Seven convicts chained together are travelling by carriage under the charge of Sgt Brown, a widower who not only has to guard these murderers, but also has to keep them away from his daughter. Worse still, one of them is responsible for the murder of his wife, and to add to the trauma, a bunch of bandits stop the carriage, kill the guards, and send the horses into a panic, wrecking the carriage and stranding everyone in the wilderness.
The day has gone badly enough, and now Sgt. Brown has to get these guys to the nearest town, while they sing a song about how they are going to kill him the moment he turns his back! For a change this Western doesn't take place in a sandy desert, but up on a snowy mountain, which adds to the already grim situation. To make things even worse, the bandits discover that Sgt Brown might be travelling with more than prisoners!
It's basically one of those 'people trapped in the wilderness' films (like Four Rode Out – Leslie Neilson as a bad guy!). I'm guessing it probably had some sort of influence on Tarantino's Hateful Eight, although it'll be about 2034 by the time I get round to watching that.
This film is probably more famous for its exploitation elements rather than being a Western. Often described as the most violent, gory Western ever made, it does deliver on the goods – as long as you understand it's very gory by Western standards, not horror standards. People have their throats slit, get graphically shot in the face, burned alive, disembowelled and such like, but it's not a constant gore fest either. Luckily it's also got a story to tell as well, all filmed in an almost cinema verite fashion (I think that's French for 'delibarately half- arsed').
It's also a film where you shouldn't get too attached to any particular character, and even throws in some kind of hallucinogenic zombie attack! Grim stuff, all the way through.
The day has gone badly enough, and now Sgt. Brown has to get these guys to the nearest town, while they sing a song about how they are going to kill him the moment he turns his back! For a change this Western doesn't take place in a sandy desert, but up on a snowy mountain, which adds to the already grim situation. To make things even worse, the bandits discover that Sgt Brown might be travelling with more than prisoners!
It's basically one of those 'people trapped in the wilderness' films (like Four Rode Out – Leslie Neilson as a bad guy!). I'm guessing it probably had some sort of influence on Tarantino's Hateful Eight, although it'll be about 2034 by the time I get round to watching that.
This film is probably more famous for its exploitation elements rather than being a Western. Often described as the most violent, gory Western ever made, it does deliver on the goods – as long as you understand it's very gory by Western standards, not horror standards. People have their throats slit, get graphically shot in the face, burned alive, disembowelled and such like, but it's not a constant gore fest either. Luckily it's also got a story to tell as well, all filmed in an almost cinema verite fashion (I think that's French for 'delibarately half- arsed').
It's also a film where you shouldn't get too attached to any particular character, and even throws in some kind of hallucinogenic zombie attack! Grim stuff, all the way through.