Hi, I'm Torstein from Cinema Terror and today
I will be talking about the spaghetti western
Four of the Apocalypse from 1975.
In Four of the Apocalypse we meet a gang of
four outcasts that join together on a journey
throughout Utah after they have bonded together
in prison.
The group is spearheaded by the professional
gambler Stubby.
With him is the young prostitute Bunny, the
drunk Clem and the mentally handicapped Bud.
Their long journey through the deserted landscape
is filled with danger, especially when they
come across a ruthless bandit named Chaco.
The objective of getting safely to their destination
becomes even greater when Bunny let's the
group know that she is expecting a child.
Spaghetti westerns is a genre I have been
meaning to explore more for quite some time
now, but never gotten around to actually do
so.
So what could be better than to dive into
it today with a western from a filmmaker I
am familiar with, and I am talking about the
goremaestro himself Lucio Fulci of course.
What I expected from mid-70's Fulci here was
a rough and tough western with plenty of violence,
gunplay and rape.
And while some of that is to be found every
now and then in this movie, I was surprised
to see just how tender and emotional this
film was.
It's not about the violence or tough men with
guns in this film, rather it is a nice story
of characters that are given enough room to
grow to make you care for them by the time
the movie is over.
Most of this has to do with how likeable Fabio
Testi is a Stubby and his chemistry with the
beauty Lynne Frederick as Bunny was impeccable.
It's hard to imagine that these two weren't
in fact real life lovers and I was not surprised
to read that there were rumours of the two
bonding out of character as well on the set
of this film.
A big reason of why I chose this film, except
the fact that its director is Lucio Fulci,
was the fact that the antagonist Chaco was
portrayed by the always awesome Tomas Milian.
Milian has everything that an actor needs
and can do whatever you want, from being funny,
dramatic, intimidating, just everything.
His part in this film is not that big and
it did leave me wanting to see more of his
character Chaco.
What I would have done is made the third part
of the film be more about Chaco versus Stubby,
oh and of course give Stubby a more heroic
name than...
Stubby.
For some reason the final part of this story
takes place in a small village and they go
more or less for emotions and a sappy ending
than giving us something thrilling and exciting.
I disliked this part a lot, especially after
getting so invested in the main characters.
I would much more have prefered them to be
in greater danger and of course, more Chaco.
I would also have prefered it if they didn't
include the now dated 70's hippie rock songs
that they had.
It didn't work well with the western atmosphere
that the movie takes place in and felt like
they were added more to trick people into
thinking this might be an American movie,
then to enhance the scenes they are used in.
One thing Fulci does great is setting up the
mood and atmosphere in his movies, which he
also does quite well on this one, so the music
choices took me a bit out of the movie for
the very few scenes they were in.
It is also noteworthy that this movie was
the start of a long lasting collaboration
between Fulci and his Director of Photography
Sergio Salvati.
Lucio Fulci's Four of the Apocalypse is a
good character driven western that surprised
me due to my previous experiences with this
marvelous, but violence loving director.
While I would have prefered the final part
to go in a different direction, this was still
overall a nice experience and while I already
knew so, it did confirm that I absolutely
need to start checking out more spaghetti
westerns in the future.
Four of the Apocalypse gets a 3.5 out of 5.
Have you seen Four of the Apocalypse?
What did you think of it and how do you think
it ranks compared to other Italian westerns?
As mentioned, I am not an expert on this genre
so if you got some recommendations to me then
I'd be interested to read about it in the
comment section below.
Thank you for watching.
