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Death Sentence AKA Sentenza di morte (1968)
R0 - Germany - Koch Media Review written by and copyright: Jari Kovalainen (21st September 2007). |
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The Film
 Two men are walking in the desert, under the blazing sun. One has a gun - but no water, while the other has water - but no gun. Both are tired and sunburnt, but they know that the one who gives up first will die. Cash (Robin Clarke - e.g. “Inseminoid (1981)”) is the man without the gun, but he´s a man on a mission, seeking for revenge. Four men ruthlessly murdered his brother and now he´s after the first killer; without any water, the rich landowner Diaz (Richard Conte - e.g. “Ocean's Eleven (1960)” and “The Godfather (1972)”) won´t last for long. Firmly holding onto his gun, he plans to survive through the night. Cash is waiting for his first - and the last, mistake, somewhere in the darkness. With the calm hatred in his eyes, Cash is already thinking of the other three men; arrogant gambler Montero (Enrico Maria Salerno - e.g. “The Bird With The Crystal Plumage AKA L'Uccello Dalle Piume Di Cristallo (1970)”), sadistic preacher, Brother Baldwin (Adolfo Celi - e.g. “Thunderball (1965)” and “Danger: Diabolik AKA Diabolik (1968)”) and albino O'Hara (Tomas Milian - e.g. “Traffic (2000)”) - obsessed with gold and blonde girls. When whiskey filled his life prior to his brother´s death, Cash is now sobered up and ready to deliver his own kind of justice. “Death Sentence AKA Sentenza di morte” is an excellent Spaghetti western. It captures the true essence of the genre, but at the same time is quite an original film, mainly structure-wise. It´s divided into four different acts, which almost play on their own. There is one protagonist - one revenge, but four different villains in four different stories. Furthermore, Cash is not like many typical western characters, going to meet the main villain with the overly confident smirk on his face and eventually guns blazing. He has to trick his opponents, lure them into dropping their defences and then make his move. Cash (the character is actually called “Django” in the German track, but “Cash” in the Italian one) can use his gun of course (and he´s using it), but more is required to beat his nemeses. Cash also drinks only milk now (it´s officially proven that you could get milk from the various saloons in the old west!), another small detail that makes the character stand out from many other genre films. There´s also a rumoured, mystical chest hidden somewhere, full of riches. Cash might know where it´s hidden.. Director/writer Mario Lanfranchi is more known for his theatre and TV work and “Death Sentence” sadly was his only western. His eye for the interesting visuals and atmospheric scenes is clearly visible and he can build tension (which in this film is more intriguing than the quite average “action-scenes”). The film is full of good actors, but Robin Clarke didn´t hugely impress me. He´s not bad by any means, but something was missing. The dubbing also hurts Tomas Milian´s character, but these are just minor gripes in the end. “Death Sentence” is a western where tough men are in charge and women are just plain by-standers (like the director says in the audio commentary; “love is not allowed” in this film). Money, power and revenge are what makes the world spin for these men and Lanfranchi exploits these themes with very good results.
Video
The film is presented in Anamorphic 2.35:1. While the transfer is taken from a good source and has no visible print damage, the print is a bit grainy and has some film artifacts. Since the film is using German opening credits (which also lists some of the German voice-actors, btw), I assume that “Koch Media” used a slightly worn out German print for the film. Colours are still usually quite strong, but the skin tones looked overly “reddish” in some scenes. Good, but not perfect. “Dual layer” disc runs 89:41 min (PAL) and is coded “R0”. There are 8 chapters.
Audio
Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono and German Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono-tracks are included and there are optional English and German subtitles. Note, that in the German-track, some scenes are in Italian (with German subtitles). The Italian track is a bit rough sounding, mainly since there´s some hiss and a few “pops”. Dialogue is still quite clear, so no major complaints in the end. The Italian dub generally sounds a bit mediocre, so English dub might´ve been a better choice. Sadly, it´s not included. I noticed a few minor glitches with the English subtitles (they have also a couple of grammatical mistakes). At the time code 9:22, the subtitles “freeze” in the “Are you sure that everything´s alright?”-line. You have to manually rewind back a bit to reactivate the subtitle stream. There´s also brief subtitled line “I waited for this moment” at the time code 28:55 - but no Italian audio, which probably means that the English subtitles are translated from the German-track (since that line is in the German track). Cash is called “Django” in the English subtitles also (except in one instance, for some reason).
Extras
-Main extra is the audio commentary by director/writer Mario Lanfranchi from 2005, which is quite surprisingly in English (no subtitles, not even the German ones). With his broken, but always understandable, English and “artistic presence”, Lanfranchi is pleasant to listen to, but he spends quite a lot of time of telling what is happening on the screen and in the story. There´s also silence on the track (after many years, he probably starts to watch the film every once in a while). He still shares a few anecdotes from the set (local Spanish gypsies were used as extras and stunt men), tells about the locations (many scenes were shot in Almeria, Spain, but some scenes at the famous “Cinecittà studios” in Rome) and tells about the style of the film (“theatre into film”, actors more important than action, speed slows down when drama approaches, use of many close-ups and also symbols). He also mentions some of the difficulties with actor Tomas Milian, who exhausted the director with his on-going doubtful attitude. As Lanfranchi says, he “hated him”, but in the end the tension showed on the screen in a good way. Not the most informative of commentaries that I have heard, but I´m still glad that it´s included. Note, that during the last 10 minutes or so, the audio is quite bad for some reason. -“The Making of Sentenza di morte” -featurette runs 25:59 minutes and is basically an interview with writer/director Mario Lanfranchi. Again, Lanfranchi speaks English, with optional German subtitles (a brief moment when he´s reading the screenplay is in Italian, though). Instead of sitting down, Lanfranchi wanders in the old villa and is telling about the movie and especially the actors. Originally the story was set in Sicily, but when it turned to a western, it was re-located to Texas (like countless Italian westerns, it was shot in Spain). Lanfranchi wasn´t a huge fan of westerns, but certain philosophical and poetic aspects of the genre fascinated him at the time. Some of his US contacts recommended Robin Clarke, who flew to the set with his then-girlfriend Ali MacGraw (apparently they fought a lot). Enrico Maria Salerno did his dialogue in Italian (instead of English) and worked “only” 10 hours per day. Tomas Milian was a “dream actor”, but apparently he didn´t fully trust Lanfranchi as a western-director. Lanfranchi also tells something about his theatre/TV background. A “different” kind of interview, which suits the personality of Lanfranchi. -Two theatrical trailers are included (no subtitles); Italian (2:43 min) and German (2:40 min). Some German dialogue is also included in the Italian trailer. -Two alternate opening credits are included; US (2:35 min) and the “textless” ones (2:35 min). -Photo gallery runs 6:48 minutes and you can enjoy the music from the film during it. It included German lobby cards (25), B&W stills (4), German press material/posters (7), Italian lobby cards (5), and Italian and Spanish press material/posters (13). DVD credits are also included. Digi-pack in a cardboard slip cover houses a 4-page booklet including liner notes (in German) from Wolfgang Luley. Disc can be found under its German title: “Django - Unbarmherzig Wie Die Sonne”.
Overall
“Koch Media” has found another quality Spaghetti western, the only one from the director Mario Lanfranchi. The story is interesting, structure is different, visuals are rewarding and the actors are capable. The DVD-presentation is also pretty decent, also including good extras. For more info, please visit the homepage of Koch Media.
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