WATCH NOW
The documentary ”Kill or Be Killed” starts with a funeral procession being attacked. Although nobody is hurt in the attack, gunners make over a dozen shots into the coffin. At this point in the story, a family feud is happening at the same time among the Drummonds and Griffiths. This shows the extent of their hatred. Fortunately, there is a bright side to this story, the oldest son of Griffiths, Chester, is in love with the beautiful Linda Drummond. There is a catch as to why the bullets were not aimed at her but fired into the coffin.
Soon after, a Fiddler with no Name rides into town. Truthfully, he has a name; it is Jerry, but we shall learn shortly that it is a false one; his real name is Ringo and he is on the run. After being the fastest gun in the West, he has killed so many men that he has now grown sick and tired of it. In confessing this to Linda Drummond (who has somehow fallen for him), he has already killed one four opponents, and among them was Scott the youngest Griffith. All of the Griffiths are out to get him and Chester has put a price on Ringo. The price on his head makes him interesting to the gunslinger Baltimore Joe…
The first western from Taino Boccia is a peculiar blend of style and influences. The hero has a name resembling a character in Muccio Tesira’s Ringo films, yet, clad in a poncho and a stubbled beard, he bears a closer resemblance to The Man with No Name. The character of a man coming to grips with his fame more closely resembles a gunfighter in a Ringo played by Gregory Peck in Gunfighter (1950), rather than the more jovial gentleman gunslinger of Giuliano Gemma. And so our Ringo on The Run takes a job as a pseudo cowhand. It’s as if he’s supposed to be Shane, lying low, waiting for the right opportunity to go toe to toe with the black-clad assassin sent after him, Gordon Mitchell. Mitchell is every bit as nasty and dark as Jack Parlance’s Wilson.
In other words, this film is a mixture because it takes a lot from classic Hollywood but now it is 1966, and the style is largely Italian. Boccia (working as Amerigo Anton) does some of this rather well, but he doesn’t know what to do with those parts set on the Dromond ranch, so the second half of the film is sometimes like a Hollywood B movie. There is even a supposedly funny old man type who is a little too grumpy, who converses with his dog (who is more intelligent than he is and saves the hero’s life). The end is reminiscent of the last scenes of a knight’s tale, with our gallant protagonist believed to be dead by his lady love arriving just in the Knick of time to save the poor lady from being married by the black Knight sorry, the evil Chester Griffith.
To strike the right chords, Boccia would need to put in one more effort: his ‘Kill the Wicked’, released a year later, is frequently referred to as a minor classic within the genre. But even this meager contribution isn’t entirely pessimistic; the shootouts are quite good, but there aren’t suffices of them (it’s not a particularly violent movie) and the brief, inexplicable moments of action are better than this protracted finale; the best scene is the one with Ringo ambushing four adversaries at the main street (a clear reference to the most captivating shot in Tesira’s A Pistol for Ringo set on the playground). The score is a grab bag of tunes, some of which are better than others, but hardly evoking a real spaghetti western ambiance. While Kill or be Killed should not be seen as harshly, I do only recommend it to fans for a reason. And if you are unfamiliar to the genre, there are many other films you should watch first.
Was it possible that the world’s most well-known musical vigilante, Harmonica, from Once Upon a Time in the West, is modeled after the bowstring man in this film? It has evolved on the French forum by one of the members, Breccio, who is some sort of a spaghetti western specialist. It should be acknowledged that the violin in this film is superfluous; the harmonica in Once Upon a Time in the West is what launches the memories of the merciless older brother’s murder, provoking a revenge fueled spree. In Kill or Be Killed, the violin serves merely as a prop. A musical instrument is an impressive object, though, and there is something else that may have tinkered with Leone’s attention: when Ringo comes face to face with this notorious Joe from Baltimore, he appears to be unarmed. Similar to how Harmonica looks when he arrives at the train station, but Ringo then shocks his enemy with the hidden pistol.
To watch more movies like (Kill or Be Killed (1976)) visit 123Movies.
Also Watch for more movies like:
