In the late 1970s the spaghetti western genre was dying in Italy. Keoma and a Man Called Blade were the last two great spaghetti westerns. Interestingly enough both films feature a similar storyline. The main hero, a drifter comes into a town that has a dictator of sorts oppressing the people and taking the resources. The heroes in both movies either lose or have lost their father and are trying to get revenge. Both characters in each respective movie get into a huge fight with three different people in a similar set piece. They also have scores by Maurizio De Angelis featuring the same vocalist. Maurizio Merli trades his badge for spurs and plays an awesome tough, but not invincible western character. The movie has plenty of awesome gunfights, blood squibs, and Merli throwing tomahawks that make this one very entertaining. The revenge storyline has some twists and diversions that make this one more interesting. Just like many Italian genre films there is a fascist allegory as well.
The film starts with Blade (Maurizio Merli) capturing a criminal Craven (Donald O'Brien) by throwing a tomahawk into his arm. The scene then transitions to a saloon where Blade finds out that the local town leader Ed McGowan played by Philippe Leroy banned weapons and bounty hunting in the town. Blade goes to ask McGowan for work and his muscleman Voller Shows up. Voller is portrayed by the always effectively villainous John Steiner. Similar to the fight between Keoma and his three brothers in that movie, Blade fights three men and then Voller in the mud. Blade gets away. Later the same three men try to kill in a mountain pass but the boulders they drop don't kill him and he kills all three of them. He is found by some traveling dancers. He starts to fall for Angela (Martine Brochard).
John Steiner just has a villainous look
It is eventually revealed that Voller has been working with a gang robbing the silver coming from the mine. He kidnaps McGowan's daughter, Deborah (Sonja Jeannine). Blade confronts McGowan over his part in his father's death. He eventually decides that his revenge isn't worth it and sets out to recover McGowan's daughter. This however leads to Blade being captured as in a twist Deborah is in love with Voller. They bury Blade up to his head in the sand and leave him for dead and to be blinded by the sun. Craven finds him and helps him recover setting up a confrontation between Blade and Voller.
There were a lot of things I liked about this movie. I like how early on it's established how tough Blade is and how confident he is. Merli exudes the same type of charisma he does in the crime movies he is in. Right away he wants to enter a poker game and says my $5000 is right here point at Donald O' Brien's character. I like Donald O' Brien in any western movie as he has a certain type of charisma as slimy characters. The harsh harmonica theme that plays throughout was memorable and reminded me of the use of a shrill harmonica in Once Upon a Time In The West. I liked the foggy look and atmosphere in the fight between Blade and Voller's men. That same look is seen in the final confrontation in the end. I enjoy the more autonomous prostitute type of character that Martine Brochard plays.
In the middle of the film when Voller and his men rob the wagon of silver I love the editing and intercutting between him and his men killing everyone with the women dancing. I love the blood squibs that come in the form of gunshots and tomahawk throws throughout this movie. The subversion to the revenge plot is interesting. When Blade decides his revenge isn't worth it McGowan had told him his father's death was an accident. McGowan is still a bad guy however because he overworks people and doesn't give them their share of pay or of good living. When Voller kills McGowan later it is comparable to a bad, but somewhat moral leader getting killed by the person they keep in check. When the workers are treated even more badly by Voller and crew they lead an uprising. With any real uprising they are disadvantaged because they have no guns. It leads to a pointless massacre on both sides. This doesn't play much of a part in the main story but I still enjoy it because it gives the movie some more pathos.
The final duel plays out similar to something like A Fistful of Dollars. The main hero recovers and fights the bad guys. There are some twists here though. I'm not even entirely sure that Blade is actually blind or if he says that trying to prove Craven's trust. When he finds out Craven betrayed him he kills him. The final confrontation in the cave is awesome. I always find some way to compliment how Martino does sound in his movies and the echoing gunshot in the cave is awesome. While this movie may have done a lot of similar things to other spaghetti westerns I just find it endlessly entertaining.
Rating: 9/10
Trivia: The reason the exteriors have so much fog and smoke is because the filmmakers were trying to hide the fact the studio needed to be renovated.
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