Face to Face

The spaghetti Western is known for its tales featuring mercenary heroes, sadistic villains, and corrupt authority figures. Director Sergio Sollima only directed three of them but his films added political and allegorical elements to the familiar conventions. Face to Face is his most interesting, and one of the most unusual ever made. Gian Maria Volonté stars as Brad Fletcher, a history professor at an East Coast college, who travels West due to poor health, only to be taken hostage by bandit gangleader Solomon Bennett (Tomas Milian). Fletcher ends up becoming the outlaw's friend, ally, advisor, and ultimately rival, taking over the planning of robberies. As the two men shift positions over the course of the film, the savage killer develops a conscience while the professor discards his ideals of justice and morality for a simple belief in might as the only law that matters. In Italy, Face to Face was seen as an allegory about fascism with the intellectual seduced by power and turning into a ruthless leader ready to sacrifice people as a tactical move. But it's also a compelling film, full of shoot-outs, escapes, betrayals, and an elaborate bank robbery that devolves into chaos and bloodshed. Never before officially released on home video in the U.S., Face to Face is presented here in a remastered 93-minute English language version, as well as the longer uncut Italian language version. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)