LOS AMIGOS (DEAF SMITH AND JOHNNY EARS)

Italy, 1972, 91 minutes, Colour.
Franco Nero, Anthony Quinn, Pamela Tiffin.
Directed by Paolo Cavara.

A spaghetti-western of mixed value. Anthony Quinn as Deaf Smith, not speaking, is interesting in the central role. Franco Nero is at home as Johnny Ears. Generally the material is quite conventional and focuses on Sam Houston and the problems of Texas prior to its statehood. Direction by Paolo Cavara, a maker of westerns and thrillers in Italy.

1.An entertaining western? Italian western?

2.How particularly Italian? Would it have been different if made by an American company and director? The particular conventions the Italians emphasise in their westerns – the violence, dramatic situations, laconic hero, the attention to close-ups, poses and stylised performance?

3.The contribution of the colour photography, music, the the song, the ballad? Special effects, especially for explosions?

4.Comment on the historical context given for the film: Texas and its background in 1836, Sam Houston and his aims, the rebels in Texas? The massacre of the family? The life in the town, General Morton and his plans, henchmen? The bar? The struggles?

5.The team of Deaf Smith and Johnny Ears? Franco Nero and his style as Johnny? His explanation of Deaf Smith and their work together? Who depended on whom? Johnny as an ordinary western type, irresponsible, his friendship with the girl, with Deaf, his helping him and not running away, the explosion and the final massacre? A credibly character of the west?

6.Anthony Quinn as Deaf Smith? His not speaking and the added drama that this gave to the western in terms of what he could hear and not hear? His means for coping as Deaf? Particular sequences highlighting the implications of his deafness? How well did the two work together?

7.The presentation of the prostitute, her beauty, heart of gold? Helping them at the end?

8.The impact of the massacre of the family? The sequences in the town with the shooting? The attempt to blow up the hill and the children arriving and Deaf stopping the fuse? The set-piece of the massacres within the town, culminating with the death of General Morton? Conventional western material? How well presented? To what purpose?

9.An Italian view of the heritage of the west, western heroes and way of life?