Keoma Soundtrack: G & M De Angelis

Keoma, 1976. Directed by Enzo G. Castellari. Music by G & M De Angelis.

Finally I found the Keoma soundtrack by G & M De Angelis. The score they composed plays a big, important part in the film. The many songs, not unlike a Greek chorus, explain and reflect on the emotions and what’s on screen. The two singers do this with such dark and/or penetrating voices, that almost no film reviewer fails to mention it, mostly negative. But there is a group of admirers, and I’m one of them.



Unfortunately not all songs sung by Guy and Sybil are included, only two: In Front Of My Desperation, performed by Guy, and Keoma, performed by Sybil and Guy. The first appears in the movie when Keoma awaits Caldwell’s men, just before the major shootout, the latter is like the opening theme, only this version is sung by Guy and Sybil together. I really like these songs: they are pretty intense, just like the movie itself.

Dusty Banjo (parts 1 and 2) and Piano And A Bear are pieces that obviously work better within the context of the film. But the other four instrumental songs are very good: two variations on Keoma, one on In Front Of My Desperation and a piece called Waiting. They all capture the sadness and melancholy that makes Keoma such a great film and can be enjoyed by people who aren’t to keen on Sybil and Guy’s singing.

All in all a great soundtrack and the most ambitious for the De Angelis brothers, who had their biggest successes as Oliver Onions with their Terence Hill/Bud Spencer-scores. A year later they made another western-score in sort of the same style, but less sophisticated: Mannaja.
Only disappointed is that not all songs are included.

Tracklist:
1. Keoma (instrumental) (04:43)
2. In front of my desperation (02:06)
3. Dusty banjo (part one) (00:42)
4. Keoma (harmonica) (01:38)
5. Piano and beer (01:25)
6. In front of my desperation (instrumental) (03:08)
7. Waiting (instrumental) (01:05)
8. Dusty banjo (part two) (01:25)
9. Keoma (04:45)

Keoma the Sheriff

Still in Keoma-mode, I was checking if and what Christopher Frayling wrote about Keoma in his 1981 book Spaghetti westerns: cowboys and europeans, from Karl May to Sergio Leone.

Not too much as it turns out, and also incorrect:

"Despite various attempts to fuse Spaghetti Westerns with popular fashions of the moment (for example, Lucio Fulci's Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, which tried to look like Easy Rider, and Enzo Castellari's Keoma, which had the sheriff behaving like a Civil Rights marcher), the 'Trinity' films, starring the same partnership and directed by Enzo Barboni, continued to outsell them all." (p. 253)

Weird... But it might be corrected in newer prints, I only got my hands on a first edition.

Keoma's sister

This spanish poster for Una donna chiamata Apache (1976, Apache woman) ("a different and audacious western") tries to cash in on Keoma's success.

The film is directed by Giorgio Mariuzzo (aka George McRoots), who co-wrote several Fulci-films, among them The beyond and The house by the cemetry, and stars Fulci regular Al Cliver, Yara Kewa (real name: Clara Hopf!) and Federico Boido (Rick Boyd). Co-written by Antonio Racioppi, who wrote and directed several Decamerotics.

A user comment on imdb.com claims it's "...violent, sleazy, voyeuristic, cheaply made, mean spirited, somewhat unpleasant,..."
So it sounds promising.

Keoma

Keoma, 1976. Directed by Enzo G. Castellari. With Franco Nero, William Berger, Olga Karlatos, Woody Strode, Joshua Sinclair, Donald O'Brien, Orso Maria Guerrini, Antonio Marsina.

After fighting in the civil war, Keoma (Franco Nero), a half Indian who was raised by his white father, returns home. But what he finds is an apocalyptic nightmare. A man called Caldwell and his brutal, racist gang terrorize the town, which has been ravaged by an outbreak of the plaque. They round up everybody who is sick, or they suspect is sick, and force them into an abandoned mine pit to either recover or die.


Death herself questions Keoma: "Why did you come back?"



Keoma, a quiet man haunted by the past and not sure what to do with his life, decides to stay in town. He defies Caldwell's men by protecting a pregnant woman, who was unjustly forced to go to the mine pit. He also sees George, who used to be a friend to him when he was a child, but is now the town drunk. After Keoma visits his father, and learns that his three half brothers joined Caldwell, he is determined to fight Caldwell and his gang.

Keoma, George and the local doctor manage to smuggle medicine into town, which is immediately confiscated by Caldwell’s men. After Keoma shoots them down Caldwell decides to get rid of Keoma once and for all. Meanwhile Keoma’s power-hungry brothers plan to get rid of both Caldwell and Keoma, but when their father takes Keoma’s site in his fight with Caldwell things turn out different....


"Everything on this land belongs to Mr. Caldwell."


"But it's medicine...!" Far left, Woody Strode as George.


Thinking about the past... and the future.


Keoma's half brother. Orso Maria Guerrini with his piercing eyes.

As in most spaghetti westerns Keoma’s story is more of a background, against which bloody, violent setpieces, cliché’s and revenge motifs can take centerstage. But director Enzo Castellari adds a bleak, poetic sadness to both substance and style, resulting in something quite different and unique.

There are many instances in which flashbacks (and some flash-forward) overlap the present, and explain and add to the emotional power of a scene. They emphasize the contrast between past and present, and it’s influence on Keoma. He doesn’t know what to do with his life, except that the increasing brutality and death that surrounds him must come to an end.


The three brothers discuss their plans...


When Keoma faces Caldwell and his gang...


...Death is nearby.

There are two women in the movie who are symbols for this struggle: the pregnant woman Keoma cares for, who represents life, and an old woman, who in fact is death herself and seen only by Keoma. She questions his actions, claiming there is no use.


Caldwell kills the father...


...and Keoma... well, he's just being Keoma...





Even the violent shootouts have a different feel to them, thanks in large part to the heavy use of slowmotion, a device that Castellari often uses, and that creates some beautiful imagery. Is the shootout with Caldwell’s gang is a more traditional highlight; the final shootout is the opposite, in which the soundtrack consists of only the sounds of the woman giving birth.

I have to admit it took me a second viewing before I really started to appreciate this film. But now every time I see it again I like it better... and I already think it’s one of the ten best films to emerge from Italian genre cinema.


With the death of their father all bets are off...