I suppose one has to ask ones self is this really western? Maybe not, but it has affiliations with it.

So, this has been my flying visit to the Brazilian western, as I said not the typical western as we all know it, but still an interesting take or version of the genre.