I watched this wondering about Keoma Rises and am a fan of the director's work. I love any Spaghetti Western that is better than mediocre. So, bottom line, it was a disappointment to watch one that I basically just didn't like.I think we all agree the soundtrack is awful. But the awful songs can be muted while they're wailing away (I don't know one can really call it singing). But the big problem for me was that it was obvious that the director had been told it was the last SW the studio was doing and he's WAY too conscious of that fact. Also, we watch SWs for what they are, not for how they inspired other genres, creating some kind of weird cinematic echo chamber. Elements of Peckinpaugh and Hong Kong action flicks- but not integrated in any way. Just kind of, "Let's do some of that..."If you notice the firearms and the year it'll drive you nuts. Obviously supposed to be circa 1870, mostly it's what you'd expect to see immediately after the Civil War. But it's like they ran out of period arms and just grabbed whatever else was around for some scenes. Lots of 1873 Winchester rifles and I thought even saw the odd 1890's model. Ditto the Colt Peacemaker, alongside your standard issue Civil War Colt. I suppose it could be 1874, but were those arms instantly available everywhere??? Given the rest, one thinks they weren't too concerned about it.Bottom line for me, it was a seriously misguided attempt that is waaaay too conscious of its being what it is, the swan song of the classic pasta western.

Half-breed Keoma (the almighty Franco Nero in peak rugged and soulful form) is tired of eking out a living by killing people. So he decides to return to his childhood home. However, Keoma soon finds himself caught up in a fierce dispute between innocent settlers, a band of sadistic bandits, and his own hateful and vengeful half-brothers. Director Enzo G. Castellari, who also co-wrote the compact and complex script with George Eastman, Nico Ducci, and Mino Roli, relates the engrossing philosophical story at a hypnotic gradual pace, does a masterful job of crafting a potently gloomy mood rife with despair and desolation, maintains a dark grim tone throughout, stages the exciting shoot-outs with consummate skill and incendiary flair to spare (the striking use of strenuous slow motion in particular seriously smokes), presents a stark and startling portrait of a brutal lawless town, and tops everything off with a wonderfully peculiar existential sensibility that offers a provocative examination on the themes of life, death, and fate. The excellent acting by the top-rate cast keeps the movie on track: William Berger as Keoma's wise and tolerant father William Shannon, Olga Karlatos as sweet and caring pregnant lady Lisa, Donald O'Brien as the ruthless Caldwell, Gabriella Giacobbe as a sinister prophet of doom, and Orso Maria Guerrini, Antonio Marsini, and Joshua Sinclair as Keoma's resentful siblings. The always welcome Woody Strode has a nice role as Keoma's faithful old buddy George. Aiace Parolin's picturesque cinematography provides an appropriately dusty'n'dingy look. The quirky and operatic, but still harmonic score by Guido and Mairizio De Angelis for the most part works, although the overwrought warbling by the female singer is a bit much at times. Punctuated with jolting outbursts of savage violence and further enhanced by a singularly brooding sober atmosphere as well as a poignant "you can't go home" central message, this one rates highly as one of the most unusual and distinctive Italian Westerns made in the 70's.

The mystical, eerie and rather sombre opening of this late (1976) entry into the Italian western cycle, with its at first somewhat confusing flashback structure and alternation of bright, colorful daylight and gloomy, dusty apocalyptic destruction, all dominated by the fierce old witch-woman who will keep reappearing in the film, might lead you to think you are in for a deep, metaphysical and narratively challenging experiment.Hold on, pardner! "Keoma" soon settles down into a fairly typical Civil War vet comes back to hometown taken over by bad guys/vet saves town all by his lonesome tale, and Keoma bears more than a little resemblance in attitude and wild appearance to plenty of cowboy antiheroes in the past. That's not to say it's boring or formulaic, because over that basic storyline there's plenty to marvel at: gorgeous photography, particularly in the bright daylight scenes, a terrific folk-rock score highlighted by a Leonard Cohen-type male vocalist, a typically solid performance by Franco Nero, and some interesting story touches like a plague that ravages the town (plague? yes) -- a town that seems ready to fall apart, more dreary and decayed even than the one Django rides through in the film of the same name. Keoma not only has to confront the evil gunslinger who has taken over the town, but his henchmen turn out to be Keoma's three half-brothers, and oh -- Keoma is a halfbreed Indian (yes, despite being blonde, blue-eyed and hairy-chested) and his best friend is a black man (the great Woody Strode, looking pretty good at the age of 62). The film doesn't really dig much into the racial aspects of the story, though it doesn't ignore them either. But it all really boils down to a couple of really terrific gunfights at the end, lots of slow-mo Sam Peckinpah-type action (but without much blood), a Christ-on-the-cross image, and a hero riding off into...bleakness? Death? Who knows. A perfect coda to the spaghetti, in any case.

By (1976) when "Keoma" appeared on the scene, the "spaghetti western" had clearly become an exhausted genre. "Keoma" adds absolutely nothing new or unique. It is simply a failed attempt at style covering up zero substance, and little more than a patchwork of worn out clichés. The slow motion killings are derivative and redundant. There is minimal character development. The musical score is a wailing mess. Already in it's death throws, "Keoma" definitely nails the "spaghtetti western" coffin shut. If you want to see a very good non-Sergio Leone western, "The Big Gundown" would be an excellent choice. Just be sure to avoid "Keoma", because it offers nothing new, is not entertaining, and clearly is the end of the "spaghetti western" line. - MERK